We are so excited for this week’s bonus Inspired By, dedicated to the author of Vote for Remi, Leanna Lehman.

Here, she shares the five books that have inspired her as a writer.

Unlike many authors, it was not all classic literature that took a hold of me and compelled me to write, even though I cannot deny their influence. Rather, I was first inspired at a very young age by works like…

 The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

…Who I knew had to be girl. Even though she was only sixteen when she wrote The Outsiders, I wanted what she had – the ability to get into someone’s head, identify with and relate to what they were going through, and somehow say, “you are not alone.”

A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers

This was my first real foray into historical fiction (inspirational). I was captivated, utterly, by Rivers’ mastery of the English and dialog. It was evident that her research was extensive and her skill phenomenal. A Voice in the Wind and Rivers’ subsequent works opened my mind to what a writer could achieve and left me with a burning passion to show and not tell in my own writing while speaking from my heart.

 

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, the book was praised for its “remarkable narrative form.” At the time, I had never read a book narrated in multiple first-person. I was enraptured by her extraordinary depth of description and her ability to express emotion through her characters’ interaction with each other and the Congolese (as missionaries in the Belgian Congo in 1959).

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Tartt’s unusual use of metaphors and similes has caused me to reexamine my own writing and look for ways to bring compelling contrasts and parallels into my work. The Goldfinch is complex and gripping with vivid imagery, deep emotional undertones, and is entirely believable and unbelievable at once. What author does not aspire to such skill?

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Having read it several times, it has meant something different to me each time and moved me in new and profound ways. A true master of the craft, Steinbeck has influence my writing for over three decades. While looking up the year of publication for Of Mice and Men, I came across a few lines taken from a journal entry he made in 1938 that sums up why Steinbeck’s writing, and this book in particular, has means so much to me: In every bit of honest writing in the world there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love. There are shorter means, many of them. There is writing promoting social change, writing punishing injustice, writing in celebration of heroism, but always that base theme. Try to understand each other.