10 Books to Fit Your Mood
By Tiffany Lewis

Summer is supposed to be the time for light, fluffy reading on the beach.  But I try to balance my physical diet of freezer pops with a mental diet a little more substantive.  Here are 10 books guaranteed to uplift, inspire, or just make you laugh.  These are books I’ve come back to over and over again, and I’ve never been disappointed.

1. A Man For All Seasons, by Robert Bolt

A dramatized account of the true-life events surrounding Sir Thomas More and King Henry VIII.  This is actually a play, and a good supplement is the classic movie.  In the end you’ll want nothing more than to hold true to your beliefs.

2. A Girl Named Zippy, by Haven Kimmel

A collection of laugh-out-loud stories about a little girl growing up in a tiny town in Indiana.  The accounts are full of humor and innocence, a good reminder that childhood should be a time of freedom and self-discovery.

3. Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy

There’s a reason this was considered a classic long before Oprah even knew how to read.  Though much of the story centers around the affair of the title character, the book is ultimately about the simplicity of true love.  It’s long, but worth reading to the last page.

4. Davita’s Harp, by Chaim Potok

This novel is about a Jewish girl as she grows into maturity.  It deals with the beauties and complexities of growing up and examining one’s beliefs.

5. The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom

The real-life story of a Christian family sent to the concentration camps for housing Jews during WWII.  This will inspire you to be a better Christian and find the blessings in life’s trials.

6. Crossing to Safety, by Wallace Stegner

A novel about the relationship between two couples who are lifelong friends.  The writing alone makes this book worth reading, but Stegner is also a master at illuminating the follies and strengths of human nature.

7. Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, by Anne Fadiman

This is a book for readers who love reading.  The collection of essays, dealing with everything from the author’s obsession with mail-order catalogues to the essential need for the perfect writing utensil, is full of pithy humor and amusing anecdotes from history.

8. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

I believe this to be the most perfect story ever written.  It is primarily thought of as a book about racial issues, but really it’s a book about love and childhood.  One of my biggest goals in life is to be a parent just like Atticus Finch.

9. Gift from the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Every woman can identify with the musings of Lindbergh, wife of Charles Lindbergh, as she tries to define her role as a mother, wife, and woman through this collection of essays

10. Forever Erma: Best-Loved Writing From America’s Favorite Humorist

Okay, this one is more cotton candy than it is broccoli, but no one captures home life better than Erma.  On a hot summer day when the laundry is piled higher than Everest, the dog goes to the bathroom on the carpet, and you’re just about ready for September to roll around so you can ship the kids back to school, kick up your heels and escape to a good book.  The dirty socks can wait.