Good Christian Books?

[TopazRaven]

So I made a thread not to long ago asking people to suggest some good Christian movies, now I'm doing it again, but this time with books! Sadly I haven't been able to buy any of the movies suggested to me as I don't have much money at the moment considering I don't have a job. Once I do Amazon shall be my best friend when I need to buy movies or something. Anyway, I have over $50 worth of bookstore gift-cards for Christmas, so books will be much more avaliable to me.

What I'm going to ask all you lovely people to do is write out the book's title and author and then a quick summary about it if you don't mind, just so I'll know what it's about. I actually just bought a book called The Red Tent and it's written by Anita Diamant. It's the story of Jacob's only daughter Dinah, it looked really interesting so I just decided to buy it. xD Anyone else ever read this book?

Anyway thanks everyone!

[mechana2015]

If you haven't read them the Chronicles of Narnia all together are a pretty spectacular christian series. If you can only get 3, get Lion Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, and Voyage of the Dawn Treader. There might be an omnibus book out too.

[TopazRaven]

Oh, I actually do own the whole series for Narnia. I probably should have mentioned that! They are rather marvolus books.

[Okami]

Mike Yankoski's Under the Overpass was an extremely challenging book. This past semester I borrowed it from my small group leader, who was leading our small group in outreach ministry and missions, with a center focus on homelessness.

After meals from garbage cans and dumpsters, night after night Mike and Sam found their beds under bridges and on the streets. They were forced to depend on the generosity and kindness of strangers as they panhandled to sustain their existence. For more than five months, the pair experienced firsthand the extreme pains of hunger, the constant uncertainty and danger of living on the streets, exhaustion, depression, and social rejection—and all of this by their own choice. This is their story. Through Mike’s firsthand account, Under the Overpass provides important insight into the truths of the street and calls the younger generation of believers to take great risks of faith to bring Christ’s love to the neediest corners of the world

I have yet to read the updated/expanded version, but now that I know it exists I really want to go back through it and take the time to re-read the book!


I also just started Francis Chan's Crazy Love. I'm only on chapter two and I've already been significantly challenged. This is one of those books that everyone I've talked to has basically said it's good and that I should find it/buy it/read it. Typically when 10+ people are telling me that, I find the time to get the book and sit down with it. And so far, I've really enjoyed it, as challenging as it is.

GOD IS LOVE. crazy, relentless all powerful love
Does something deep inside your heart long to break free from the status quo? Are you hungry for an authentic faith that addresses the problems of our world with tangible, even radical, solutions? God is calling you to a passionate love relationship with Himself. Because the answer to religious complacency isn't working harder at a list of do's and don'ts — it's falling in love with God. And once you encounter His love, as Francis describes it, you will never be the same.
Because when you're wildly in love with someone, it changes everything.


Rob Bell's Drops Like Stars is one of my current favorite books. It's an extremely fast read (I think I read it, my first time through, in half an hour) but it's one of those books that I visit often to reread. Rob Bell just has a way with words that captures me.

We plot. We plan. We assume things are going to go a certain way. And when they don’t, we find ourselves in a new place-a place we haven’t been before, a place we never would have imagined on our own.
It is the difficult and the unexpected, and maybe even the tragic, that opens us up and frees us to see things in new ways.
Many of the most significant moments in our lives come not because it all went right but because it all fell apart.
Suffering does that. It hurts, but it also creates.

And my all-time favorite book, Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz.

I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. . . . I used to not like God because God didn't resolve. But that was before any of this happened. In Donald Miller's early years, he was vaguely familiar with a distant God. But when he came to know Jesus Christ, he pursued the Christian life with great zeal. Within a few years he had a successful ministry that ultimately left him feeling empty, burned out, and, once again, far away from God. In this intimate, soul-searching account, Miller describes his remarkable journey back to a culturally relevant, infinitely loving God.

[rocklobster]

Not the Left Behind books. Let me make that clear. They are NOT good reading, let alone good Christian books.
But seriously:
1. The entire LOTR trilogy
2. The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis
3. The Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet,
Perelandra
That Hideous Strength) by C.S. Lewis
4. The Case For Christ by Lee Strobel
5. The Time Quintet (A Wrinkle in Time,
A Wind in the Door,
A Swiftly Tilting Planet,
Many Waters
An Acceptable Time
6. Halo by Alexandra Adornetto

[Atria35]

Not the Left Behind books. Let me make that clear. They are NOT good reading, let alone good Christian books.

Seconding.

The Mistborn Trilogy is a good Christian series- it's written like LOTR, in the themes are secondary to the story. It's also High Fantasy, like LoTR.

[rocklobster]

Umm, Atria, I haven't read those books, but I know that Sanderson is a Mormon. Not a Christian. So how does that work?

[Atria35]

Umm, Atria, I haven't read those books, but I know that Sanderson is a Mormon. Not a Christian. So how does that work?

I'm not going into the theology debate about whether Mormonism is actuially Christianity. He considers himself Christian. End of discussion.

[rocklobster]

OK, I'll take my lectern and research out of here. Um, would To Kill a Mockingbird count as a Christian book? It does teach a moral lesson that resonates with Christianity. I'd also recommend The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but it's well-known that Twain was actually a cynical atheist. However, his atheism doesn't show up in the story, so that's not a factor. It is a good anti-slavery story however.

[Atria35]

OK, I'll take my lectern and research out of here. Um, would To Kill a Mockingbird count as a Christian book? It does teach a moral lesson that resonates with Christianity.

TKaM probably counts as a Christian book, Harper Lee is apparently a Methodist, but it's a book that everyone should read regardless of whether it's Christian or not. It does a lot to show the religous hypocracy/intolerance in that era, but also shows good Christian morals in it.

