Depressions book series in reading order

by Loree Lough

Valerie Tripp

62 books• 5 series

Valerie Tripp, born in 1951, writes for children and is best known for the American Girl books. Molly, Felicity, Josefina and Kit each hold an American Girl heading in the catalogue, which runs to 62 titles published between 1986 and 2023. Meet Molly, Molly Learns a Lesson and Molly's Surprise all appeared in 1986, and the Felicity books start in 1991. Subject tags cover historical fiction, the Second World War, the Depression, Mexican Americans, ranch life, sisters and friendship. Susan McAliley, Dan Andreasen, Juliana Kolesova and Jean-Paul Tibbles carry credits alongside Tripp on some volumes. The listing is dormant.

Gilbert Morris produced Christian historical fiction at length: 248 catalogued books between 1977 and 2014. The House of Winslow follows one family across American history; the Appomattox Saga and Bonnets & Bugles take up the Civil War; Cheney Duvall, M.D. follows a woman physician; the Seven Sleepers, Dixie Morris and Too Smart Jones series sit alongside, with children's fiction among the subjects. The catalogue opens with Race Against Time (1977), reaches Raina's Choice, and is listed as likely complete.

Loree Lough has 102 books catalogued from 1994 to 2022, covering both children's fiction and romance. Subjects include Christian life, American history, the Pilgrims of New Plymouth colony, the American Revolution, slavery, prejudice and the Depression. Pocketful Of Love (1994) is the first listed title, and The Christmas Letter (2022) the newest. Lough's series include American Adventure, Suddenly, Chesapeake, Accidental Blessings, Child to Love, Secrets on Sterling Street, By Way of the Lighthouse and Those Marshall Boys. The median book runs to 144 pages.

Bodie & Brock Thoene write Christian historical fiction, with catalogue subjects covering the Bible, Jesus Christ, Jewish history, the Holocaust, the Second World War and the Israel-Arab War of 1948-1949. The joint catalogue holds 80 books listed between 1979 and 2026, and includes the Zion Chronicles, Zion Covenant, Zion Legacy, A.D. Chronicles, Elijah Chronicles, Galway Chronicles, Shiloh Legacy and Legends of the West sequences, plus non-fiction. Chuck Roberson shares the credit on the 1979 title The Fall Guy: 30 Years as the Duke's Double.

Linda Ford writes Christian historical romance, and the catalogue counts 125 books from The Heart Seeks a Home (2000) to Christmas in Golden Valley (2026). Cowboys, ranchers, widows, orphans and Montana are among the recorded subjects. Series include Big Sky Country, Glory, Montana, Montana Mail-Order Brides, Stagecoach to Golden Valley, Wagon Train Romance, Cowboys of Eden Valley and Dakota Brides. Early titles include Crane's Bride (2001) and Darcy's Inheritance (2007).

Jill Churchill was the pen name of Janice Young Brooks (1943-2023), an American author whose first Jane Jeffry novel took both the Agatha and the Macavity Award. The Jane Jeffry mysteries place a single mother as the detective in Chicago, and the Grace & Favor series runs alongside them. Churchill also wrote historical romance and nonfiction, beginning with Kings and Queens: The Plantagenets of England in 1975. Thirty-eight catalogued books close with The Accidental Florist (2007).

Leisha Kelly wrote Christian historical fiction. The Country Road Chronicles follow the Wortham family through the Depression, opening with Julia's Hope (2001) and continuing through Emma's Gift (2003), Katie's Dream (2004), Rorey's Secret (2005) and Rachel's Prayer (2006). A second sequence, published as L.A. Kelly, centres on Tahn Dorn in a medieval setting and holds Tahn (2005) and The Scarlet Trefoil (2007). Kelly's 11 catalogued books end with The House on Malcolm Street (2010), and the list is likely complete.

Lynn Austin writes Christian historical fiction. Biblical history, kings and rulers, Israel, the Second World War and Christian life recur across the subject tags. Her series include Chronicles of the Kings, Refiner's Fire, Restoration Chronicles, Waves of Mercy and If I Were You, and the catalogue holds 35 titles from Gods and Kings / The Lord is My Strength (1995) to The Lumber Baron's Wife (2026). Austin is still publishing.

