Best Books, Education, Fiction & Literature, History, Literature, Nonfiction

The Best Country and Rural Living Books

“What are the best books about Country Living?” We looked at 13 articles and found 278 unique books to answer that very question.

Rural and country living covers a wide range of books. There are farming books, homestead books, books about leading a nomadic life, history of farming books, instructional agriculture books, and so much more. There is fiction, non-fiction, biography, history, and recipe books.  We found 278 total books, 12 of which appeared on multiple lists. We included images, links, and a summary for those below and a list of the remaining 266 books, along with the sources, at the bottom of the page.

And if for some reason you click on this article and are more of a city person, or simply curious on what that list looks like, you can read our City Living article from earlier in the week.

 

Happy Scrolling!



Top 12 Country Living Books



12 .) A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck

a-day-no-pigs-would-die-a-day-no-pigs-would-die-1-by-robert-newton-peck
Lists It Appears On:

  • Library Book Lists
  • Modern Farmer

Newton Peck weaves a story of a Vermont boyhood that is part fiction, part memoir. The result is a moving coming-of-age story that still resonates with teens today.

Learn More About Book



11 .) Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

gilead-gilead-1-by-marilynne-robinson
Lists It Appears On:

  • The Daily Beast
  • Electric Lit

Nearly 25 years after Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson returns with an intimate tale of three generations, from the Civil War to the 20th century: a story about fathers and sons and the spiritual battles that still rage at America’s heart. In the words ofKirkus, it is a novel “as big as a nation, as quiet as thought, and moving as prayer. Matchless and towering.” Gilead tells the story of America and will break your heart.

Learn More About Book



10 .) Homestead by Rosina Lippi

homestead-by-rosina-lippi
Lists It Appears On:

  • NPR
  • Library Book Lists

Each life has its place, and every variation ripples the surface of the tiny alpine village called Rosenau. Be it a mysteriously misaddressed love letter or a girl’s careless delivery of two helpless relatives into Nazi hands, the town’s balance is ever tested, and ever tender. Here is a novel spanning eighty years — years that bring factories and wars, store-bought cheese and city-trained teachers — weaving the fates of the wives, mothers, and daughters in this remote corner of Austria.

Learn More About Book



9 .) How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

how-i-live-now-by-meg-rosoff
Lists It Appears On:

  • Modern Farmer
  • The Guardian

“Fifteen-year-old Daisy is sent from Manhattan to England to visit her aunt and cousins she’s never met: three boys near her age, and their little sister. Her aunt goes away on business soon after Daisy arrives. The next day bombs go off as London is attacked and occupied by an unnamed enemy.

As power fails, and systems fail, the farm becomes more isolated. Despite the war, it’s a kind of Eden, with no adults in charge and no rules, a place where Daisy’s uncanny bond with her cousins grows into something rare and extraordinary. But the war is everywhere, and Daisy and her cousins must lead each other into a world that is unknown in the scariest, most elemental way.”

Learn More About Book



8 .) Stoner by John Williams

stoner-by-john-edward-williams
Lists It Appears On:

  • Modern Farmer
  • The Guardian

William Stoner is born at the end of the nineteenth century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he instead falls in love with English literature and embraces a scholar’s life, so different from the hardscrabble existence he has known. And yet as the years pass, Stoner encounters a succession of disappointments: marriage into a “proper” family estranges him from his parents; his career is stymied; his wife and daughter turn coldly away from him; a transforming experience of new love ends under threat of scandal. Driven ever deeper within himself, Stoner rediscovers the stoic silence of his forebears and confronts an essential solitude.

Learn More About Book



7 .) The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre! by Carleen Madigan

the-backyard-homestead-produce-all-the-food-you-need-on-just-a-quarter-acre-by-carleen-madigan
Lists It Appears On:

  • Just Peace
  • Countryfarm Lifestyles

On just a quarter-acre of land, you can produce fresh, organic food for a family of four — year-round! This comprehensive guide to homesteading provides all the information you need to grow and preserve a sustainable harvest of grains and vegetables; raise animals for meat, eggs, and dairy; and keep honey bees for your sweeter days. With easy-to-follow instructions on canning, drying, and pickling, you’ll enjoy your backyard bounty all winter long.

