One of the compensations for living through the extremes of midwestern weather is the pleasure of losing oneself, almost out of necessity, in a good book. These then, are books that can be enjoyed while nestled snugly by a fireplace on a bleak wintry day as well as when you’re sitting on a porch swing in the miserable heat of summer. They are books that, when you’ve finished with them, leave you with a good feeling about people and about life in general.

F/BJORN
Bjorn, Thyra FerrePapa’s Wife1955, 305p.

The story of the workings of God in the Franzon family: how Mama won the heart of handsome Pontus Franzon; how they raised eight children in Lapland; how Mama convinces Papa to bring his family to America to pursue his calling as a minister there; and how the family grew. Mama adds humor and invention to her role as a minister’s wife. (Papa’s Wife is the first of a series of books about the Franzons.)

F/COLWIN
Colwin, LaurieFamily Happiness1982, 221p.

Polly Solo-Miller is such a perfect wife and mother that she can even fit her affair with an artist into her busy life without disrupting her schedule. When her lover leaves for Paris, she resumes her life with one exception. Now that she sees herself as valuable, Polly begins to “speak her mind.” Laurie Colwin has written several romances dealing with family life and the search for happiness.

F/EDGERTON
Edgerton, ClydeWalking Across Egypt1987, 215p.

Seventy-eight-year-old Mattie Rigsbee is a widow living in a small southern town. Since her forty-three-year-old son and her thirty-five-year-old daughter are still unmarried, she has almost despaired of ever becoming a grandmother. Then she takes in a stray dog and gets stuck in a rocking chair. Which gets her involved with the local dog catcher and his delinquent nephew. Which makes her life infinitely more interesting.

F/FLAGG
Flagg, FannieFried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Cafe1987, 403p.

In an interview on the Today Show, Fannie Flagg told of visiting a retirement home and being struck by the fact that the things people remembered were not only events, but smells and colors and the tastes of things...like fried green tomatoes. In this book, her narrator, Ninny Threadgood tells a visitor at the nursing home about life in Whistle-Stop during the Depression, the story richly embroidered by her memory of the details of everyday living.

F/FLOREY
Florey, Kitty BurnsReal Life1986, 276p.

A successful potter, Dorrie is in her late thirties. She has accepted the fact she will never marry. Her life is settled, even peaceful until, by default, she gets stuck raising the fourteen-year-old son of the no-good brother her parents always loved best. Hugo has been shunted from one relative to another since he was a baby and finds solace in watching a soap opera. The growth of their relationship makes wonderful reading.

F/GIBBONS
Gibbons, KayeEllen Foster1987, 146p.

This is the story of a survivor. Ellen Foster is an eleven-year-old girl whose uncommon common sense and incredible lack of self-pity enable her to overcome nasty relatives and an unfeeling bureaucracy in order to find a decent life for herself. Ellen becomes so real one finds oneself wondering how her life is going long after finishing this surprisingly cheerful little book.

F/HAIEN
Haien, JeannetteThe All of It1986, 145p.

This beautifully written book is about a very odd mixture of subjects: guilt (or innocence), a marriage that wasn’t, Ireland, a priest, and fishing. It begins with a deathbed confession that is interrupted by the penitent’s death...so someone else has to finish telling the story.

818.09/HAN
Hanff, Helene84, Charing Cross Road1970, 97p.

New York writer Helene Hanff loved to read really Great Books in original (or, at least, early) editions. To find these, she began corresponding with Frank Doel, who worked in a London bookstore. Their letters became the basis for this book and for much more: a warm, witty, literate, transatlantic friendship between Ms. Hanff and the employees of the bookstore at 84, Charing Cross Road. When you’ve finished this book , you’ll surely want to read The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street and Q’s Legacy where Ms. Hanff continues the story and fills in the gaps.

F/HEISE
Heise, Kenan JosephAunt Ella Stories1985, 191p.

In the disarming, totally honest way of five-year-old boys, Jo Jo tells about life in Ferndale, Michigan during the Depression. He focuses on stories about the relationship between his father, who is struggling to raise a family in hard times, and Jo Jo’s mother’s Aunt Ella, who would have been a bag lady if she hadn’t owned a house and who was always doing something to outsmart, embarrass, and enrage her niece’s husband.

