Books can serve many purposes. They can provide research, entertainment, and are often a great ‘friend’ to invite to a quiet Afternoon Tea. But there are times we don’t know which one to enjoy. This page is designed to help you with a monthly suggestion for recommended reading.
Each month a new book will be featured. Be sure to check each one out. You may just find yourself creating your own home library!
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Recommended Reading for 2023
May, 2023
Growing Your Own Tea Garden: The Guide to Growing and Harvesting Flavorful Teas in Your Backyard
by: Jodi Helmer
“Growing Your Own Tea Garden is packed with inspiration and practical instructions for cultivating and enjoying delicious teas from a variety of plants in your own personal tea garden. You don’t have to be an avid gardener: Author Jodi Helmer, a food and farming journalist, provides all the information you need to plan and plant a healthy, bountiful backyard tea garden, with nine suggested garden designs and useful cultivation advice. She shows you how to choose the right crops for your soil and climate, starting with the tea plant (Camellia sinensis) and going on through a survey of tisanes (aka herbal teas). Explore a directory of over 60 ingredients, including medicinal herbs like milk thistle, chickweed, rugosa rose, burdock, and more, with notes on their active properties and purported health benefits.” – Amazon
Other Book Recommendations
by: Patti Callahan Henry
“When a woman discovers a rare book that has connections to her past, long-held secrets about her missing sister and their childhood spent in the English countryside during World War II are revealed.” – Amazon
Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World
by: Bob Goff
“Can a simple concept shift your entire world? Bob certainly thinks so. When it comes to loving your neighbors, rather than focusing on having the “right answers” or checking the “right boxes,” what if you decide to simply DO love? To shamelessly show love and grace to those around you? What would that look like?” – Amazon
by: Glen Adamson
“A groundbreaking and endlessly surprising history of how artisans created America, from the nation’s origins to the present day.” – Amazon
by: Carol Rennison
“15 colorful, whimsical rug hooking projects, complete with traceable outlines and full-color charts.” – Amazon
April, 2023
by: Barbara Kingsolver
“When Barbara Kingsolver and her family moved from suburban Arizona to rural Appalachia, they took on a new challenge: to spend a year on a locally produced diet, paying close attention to the provenance of all they consume. Concerned about the environmental, social, and physical costs of American food culture, they hoped to recover what Barbara considers our nation’s lost appreciation for farms and the natural processes of food production.” – Amazon
March, 2023
The Farm Made Essential Skills Book: Handmade Projects from America’s Farmers
by: Patti Johnson-Long
“Not too long ago, handwork skills such as sewing a quilt, crocheting a washcloth, or embroidering a pillowcase were handed down from one generation to the next. Candle- and soap-making, blacksmithing, basket weaving, natural yarn dying, and repurposing were all time-honored traditions that were essential to the farm’s microeconomy and long-term success.
While many of these traditional skills have been lost to the convenience of today’s modern economy, they are still alive and thriving among America’s farmers. The Farm Made Essential Skills Book showcases fifty authentic projects from farms all over the country. Hailing from New England, the Deep South, the Midwest, Southwest, and Northwest, each farm-made project represents its region’s unique array of raw materials and end products.” – Amazon
February, 2023
by: Ted Gup
“In hard economic times like these, readers will find bestselling author Ted Gup’s unique book uplifting as well as captivating. Inside a suitcase kept in his mother’s attic, Gup discovered letters written to his grandfather in response to an ad placed in a Canton, Ohio, newspaper in 1933 that offered cash to seventy-five families facing a devastating Christmas. The author travels coast to coast to unveil the lives behind the letters, describing a range of hardships and recreating in his research the hopes and suffering of Depression-era Americans, even as he uncovers the secret life led by the grandfather he thought he knew.” – Amazon
January, 2023
You’re Made for a God-Sized Dream
by: Holley Gerth
“We all long to live with more purpose, passion, and joy. Yet in the middle of our hectic lives, the God-sized dreams that have the potential to lead us into all God has planned for us are the ones that tend to get lost. With her intimate, approachable style and constant encouragement, Wall Street Journal bestselling author Holley Gerth invites women to rediscover the desires God has given them–and then dare to pursue them.” – Amazon