Colorado history and frontier life run through Sandra Dallas's work, in fiction and in local history alike. No More Than Five in a Bed (1962) is the earliest of 33 catalogued titles, with Colorado Ghost Towns and Mining Camps (1985) and Buster Midnight's Cafe (1990) among them and The Hired Man (2026) the most recent. Quilting, female friendship and young women fill the subject tags.

Dorothy Garlock (1919-2018) wrote historical romance, much of it set on the American frontier. The catalogue runs to 63 books published between 1980 and 2017, from Love and Cherish (1980) to The Nearness of You (2017), with the 1980s her heaviest decade. Series include Wyoming Frontier, Dolan Brothers, Wabash River, Route 66, Colorado Wind and the Tucker Family books. Garlock also published as Johanna Phillips, Dorothy Phillips and Dorothy Glenn.

Jonathan Franzen

23 books• 2 series

Jonathan Franzen, born August 17, 1959, is an American novelist and essayist who has written for The New Yorker since 1994. The Corrections (2001) won the National Book Award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, was a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist and made the International Dublin Literary Award shortlist. Freedom (2010) put Franzen on the cover of Time under the headline "Great American Novelist". Crossroads (2021) is the first novel of a projected trilogy. Earlier books include The Twenty-Seventh City (1988), Strong Motion (1992), How to Be Alone (2002) and The Discomfort Zone (2006).

Mildred DeLois Taylor, born September 13, 1943, is an American young adult novelist whose Logan family books portray family life and the racism African Americans faced in the Deep South. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry won the 1977 Newbery Medal. Taylor received the first NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature in 2003, the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2020 and the Children's Literature Legacy Award in 2021. The 11 catalogued books include Let the Circle Be Unbroken (1981), The Road to Memphis (1992) and All the Days Past, All the Days to Come (2020).

Lorena McCourtney's catalogue lists 51 books from Promise in Paradise (1979) to Over the Hill (2026). Older women, women detectives and private investigators, Christian fiction, organized crime and motor homes are among the recorded subjects, along with romance. Ivy Malone is a recurring character, with the Ivy Malone Mysteries and the Mac 'N' Ivy Mysteries as series. The Julesburg Mysteries, Andi McConnell Mystery and Cate Kinkaid Files are further lines. Early titles include Bridal Trap (1980), Desert Devil (1981) and Island Fires (1983).

Richard Peck wrote for young adults and children across five decades. Are You in the House Alone? (1967) opens a catalogue of 48 titles closing with Master Class on Writing the Novel for Young Readers (2021). The Newbery Medal went to A Year Down Yonder in 2001, a sequel to A Long Way From Chicago, and the American Library Association gave Peck its Margaret A. Edwards Award in 1990. Blossom Culp and Lost in Cyberspace are among the series; time travel, grandmothers, schools, friendship and humour run through the books. Peck lived from 1934 to 2018.

Patricia Harman writes about midwives, in memoir and in fiction. 10 catalogued books run from The Blue Cotton Gown (2008) to Lost on Hope Island 3: Quarantine (2022). The Hope River novels, The Midwife of Hope River (2012), The Reluctant Midwife (2015) and Once a Midwife (2018), sit beside autobiographical titles such as Arms Wide Open (2011) and the Amazing Tale of the Little Goat Midwives books. Midwifery, nursing and women's lives carry the subjects, and no new title has appeared since 2022.

Jennifer L. Holm

66 books• 13 series

Jennifer L. Holm, born in 1968, writes for children in both prose and comics, and holds three Newbery Honors and an Eisner Award. Babymouse, an imaginative mouse at school, recurs across the Babymouse and BIG Adventures of Babymouse books, with Squish, Sunny, My First Comics and Evil Princess vs. the Brave Knight as the other graphic series. May Amelia, Boston Jane, Turtle in Paradise and The Fourteenth Goldfish sit alongside them in prose. Holm's 66 catalogued books run from Our Only May Amelia (1999) to Sunny Figures It Out (2025), at a median of 126 pages.