Meadows Book Club: 2026 Reading List

Only one book this year is on the reading list. One worth reading a thousand times over. One filled with despair, hope, vengeance, and justice. 

The Count of Monte Cristo (1846)

“What would you not have accomplished if you had been free?”

“Possibly nothing at all; the overflow of my brain would probably, in a state of freedom, have evaporated in a thousand follies; misfortune is needed to bring to light the treasures of the human intellect. Compression is needed to explode gunpowder. Captivity has brought my mental faculties to a focus; and you are well aware that from the collision of clouds electricity is produced — from electricity, lightning, from lightning, illumination.”

Classic Books for Children

Classic children’s literature and fairy tales have an enduring appeal that transcends time through universal themes and moral depth. These timeless stories explore courage, friendship, and self-discovery, offering children a mirror to their own struggles and triumphs. Rich with imaginative worlds and memorable characters, they cultivate imagination and vocabulary, while intricate plots encourage patience and critical thinking. Classics and fairy tales also anchor readers in cultural heritage, linking them to shared stories that have shaped societal values. Whether through the magical realms of fantasy or the moral lessons of traditional tales, these stories provide a foundation for children to develop empathy, curiosity, and a lifelong love of storytelling. The following are a few that I have collected for my daughter:

Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne (1926)

The Hundred Acre Wood offers a timeless setting of pastoral England while characters model virtues such as compassion, honesty, and acceptance. Each adventure teaches children to navigate challenges through kindness and community, as seen in Pooh’s support for Eeyore or Piglet’s anxious yet brave moments.

Peter Pan and Wendy by J.M Barrie (1911)

Peter Pan and Wendy explores themes of imagination, traditional gender roles, courage, and the transition to adulthood. Barrie’s work reflects late-Victorian ideals of childhood as a "golden age" of innocence, a concept rooted in the era’s romanticization of youth as a pure, pre-labor phase of life. Neverland, a realm free from societal constraints, symbolizes an escape from the inevitability of growing into labor-driven adulthood, allowing the Darling children to indulge in perpetual play. However, Wendy’s return home and her eventual maturation emphasizes the necessity of embracing responsibility and familial bonds. 

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (1908)

Originally written as bedtime stories for Grahame’s son, The Wind in the Willows has endured as a celebration of nature, camaraderie, and the comforts of home. The idyllic English countryside mirrors Edwardian pastoral harmony, where characters Mole, Rat, and Badger teach children the virtues of loyalty, humility, respect for tradition, and stewardship of nature.

Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (1812)

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collected folktales (Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, et cetera) across different regions of Germany in the early 19th century with the goal of preserving Germanic cultural heritage. Woven into the narratives are subtle moral lessons of bravery, kindness, and accountability that shaped societal values of the Victorian era. By highlighting consequences for negative behaviors and celebrating virtues, the Grimms’ stories transcend entertainment, becoming timeless tools for teaching ethical principles and fostering critical thought.

Andersen’s Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen (1911)

Unlike the Brothers Grimm Folklore, the fairy tales from Hans Christian Andersen are original literary creations (Thumbelina, The Ugly Duckling, The Little Mermaid). Each story offers important moral lessons while inviting children into a whimsical new world. 

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911)

The Secret Garden follows Mary Lennox, a spoiled orphan sent to her uncle’s gloomy Yorkshire estate, where she discovers a hidden neglected garden. Through tending to the garden’s revival with the help of two friends, Mary undergoes a profound transformation from selfishness to empathy. The garden symbolizes nature’s healing power, paralleling the childrens’ physical and emotional renewal as they nurture it. Through The Secret Garden, Burnett critiques societal detachment from the natural world by framing the garden as a sanctuary where curiosity and care dissolve loneliness and entitlement. 

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (1937)

The tale of Bilbo Baggins was originally told as an oral bedtime story for Tolkien’s children. It soon evolved into a written manuscript in which Tolkien explored new literary ideas by blending Norse mythology with Slavic-inspired elements and medieval motifs. Having witnessed industrialization and horrors of WWI firsthand, Tolkien infused the tale with critiques of greed and a longing for pre-industrial simplicity. 

 

Meadows Book Club: 2025 Reading List

I am a month late on releasing this year’s reading list – my apologies! It’s going to be a hectic year and truth be told, I am still catching up on the list from last year. For 2025 I just have three great novels for your consideration, all of which are relatively short. The Screwtape Letters will be the most philosophical of the bunch. Pro tip: prayerfully request wisdom before embarking on each chapter. Happy reading!