Learn More About Book



6 .) The Bucolic Plague: How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers: An Unconventional Memoir by Josh Kilmer Purcell

the-bucolic-plague-how-two-manhattanites-became-gentlemen-farmers-an-unconventional-memoir-by-josh-kilmer-purcell
Lists It Appears On:

  • The Christian Science Monitor
  • Library Book Lists

Michael Perry (Coop, Truck: A Love Story) meets David Sedaris (Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim) in this follow-up to Josh Kilmer-Purcell’s beloved New York Times bestselling debut memoir, I Am Not Myself These Days—another riotous, moving, and entirely unique story of his attempt to tackle the next phase of life with his partner… on a goat farm in upstate New York.

Learn More About Book



5 .) The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball

the-dirty-life-on-farming-food-and-love-by-kristin-kimball
Lists It Appears On:

  • The Christian Science Monitor
  • Library Book Lists

Single, thirtysomething, working as a writer in New York City, Kristin Kimball was living life as an adventure. But she was beginning to feel a sense of longing for a family and for home. When she interviewed a dynamic young farmer, her world changed. Kristin knew nothing about growing vegetables, let alone raising pigs and cattle and driving horses. But on an impulse, smitten, if not yet in love, she shed her city self and moved to five hundred acres near Lake Champlain to start a new farm with him. The Dirty Life is the captivating chronicle of their first year on Essex Farm, from the cold North Country winter through the following harvest season—complete with their wedding in the loft of the barn.

Learn More About Book



4 .) The Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

prodigal-summer-by-barbara-kingsolver
Lists It Appears On:

  • Library Book Lists
  • Modern Farmer

Barbara Kingsolver’s fifth novel is a hymn to wildness that celebrates the prodigal spirit of human nature, and of nature itself. It weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives amid the mountains and farms of southern Appalachia. Over the course of one humid summer, this novel’s intriguing protagonists face disparate predicaments but find connections to one another and to the flora and fauna with which they necessarily share a place.

Learn More About Book



3 .) Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills by Abigail R. Gehring

back-to-basics-a-complete-guide-to-traditional-skills-by-abigail-r-gehring
Lists It Appears On:

  • Just Peace
  • Critical Cactus
  • Eco Books

 

This how-to, user-friendly guide teaches self-sufficiency-covering all of life’s essentials: shelter; alternative energy sources; growing and preserving food; home crafts; directions for making herbal remedies; and even home-grown entertainment.

Learn More About Book



2 .) Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

cold-comfort-farm-cold-comfort-farm-by-stella-gibbons
Lists It Appears On:

  • Library Book Lists
  • NPR
  • The Guardian

When the recently orphaned socialite Flora Poste descends on her relatives at the aptly named Cold Comfort Farm in deepest Sussex, she finds a singularly miserable group in dire need of her particular talent

Learn More About Book



1 .) The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery

the-encyclopedia-of-country-living-by-carla-emery
Lists It Appears On:

  • Countryfarm Lifestyles
  • Critical Cactus
  • Just Peace
  • Eco Books

The bestselling resource for modern homesteading, growing and preserving foods, and raising chickens, The Encyclopedia of Country Living includes how to cultivate a garden, buy land, bake bread, raise farm animals, make sausage, can peaches, milk a goat, grow herbs, churn butter, build a chicken coop, catch a pig, cook on a wood stove, and much, much more. This comprehensive resource is the most authoritative guide available to a sustainable lifestyle and living off of the land.

