Het Kwintet van Cathy Gohlke

Five Favorite Books

One of the greatest joys of my young life was having a grandmother who daily read to my brother and me many great classics of childhood:  Peter Pan; Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; Through the Looking Glass; The Secret Garden; Little Women; Little Men; The Five Little Peppers; Treasure Island. Books became the greatest of friends—absolute magic—and those I read or heard early in life remain with me still. 

But, as a teen and as an adult, I gravitated toward books dealing with issues of social justice and transformation of the heart—transformation that leads to action and helping others.

The Holy Bible has impacted my life most and is still my daily guide.  No other book so vividly portrays man’s purpose and redeemed relationship with his Creator. In remarkably few words, Jesus’ parables and stories have shaped my life and worldview.  It’s a book I read daily, and everyday it’s new.

Next is In His Steps, by Charles Sheldon—a book my mother gave me one long ago Easter Sunday.  First published in 1897, Sheldon’s main character, Rev. Henry Maxwell, coined the question, “What would Jesus do?”  That question led me to a life surrendered to the Lord and inspired much of my own writing about questions of social justice . . . What would Jesus do about slavery?  What would He do about human trafficking?  What would He do about issues of life and death?

Two series by Lucy Maud Montgomery—The Anne of Green Gables series and the Emily series—brought characters alive for me, and convinced me that story characters must be as multi-dimensional as human beings that live and breathe.  I still think of Montgomery’s characters as if they’re people I know, love and expect to meet.  There’s a great deal of nostalgia in her books for a life I never quite lived, but in which I find a constant home.

A Christmas Carol and other stories by Charles Dickens painted current events through fiction—compelling characters living in stark surroundings, facing horrific injustices of their day.  Dickens’ stories convinced me that writers can bring issues of social justice to the world’s attention through fiction.  He taught me how to show through character transformation that we can change, and that we can help those who suffer.  Even now, so many years after reading them, Dickens’ novels excite me as I remember ways in which he championed the causes of the poverty stricken, the abused, and the orphans of his day.  I’m inspired, through my pen, to take up the poverty stricken, the abused, and the orphans of our day.

Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables rounds out my list.  No other author I’ve read delves so deeply into the psyche of his characters.  No other author makes me believe so deeply in the personal goodness, the layered dimensions, or conversely, in the possible depravity of his characters.  I don’t know how he wrote so organically.  Sometimes I weep for the impossible beauty of his words and the complexity of the souls he created.

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