Animal Farm by George Orwell (1945)

“Comrades!' he cried. 'You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink the milk and eat those apples.”

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)

“He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.”

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (1942)

“Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts… Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape.”

 

Meadows Book Club: 2024 Reading List

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868)

“My child, the troubles and temptations of your life are beginning, and may be many; but you can overcome and outlive them all if you learn to feel the strength and tenderness of your Heavenly Father as you do that of your earthly one. The more you love and trust Him, the nearer you will feel to Him, and the less you will depend on human power and wisdom. His love and care never tire or change, can never be taken from you, but may become the source of lifelong peace, happiness, and strength. Believe this heartily, and go to God with all your little cares, and hopes, and sins, and sorrows, as freely and confidingly as you come to your mother.”

Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien (1954)

“Three rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, Nine for Mortal men doomed to die, One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne in the Land of Mordor where the Shadows Lie. One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, one Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them in the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.”

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (1818)

“It would be mortifying to the feelings of many ladies, could they be made to understand how little the heart of a man is affected by what is costly or new in their attire... Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone. No man will admire her the more, no woman will like her the better for it. Neatness and fashion are enough for the former, and a something of shabbiness or impropriety will be most endearing to the latter.”

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt (1975)

“The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color. Often at night there is lightning, but it quivers all alone. There is no thunder, no relieving rain. These are strange and breathless days, the dog days, when people are led to do things they are sure to be sorry for after.”

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932)

“All things considered it looks as though Utopia were far closer to us than anyone, only fifteen years ago, could have imagined. Then, I projected it six hundred years into the future. Today it seems quite possible that the horror may be upon us within a single century. That is, if we refrain from blowing ourselves to smithereens in the interval. Indeed, unless we choose to decentralize and to use applied science, not as the end to which human beings are to be made the means, but as the means to producing a race of free individuals, we have only two alternatives to choose from: either a number of national, militarized totalitarianisms, having as their root the terror of the atomic bomb and as their consequence the destruction of civilization (or, if the warfare is limited, the perpetuation of militarism); or else one supranational totalitarianism, called into existence by the social chaos resulting from rapid technological progress in general and the atomic revolution in particular, and developing, under the need for efficiency and stability, into the welfare-tyranny of Utopia. You pays your money and you takes your choice.”

 

Meadows Book Club: 2023 Reading List

1984 by George Orwell (1949)

“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (1929)

“This book is to be neither an accusation or a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war.”

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813)

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (1957)

“This is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world – and did. Was he a destroyer or the greatest of liberators? Why did he have to fight his battle, not against his enemies, but against those who needed him most, and his hardest battle against the woman he loved? What is the world’s motor – and the motive power of every man? You must be prepared, when you read this novel, to check every premise at the root of your convictions. This is a mystery story, not about the murder of a man’s body, but about the murder – and rebirth – of man’s spirit. It is a philosophical revolution, told in the form of an action thriller of violent events, a ruthlessly brilliant plot structure and an irresistible suspense. Do you say this is impossible? Well, that is the first of your premises to check.” 

 

Introducing Meadows Book Club

 

 
I strive to live offline as much as possible and I am a firm believer that, while useful, the internet will tarnish the mind if left unchecked. In an effort to step away from the screen, a new goal of mine is to read more. And what’s a better way than to share what I’ve read than with an informal book club?

I firmly believe that a meadow is one of the finest places to enjoy a good book – thus the inspiration behind the name. Meadows in all their beauty is where one can find solitude whilst surrounded by the peaceful embrace of nature. The warmth of the sun on the skin, soft breeze, and rustling of grasses. It’s a glimpse of heaven on earth.

There are no dates and deadlines. And I have no desire nor the time to create study questions and collect homework. Meadows is merely an encouragement to read something worthwhile.

Meadows will almost entirely consist of classic books. Those close to me know that old books hold a special place in my heart. I have an immense appreciation for letter pressed pages and typography of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. And more often than I care to admit, I will comb through antique stores and resale websites searching for a well-kept copy of an interesting classic. I crave a life in another era and while God placed me here for such a time as this, a good classic allows me to transport myself back – if only for a little while.

Follow along & enjoy a good book with me.