Learn More About Book



#13 to 278 Books About Living In The Country
(Appear On A Single List Each)



 

A Box of MatchesNicholson BakerLibrary Book Lists
A Bucket of Nuts and a Herring NetJohn JacksonLibrary Book Lists
A Buzzard Is My Best FriendMargaret Anne BarnesLibrary Book Lists
A Country LifeWilliam S. MorseLibrary Book Lists
A Country Wife Farms Families and Other Foolhardy Adventures: Memoir. Pig keeping, cake baking and lamb rearing in the lush Dorset countryside, where Lucy settled as a newlywed 30 years ago.Lucy PinneyLibrary Book Lists
A Countryman’s Journal: Views of Life and Nature from a Maine Coastal FarmRoy BarretteLibrary Book Lists
A Farm of Our Own: A Spiritual Journey Running a SmallholdingGraham R. Irwin and Ken AshtonLibrary Book Lists
A Maine HamletLura BeamLibrary Book Lists
A Maine Man in the MakingFranklin F. GouldLibrary Book Lists
A Measure of My DaysDavid Loxterkamp, M.D.Library Book Lists
A Place in the CountryLaura Shaine CunninghamLibrary Book Lists
A Place in the WoodsHelen and Adrian HooverLibrary Book Lists
A Reasonable Life: Toward a Simpler, Secure, More Humane ExistenceEco Books
A Separate Place: A Family, a Cabin in the Woods, and a Journey of Love and SpiritDavid BrillLibrary Book Lists
A Simpler WayEco Books
A Small Farm in Maine: How One Couple Built a Self-Sustaining Life in the CountryTerry SilberLibrary Book Lists
A Thousand AcresJane SmileyLibrary Book Lists
A Time to Recall: The Delights of a Maine ChildhoodHelen V. TaylorLibrary Book Lists
A Very Small FarmWilliam Paul WinchesterLibrary Book Lists
A White Heron — A Story of MaineSarah Orne JewettLibrary Book Lists
A Year in the Maine WoodsBernd HeinrichLibrary Book Lists
Acres and Pains, a Guide to Country LoafingS.J. PerelmanLibrary Book Lists
Affluenza: The All-Consuming EpidemicEco Books
All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space!Mel Bartholomew (Paperback – Feb 1, 2006)Countryfarm Lifestyles
American HouseVirginia Chase PerkinsLibrary Book Lists
American SalvageBonnie Jo CampbellThe Daily Beast
American UtopiasEco Books
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show BusinessEco Books
An Unseemly WifeE.B. MooreElectric Lit
And I Shall Have Some Peace ThereMargaret RoachLibrary Book Lists
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food LifeBarbara KingsolverLibrary Book Lists
As the Earth TurnsGladys Hasty CarrollLibrary Book Lists
At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me ScreamWade RouseThe Christian Science Monitor
Backyard Meat Production : How to Grow.All the Meat Your Need in Your Back YardAnita EvangelistaJust Peace
Bean Blossom Dreams: A City Family’s Search for a Simple Country LifeSallyann MurpheyLibrary Book Lists
Big Tractors with Casey and Friends” and “Combines with Casey and FriendsHolly DufekAgrinews
Blood-Lust Chickens and Renegade Sheep: A First-Timer’s Guide to Country Living.Anita EvangelistaJust Peace
Cache Lake CountryJohn J. RowlandsLibrary Book Lists
Carrying Water as a Way of Life: A Homesteader’s HistoryLinda TatelbaumLibrary Book Lists
Celebration of Awareness: A Call for Institutional Revolution/Social QuestionsEco Books
Cheap GossipSanford PhippenLibrary Book Lists
Choosing Simplicity: Real People Finding Peace and Fulfillment in a Complex WorldEco Books
Cold TimesElizabeth Jordan MooreLibrary Book Lists
Comments on the Society of the SpectableEco Books
Commodify Your Dissent: Salvos from the BafflerEco Books
Communities Directory: A Guide to Intentional Communities and Cooperative LivingEco Books
