By accident or design, these authors have written about a year spent pursuing – or enduring – an unfamiliar lifestyle. Their stories are available to borrow from the Lititz Public Library.
A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head and Calling Her Husband “Master” by Rachel Held Evans
Intrigued by a traditionalist point of view that led friends to abandon their careers and pursue a more traditional gender role in the home, the author vowed to take all the Bible’s instructions for women as literally as possible for a year.
Working in the Shadows: A Year of Doing the Jobs (Most) Americans Won’t Do by Gabriel Thompson
Investigative journalist lived and worked alongside Latino immigrants doing hard, low-paying work such as picking lettuce, slaughtering chickens and delivering for a restaurant.
The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik
A well-known competition among birders is called the Big Year, when a birdwatcher abandons regular life for one year in order to see more species of birds in a geographic area than a competitor.
The Year of Learning Dangerously: Adventures in Homeschooling by Quinn Cummings
The author and her partner tried homeschooling when her daughter had difficulties in public school.
Year of No Sugar: A Memoir by Eve O. Schaub
The author challenged her family to join her on a quest to eat no added sugar for an entire year.
Mother, Daughter, Me by Katie Hafner
While sharing a home with her daughter, the author tried an experiment in intergenerational living when she invited her seventy-seven-year-old mother to move in.
Saturday Night Widows: The Adventures of Six Friends Remaking Their Lives by Becky Aikman
During a year of monthly Saturday night meetings, a young widow builds relationships with five other widows.
Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison by Piper Kerman
After graduating from college the author got involved with the wrong people and was caught trying to smuggle drugs.
I’d Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had: My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High by Tony Danza
Television and stage star recounts a year spent teaching tenth-grade English at Philadelphia’s largest high school.
Mirror, Mirror Off the Wall: How I Learned to Love My Body by Not Looking at it For a Year by Kjerstin Gruys
A scholar, fashionista and bride-to-be spent a year without mirrors and other reflective surfaces to get a better view of herself, her life and what’s really important.
The Tao of Martha: My Year of LIVING, Or Why I’m Never Getting All That Glitter Off of the Dog by Jen Lancaster
Embracing the world the Martha Stewart, the author attempted to follow her in all things for a year, from closet organization to stain removal, with disastrous results.
The Lost Girls: Three Friends, Four Continents, One Unconventional Detour Around the World by Jennifer Baggett
Three women in their mid-twenties decide to abandon their New York City careers for a year to travel the world.
The Call of the Farm: An Unexpected Year of Getting Dirty, Home Cooking and Finding Myself by Rochelle Bilow
As a writer for a local food magazine in Syracuse, the author moved to a farm and discovered the satisfaction that comes from raising and growing food.
Breathless: An American Girl in Paris by Nancy K. Miller
In the early 1960s, the author rebelled against expectations and set out for a year in Paris with a plan to take classes and live a great romantic life.
May 15, 2015