Books like My Ladie Dundie — picked by fans

Start with these. Distilling a lifetime's reading, these four pocket-sized volumes are a quilt of short extracts from contemporary texts written by and about Scots from the middle ages to 1802. Introduced and commented on with distinctly interwar charm and wit, they paint the single most vivid picture of real Scottish life I've ever read. I picked up the first two volumes from the shelves of a retiring colleague and immediately ran to buy the others—you're in for a treat.

A bracing tonic for anyone slogging through the Outlander—or Waverley—version of the Jacobite rebellions, Jacob's 1911 novel is beautiful, painful, and utterly unromantic (even though the deep attraction felt between the two main male characters is the driving force of much of the plot). It throws into sharp relief the ambiguities of civil war and the ways in which personal background, inclination, and affection play more of a role than principle ever could in determining an individual's place in such a conflict. Each year, my students are continually surprised by how much they enjoy it.

Surviving in a single manuscript, printed once in 1844, and forgotten almost instantly, the Breiffe Narration is, without doubt, one of the masterpieces of Scottish prose. It is the autobiography, partial in more ways than one, of Father Gilbert Blackhall (d. 1671), a soldier turned Catholic priest from Aberdeenshire who was the confessor to three leading noblewomen during the tumultuous period of the civil wars. Blackhall evades robbers, rescues his noble charges from dastardly plots, and travels halfway across Europe in a first-person narrative written in a rich, broad Scots and full of vivid dialogue (presumably more invented than remembered, but splendid for all that). My copy has almost been read to pieces.

What is the dividing line between genius and madness? The question is a pressing one when you face Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty (1611-1660), duelist, soldier, mathematician, genealogist, linguist, poet, historian, metaphysician, cryptographer, and endless self-promoter. It is said that Urquhart invented as many words as Shakespeare. The difference? Shakespeare's neologisms caught on, while "disobstetricate," "enixibility," and "scripturiency" remain firmly outside the dictionaries. If you're feeling brave, though, Urquhart's Discovery of a Most Exquisite Jewel More Precious Than Diamonds Inchased with Gold, The Like Whereof Was Never Seen in Any Age (he means his own writing) is one of the richest, maddest, most compelling narratives of a Scot trying to find himself and his country in the war-torn seventeenth century.

I have spent much of my adult life working with kids (and grown-ups) who had some tough stuff happen early in life. Traumatic experiences can lead to some big, angry behaviors that make the parent-child relationship challenging. This precious book is an antidote to that negative pattern. Enjoy this sweet story with ages 3 and up.

Childress’s novel is a compilation of short pieces originally published serially in two different Black-owned newspapers. In each story, Mildred, a Black domestic worker in New York City, recounts to her friend, Marge, the humorous, infuriating, and all too familiar experiences of working for various white families across the city. She also describes her refusal to remain silent in the face of white employers’ micro-aggressions, outright venom, and fantasies that she’s their loving mammy. Childress’s stories were a powerful salve to the Black household workers and others who first read them in a newspaper. Most of them daily confronted similar situations and worse, but lacked the safety or resources to resist in the same direct ways. 

The rule I actually applied was the one about competing with who you were rather than the people around you.

I had been watching colleagues as comparison rather than research, and it dragged me down without helping any of the businesses. Reading it felt like having a teacher in semi-real time: each rule mapped onto something I was dealing with that week. 

It falls apart in small edge cases, and people love to use edge cases to dismiss a whole book. The one I disagree with most is finding and living your personal truth, because those truths shift as your life does. I doubt there is a single one you hold forever.

While governance is a key aspect of any board member's responsibilities, often nonprofit board members are surprised or even disheartened by the requirement to fundraise on behalf of the organization. Some people are afraid that they can’t ask for money or are uncomfortable asking certain people and decide they don’t want to serve on the board. While there are a lot of books on fundraising, Asking Styles helps board members identify their asking style and what would be the most effective fundraising methods for them. It also helps understand how others feel about fundraising and how to work as a team to bring the most success to the organization. The book is a short read but full of great examples and practical guidance. 

The largest – but also the worst led – Jacobite military challenge to Great Britain happened in 1715, when more than 20 000 men volunteered to fight.

Daniel Szechi tells their story more fully than anyone else, and sees Scottish opposition to the 1707 Union with England as one of the greatest motivators of the Jacobite Rising.

This was the fifth time I have read this book, and I swear I love it just as much every time I read it.

The book is about a writer who has a story come to her in waking dreams and flashes of vivid insight. The story of the past is one of her ancestors who lived near this place.

As a writer, this idea appeals to me. Some of my favorite ideas have come to me in the space between waking and sleeping. The dual timeline of present and historical mesh seamlessly so that the two pieces complement each other, and I love rediscovering all the ways the pieces connect.

Having met the author and taken a dozen workshops with her, I appreciate the craft that went into the writing. Plus, she’s a fellow Canadian.