Community TechnologyKarl HessJust Peace
Cooking With the Sun : How to Build and Use Solar CookersBeth and Don HalacyJust Peace
Coop: A Family, a Farm, and the Pursuit of One Good Egg aka Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and ParentingMichael PerryLibrary Book Lists
Country Matters: The Pleasures and Tribulations of Moving from a Big City to an Old Country FarmhouseMichael KordaLibrary Book Lists
Country NeighborhoodElizabeth CoatsworthLibrary Book Lists
Country of Exiles: The Destruction of Place in American LifeEco Books
Cream Hill: Discoveries of a Weekend CountrymanLewis GannettLibrary Book Lists
Culture Jam: How to Reverse America’s Suicidal Consumer Binge–And Why We MustEco Books
Danny and the BoysRobert TraverLibrary Book Lists
DIY Projects for the Self-Sufficient Homeowner: 25 Ways to Build a Self-Reliant LifestyleCritical Cactus
Dog Days: Dispatches from Bedlam FarmJon KatzLibrary Book Lists
DriftlessDavid RhodesThe Daily Beast
Earth-Sheltered Houses: How To Build An Affordable Underground HomeRob RoyCritical Cactus
Earthship: How to Build Your OwnCritical Cactus
Eden SpringsLaura KasischkeThe Daily Beast
Eighty-Eight Years on a Maine FarmWill and Minnie PenneyLibrary Book Lists
Enslaved by Ducks: How One Man Went from Head of the Household to Bottom of the Pecking OrderBob TarteLibrary Book Lists
Epicurean SimplicityEco Books
Falling to EarthKate SouthwoodElectric Lit
Farm CityNovella CarpenterThe Christian Science Monitor
Farm on Nippersink Creek: A Midwestern BoyhoodJim MayLibrary Book Lists
Farmer Takes a WifeJohn GouldLibrary Book Lists
Feed a Family of Four for As Low As $10 per Week and Enjoy a Nibble of Independence.Just Peace
Fetched-Up Yankee: A New England Boyhood RememberedLewis HillLibrary Book Lists
Fields of HomeRalph MoodyLibrary Book Lists
Fifty Acres and a Poodle: A Story of Love, Livestock, and Finding Myself on a FarmJeanne Marie LaskasLibrary Book Lists
FireweedMildred WalkerLibrary Book Lists
First Person Rural, Essays of a Sometime FarmerNoel PerrinLibrary Book Lists
Five Acres and Independence : A Handbook for Small Farm ManagementMaurice Grenville KainsJust Peace
FosterClaire KeeganThe Guardian
Four Arguments for the Elimination of TelevisionEco Books
Freeman: The Agriculture YearsRodney LeonardAgrinews
From A Limestone LedgeJohn GravesLibrary Book Lists
From the Orange Mailbox: Notes from A Few Country AcresA. Carman ClarkLibrary Book Lists
Getting a Life: Strategies for Simple Living, Based on the Revolutionary Program for Financial Freedom, Your Money or Your LifeEco Books
Goat SongBrad KesslerThe Christian Science Monitor
God’s Own CountryRoss RaisinThe Guardian
Grace Butterfield Dow’s Diary of a Week at the LakeGrace Butterfield DowLibrary Book Lists
Graceful Simplicity: Toward a Philosophy and Politics of Simple LivingEco Books
Grandfather’s Broadaxe and Other Stories of a Maine Farm FamilyC.A. StephensLibrary Book Lists
Green Mountain FarmElliott MerrickLibrary Book Lists
Green Wood and Chloroform: How A Young English Doctor Settled in Rural MaineAnthony BettsLibrary Book Lists
Greener Pastures: Life in the North CountryMarnie Reed CrowellLibrary Book Lists
Grow All You Can Eat in 3 Square Feet: Inventive Ideas for Growing Food in a Small SpaceFourth & Sycamore
Guerrilla Furniture Design: How to Build Lean, Modern Furniture with Salvaged MaterialsWill HolmanFourth & Sycamore
Happy the LandLouise Dickinson RichLibrary Book Lists
Haps and Mishaps at the Old FarmC.A. StephensLibrary Book Lists
