73 Books for every mood
Published on March 30, 2025
Getting ready for some summer reading? Not sure where to turn?
The Refine Staff got together with their favorite titles for every mood and season of life. Tell us what you think… and add your own!
Homemaker & handyman
Theology of Home: Finding the Eternal in the Everyday – by Carrie Gress, Noelle Mering, and Megan Schrieber
The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook – by Ina Garten
How Your House Works: A Visual Guide to Understanding and Maintaining Your Home – by Charlie Wing
Gardening with Perennials: Creating Beautiful Flower Gardens for Every Part of Your Yard – by Sally Jean Cunningham
Home Body: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave – by Johanna Gaines
Suffering from Millennial nostalgia syndrome
Ella Enchanted – by Gail Carson Levine
Holes – by Louis Sachar
The Giver – by Lois Lowry
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – by J.K. Rowling
The Boxcar Children – by Gertrude Chandler Warner
The Witches – by Roald Dahl
Poetical
“The Ballad of the White Horse” – by GK Chesterton
“Complete Poems” – by Lewis Carroll
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” – by T.S. Eliot
“Sonnet 18” – by William Shakespeare
“Paradise Lost” – by John Milton
Patriotic
Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates – by Brian Kilmeade
George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution – by Brian Kilmeade (yes, he’s that good)
Mayflower – by Nathaniel Philbrick
The Theodore Roosevelt Trilogy – by Edmund Morris
John Adams – by David McCullough
Sorrowful and ruminate
Eichman in Jerusalem – by Hannah Arendt
Anna Karenina – by Leo Tolstoy
Killer Angels – by Michael Shaara
The Complete Stories – by Flannery O’Connor
The Leaves are Falling – by Lucy Becket
A Farewell to Arms – by Ernest Hemingway
Mysterious and downright criminal
The Name of the Rose – by Umberto Ecco
A Cloud of Witnesses – by Dorothy L. Sayers
Dracula – by Bram Stoker
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – by Mark Haddon
Mystery Mile – by Margery Allingham
Seeking some R&R Miscellany
Code of Conduct: Tales of the Roller Coaster of Life – by Scott Freidheim
A Canticle for Leibowitz – by Walter Miller, Jr.
The Doomsday Book – by Connie Willis
Jeeves in the Morning – by P.G. Wodehouse
Romantic
The Betrothed – by Alessandro Manzoni
Emma – by Jane Austen
Ivanhoe – by Sir Walter Scott
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Jane Eyre – by Charlotte Bronte
Travel itch
Over the Edge of World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe – by Laurence Bergreen
Travels with Charley: In Search of America – by John Steinbeck
Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy – by Nathaniel Philbrick
Stephen Fry in America: Fifty States and the Man Who Set Out to See Them All – by Stephen Fry
A Tramp Abroad – by Mark Twain
The Path to Rome – by Hilaire Belloc
Scholarly
Ethics for Beginners – by Peter Kreeft
Theology and Sanity – by Frank Sheed
After Stoicism – by Thomas Ward
The Abolition of Man – by C.S. Lewis
Awake Not Woke – by Noelle Mering
The Rights of Women – by Erika Bachiochi
Homesteader aspirational
Little House on the Prairie – by Laura Ingalls Wilder
O Pioneers! – by Willa Cather
Self-Sufficiency for the 21st Century – by Dick and James Strawbridge
The First-Time Homesteader: A complete beginner’s guide to starting and loving your new homestead – by Jessica Sowards
Epic
The Long Ships – by Frans G. Bengtsson
Gates of Fire – by Steven Pressfield
The Odyssey – translated by Robert Fagles
The Lord of the Rings – by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Way of Kings – by Brandon Sanderson
Dystopias: Real and imagined
Postcard from a Volcano – by Lucy Beckett
Island of the World – by Michael D. O’Brien
Sex and the Unreal City – by Anthony Esolen
Prophet Song – by Paul Lynch
Human Acts – by Han Kang
Lord of the World – by Robert Hugh Benson
Fantastical and Sci-Fi
Red Rising – by Pierce Brown
The WingFeather Saga – by Andrew Peterson
The Tripods Series – by John Christopher
The Space Trilogy – by C.S. Lewis
The Falcon’s Children – by Ross Douthat (TIP: this one is serialized on his Substack)
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Thank you for this!
Hmm … some interesting choices!
I would recommend the Kristin Lavransdatter Trilogy by Sigrid Undset
And Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
If you want to learn about today’s Marijuana, “A Higher Love”, by Heather Bacchus, is available on Amazon.
High potency marijuana should not be on the market. Had a family member end up in the hospital with marijuana induced mania. People don’t realize how different marijuana is now and that it IS addicting.
Wish You Well by David Baldacci and then watch the movie.❤️
Harry Potter should not be on a Catholic list recommendations. An exorcist priest friend does not think anyone should be reading those books. They open the door for the occult.
H.P. is all about goodness triumphing over evil, family, friendship and belonging, perseverance with what is right and true even if popular media says otherwise, faith … Great books to have thoughtful meaningful discussions with teens and young adults.
I agree! That’s the only book I object to on this list. An ex-satanist had said that the spells in the books are real.
Actually, although some of the spells are derived from Latin words, most of them are fictional words Rowling made up. If they were real spells, there would be a lot more children getting possessed after opening themselves up to the occult by saying them all the time.
Everyone in my Catholic family are HP fans, and my brother is even a seminarian. I also talk to several priests about the series.
I appreciate everyone’s concern, but the belief that these books are bad is a myth. I invite you to read them and see for yourself!!!
One of my all-time favorites are: “the Mass of Brother Michel, “In this house of Brede“, “Rome sweet Home”, and “ Searching for and maintaining peace”
Can I get in a blatant plug for three short books? One Stupid Mistake, When Did You Stop Being You? And The Story of Your Life by…me…might answer some Life questions…but then, I’m partial. 😁
Gone With the Wind… incredible. Undiscovered, underestimated very Catholic book. Even better than the movie
With God in Russia… Fr. Walter Ciszek. Reminds you how good you got it here and now.
The Secret Adversary… by Agatha Christie, for a clean old school spy thriller
Well done. I was greatly pleased to see “The Canticle for Liebowitz” on the list as well as Chesterton. May I also suggest the Father Brown Stories by G.K.C.?
Well done!
As an avid reader, I’ve enjoyed so many of the books on your list…and now I have new books to add to my TBR list!! Thanks!