Here are 98 books that Markings fans have personally recommended if you like
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One salient feature of my life has been integration: of the personal and professional, the inner and the outer, the spiritual and the material, the east and the west. Though I didn’t know it at the time, that template was set when I was in my twenties by the people I knew and the books I read. These five helped give me direction, meaning, and purpose, and to this day, they continue to inform and inspire. I sometimes refer to them explicitly in my writing, lectures, online courses, and counseling work; anytime I hear that someone read one because of me, it gives me enormous pleasure.
While I hunted for spiritual wisdom, I also read great fiction, and sometimes, the two came together in one work of art. The protagonist of this book, whose title derives from the Upanishads, is Larry Darrell, an upper-crust young man slated for the perfect marriage and career. But WWI left him with PTSD and higher priorities.
His search for truth and meaning eventually takes him to an Indian ashram and transformation in the Himalayas. He returns to New York but resists the pull of privilege. He’ll drive a cab to pay the bills and frequent the libraries. I grew up the opposite of privileged, but Larry was nevertheless a role model. I wanted what he wanted; I was even a New York cabbie for a year.
Larry Darrell is a young American in search of the absolute. The progress of this spiritual odyssey involves him with some of Maugham's most brillant characters - his fiancee Isabel, whose choice between love and wealth have lifelong repercussions, and Elliot Templeton, her uncle, a classic expatriate American snob. The most ambitious of Maugham's novels, this is also one in which Maugham himself plays a considerable part as he wanders in and out of the story, to observe his characters struggling with their fates.
A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
I care about stories of redemption after service because I have lived through the collapse that can follow it. After my time in the U.S. Army, I struggled with addiction, shame, and spiritual distance that almost defined my life. I have seen how uniforms can hide internal battles. I am drawn to books that help remind me that failure is not final and that grace reaches deeper than shame. Today, I serve fellow veterans through benefits advocacy. I am moved by stories that show no one is too far gone for God’s redeeming work.
This book supported me when I was questioning who I was without my past mistakes.
I remember feeling uncertain, and Warren’s focus on God’s purposes gave me guidance when I needed it most. I love how practical it is—it does not just motivate, it directs.
For me, it shifted the question from “How do I fix my failures?” to “How do I live faithfully today?” That reframing was liberating.
Discover and fulfill your God-given purpose by joining the more than thirty-five million others who have embarked on a spiritual journey that started with this #1 New York Times bestselling book by Pastor Rick Warren.
Before you were born, God knew what your life had in store for you. His hope for you is to discover the life he created just for you--both here on earth, and forever in eternity. Let Rick Warren guide you as you learn to live out your true purpose.
The Purpose Driven Life is more than a book; it's a road map for your spiritual…
I'm an American Christian author based in Austin, Texas. I’ve spent decades in contemplation and spiritual exercise seeking a deeper understanding of spiritual warfare in our “modern” world…inside institutions, families, and our hearts and minds—where pride, shame, and fear can function like prisons for the soul.
Writing Redemption Row and its companion field guide pushed me to look for books that don’t just talk about angels and demons in the abstract, but actually sharpen embodied discernment, stronger faith, and soul revival in people who feel trapped. I’m drawn to writers who take evil seriously without fear-mongering—and who insist that courage, divine love, and truth lead to God’s kingdom, power, and glory now and forever.
I love this book because it trains my eye for the quiet, clever warfare that happens in ordinary thoughts.
Lewis makes temptation feel practical—a thousand tiny nudges toward distraction, resentment, self-importance, and spiritual sleep. It’s also a masterclass in how language can be used as a weapon: the enemy twists words until the soul can’t tell truth from tone.
When I’m writing about men trying to reclaim a new identity, Lewis reminds me that the battle often turns on what you believe about yourself when nobody’s watching.
On its first appearance, The Screwtape Letters was immediately recognized as a milestone in the history of popular theology. Now, in it's 70th Anniversary Year, and having sold over half a million copies, it is an iconic classic on spiritual warfare and the power of the devil.
This profound and striking narrative takes the form of a series of letters from Screwtape, a devil high in the Infernal Civil Service, to his nephew Wormwood, a junior colleague engaged in his first mission on earth trying to secure the damnation of a young man who has just become a Christian. Although…
Across America, a wave of brutal, inexplicable killings leaves hardened detectives and desperate federal agents grasping for answers.
But what appears to be vigilante terror is something far more ancient - an invisible war between the forces of light and the agents of darkness, playing out on the streets of…
I’m an author, speaker, and consciousness expert. I have been studying spiritual texts and practicing meditation techniques since I was a child. Affinity for spiritual texts developed in me at an early age that helped me gain spiritual knowledge. In addition, it brought with it an unquenchable desire to know the truth of creation. As a result, I discovered a new law called: Law of Unification that can be used by anyone to create a conscious life of meaning and purpose. Let's share it with the world and make lives better.