Hard Times in Paradise: An American Family’s Struggle to Carve Out a Homestead in California’s Redwood MountainsDavid ColfaxLibrary Book Lists
Hardscrabble: Observations on a Patch of LandJohn GravesLibrary Book Lists
Hattie Big SkyKirby LarsonModern Farmer
Here I Stay: A Maine NovelElizabeth CoatsworthLibrary Book Lists
Hill Country HarvestHal BorlandLibrary Book Lists
Hit by a Farm: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BarnCatherine FriendLibrary Book Lists
Hooper’s Pasture from Maine to VermontJohn S. HooperLibrary Book Lists
How to Develop a Low-Cost Family Food Storage SystemAnita EvangelistaJust Peace
How to Grow More Vegetables : Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains and Other Crops.John JeavonsJust Peace
How to Live Without Electricity & Like ItAnita EvangelistaJust Peace
How to Stay Alive in the Woods: A Complete Guide to Food, Shelter, and Self-Preservation That Makes Starvation in the Wilderness Next to ImpossibleEco Books
How to Survive Without a Salary: Learning How to Live the Conserver LifestyleEco Books
In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the WoodsMatt BellElectric Lit
International Harvester Trucks: The Complete HistoryPatrick FosterAgrinews
It Takes A Village Idiot: Complicating the Simple LifeJim MullenLibrary Book Lists
It’s a Long Road to a Tomato: Tales of an Organic Farmer Who Quit the Big City for theKeith StewartLibrary Book Lists
Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of the Village of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened TherePhilip P. HallieNPR
Let Us Now Praise Famous MenJames Agee and Walker EvansThe Guardian
Letters from ApplehurstG.W. HinckleyLibrary Book Lists
Letters from Wingfield FarmDan NeedlesLibrary Book Lists
Living Cheaply with Style: Live Better and Spend LessEco Books
Living on Less: An Authoritative Guide to Affordable Food, Fuel, and ShelterEco Books
Living Poor: A Peace Corps ChronicleEco Books
Living Well on a Shoestring: 1,821 Ways to Live Frugally, Efficiently and Masterfully Without Being a MiserEco Books
Lost Paradise: A Boyhood on a Maine Coast FarmRobert P. Tristram CoffinLibrary Book Lists
Love MedicineLouise ErdrichThe Daily Beast
Loving and Leaving the Good LifeHelen NearingLibrary Book Lists
Maine Farm: A Year of Country LifeStanley Joseph and Lynn KarlinLibrary Book Lists
Maine MemoriesElizabeth CoatsworthLibrary Book Lists
Maine WaysElizabeth CoatsworthLibrary Book Lists
Maine’s Golden Road: A MemoirJohn GouldLibrary Book Lists
Making a Living Without a Job: Winning Ways for Creating Work That You LoveEco Books
Malabar Farm seriesLouis BromfieldLibrary Book Lists
Man Bites Log: The Unlikely Adventures of a City Guy in the WoodsMax AlexanderLibrary Book Lists
MiddlesexJeffrey EugenidesThe Daily Beast
Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 AcreBrett L. MarkhamCritical Cactus
Minnesota Weather Almanac: Second Edition, Completely Updated for the New NormalsMark SeeleyAgrinews
Moonshine!: Recipes * Tall Tales * Drinking Songs *Countryfarm Lifestyles
Moose in the Water, Bamboo on the Bench: A Journal and a JourneyKathy ScottLibrary Book Lists
More-With-Less CookbookDoris LongacreJust Peace
Mother Earth News Alcohol Fuel HandbooJust Peace
Mountain of My Dreams: The Early YearsRichard T. AntonyLibrary Book Lists
Mountain of My Dreams: The Middle YearsRichard T. AntonyLibrary Book Lists
Mountainman Crafts and Skills: A Fully Illustrated Guide to Wilderness Living and SurvivalEco Books
