I am not a great critic, but I am an amazing fan! I love sharing what I love. The books below are ones I’ve enjoyed, mostly recently, then enjoyed all over again by gifting, or re-gifting, to a specific person I think will enjoy them too. So much book enjoyment! A propensity for passing on books is also a helpful virtue for a narrow urban home already overstuffed with books, making room as I must for the stack of new books I’m acquiring by the bedside, planning to savor through the fall. Sharing the love + making space for books: a virtuous book circle. As my ten year old son will holler with vigor, usually at the start of a Man City game, LET’S GO!!!

I hope it isn’t blasphemous to say that Elizabeth Liebert is one bad-ass nun. Whether the author’s role as a Sister of the Holy Names is a + or - for you, there’s no denying the value of this work. Slim volume, packs a punch: utterly practical guidance and discernment exercises for any decision, like a bouldering wall with beautifully mapped out paths of accessible handholds to help you move from vague question to a way forward, while anchoring you to the inescapable truth that the process is as important as the answer.

I’m biased because author Allison Byxbe is a new friend, a fellow author with my own literary agent (shoutout to Pape Commons!), and I’m rooting for her & this new release. But it’s basically guaranteed that this beautiful book on your nightstand (plus a beautiful journal, of course) will make you want to journal more. And journaling more is bound to make you a better person. (Or at least help you use up your reserve stash of notebooks). Also full of practical exercises, this book explores metaphor as a tool for seeing God in all kinds of ordinary places—where God has always been, waiting for us to have eyes to see.

Disclosure: While I’ve heard good things, I haven’t read it yet. I have read works Tish Harrison Warren draws on and, classic Enneagram 4, I’m here for the pain and sadness, desert monks and their mysterious ways. E.g., my essay on finding God in the desert of motherhood, quoting, I imagine, some of the same sources. Though TBD if Tish included Alanis. Anyway, when my friend shared about her own weary lands earlier this year, this book was an immediate pre-order I looked forward to gifting for months. Perhaps best served with a side of friendly phone call and/or visit?

  • For the English-as-a-second-language host during a summer holiday abroad: SNAP

This little free library find about three strangers who snap, landing them in an anger management class, was a perfect holiday read: compelling, delightful, often hilarious, easy to read—but not mindless. Who can’t relate to the underlying dynamic—getting to the end of your rope and-twang-something is unleashed. Thank God there’s no trending video of me losing it in my worst moments… The story starts at the bottom, reader groaning in empathy—then we get to cheer them on as the arc climbs satisfyingly out of the pits. By Canadian author Susin Nielsen and set in Vancouver, BC—the prefect perk for my host, who had previously lived in Canada.

Another vacation novel (passed on from another friend), about college roommates remaining friends over time, through a big mistake each makes. Like Snap, a delightful sweet spot read: fun / not mindless. Reviews sometimes describe the four roommates as unlikeable, but I disagree. I think they’re human, with qualities that both attract and repel, WHICH WE ALL HAVE. We need more examples of relationships surviving mistakes, reminders we can blow it and still find camaraderie, acceptance, love.

  • For someone who’s been through the ringer and come out the other side marked by generosity, patience and kindness, marvelously compelling arguments for the faith she carries and which has carried her: Deep Cries Out

Another disclosure: I don’t read much of this genre (romance, Christian, Christian romance), but after flipping to the first page one afternoon I found myself procrastinating making a coffee to keep reading. More than romance, this book by another fellow Pape Commons author Allison Nance felt like a story of recovery (or the ongoing battle to hope for it). I appreciated the raw portrayal of coming to the end of yourself, and parade of supporting characters who gather like midwives supporting a rebirth. A reminder we need others to hope for us, uphold us in our depletion—and in turn we can do the same.

  • For clients: My annual summer tradition of giving a novel to encourage summer recreation: one of a selection of William Kent Krueger novels (Iron Lake, The River We Remember, Ordinary Grace)

I love a good murder mystery, and these have some brilliant cliff-hangers. (Did I periodically flip forward to check on a character’s survival? Maybe … ) Throw in gorgeous cold landscapes and unexpectedly poignant reflections by compelling characters with subtle, thoughtful spiritual undertones and I’m sold. Thank goodness his Cork O’Connor series has like 20 books in it.

I’m obsessed. Put it this way: an old friend stopped by the house yesterday en route to the airport; my husband came down to say hi and promptly asked if I’d been evangelizing her on the Starbridge novels. Because I can’t stop. Spiritual direction conversations between priests with rabid sexual appetites in the 1940s? I’m telling you, Susan Howatch’s books were secular best sellers in the 1980s, when published. They’re so weirdly wonderful. (I included the first book, Glittering Images, in my 2025 roundup, so perhaps you’ve already heard my spiel.) I just read the fourth book, Scandalous Risks, a cunning portrayal of the challenge of discerning the elephant among various accounts of the leg, tail, etc.—especially since we are such experts at deceiving ourselves, let alone others. These hard to describe books are my current favs; I beg you to give them a go.

And now that I’ve cleared a little space on the shelves, here’s what next in line:

What are you looking forward to reading next?