The book is easy to read and features Mother Teresa’s thoughts and words along with the thoughts of the members of Missionaries of Charity, the order established by Mother Teresa in India. Mother Teresa’s life philosophy and purpose were simple, yet powerful - loving and serving each other. It is amazing to see how a simple life lived with purpose can perform great deeds in the world and become a source of inspiration to all.
In A Simple Path, Saint Teresa, senior members of the Missionaries of Charity and volunteers at their homes around the world offer their advice and long experience of how we can practise a fuller love for each other, help those less fortunate than ourselves and find peace in doing so. They discuss such fundamental issues as happiness, fear, compassion, the family and death - all themes of direct relevance to those seeking the deeper meaning of life today.
This inspiring work is a unique spiritual guide, for Catholics and non-Catholics alike: full of wisdom and hope, from the one person…
I grew up hearing stories about my grandfather, who was the blacksmith in Saratoga, California, from the 1920s to the 1940s, and I wanted to write a novel about him. As I began to research his life, a world opened up to me. I learned how the suburbs I’d grown up in were built on one of the world’s greatest fruit-growing regions, and the story about my grandfather grew into a story about the profound changes we’ve wrought upon the land. That novel, The Blossom Festival, was the beginning of my lifelong engagement with the peoples and places of my home state that I’ve carried through in all the books I’ve written.
I love East of Eden because it shows California both as the promised land and the fallen world.
Adam Trask, who moves his family west after serving in the Indian wars, is one of so many Americans who sought the California dream and ended up with something different—understanding that we can not return to Eden, but have to find a way to live in the world as it is.
I also love Steinbeck’s rendering of the California landscape and climate. He describes them out of his deeply lived experience. Reading this book takes me home. The essential California novel.
California's fertile Salinas Valley is home to two families whose destinies are fruitfully, and fatally, intertwined. Over the generations, between the beginning of the twentieth century and the end of the First World War, the Trasks and the Hamiltons will helplessly replay the fall of Adam and Eve and the murderous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
East of Eden was considered by Steinbeck to be his magnum opus, and its epic scope and memorable characters, exploring universal themes of love and identity, ensure it remains one of America's most enduring novels. This edition features a stunning new cover by renowned…
Figuring out who we are, figuring out our identity and where we fit in the scheme of things is one of the great themes in our lives, and in literature. In my life, I’ve gone through many identity crises, some recounted in my memoirs. These are five books that had a profound effect on me—sometimes emotionally, sometimes psychologically, and sometimes led me to think differently about my own life. In all of these books, characters have to make decisions, face struggles, and figure out who they are and how to find themselves and their authentic identity.
This book gets inside the mind of a 12-year-old as she tries to figure out where she belongs within the family structure. She believes that if she can only go off on the honeymoon with her brother and his new wife everything will then fit. Obviously, that is not going to be the resolution.
This book took me back to the age of 12, and I realized what thinkers 12-year-olds can be and that this is an age of starting to find our identity, to find the authentic Me. There is a curiosity, tenacity, and energy that goes into this kind of search.
From the master of Southern Gothic, Carson McCullers's coming-of-age story like no other about a young girl's fascination with her brother's wedding.
Twelve-year-old Frankie is utterly, hopelessly bored with life until she hears about her older brother’s wedding. Bolstered by lively conversations with her family maid, Berenice, and her six-year-old cousin—not to mention her own unbridled imagination—Frankie takes on an overly active role in the wedding, hoping even to go, uninvited, on the honeymoon, so deep is her desire to be a member of something larger, more accepting than herself.
The Amazing Afterlife of Animals
by
Karen A. Anderson,
My book is for anyone grieving the loss of a beloved pet. If your heart feels shattered and you are searching for understanding, comfort, and connection, these chapters were written with you in mind.
I share uplifting and life-changing stories that help you move beyond the devastation of grief, including…
Figuring out who we are, figuring out our identity and where we fit in the scheme of things is one of the great themes in our lives, and in literature. In my life, I’ve gone through many identity crises, some recounted in my memoirs. These are five books that had a profound effect on me—sometimes emotionally, sometimes psychologically, and sometimes led me to think differently about my own life. In all of these books, characters have to make decisions, face struggles, and figure out who they are and how to find themselves and their authentic identity.
In this book, a young Hasidic Jew and artist faces the conflict between his orthodoxy and his desire to explore what lies outside his orthodoxy, such as the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. He is pulled in two directions—by his parents' idea of his identity and by searching for the truth about the human condition through his art.
