Vintage Book Favorites

Hello my friends, and happy Friday! The long evenings this time of year are perfect for curling up by the fire with a good book! As you can tell by the title, I love reading vintage books. I especially enjoy vintage fiction since it can be hard to find good modern Christian fiction. Today, I thought I’d share some of my favorites with you. I’ve actually listed these by author since I enjoy multiple books by each.

Note: Just because I recommend one or several books by an author does not mean that I endorse everything they write or believe! As always, read with discretion and if you are a “younger” young lady,😊 it’s always a good idea to have your mom check a new book first!

Isabella MacDonald Alden: Many of her books are available for Amazon kindle (at very reasonable prices). I especially enjoy her skillfully-crafted dialogue. As a pastor’s wife, many of Isabella’s books were based on true happenings in her or others’ lives. Her books challenge you to live out your Christianity. I have such fond memories of my mom reading these books aloud to us after lunch each day!

I don’t love all of her books, but I’ll list here the many I recommend: Three People; Christie’s Christmas; Little Fishers and Their Nets; Eighty-Seven; Miss Dee Dunmore Bryant and Twenty-Minutes Late; Ester Ried; Yesterday Framed in Today; Four Girls at Chautauqua; Missent: The Story of a Letter; Mrs. Solomon Smith Looking On; The Hall in the Grove; The Older Brother; Helen Lester; Side by Side; We Twelve Girls; The Browns at Mt. Hermon; Interrupted (or Out in the World); Cunning Workmen; Links in Rebecca’s Life; and Jessie Wells.

Elizabeth Prentiss: You might know her as the author of the hymn, “More Love to Thee.” When I was little, I enjoyed her books, Golden Threads and Little Susy. The Flower of the Family is a delightful book for young ladies who are big sisters, and Stepping Heavenward is a book that most women can identify with in some way. There is a spiritual depth in her writing that makes it such a blessing.

A.L.O.E. or Charlotte Maria Tucker: I especially recommend The Wanderer in Africa; In the White Bear’s Den; Light in the Robbers’ Cave; Precepts in Practice; The Mine; The Giant Killer and Battling With the World; The Shepherd of Bethlehem; Hebrew Heroes; Cyril Ashley; Ned Franks, Sheer Off and The Silver Keys; True Heroism; Life in the Eagles Nest; The Golden Fleece; and Grace Vernon. If you can look beyond some of the 1800’s moralizing, her stories are well-written and Biblically sound.

A couple of other books I couldn’t resist adding: The Basket of Flowers by Christoph Von Schmid; Titus: A Comrade of the Cross by Florence M. Kingsley; and The Prince of the House of David by J.H. Ingraham.

Okay–where to find vintage books? This can be difficult, but with some detective skills you can usually find good ones! The first place I typically look is on Amazon kindle–these books are often public domain reprints and therefore free or very cheap. You could also see if your library system has any of them. I’ve found some other Christian publishers or resale websites, which I’ll list here so you can take a look on those as well.

Lamplighter Publishing–-Along with some of the books listed here, Lamplighter sells many other old reprints, all beautifully bound. Lamplighter also has made some of these books into high-quality audio dramas. (Our family actually got to take a tour of their book-binding and publishing facilities since they are located about an hour away from us!)

Thriftbooks.com–-A great place to find out-of-print books for very reasonable prices.

Abe Books

Curiosmith–This Christian website sells quite a number of vintage books by various authors, and provides a book list by each author as well.

There are so many wonderful vintage books out there, and I’m so glad that many people are rediscovering the value of those books. I hope this inspires you to find and read some for yourself! If you have a favorite book or author from yesteryear, I would love to hear about it in the comments below!