Mrs. Fytton’s Country LifeMavis CheekLibrary Book Lists
My Life in the North WoodsRobert SmithLibrary Book Lists
Native American Crafts and Skills: A Fully Illustrated Guide to Wilderness Living and SurvivalEco Books
Native SonRichard WrightThe Daily Beast
Neighborly Relations: And Other Stories of Bygone Times on a Saltwater FarmEdwin D. MerryLibrary Book Lists
Neither Hay Nor GrassJohn GouldLibrary Book Lists
Nine Mile BridgeHelen HamlinLibrary Book Lists
No LOGO: Taking Aim at the Brand BulliesEco Books
North of Now: A Celebration of Country and the Soon to Be GoneW. D. WetherellLibrary Book Lists
North Woods WalkaboutNan Turner WaldronLibrary Book Lists
Northern Farm: A Chronicle of MaineHenry BestonLibrary Book Lists
O Pioneers!Willa CatherThe Guardian
Off Grid Living: 25 Lessons on How to Live off The Grid and Survive in the WildKevin EvansCritical Cactus
Once Upon a Farm: Stories about the Farm on Thompson Hill in Mexico, MaineCrossland, Lloyd, and Gail Parent, Fern Stearns, Joyce MorganLibrary Book Lists
One Circle : How to Grow a Complete Diet in Less Than 1000 sq. ft.Just Peace
One Crow, Two CrowVirginia Chase PerkinsLibrary Book Lists
One Man’s MeatE.B. WhiteLibrary Book Lists
One-Horse FarmRobert P. Tristram CoffinLibrary Book Lists
Onions in the StewBetty MacDonaldLibrary Book Lists
Only ParentLouise Dickinson RichLibrary Book Lists
Our Way Down EastElinor GrahamLibrary Book Lists
Pages from a JournalJoyce ButlerLibrary Book Lists
Papa was a FarmerBrenda Weisberg MecklerLibrary Book Lists
Participating in Nature: Thomas J. Elpel’s Field Guide to Primitive Living SkillsEco Books
Peace at Heart: An Oregon Country LifeBarbara DrakeLibrary Book Lists
Pie for BreakfastLawrence and Marion AverillLibrary Book Lists
PlainsongKent HarufElectric Lit
Primitive Technology: A Book of Earth SkillsEco Books
Putting Food byJust Peace
Radical Simplicity: Small Footprints on a Finite EarthEco Books
Re-Told Tales of the Hills and Shores of MaineMrs. H.G. RoweLibrary Book Lists
Red Combines 1915-2015: The Authoritative Guide to International Harvester and Case IH Harvesting EquipmentLee KlancherAgrinews
Remembering LaughterWallace StegnerLibrary Book Lists
Ridge-Runner: The Story of a Maine WoodsmanGerald AverillLibrary Book Lists
Right as RainBernice RichmondLibrary Book Lists
Road Song: A MemoirNatalie KuszLibrary Book Lists
Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese HermitsEco Books
Roughing It Easy/a Unique Ideabook for Camping and CookingJust Peace
Sailing on the Ice: And Other Stories from the Old Squire’s FarmC.A. StephensLibrary Book Lists
Salvage the BonesJesmyn WardElectric Lit
Sanctuary: A Finding of LifeE.W. PaisleyLibrary Book Lists
Save Every Lamb: Rich and Memorable Tales of a Lifetime with the Animals of the Hills and Farms of KentuckyJesse StuartLibrary Book Lists
See You in a Hundred Years: Four Seasons in Forgotten AmericaLogan WardLibrary Book Lists
Sign of the BeaverElizabeth George SpeareLibrary Book Lists
Sister CarrieTheodore DreiserThe Daily Beast
Still Life with Chickens: Starting Over in a House by the SeaCatherine GoldhammerLibrary Book Lists
Stillmeadow SeasonsGladys TaberLibrary Book Lists
Stone Work: Reflections on Serious Play and Other Aspects of Country LifeEco Books
Successful Calamity: A Writer’s Follies on a Vermont FarmEdmund FullerLibrary Book Lists
Surrendering the ReinsLes GrahamAgrinews
Survival Skills of the North American IndiansEco Books
Sylvia’s Farm: The Journal of an Improbable ShepherdSylvia JorrinLibrary Book Lists
