Books I suggest

I had a friend ask me to build a list of books I would recommend and I figured this was a good place to record that. This will only be books I have read and that I think someone else should read, so a limited inventory. And I’ll update it as I think of more, so check back.

Each list is NOT in any specific order. Just how I remembered them. Also, I use Library Thing to track all the books I’ve read or own. And I use FictFact.com to track series so I can find the order and track which I’ve read.

Non-fiction, non-theology

• Amity Schlaes – The Forgotten Man

Non-fiction, Christian theology

• any book by Jerry Bridges – read them all!
• Job: The Wisdom of the Cross – Christopher Ash
• Matt Chandler – To Live is Christ, to Die is Gain
• Paul Miller – A Praying Life
• Jen Pollock Michel – Teach Us to Want
• William P Farley – Hidden in the Gospel
• Kathleen Noris – The Quotidian Mysteries (esp the first half)
• Barbara Duguid – Extravagant Grace
• A. W. Tozer – most anything he’s written
• R. C. Sproul – most anything
• R. C. Sproul Jr. – Believing God (great book), and others he’s written
• Paul David Trip – Forever
• Randy Alcorn – Heaven
• Nancy Guthrie Bible studies
• David Martin Lloyd-Jones – Spiritual Depression
• JC Ryle – Holiness
• Oswald Chambers – all of them
• Jeremiah Burroughs – The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
• Chris Brauns – Unpacking Forgiveness
• Corrie ten Boom – The Hiding Place
• John Piper – Desiring God (and others)
• Macrina Wierderkehr – Seasons of the Heart
• JI Packer – Knowing God (and anything else he wrote)
• Brother Lawrence – Practicing His Presence

Young Adult

• Anne of Green Gables and anything else by LM Montgomery
• Diana Wynne Jones – the Castle series and Chrestomanci series
• Andrew Peterson – Wingfeather series
• Konigsburg, E. L. From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

Science fiction

• Most books by John Ringo – I love his sense of humor. Especially these series
  • Black Tide Rising (zombies)
  • Looking Glass (space Marines!)
  • Empire of Man (spoiled prince grows up)
  • Special Circumstances (warning, witchcraft, with a Christian)
• Connie Willis – the Oxford series
• John Scalzi books
• Orson Scott Card – Ender’s Game (and anything else he writes)
• Neil Stephenson – Cryptonomicon
• Douglas Adams – Hitchhiker’s Guide series
• Elizabeth Moon – Once a Hero
• Barry Longyear – The God Box, and City of Baraboo

Fantasy

• The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings (of course)
• Narnia by CS Lewis
• Ben Aaronovitch – Rivers of London (magic)
• Anne McAffrey – Harper Hall
• Kevin Hearne – Iron Druid series
• Guy Gavriel Kay – everything!
• Neil Gaiman – Neverwhere
• David Eddings series

Fiction

• Stephen Hunter novels – Bob Lee Swagger, Earl Swagger – great series
• Lee Child novels
• Dorothy Gilman novels – especially the Mrs. Pollifax series
• Jennifer Crusie – Agnes and the Hitman (my guilty pleasure)
• George MacDonald – The Curate’s series
• Louise Penny – Three Pines/Inspector Armand Gamache series
• Nancy Atherton – Aunt Dimity series
• Donna Andews – Meg Lanslow series
• Tarquin Hall – Vish Puri series
• Collin Cotterill – Siri Paiboun series
• Charles Todd – Ian Rutledge series
• Robert B Parker – Spenser (never could get into his other series)
• Agatha Christie – all of them 🙂
• Ellis Peters – Cadfael series (monk solves mysteries)
• Ngaio Marsh – Rodderick Alleyn – mysteries
• Walter Mosley – Leonard McGill series and Easy Rawlins series
• Carlos Ruiz Zafron – Cemetery of Forgotten Books series set in Barcelona
• CJ Box – Joe Pickett series
• Michael Connelly – Mickey Haller (Lincoln Lawyer) series
• Elizabeth Goudge novels (any of them) – there are two Elizabeth Goudges, the books I mean are mostly out of print. Here’s a list on wikipedia
• Penelope Wilcock – The Hawk and the Dove (4 books)
• Rumer Golden – In This House of Brede
• Karl Marlantes – Matterhorn
• Stella Gibbons – Cold Comfort Farm (odd humor, be in the right mood)
• Isak Denesen – Out of Africa
• Alan Paton – Cry, the Beloved Country
• Madeleine L’Engle – her adult novels are good
• Richard Adams – Watership Down

Classics

• John Steinbeck – East of Eden
• Jane Austen – they are all fun, watch a few movies to get the feel for her humor
• Harper Lee – To Kill a Mockingbird
• Victor Hugo – Les Miserable (the first book about the priest, no need to slog through the rest, watch the movie instead)
• Anna Sewell – Black Beauty
• Joseph Conrad – Heart of Darkness
• Antoin de Saint-Exupery – The Little Prince
• TH White – The Once and Future King
• Erich Maria Remarque – All Quiet on the Western Front
• Arthur Koestler – Darkness at Noon
• Alexandre Duman – The Count of Monte Cristo – every print version you find will be abridged which is still a great story, but if you can get an electronic version that is unabridged you’ll find characters and story lines that aren’t even present in the abridged versions. Very funny and an interesting tale of revenge
• Kenneth Grahame – The Wind in the Willows
• Georgette Heyer – all of them, so much fun

And from this blog, a poem: