Books! Books! The magical fruit!
The more you read the more you...
... learn about the world and yourself and how we’re all connected and a part of the whole? Sure!
Welcome to my third quarter reading list. Sometimes when I’m putting these lists together and see how many books I’ve taken in over the last few months, I wonder how in the world I had time to do it. I feel like every minute of my day is filled with something, be it helping others, making food that’s alpha gal safe, carving time to spend with my loved ones, getting vegetables from the farm, running errands.... You get it. That’s exactly why I love audiobooks so much and am so grateful that we have free access to them from our libraries. I can listen to them 10 minutes at a time while I’m driving down the road or for the hour and a half I spend in the kitchen.
When it comes to physical books, I’m a very slow reader. I used to not pick up books because of it. Dyslexia is a real challenge, but my world changed when I decided to work with it rather than against it. Now, I simply accept that I won’t finish a book quickly. I’ll take my time, which also allows me to ponder what I read. Acceptance is a powerful tool.
Before getting into the booklist, I want to take a quick moment to tell you that, although I won’t be gigging with music for the foreseeable future (I will again! When the time is right!) I will be present at the Parkville Living Center’s Arts & Crafts Fair on Saturday October 17th from 10-2pm! I will have a handful of my handknitted neck warmers, which I am now calling “Tiny Forever Scarves” in honor of my Tiny Grama teaching me how to knit, and my “twist” (literally!) of her original design of neckwarmers. Several are made from organic cotton, one is from cotton yarn purchased in my Parkville hometown at the new indie fiber store The Emerald Ewe. I’ll also have a few water color paintings with my song lyrics and of course some vinyl and CDs of The Country Duo’s Little Lagoon Sessions album. A portion of the proceeds from this event benefit PLC, a lovely community center doing important work.
As always, thank you for your support, Friends! This season of my life is a strange and beautiful one. I have worked and gigged since I was 15 years old. It’s the first time in my life that I have not had a paying job. That’s the sacrifice of caregiving, and I am soaking up every precious minute with my 100-year-old Tiny Grama and the new grandbabies in my life. We have a brand new wee one as of September, Odin, and our sweet Arlo is 18 months old today!
If you’d like to offer any financial support while I tend to my family, I would be ever-so-grateful. Subscribing to Patreon for just $1/month is simple and adds a drop in the bucket. (And I have a new song I’ll be sharing in a week or two for paying members only!) You can also gift Patreon memberships to people you think would dig it. Visit the store on my website while you’re thinking about holiday shopping (there’s even gift certificates there!), download my music, or simply put a drop in the Village Support Tip Jar.
Many, many thanks! Happy Fall, y’all!
Kasey Dawn
Monday, October 5, 2026
Parkville, Missouri
BOOK LIST - JULY, AUGUST, SEPTEMBER 2026
KEY:
💜 = Highly recommend. Will likely read again.
🎤 = audiobook; 📖 = physical book; 🔁 = read previously
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ = Thought provoking / important / highly recommend
⭐⭐⭐⭐ = Great book, would recommend
⭐⭐⭐ = Glad I read it. Not a waste of time. Wouldn’t necessarily recommend it.
⭐⭐ = Nah. Didn’t like it. Wouldn’t recommend.
⭐ = Probably didn’t finish and probably due to racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.
CLASSICS / CHILDREN'S / YOUNG ADULT
Tuck Everlasting - Natalie Babbitt (1975) 🎤 ⭐⭐⭐ - What if you could live forever? In this timeless story young Winnie Foster learns of a hidden spring in a nearby wood and meets the Tuck family, whose members reveal their astonishing discovery of the spring’s life-changing power.
FICTION
💜 The Calamity Club - Kathryn Stockett (2026) 🎤 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - The author of The Help returns with a bold, big-hearted novel about a group of unbreakable women, fighting for what’s rightfully theirs—and the power of friendship to change everything. In 1933 Oxford, Mississippi, Prohibition is on the wane, and the Great Depression is tightening its grip. Poor and rich folks alike have fallen on hard times, even as the old social order remains. For women on the margins, the options are few and the price of dignity and self-determination is unbearably high. KR notes: I fell in love with these characters and didn’t want their stories to end! It was a 29 hour audiobook so this should really count for book numbers 33, 34 and 35! 🙂
💜 Kin - Tayari Jones (2026) 🎤 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Vernice and Annie, two motherless daughters raised in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, have been best friends and neighbors since earliest childhood, but are fated to live starkly different lives. Raised by a fierce aunt determined to give her a stable home in the wake of her mother’s death, Vernice leaves Atlanta at eighteen for Spelman College, where she joins a sisterhood of powerfully connected Black women and marries into an affluent family. Annie, abandoned by her dissolute mother as a child, and fixated on the idea of finding her and filling the bottomless hole left by her absence, sets off on a journey that will take her into a world of peril and adversity, as well as love and adventure, and culminate in a battle for her life. KR notes: I became invested in these characters lives. I love books that offer different character’s perspectives and this one hits on some important topics from various points of view.
