Books can transport us to other worlds, or expose us to new information and perspectives we hadn’t thought of before. They can spark a lifelong passion for reading or open up fresh conversations with the people in our lives.
So, for this month’s Big Question we asked you:
'What’s a book you’ve read that changed the way you think about the world?’
Here’s what some of you said:
Megan - Enfield, NH: My book is "The Second Shift" by Arlie Hochschild. The book summarizes the author's research on task division between married couples in the home. The research in this book that was so impactful to me shows male partners consistently demonstrate no commitment to task equality. When I was a young mother, I was constantly angry about the vastly disproportionate share of work I did. I felt like a second class citizen in my own home. Every major point the author made, she verified my experience and feeling with facts and data. When I got serious with a second husband, if he didn't share that mindset, I would not have proceeded. I am so much happier and so much less angry in my second relationship.
Patricia - Concord, NH: A book that changed the way I look at the world was "Stones From the River" by Ursula Hegi. It's a book about Germany between the wars, and it shows how little steps become big steps and lead into the Holocaust. And it just went bit by bit. I think that this is a book that most people should read to understand history. And of course, as we all want to keep from repeating it.
Matt - Hollis, NH: I would answer that question by talking about a book called "Chasing the Scream" by Johann Hari. It's a book that goes into addiction, and how the war on drugs that was started many, many years ago has really not been adequate to try and fix the drug problem that we have in this country. And it offers very compelling data on some other places that have done it very differently. I think the other main point of the book is that people that are using drugs often are wanting to get off of them, and they just struggle to do it so much because there just aren't the support services that they need. I'm a physician and one of my specialties is critical care medicine, and we end up seeing a lot of drug addicts that end up in the intensive care unit who have overdosed. Over the course of my life and my career, my outlook on these patients has changed just so dramatically, both just from my personal experience, but also related to reading this book.
Aubrey - Concord, NH: A book that influenced how I see the world is "Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer. And I think it changed how I think about gratitude and how I think about reciprocity. I think it changed how I parent, in that I'm trying always to have my kids think about how they can be grateful for what we have, and the other beings who provide so much for us on this earth.
Michelle - Keene, NH: The book that changed the way I think about the world was "David and the Phoenix" [by David Ormondroyd]... I read it when I was about six. And it's because it opened the world of reading to me. I would not be the person that I am if I didn't love reading and go to reading for knowledge and entertainment.
Sheila - Jaffrey, NH: The book that changed the way I think about the world is “The Bear” by Andrew Krivak. He spent his summers here in Jaffrey… It brought a whole nother level of feeling and understanding about this area, and a connection to the land that I hadn't really felt before. I've spent a good deal of my life here. I spent all my summers as a kid in Jaffrey, and so the land means a lot to me and the mountain means a lot to me. And the place where I live right now has a spectacular view of the mountain, so I feel really close to it. So the story is pretty much centered around a father and daughter who are the only ones left on the planet, apparently, or the only humans. And then there's this bear that shows up. So it's quite an amazing story, and because I've been, most of my life… living close to the land and having connections with bears [it] has also meant a lot to me to connect with that.
Bill - Peterborough, NH: I read a book called “Passing Strange” by Martha Sandweiss, which completely changed my reading habits. It is a biography of Clarence King, who was the first head of the U.S. Geological Survey, and he was an interesting man. He led a secret life… He lived as a Black man in spite of being a blue-eyed blond. And after reading this, I couldn't think of any other piece of fiction that I really cared about very much. This was so amazingly different.
Mary - NH: One of my favorite books was called “The Hands of My Father,” and it was written by Myron Uhlberg. And his parents were born deaf and his first language was American Sign Language as a child. And I was drawn to the book because it started in 30s, 40s Brooklyn, where I was born. And his father eventually was trained to be a printer, which was my father's occupation… He started it as a child, and his father was deaf. He had to interpret when his father needed, you know, a document filled out or all those kinds of things… I've read this book probably 15 years ago, but I can still invoke that feeling I got when I read the book. And also, I'm a nurse of many years, and whenever I have a patient who's hearing impaired or deaf, I really feel empathy for them and really try very hard to make their experience as fulfilling and as accurate and as attentive that I need to. It has really changed how I look at people with disabilities and it's changed the way I react to that. It was a very profound book for me.
