Here's the last installment of Books that have Stayed with Me:
9. Never Cry Wolf, by Farley Mowat. I was assigned to read
this book in my college biology class and I still remember how irritated I was
at the assignment. I read constantly, and always had a TBR pile ready to go. I
didn’t want to have to read what someone else thought was good for me. I
remember griping and growling about it until I set down with the book and
started. Within moments I was laughing uproariously and totally engrossed. I
later picked up and read almost everything Mowat has written. This particular
tale is about Mowat’s study of Wolves in Canada, but it is nowhere near as dry
as that description suggests.
10. The Snow Leopard, by Peter Matthiessen. Never Cry Wolf
got me into reading stories of nature and this is another such tale. But it’s
also much more. It’s the story of Matthiessen’s journey into the Himalayas to
find the elusive Snow Leopard, but it’s also a spiritual journey and offers
great insights into the human condition.
It also has some of the most incredible writing I’ve ever seen. When I
want beautiful prose that resonates through me, I often go to this book.
11. Giovanni’s Room, by James Baldwin. This is also
generally considered a classic and had I read it as a youngster I would
probably not have liked it. However, since it deals with gay characters I would
never have found this book in any high school curriculum in Arkansas in those
days. I read the book in my thirties, after having already read and enjoyed a
number of other Baldwin books such as The Fire Next Time and Go Tell it on the
Mountain. The story is about an American Gay man living in Paris and about his
relationship with Giovanni, an Italian fellow. I didn’t continue reading this for
the adventure. It’s a character study and has great humanity. It’s also impressive to me that Baldwin, an
urban African American man, could write so well about white characters in
France. Of course, Baldwin was gay and had lived in France for many years, but
still I found this work well worth my study as a writer.
12. House Made of Dawn, by N. Scott Momaday. This book opens
with gorgeous prose and is a very fine character study as well. I still pick it
up from time to time for the prose. It was also memorable to me as an
introduction to a Native American character with depth and a kind of humanity
that I did not get from most of the reading of western genre fiction earlier in
my life.
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