Tales of Cedar RiverWilliam M. ClarkLibrary Book Lists
Tales of the Maine Woods: Two Forest and Stream EssaysFanny Pearson EckstormLibrary Book Lists
Tarry FlynnPatrick KavanaghThe Guardian
Tasha Tudor’s GardenTovah Martin (Hardcover – Oct 5, 1994)Countryfarm Lifestyles
Technology and the Good Life?Eco Books
That They May Face The Rising SunJohn McGahernThe Guardian
The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost his Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect GardenWilliam AlexanderLibrary Book Lists
The Affluent SocietyEco Books
The Barn at the End of the World: The Apprenticeship of a Quaker, Buddhist ShepherdMary Rose O’ReilleyLibrary Book Lists
The Big-Little World of Doc PrithamDorothy Clarke WilsonLibrary Book Lists
The Birchwood Café Cookbook: Good Real FoodTracy Singleton and Marshall Paulsen with Beth DooleyAgrinews
The Bluest EyeToni MorrisonThe Daily Beast
The Bones of PlentyLois Phillips HudsonLibrary Book Lists
The Cheechakoes: The True Story of the Remarkable Adventures of an American Family Who Moved to Alaska and Lived Like PioneersWayne ShortLibrary Book Lists
The Circle of Simplicity: Return to the Good LifeEco Books
The Coast of ChicagoStuart DybekThe Daily Beast
The Complete Book of Butchering, Smoking, Curing and Sausage MakingPhilip HasheiderCountryfarm Lifestyles
The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip ConsumerismEco Books
The Consumer Society ReaderEco Books
The Country DoctorSarah Orne JewettLibrary Book Lists
The Country LifeRachel CuskLibrary Book Lists
The Country of the Pointed FirsSarah Orne JewettLibrary Book Lists
The Cows are Out! Two Decades on a Maine Dairy FarmTrudy Chambers PriceLibrary Book Lists
The Dairy Good Cookbook: Everyday Comfort Food from America’s Dairy FarmLisa KingsleyAgrinews
The Dark Well: Coming of Age on a Maine FarmBrenda ShawLibrary Book Lists
The Dog From NowhereElizabeth CoatsworthLibrary Book Lists
The Dogs of Bedlam Farm: An Adventure With Sixteen Sheep, Three Dogs, Two Donkeys, and MeJon KatzLibrary Book Lists
The Egg and IBetty MacDonaldLibrary Book Lists
The Experience of PlaceEco Books
The Fresh Girl’s Guide to Easy CanningAna MickaCountryfarm Lifestyles
The Good Life: Helen and Scott Nearing’s Sixty Years of Self-Sufficient LivingEco Books
The Hardscrabble ChroniclesLaurie Bogart MorrowLibrary Book Lists
The Joy of Not Working: A Book for the Retired, Unemployed, and OverworkedEco Books
The JungleUpton SinclairThe Daily Beast
The Known WorldEdward P. JonesElectric Lit
The Land of Milk and Uncle Honey: Memories from the Farm of My YouthAlan GuebertAgrinews
The Little House book seriesLaura Ingalls WilderModern Farmer
The Long ManAmy GreeneElectric Lit
The Maine WoodsHenry David ThoreauLibrary Book Lists
The MountainAlice Beal ParsonsLibrary Book Lists
The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency: The Classic Guide for Realists and DreamersCountryfarm Lifestyles
The New Laurel’s Kitchen : A Handbook…Just Peace
The Old Ashburn PlaceMargaret FlintLibrary Book Lists
The OrchardistAmanda CoplinElectric Lit
The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting, and the New ConsumerEco Books
The PeninsulaLouise Dickinson RichLibrary Book Lists
The Quality of Life ReportMeghan DaumLibrary Book Lists
The Right to Useful Unemployment: And Its Professional EnemiesEco Books
The Secrets of Building an Alcohol Producing StillVincent R. Gingery (Paperback – Jul 1994)Countryfarm Lifestyles
