Ten on Tuesday: 10 books I would recommend to a friend

A specific friend? Because many of the books I read would not be interesting to some of my friends, and so forth. I don't know if I could come up with a generic list of ten. 10 fiction books? I don't think so. I learned from book club that my tastes are shared with no one. I have my favorites and they're my favorites and you can't have them.

1. If the friend cooks, More With Less. It's the Mennonite cookbook that taught me how to properly cook beans. I also learned, for real, how to make a bechamel sauce. It is best described by the title. It isn't a fancy cookbook. It is cornbread and 3 meals out of one chicken and whole grain bread and women in denim skirts and headscarves making spaghetti sauce and the dedication quote: The full stomach says, "The ripe guava has worms." The empty stomach says, "Let me see."

2. If the friend is Christian and looking for direction, the Rule of Benedict. It is such a sensible faithful piece of writing. How to pray. How to properly work. How to make amends. How to be humble. How to prepare meals. How to discipline children. How to handle tools. How to welcome guests. It's all there. It's 1500 years old and it's all there.

3. If the friend is Catholic and feeling out of touch with her place in the church, In Search of Belief by Joan Chittister. Chittister takes the Nicene Creed line by line and expands them into chapter-long reflections. I go back to read it now and again to stay. Or I might just give the friend a copy of The Cloister Walk and leave it at that.

4. If the friend is young or has children or likes poetry, Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle. It's a collection of poetry loosely directed towards adolescents. It's the first place I read Langston Hughes, William Carlos Williams, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. And a whole bunch of poets I've never read anywhere else.

5. If the friend is feeling out of touch with his local natural environment, Peterson Field Guides. I started with Eastern Birds. and now I have Ferns, Edible Wild Plants, Eastern Trees, Western Birds, Butterflies, Caterpillars, and Medicinal Herbs. I have Audubon guides, too, and a few single titles like Roadside Flowers of Texas, but the Petersons are my favorite. Plates instead of photographs, so you get a general feel for what a thing looks like instead of a specific example. It just works better for me.

6. If the friend is interested in global justice issue kind of stuff, the series that begins with Material World and continues with Women in the Material World and Hungry Planet. These books are photo essays. Each chapter is from a different nation, with a typical family portrayed (number of kids, how much money they bring in, and so forth). In the first book, they drag all their stuff out into the front yard, the courtyard, etc., and take a picture, describing what they own. The second book interviews the women from the first book. And the third follows some of the same families, and some new ones, portrayed with all the food they eat in a week. I think these three books could be modified into a social studies curriculum for middle school. Seriously.

7. If the friend wants to learn algebra and other high school math (meaning, if I'm tutoring someone, mostly), the series from the late 80s/early 90s University of Chicago School Math Project is really the best. I know other people like Saxon or newer shinier books, but UCSMP is how I really learned how to teach math.

8. If the friend wants a fun overview of what to do to raise food in her backyard in the city, The Urban Homestead did it for me. It is swaying my opinions and changed the way I did my garden this year--excellently.

9. If the friend is pregnant and hoping to breastfeed, I would loan her my Breastfeeding Answer Book. It's a LLL publication and it is solid and evidence-based and thick with information. I would not recommend any other breastfeeding book, frankly. Just this one. And I want it back.

10. If the friend is a girl scout leader and frustrated with what's going on, I would recommend any of the pre-1980 girl scout manuals. They gave me back a sense of purpose and hope. Girl scouts cannot be all things to all people. It must be something to someone. And these manuals understand that in a way that the slick new publications just do not. (Although I am cautiously optimistic about the new ones coming out--I know they will pale in comparison to the very old stuff but the overview looks like they'll top the current pablum).