Formative Reads: some books for the journey

A long-overdue project that I’ve been meaning to tackle is compiling a list of the books that have formed us on our home education journey. Some I have read; others are on our ever-growing to-read list. Most already sit on our library shelves, waiting to be catalogued, and the rest are on their way. If you’re looking to enrich your own home education, here they are, organised by category.

I’ve also been listening to the Et Cetera podcast from Memoria Press and noting down the books the hosts recommend. I value their judgement, so I’ve marked their suggestions with an asterisk (*).

This is a living list, updated as we discover new books and authors and our understanding of classical education deepens. Do check back often. Links go to Amazon UK for convenience. They’re not affiliate links, and we earn nothing from them.

Classical Education & Philosophy:

• The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home by Susan Wise Bauer
• The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had by Susan Wise Bauer
• Rethinking School – How to Take Charge of Your Child’s Education by Susan Wise Bauer
• The Lost Tools of Learning (Essay) by Dorothy Sayers
• * Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child by Cheryl Swope (adapting classical christian for special needs)
• Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning: An Approach to Distinctively Christian Education by Douglas Wilson
• Norms and Nobility: A Treatise on Education by David V. Hicks
• The Liberal Arts Tradition: A Philosophy of Christian Classical Education by Kevin Clark and Ravi Scott Jain
• Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper
• * The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis and After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man by Michael Ward
• Beauty in the Word: Rethinking the Trivium by Stratford Caldecott
• Beauty for Truth’s Sake: On the Re-enchantment of Education by Stratford Caldecott
• Teaching the Trivium: Christian Homeschooling in a Classical Style by Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn
• * From Plato to Christ by Louis Markos
• * Climbing Parnassus: A New Apologia for Greek and Latin by Tracy Lee Simmons
• * The Paideia Proposal: An Educational Manifesto by Mortimer J. Adler
• Consider This: Charlotte Mason and the Classical Tradition by Karen Glass
• The Core: Three Rs of a Classical Education by Leigh Bortins
• The Question: Teaching Your Child the Essentials of Classical Education by Leigh Bortins
• Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman
• Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler’s Guide to Unshakable Peace by Sarah Mackenzie
• Classical Me, Classical Thee: Squander Not Thine Education by Rebekah Merkle
• * A Defense of Latin and Classical Education by Cheryl Lowe / Memoria Press
• * The Recovery of Real Education: Saving Western Civilization One Student at a Time by Memoria Press
• * The Great Tradition: Classic Readings on What It Means to Be an Educated Human Being by Richard M. Gamble

Classical Dialectic & Logic Texts

• * Socratic Logic: A Logic Text Using Socratic Method, Platonic Questions, and Aristotelian Principles by Peter Kreeft

History & Classical Studies

• * The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton
• * The Roman Way by Edith Hamilton
• * Mythos, Heroes, Troy and Odyssey by Stephen Fry (retellings of the Greek myths)
• * From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present by Jacques Barzun

Charlotte Mason Method

• The Original Homeschooling Series (Vols. 1–6) by Charlotte Mason
• A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning by Karen Andreola
• Mother Culture: For a Happy Homeschool by Karen Andreola
• Pocketful of Pinecones: Nature Study with the Gentle Art of Learning by Karen Andreola
• For the Children’s Sake: Foundations of True Education by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay
• Mere Motherhood: Morning Times, Nursery Rhymes, and My Journey Toward Sanctification by Cindy Rollins
• Lessons at Blackberry Inn: A Charlotte Mason Method Companion by Karen Andreola
• Morning Time: A Liturgy of Love by Cindy Rollins
• Laying Down the Rails for Yourself: Good Habits Are Not Just for Kids by Sonya Shafer

Reading & The Art of Books:

• * How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler (systematic, disciplined reading)
• The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs
• Honey for a Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt (guide to great children’s literature)
• The Mysteries of Life in Children’s Literature: Books that Inspire a Love of Life by Mitchell Kalpakgian
• The Read-Aloud Family: Making Meaningful and Lasting Connections with Your Kids by Sarah Mackenzie

Great Books and Primary Literature

• The Iliad by Homer (Translated by Robert Fitzgerald)
• The Odyssey by Homer (Translated by Robert Fitzgerald)
• The Iliad and The Odyssey audiobooks read by Dan Stevens (Fitzgerald translation)
• The Aeneid by Virgil
• Confessions by Augustine of Hippo
• * Eusebius: The Church History (Translated and Edited by Paul L. Maier)
• * The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius
• Beowulf (Translated by Seamus Heaney)
• * Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Translated by Simon Armitage)
• * The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
• The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
• The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• The Holy Bible: King James Version

Classic World Literature

• War and Peace and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
• * East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• * The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• * Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
• * Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
• * Nearby by Elizabeth Yates
• * The Chosen or My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

Christian Apologetics & Worldview

• * Socrates Meets Jesus: History’s Greatest Questioner Confronts the Claims of Christ by Peter Kreeft
• Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
• * Miracles by C.S. Lewis
• * A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken
• * God’s Funeral: A Biography of Faith and Doubt in Western Civilization by A. N. Wilson

Aesthetics & Creative Arts

• Hidden Art (also published as The Hidden Art of Homemaking) by Edith Schaeffer
• * Beauty and Imitation: A Philosophical Reflection on the Arts by Daniel McInerny

Parenting & Family

• What Is a Family? by Edith Schaeffer
• Teach Them Diligently: How to Use the Scriptures in Child Training by Lou Priolo
• The Heart of Anger: Practical Help for the Prevention and Cure of Anger in Children by Lou Priolo
• Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches by Rachel Jankovic
• Training Hearts, Teaching Minds: Family Devotions Based on the Shorter Catechism by Starr Meade
• The Shaping of a Christian Family: How My Parents Nurtured My Faith by Elisabeth Elliot
• Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child by Anthony Esolen

British History

• * The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson
• * Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning by Nigel Biggar
• Our Islands’ Story by Nigel Biggar and Robert Tombs (2026)
• Our Island Story by H.E. Marshall (1905) age: 7+
• The Story of the English by H.A. Guerber (1898) age: 10+
• A History of England by H.O. Arnold-Forster (1897) age: 12+
• A History of the English-Speaking Peoples by Winston Churchill (4 volumes, 1956–58) age: 14+
• R.J. Unstead books age: 7+

UK Education Reform & Traditional Pedagogy

• Battle Hymn of the Tiger Teachers: The Michaela Way edited by Katharine Birbalsingh
• Michaela: The Power of Culture edited by Katharine Birbalsingh

British Literature

• * The Red House Mystery by A. A. Milne
• Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
• * A Tale of Two Cities, Bleak House, David Copperfield and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
• The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
• * Right Ho, Jeeves (and the Jeeves and Wooster stories) by P.G. Wodehouse
• * Captain Blood, Scaramouche and The Hounds of God by Rafael Sabatini
• * The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis by Alan Jacobs
• * The Warden by Anthony Trollope
• * The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G.K. Chesterton