The Simple Living Guide: A Sourcebook for Less Stressful, More Joyful LivingEco Books
The Society of the SpectacleEco Books
The Solar House: Passive Heating and CoolingDaniel D. ChirasCritical Cactus
The Summer of Ordinary WaysNicole HelgetLibrary Book Lists
The Sustainable Vegetable Garden : A Backyard Guide to Healthy Soil & Higher Yields.Just Peace
The Theory of the Leisure ClassEco Books
The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure ClassEco Books
The TwinGerbrand Bakker, translated by David ColmerThe Guardian
The Widow Down by the Brook: A Memoir of a Time Gone ByMary MacNeillLibrary Book Lists
The Woods and the Sea, Wilderness and Seacoast Adventures in the State of MaineDudley Cammett LuntLibrary Book Lists
The World Around the MountainAlice Beal ParsonsLibrary Book Lists
The Years of the ForestHelen and Adrian HooverLibrary Book Lists
themJoyce Carol OatesThe Daily Beast
This Hill, This ValleyHal BorlandLibrary Book Lists
This Trifling Distinction: Reminiscences from Down EastJohn GouldLibrary Book Lists
Thousand Acre Marsh, A Span of RemembranceDudley Cammett LuntLibrary Book Lists
To School Through the FieldsAlice TaylorLibrary Book Lists
Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin Off the Grid and Beyond the American DreamWilliam PowersCritical Cactus
Upcountry: Reflections from a Rural LifeRobert KimberLibrary Book Lists
Vital TiesKaren KringleLibrary Book Lists
Voices from the Farm: Adventures in Community LivingEco Books
Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly RichEco Books
We Didn’t Have Much, But We Sure Had Plenty: Rural Women in Their Own WordsSherry ThomasLibrary Book Lists
We Have All Gone AwayCurtis HarnackLibrary Book Lists
We Summer in MaineNathaniel J. HasenfusLibrary Book Lists
We Took to the WoodsLouise Dickinson RichLibrary Book Lists
When Life was Young: At the Old Farm in MaineC.A. StephensLibrary Book Lists
Where There is No DoctorDavid Werner, Carol Thuman, Jane MaxwellJust Peace
Wild Card Quilt: Taking a Chance on HomeJanisse RayLibrary Book Lists
Wilderness Journey: Life, Living, Contentment in the Allagash Woods of MaineDorothy Boone KidneyLibrary Book Lists
Wilderness SurvivalEco Books
Winesburg, OhioSherwood AndersonThe Daily Beast
Winter’s BoneDaniel WoodrellElectric Lit
WoodswomanAnne LaBastilleLibrary Book Lists
Yankee Boyhood: My Adventures on a Maine Farm Seventy Years AgoR.E. GouldLibrary Book Lists
Yankee DrummerR.E. GouldLibrary Book Lists
Yankee StorekeeperR.E. GouldLibrary Book Lists
Year of the CornflakeFaith AddisLibrary Book Lists
Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial IndependenceEco Books


Rural Living Book Sources



SourceArticle
Agrinews Try giving your favorite farmer a book this year
Countryfarm Lifestyles Best Homesteading Books; Farming, Homesteading, Country Living with Reviews
Critical Cactus Top 9 Most Popular Off Grid Living Books
Eco Books Books on Simple Living
Electric Lit 10 Great Novels of the Rural: A Reading List by Michelle Hoover, Author of Bottomland
Fourth & Sycamore DIY: Two New Books Full of Ideas for Urban/Rural Living
Just Peace A Cyberstore of Books on the Practicalities of Sustainable, Simple, and Frugal living
Library Book Lists Back to the Land: Tales of Rural Life
Modern Farmer 6 Great Farm Reads for Young Adults
NPR Country Cousins: 3 Books About Rural Living
The Christian Science Monitor 5 books about chucking it all for country living
The Daily Beast Respect the Midwest!
The Guardian Belinda McKeon’s top 10 farming novels