I read this many years ago, in my 30s, and was heartbroken by how the main character has so much integrity to keep searching and finding in spite of so many forces trying to label him and forbid him from certain explorations. I, too, was searching for my place in those years of creating a career, and it deepened the authenticity of my search.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this modern classic from the National Book Award–nominated author of The Chosen, a young religious artist is compulsively driven to render the world he sees and feels, even when it leads him to blasphemy.
“A novel of finely articulated tragic power .... Little short of a work of genius.”—The New York Times Book Review
Asher Lev is a Ladover Hasid who keeps kosher, prays three times a day and believes in the Ribbono Shel Olom, the Master of the Universe. He grows up in a cloistered Hasidic community in postwar Brooklyn, a world suffused by ritual…
Figuring out who we are, figuring out our identity and where we fit in the scheme of things is one of the great themes in our lives, and in literature. In my life, I’ve gone through many identity crises, some recounted in my memoirs. These are five books that had a profound effect on me—sometimes emotionally, sometimes psychologically, and sometimes led me to think differently about my own life. In all of these books, characters have to make decisions, face struggles, and figure out who they are and how to find themselves and their authentic identity.
This book is about figuring out who one is and where one fits in an evil world. She reaches the conclusion that “In spite of everything, I still believe in the good of man.”
This led me to keep a journal for some years and to encounter the problem of evil when I read this as a 13-year-old. Anne’s vibrancy and desire for love and goodness showed how to keep one's own Spirit alive in one of the worst of circumstances.
One of the most famous accounts of living under the Nazi regime of World War II comes from the diary of a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl, Anne Frank. Today, The Diary of a Young Girl has sold over 25 million copies world-wide; this is the definitive edition released to mark the 70th anniversary of the day the diary begins.
'12 June 1942: I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support'
I am an emeritus professor in the Department of Government, University of Essex. I taught political theory for many years with a speciality in the theory and practice of human rights. I'm the author of Edmund Burke and the Critique of Political Radicalism and Human Rights. I've published many articles in political theory, philosophy of social science, and human rights. I've directed academic programmes in political theory, The Enlightenment, and human rights. I've lectured on human rights in some 25 countries. I was a founder-member of my local branch of Amnesty International and served on the board of Amnesty’s British Section for five years, for two years as its Chairperson.
Perhaps the best explanation and defence of the contemporary concept of human rights. Nickel addresses theoretical problems of justifying human rights, practical problems of implementing them, and dilemmas to which they give rise. It is written with unusual clarity. On the one hand, as a philosopher he does not take for granted that human rights make sense or that all uses of the idea deserve our support. On the other hand, he does not engage in debunking the idea that has been fashionable on both the political left and right. This is a most thoughtful and balanced account and is highly recommendable to those seeking a readable introduction to the philosophy of human rights.
I particularly liked his `lawnmower theory of human rights'. One of the challenges to human rights theory is why we should think of human rights as `universal’ – as the UN and international human rights law…
This fully revised and extended edition of James Nickel's classic study explains and defends the contemporary conception of human rights. Combining philosophical, legal and political approaches, Nickel explains international human rights law and addresses questions of justification and feasibility. * New, revised edition of James Nickel's classic study. * Explains and defends the conception of human rights found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and subsequent treaties in a clear and lively style. * Covers fundamental freedoms, due process rights, social rights, and minority rights. * Updated throughout to include developments in law, politics, and theory since the…
Jose Castillo is a cynical, wise-cracking Cuban-American who restores classic cars. He’s also a private eye whose sarcastic ways sometimes get him into trouble.
One day, in the process of installing a four-barrel carburetor on a 1965 Mustang, into his shop walks trouble—in the shape of a mysterious, beautiful woman…
I grew up when the space race was starting, and I became fascinated by all things regarding the planets, rockets, and the cosmos. For several years, I lived in the Houston area and spent hours and hours at the Johnson Space Center, where the history and future of space exploration are on display. The books on my list represent a major theme in my writing, which is futuristic in concept and asks the question: what we would do if our planet became uninhabitable. The answer provides the canvas to explore the advantages of technology, but most importantly, the determination of the human spirit.
This book grabbed me with the horrific opening scene and made me think about how this planet is moving into a climate-threatening situation.
I loved the way Robinson made me feel what it was like to live in a heat-ravaged world. I liked the main character, the head of the Ministry for the Future, because she was believable. She was smart, compassionate, and politically savvy, the kind of person you could trust in this position.
I like that the climate threat is the canvas upon which the characters need to react. For me, it is very relevant to our current situation.
“The best science-fiction nonfiction novel I’ve ever read.” —Jonathan Lethem
"If I could get policymakers, and citizens, everywhere to read just one book this year, it would be Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future." —Ezra Klein (Vox)
The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, postapocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us. Chosen by Barack Obama as one of his favorite…