HISTORICAL FICTION
Good Dirt - Charmaine Wilkerson (2025) - 🎤 ⭐⭐ - The daughter of an affluent Black family pieces together the connection between a childhood tragedy and a beloved heirloom in this moving novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake - KR notes: I was bummed that I really didn’t like the writing in this book. I usually like stories that time hop, but this one was confusing and hard to keep track of characters. It took too long to understand the connection of the characters and why I was hearing about their story. I LOVED this author’s other book, “Black Cake,” so I was disappointed that this one didn’t hit for me. Over all, the story was an important attempt to talk about Black History, but this fictional storytelling lacked something that kept me interested. It was a chore to finish it.
The Secret Book of Flora Lea - Patti Callahan Henry (2024) 🎤 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - When a woman discovers a rare book with connections to her past, long-held secrets about her missing sister and their childhood in the English countryside during World War II are revealed. KR notes: Just when you think you’ve got it figured out, you learn that you don’t! Loved this story that hops between the past and present.
💜 The Seven Daughters of Dupree - Nikesha Elise Williams (2026) 🎤 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - The Seven Daughters of Dupree masterfully weaves together themes of generational trauma, Black women’s resilience, and unbreakable familial bonds. Echoing the literary power of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis, Nikesha Elise Williams delivers a feminist literary fiction that explores the ripple effects of actions, secrets, and love through seven generations of Black women. KR notes: I make a point to read Black authors (as well as other non-white authors) to gain perspectives that I don’t have walking the world as a white woman. I’ll be reading this one again at some point. At first keeping the multi-generational characters straight was a challenge, but as the story moved on, I began understanding the lineage. This book does have some trigger-warning worthy moments.
NON-FICTION / COOKBOOKS
(Yes. I really read cookbooks cover to cover! 🤓 )
The 29-Minute Vegan: Real Food, Real Fast, Anytime - Isa Chandra Moskowitz (2026) 📖 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - KR notes: I love Isa’s recipes! I have two of her cookbooks. The only reason I didn’t give this book five stars is because some of the ingredients are a lil’ obscure, not just things I would already have in my pantry. To a degree, I like that because it has me trying new things, but I felt like that was the case in a few too many of the recipes.
💜 PlantYou Quickies: 140+ Nourishing Plant-Based Recipes for Busy People - Carleigh Bodrug 📖 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Thirty minutes or less. Five-minute prep. Batch cooking. Dump-and-bake meals... PlantYou: Quickies is your go-to guide for fast, easy, plant-based cooking on days when you feel like doing anything but. Designed for real life and real schedules. KR notes: 5-5-5! I had this book for five days and had already made five recipes from it (photos below). It gets five stars because the recipes really are quick and most use ingredients that I (as a vegan) already have in my kitchen.
NON-FICTION / MEMOIR / TRUE STORY
💜 Energy Follows Thought: The Stories Behind My Songs - Willie Nelson, David Ritz (2023)🎤 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - American icon Willie Nelson provides the stories behind the lyrics of 160 of his favorite songs... meditating on the nature of songwriting and finding his voice, and the themes he's explored his whole life--relationships, infidelity, love, loss, friendship, life on the road, and particularly poignant at this juncture of his mortality. - KR notes: I highly recommend the audio book to hear snippets of the songs!
We Should All Be Birds: A Memoir - Brian Buckbee, Carol Ann Fitzgerald (2025) 🎤⭐⭐⭐ - A charming and moving debut memoir about how a man with a mystery illness saves a pigeon, and how the pigeon saves the man.
NON-FICTION / SPIRITUALITY
💜🔁 Living Buddha, Living Christ - Thich Nhat Hanh (1996) 🎤 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Exploring the spiritual connection between Christianity and Buddhism, Thich Nhat Hanh reawakens an understanding of both religions and offers simple yet meaningful ways to enhance our daily lives. KR notes: This was the first book I ever received of Thich Nhat Hanh’s when I was 21 years old, gifted to me by my Grandfather, Dean Rausch. He and I would often talk about religion and spirituality, especially in my teenage years when I was questioning everything. If you are looking to build a bridge between Buddhism and Christianity, deconstruct what you’ve been taught as a child, or look for various perspectives on teachings, I can’t recommend this book enough. I have a hard copy of this book, but our local Mid-Continent Public Library recently acquired the audio version.
CURRENTLY READING
This list is either audiobooks I’ll finish soon, digital loans that were returned to the library automatically before I could finish and are now on hold, or physical books that I’m reading slowly, but will hope to finish before the end of the year. No ratings until I finish ‘em!
AUDIO:
Theo of Golden - Allen Levi (2025)
Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones - Dolly Parton (2023)
Dolly Parton Songteller: My Life in Lyrics - Dolly Parton, Robert K. Oermann (2020)
PHYSICAL BOOKS:
Be Ooh La La: Archive Your Goals and Transform Into Your Best Self - Raphael Poirot (2025)
The Great Spring: Writing, Zen, and This Zigzag Life - Natalie Goldberg (2016)
All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now - Ruby Tandoh (2025)
Interbeing: The 14 Mindfulness Trainings of Engaged Buddhism - Thich Nhat Hanh, Chan Khong (1987)
When Things Fall Apart - Pema Chodron (2000)
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Website: KaseyRausch.com
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Super un-professional food pics from my new PlantYou Quickies cookbook.
All vegan and gluten-free. Yum!
