Favorite Books/Authors

As a writer, it is important to immerse myself in good books. Here are a few I count among my favorites:

• Anne Lamott – Bird by Bird, Traveling Mercies, Operating Instructions, Plan B, pretty much all of her writing
• The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
• Love Warrior, Glennon Doyle
• Brennan Manning – Anything by him, but especially Ruthless Trust and the Rabbi’s Heartbeat, which you have to read slllooooowly
• Henri Nouwen – The Genessee Diary, Road to Daybreak, anything
• Fredrich Buechner – Godric, A Room Called Remember and about anything else
• C.S. Lewis – Til We Have Faces, Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, random sermon
• Ann Kroeker – The Contempletive Mom (this is great for anyone, not just moms) Watch for her new book coming in the next few months
• Francine Rivers – the only one I’ve read of hers is Redeeming Love (see post by the same name). I LOVED this book.
• John and Staci Eldridge – Captivating, and my all time favorite Wild at Heart – since I am surrounded by boys. Also The Journey of Desire, which Eldridge wrote w/the late Brent Curtis
• Love’s Exectutioner, Irv Yalom
• Khaled Hosseini – The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns
• Cry My Beloved Country, Alan Paton
• Kaffir Boy (Mark Mathabane?)
• Barbara Kingsolver – The Poisonwood Bible (watch out for the Green Mamba Snake)
• The Wide Open Spaces of God, Beth Booram
• Ken Gire – any of his books are great, but my fav is Windows of the Soul
• Donald Miller – Blue Like Jazz and others
•  The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom
• Girl Meets God, Lauren Winner
• Sex God, Rob Bell
• Melody Beatty – The Language of Letting Go and Codependent No More
• Thomas Merton
• Addiction and Grace by Gerald May, and A commentary of The Dark Night of the Soul
• Phillip Yancey – all of his are awesome but I really liked What’s So Amazing About Grace and Soul Survivor
• John Perkins
• John Howard Griffin – Black Like Me
• Makes Me Wanna Holler, Nathan McCall
• Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortensen
• Jon Krakuer – Into Thin Air, Into the Wild
• Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
• William P. Young – The Shack — this book has totally changed my ideas of God. I love this book. I love the ideas of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. It’s fiction, but I want to believe every word!
• The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
• Mel Levine, M.D. – A Mind at A Time, and They Myth of Laziness
• The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron
• The Writing Life, Annie Dillard
• The Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster
• Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
• To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
• Shakespeare – Romeo and Juliet
• Homer – the Odyssey
• The Call of the Wild, Jack London
• The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
• The Distant Land of My Father, Bo Caldwell
• Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes
• Reviving Ophelia, Mary Pipher
• The Rapture of Caanan, Sherri Reynolds
• A Doll’s House, Henrick Ibsen
• The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence
• The Color of Water, James McBride
• The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein
• The Book of Hands, my son Eli
• Elie Wiesel – All Rivers Run to the Sea and Night
• Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert
• The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
• Little Bee, Chris Cleave
• On Writing, Stephen King