Tuesday, July 24, 2007

recommend a good christian book


I Haven't seen a list of Christian books like the one we just did with secular books, so I decided to make one.

If you want to, take the list and add to it. Particularly books that are classics or those you think are destined to be classics. Novels that have a life-changing or challenging message.


As with the other list, Bold the books you have read.

Italicise the books you would like to read.

Rather than marking the ones you recommend, just make comments -- that's more interesting.

CAPITALIZE the books you don't know enough about to know if you want to read them or not.

Christian book list:

1. In His Steps – Charles M. Sheldon -- the book behind WWJD. I recommend it. Very challenging.
2. The Hiding Place – Corrie Ten Boom -- Maybe my all time favorite book. If you haven't read it, you must!
3. Mere Christianity – C. S. Lewis
4. Pilgrim’s Progress -- John Bunyan --I'm not sure if I read the original or just the Jr. version. But a great story. Every Christian should have this under their belt.
5. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs – John Foxe --Again, a must read. Not an easy read, obviously.
6. The Screwtape Letters – C.S. Lewis -- I've started this one several times. I'm gonna read it one day!
7. Christy -- Catherine Marshall --If you've seen the series, but haven't read the book -- The book is much better.
8. Through Gates of Splendor – Elisabeth Elliot -- Read it.
9. Run Baby Run –Nicky Cruz -- Read it. The story of a gang member and his redemption.
10. Hind’s Feet in High Places – Hannah Hurnard -- Not the best writing from a technical perspective, but a beautiful allegory with a great message.
11. Redeeming Love – Francine Rivers -- Based on a Bible story. Everyone should read this.
12. The Debt – Angela Hunt -- May change the way you see Christianity.
13. The Chronicles of Narnia – C. S. Lewis -- Such a beautiful portrait of our Jesus. I cry every time I read these books.
14. Get Out of that Pit – Beth Moore
15. The Purpose Driven Life – Rick Warren -- I found it to be basic and a disappointment, personally
16. Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire – Jim Cymbala --yes! Read it!
17. The Prayer of Jabez – Bruce Wilkinson -- Trendy, interesting. read it or not.
18. The Pursuit of Holiness – Jerry Bridges
19. Phantasies – George MacDonald -- Written a long time ago in Scottish dialect. Fortunately it has been edited to be understood by us. But it is deeper than I am. This was instrumental in C.S. Lewis' conversion.
20. Any biography of George Mueller
21. Any biography of D.L. Moody
22. Any biography of Amy Carmichael
23. A Severe Mercy – Sheldon Vanauken -- a beautiful true life love story.
24. Heaven – Randy Alcorn
25. The Practice of the Presence of God –Brother Lawrence
26. Any biography of William Tyndale
27. Evidence That Demands a Verdict – Josh McDowell
28. The Knowledge of the Holy – A.W. Tozer
29. This Present Darkness – Frank Peretti -- Another trendy one. food for thought. Not for everyone, though I think. several of my friends had a lot of nightmares while reading this one.
30. Twelve Hours One Friday – Max Lucado
31. The Bondage Breaker -- Neil T. Anderson
32. The Case For Christ – Lee Strobel
33. Left Behind – Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins -- the first one is good. But I wish I hadn't read past the first 4 or so. They get draggy in my very humble opinion.
34. The Jesus I Never Knew – Phillip Yancy
35. The Book of God –Walter Wangerin Jr.
36. At Home in Mitford, ( or any of the series) – Jan Karon -- Beautiful easy relaxing read.
If you do this list, let me know in the comments. And also mention if you've added anything.
Thanks!
This post was edited for corrections and to add my comments.

4 comments:

  1. This is a great list, Kay. Sadly, I haven't read many of them at all!

    I have read the first 8 books or so of the Left Behind series, and yes, after about book 5, it was slow going. I haven't finished the series.

    I would add to your list the trilogy by Liz Curtis Higgs - Thorn in My Heart, Fair is the Rose, and Whence Comes a Prince. I'm not a huge fan of historical "romance" novels because I dislike all the sappiness that usually goes along with it, but these books were different. Nothing sappy about them - an incredible read, IMO. The trilogy fictionalizes the story of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel.

    Also, I love anything by Ted Dekker - The Circle Trilogy is a great allegorical story. THREE is also an excellent read.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love to read and have a a bunch of books that I've read in the past couple years... favorite fiction authors are: Randy Alcorn, Ted Dekker, Karen Kingsbury, Terri Blackstock, Robin Lee Hatcher, Rene Gutteridge, Beverly Lewis and more.

    Have you read "Blessed Child" by Ted Dekker and Bill Bright - cool book. Another book that is quite moving is "Safely Home" by Randy Alcorn.

    I also have some non-fiction authors that I enjoy - Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Randy Alcorn (guess you can tell Randy is one of my favorite authors), Max Lucado, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oops I made a double comment, so I deleted one of them :)

    ReplyDelete

I love to hear your thoughts!