S/O is there a book that has profoundly affected you?

Leota's Garden by Francine Rivers. I really couldn't tell you the entire gist of the story because I read it so long ago. But what I can recall is that the now elderly woman had issues with her adult children and they resented her. As the story unfolded there were reasons for her actions that no one knew of.

It affected me because I had a not so good childhood and I resented my mom. I only looked at the situation from my perspective and never considered her side of things. It made me realize that my mom did the best she could at the time. It helped me to see my mom in a different light. I always credit that book for my change in attitude towards my mom.

"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy.

Just an incredible book.

The book of names. Two years later I still think about it.

My current one is "The Shack". I'd managed to ignore it, until I read blog about it this summer.
I read the first 2/3 in a couple of days, the last 1/3 has taken 2 weeks.
I planned it to be a beach book, not one I'd linger over.

A Prayer for Owen Meany
Great Expectations

Also, I read most of Roahl Dahl's children's books as a child and, as a group they had a lot of impact on me, as did Maurice Sendak's books. There is so much going on in my internal landscape that came from both of these writers. When I go back and re-read their work now, I am amazed at how perceptive they are about how children think and experience the world.

The Five People you Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom. Really made me think about my daily, trivial, interactions with people and how it could effect them.

The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. She and her family hid Jews in their home during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands and were sent to concentration camps because of it. Through all the horrible circumstances, even the deaths of her father and her sister, she maintained her faith in God. After the war, she returned to the Netherlands and was able to start a ministry of healing and forgiveness for former Nazis. It was really an amazing book.

The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy. I read it over two decades ago, and I still think about it. I think I will go read it again. I didn't realize it has been so long ago.

The Lost World (ala jurrasic park) was the most terrifying book I've read. I had to close the book and gather my courage to continue at multiple parts. The movie was a disappointment.

The Kite Runner. I went to hear the author speak after reading that book. Amazing man!

And there is a little known book called The Great Divorce that I read on my kindle a few years ago. It is about a woman who seeks a divorce at the turn of the century when men had to grant the divorce or it didn't happen and children were property of the husband. The husband turns the children over to the Shakers (religion), and the wife has to fight to get them back. It is either a true story, or historical fiction based on real cases (can't remember now), but WOW! It really made me appreciate women's rights today.

The Book Thief

The Four Agreements

It was by Dave Eggers. Not the best book I have ever read but I find myself thinking about it's themes all the time. It is about the integration if technology into personal spaces. Things that were not a reality when the book was published just two years ago are at the forefront of our lives-like fitbit. I also listen to a podcast call Technosapien which discusses these issues.

So many...

To kill a Mockingbird.
The hiding place
Black rain
Hiroshima
The book thief

     I loved that book too! A few years ago I was on a trip with my father to visit Dutch family friends who lived in the same small town (Haarlem) where the house that is in the book "The Hiding Place" stands. It is now a museum. One day my father was busy working on his computer with work so I took off myself and spent a happy afternoon being given a private tour of the museum. We usually visit in October (the family has children and it's their school holiday) so the museum was empty except for me.

Sadly by this time Carrie had passed away, but the tour guide was a lovely older woman and she and I spent a happy hour or two visiting and talking all about the house, the book and the history of the family. I even got to stand in the "the hiding place". It was very small. It was so amazing being in that place and feeling the history all around me.  The family that lived there are such an inspiration to all of us of how we should all live our lives.

Debbie in MD.

This is tough....

A tree grows in Brooklyn. Has stuck with me my whole life. I can not tell you how many times I read it.

A prayer for Owen Meany. WOWZA

Memoirs of a Geisha. From the cruelty of her childhood to the way she was forced to hide her true passion and deepest feelings as an adult, never being understood and always being exploited for others, something really touched me when I read that book. I picked up that book and did not put it down until I was done. Read it less than two days. It was that good.