F/MCCULLOUGH
McCullough, ColleenThe Ladies of Missalonghi1987, 189p.

The maiden aunt Octavia, her sister Drusilla and Drusilla’s thirty-year-old daughter Missy live in near poverty in a large brown house called Missalonghi, outside of the small town of Byron, Australia. Enter a mysterious man who angers their wealthy relatives by buying their valley while he captures Missy’s imagination to the extent that she sets out to capture his heart.

F/MARSHALL
Marshall, CatherineJulie1984, 364p.

Julie Wallace’s family uneasily accepts her father’s decision to give up his pastorate in the south and move to Pennsylvania where they invest all of their savings in a newspaper. With the country in the midst of the Great Depression, their life in this town dominated by the Yoder Steel Company is not easy. An inspiring book about lost and found faith and small town values and morality.

F/MORLEY
Morley, ChristopherParnassus on Wheels1917, 160p.

Helen McGill buys the Parnassus on wheels, a traveling bookstore—horsedrawn—from Roger Mifflin when he comes to sell it to her brother Andrew. She is afraid the life of a traveling bookseller would suit Andrew too well and that he would leave her behind and alone. Thus begins her adventure into selling second-hand books under the tutelage of the “Professor.” Helen, homespun but intelligent, and Roger, the practical evangelist of knowledge and books, make a lovely couple.

F/OKE
Oke, JanetteWhen Calls the Heart1983, 283p.

Elizabeth Thatcher comes to love her job as a schoolteacher in an isolated outpost of Alberta so much she doesn’t even miss Toronto’s cultural life. Her love for a Mountie—one who refuses to marry because he wouldn’t want his wife to endure the hardships of the Mounties’ life—makes her wonder if her move was a mistake. Janette Oke has written several series of charming books about life on the Canadian and American frontiers.

F/PEYTON
Peyton, JimZions Cause [1920-1950]1987, 224p.

The small Kentucky town of Zions Cause was born in 1920, the day after an itinerant preacher stopped there and worked some miraculous cures. This book is about the lives of its citizens from 1920 through the years when life revolved around the church, the churchyard, and the general store until 1950, when the TVA destroyed this town. It is a sometimes sad, but more often gently funny story about the different kinds of love the townspeople have for one another.

F/POWERS
Powers, John R.The Last Catholic in America1973, 228p.

One does not have to have shared John Powers’ experiences growing up Catholic on the South Side of Chicago to be delighted by this wonderfully authentic and hilarious book. This is an account of the life of Eddie Ryan from his first day at St. Bastion’s Catholic grammar school through his graduation from the eighth grade. To continue the story, read: Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?

F/READ
Read, MissVillage School1955, 238p.

Miss Read is the pseudonym of the English schoolteacher who writes so endearingly about the little villages of Fairacre and Thrush Green. Village School, the first book of this series, is about what happens to the students and other people whose existence is touched by the school during one school year. When you read these books, you feel as though you really are in the villages, observing the people as they work through their problems and live their gentle lives.

F/RUNYON
Runyon, DamonDamon Runyon Omnibus1944, 505p.

When looking for a nice, safe place to escape to, one wouldn’t ordinarily consider the sidewalks of New York, but this collection of vignettes from the lives of the “guys and dolls” Runyon wrote about from 1929 to1931 makes a great collection of bedtime stories for grown-ups.

F/STEGNER
Stegner, WallaceCrossing to Safety1987, 277p.

This book chronicles the friendship of two couples who meet at the University of Wisconsin where the two husbands are starting out as professors. These are people you will want to know. Follow them through illness, financial problems and the Depression. Enjoy their laughter, music, poetry, excursions, and wonderful summers in Vermont. An engrossing look at friendship between decent, gracious, literate people.

F/STEINBECK
Steinbeck, JohnCannery Row1945, 181p.

Like Damon Runyon, Steinbeck wrote about street people. But his books, Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday, are set on California’s Monterey Peninsula, in the early forties after the tuna industry died, leaving jobs for only a few. Like Runyon’s characters, these people will make you smile as they portray decency and an innocent dignity in spite of hard times. (If you enjoy these two books, try Steinbeck’s book The Wayward Bus, about some other very human people trying to get by in life.)

Prepared by Carol Yarmolich, December 1987