Books like The Pastor's Soul

This book is perhaps the greatest marketing book I have ever read (and I have read many). I came to it reluctantly because I was running a business and not building a church. But from the very first page, I knew this was something special.

Regardless of whether you're religious or not, Rick Warren's insight into what it takes to market a business (or even a church) is at the level of genius. Some will criticize the book for not being more "spiritual," but this makes it even easier to translate its principles to business and marketing.

I loved the different perspectives throughout this book on chronic illness. I loved how it displayed chronic illness from a caregiver's point of view, a personal point of view, and even shared how it can affect families and marriages. I loved the realness and rawness about chronic illness and how there was a faith aspect.

With so many different stories shared from different people, I was able to easily relate while also learning new perspectives about chronic illness. I was left feeling empathy, not just for those who live with chronic illness, but also for those who are impacted by the family member or friend suffering. 

A year ago, my life felt chaotic, and my soul a bit unhinged. I lacked peace and was often distracted and restless. From the nonstop onslaught of the world’s atrocities to the noise of social media, I felt consumed by the world's chaos and yearned for a simpler and more peaceful life.

The instant I read the title, I hit “add to cart” and “purchase.” When it showed up on my doorstep two days later, I devoured it and began implementing the practices he teaches, like the one-minute pause and the freeing concept of “benevolent attachment.”

His teaching has helped me reconnect with God, slow down, and begin to live life as intended. I truly feel like it helped me get my life back. And my joy. This book will help you be present, guard your heart, slow down, enjoy the beauty of creation, and find renewal in God through… show more.

For a long time, I assumed that I would find these three novellas about churchmen and parishioners in the English countryside of the late 18th and early 19th centuries sleepy and dull. They’re anything but. Eliot depicts the presence of alcoholism, spousal abuse, loneliness, and life-damaging gossip in her fictional communities. But her signature empathy and wit, already on display in this early work, make it invigorating, not a downer.

I got soooo hooked on Julie’s contemporary suspense books. In Heartbreaker, as the story opens, we learn our hero agent Nick Buchanan has just saved a young boy’s life by taking out a serial killer who held him captive. Nick then gets to take some time off for a vacation, and as he’s on the plane waiting to depart, he stops an armed man from trying to free a prisoner another lawman has on the plane. He is definitely the white knight showing up at just the right time. When he meets up with his best friend, he learns a serial killer is after his friend’s sister. I couldn’t wait to see how he was going to protect the heroine, Laurant, from the psychopath and bring him in. This is my kind of hero—courageous, up for anything, never afraid to put his life in danger to right a wrong.

Garrow’s Pulitzer-prize winning biography is the first complete, almost minute-by-minute, account of King’s life based on extensive research in the King documents, interviews with dozens of his associates, and a deep understanding of American history in that period. Garrow picks up the story just as King comes to Montgomery, and there are other books to read about the young King before 1954, but from there forward, Garrow’s is the indispensable account, and was the first book to really delve into the FBI’s surveillance of King.

The delight of this book is in the characters of the two sisters, and the character development/coming-of-age arc of the hero.

We have two sisters in a little village (living in the Small House at Allington). They are very different, but both delightful - one sought by a cousin she can't care for, the other jilted by a casual gallant.

As I've written elsewhere, the plot is Austenesque and the writing not far inferior - the dialogue instantly transports one to the period, to the village, and every character is cleverly drawn. It was first published in serial form, so there are no boring bits. There's a satirical portrait of high society, too, and the men are much better-developed than is generally the case in the period. There's a HEA, but not necessarily the one expected!! Highly recommended!

I fell deeply in love with Unsworth’s prose style and the striking use of “the play’s the thing” twist as Nicholas Barber and his travelling troupe try to solve a mystery.

As a medievalist, I was impressed with the depth of research that went into the production of the work. Nicholas is a wonderfully flawed character, and I found myself cheering as he left his tedious role to join the troupe.

I always enjoy Unsworth’s work because the plot, while tight and well-focused, is really an excuse to examine social issues and group dynamics.

This is another book I come back to again and again. 

No list of mine would be complete without a Graham Greene novel on it.

My favourite author, the one I return to time and again. I reread this novel while I was writing my book, and it had lost none of its power or, indeed, glory since the last time I read it.

The story of a whisky priest on the run in the anti-Catholic purges in South America, it’s about faith, hope, self-worth, and fear. And redemption? Maybe. Maybe not. No one writes tortured souls like Greene. No one makes you care for them more.

I adore sweeping family sagas with strong women characters and with tragedy, romance, and heartache set in Australia, The Thorn Birds is a beautiful example of the genre.

Meggie is rebellious and headstrong and makes questionable choices, but we empathize and root for her. All the well-rounded characters each come with their own secrets that will keep you turning pages.