[TopazRaven]

Whoa, thanks for all the suggestions guys. xD I actually have read To Kill A Mockingbird before. Had to read it for 9th grade, would be nice to own it though.

[Atria35]

^ I figured that would be the case. I think it's required reading for 90% of American teens.

[TopazRaven]

Yeah, pretty much. Never read Huckleberry Finn though and that's required for most teens to. XD

[Atria35]

Tom Sawyer is just as much- didn't touch it until college!

[MxCake]

ever heard of the left behind series? amazingly good its by tim layhaye there are a lot of books in the series and theres also movies with the books and i think hes making 2 more

[Peanut]

ever heard of the left behind series? amazingly good its by tim layhaye there are a lot of books in the series and theres also movies with the books and i think hes making 2 more

Eh...I won't say much about this since it'll probably spark an unnecessary debate but, from my experience, Left Behind tends to be one of those series that could be called an acquired taste. Some people love it, others hate it, and most theologians scoff/laugh at it. I think all three opinions have now been posted in this thread so there really isn't any need for anymore discussion about it.

As far as books go, I guess it depends on what you are looking for. To recommend a few classics (that I haven't actually read all the way through yet...) that you can get for free, legally on the internet (right here actually) Pilgrim's Progress, St. Augustine's Confessions, and you could probably through Paradise Lost and the Divine Comedy (that's Dante's Divine Comedy with the infamous Inferno as one of its books) in there as well are worth reading. The first two because, well, every Christian should probably read them. The last two just because of the impact they've had on Christian Thought as a whole throughout history. You might not like either Paradise Lost or the Divine Comedy but they are classic literature that would be worth knowing and worth reading.

Besides those, I'd also recommend just about anything from Henri Nouwen. While I wouldn't recommend this specific book to you, of all the books I read in College, both for classes and for my own personal reading, his Living Reminder is the best book I read. So he's an author worth checking out.

[bigsleepj]

• Crime and Punishment by Fyodr Dostoevsky
Young man steals and murders. No easy answers come as to why, even to the man committing them.

• Silence by Shusaku Endo
Jesuit priest travels to Japan to preach to the outlawed church and witness first hand the persecution. But the worse comes when he's captured.

• The High House by James Stoddard
Set in a mansions where entire civilizations can exist within rooms. This is high high fantasy with a distinct Christian flavour.

• Till we have faces by CS Lewis
A retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, from the perspective of Psyche's ugly sister.

• The Man who was Thursday by GK Chesterton
If the Wachowski Bros (The Matrix) were to team up with the Monty Python gang to write a religious allegory in the form of a James Bond parody then they'd create something similar to this book. Its meaning requires re-readings to figure out, but is well worth it.

Please not these are more difficult Christian books, and in some you have to dig for meaning in many (except High House, which is more straight-forward).

[TopazRaven]

As far as books go, I guess it depends on what you are looking for. To recommend a few classics (that I haven't actually read all the way through yet...) that you can get for free, legally on the internet (right here actually) Pilgrim's Progress, St. Augustine's Confessions, and you could probably through Paradise Lost and the Divine Comedy (that's Dante's Divine Comedy with the infamous Inferno as one of its books) in there as well are worth reading. The first two because, well, every Christian should probably read them. The last two just because of the impact they've had on Christian Thought as a whole throughout history. You might not like either Paradise Lost or the Divine Comedy but they are classic literature that would be worth knowing and worth reading.

Those all sound like interesting titles. I looked them up on that website you linked in there and must admit most of them look rather long. It's a lot easier for me to get through something in book form rather then trying to read it on the Internet, but I'll in least try and read the first few chapters. If I get hooked into the writing it might be easier to read then.

[mechana2015]

I'm going to step in on the side of avoiding the Left Behind Books. They're both theologically and logically unsound and are written by people who seem to have no idea what a disaster... or any worldwide event is actually like.

[ich1990]

• Crime and Punishment by Fyodr Dostoevsky
Young man steals and murders. No easy answers come as to why, even to the man committing them.

• Silence by Shusaku Endo
Jesuit priest travels to Japan to preach to the outlawed church and witness first hand the persecution. But the worse comes when he's captured.

• The High House by James Stoddard
Set in a mansions where entire civilizations can exist within rooms. This is high high fantasy with a distinct Christian flavour.

• Till we have faces by CS Lewis
A retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, from the perspective of Psyche's ugly sister.

• The Man who was Thursday by GK Chesterton
If the Wachowski Bros (The Matrix) were to team up with the Monty Python gang to write a religious allegory in the form of a James Bond parody then they'd create something similar to this book. Its meaning requires re-readings to figure out, but is well worth it.

Please not these are more difficult Christian books, and in some you have to dig for meaning in many (except High House, which is more straight-forward).

I second all of these, they are great books and generally easy reads. I will also add:

Whistling in the Dark by Frederick Buechner. This book, along with the other two in the series: Wishful Thinking and Peculiar Treasures are some of the shortest, most easy to read, and most profound books I have ever read. Unlike the "high literature" Buechner normally writes, these books are very accessible--yet they contain all the wit and wisdom of their more difficult cousins. If you want an easy introduction into deeper thought on Christian issues (which seems to be an interest of yours lately) you can't do much better than these.

[TopazRaven]

I have been meaning to read Crime and Punishment. After reading Fathers and Sons by Ivan Tergenev I've wanted to look into some other good Russian literature.

If you want an easy introduction into deeper thought on Christian issues (which seems to be an interest of yours lately) you can't do much better than these.

You've definitly got me there. Lol. Thanks for the suggestions, I'll have to look into them.

[TopazRaven]

I'm going to step in on the side of avoiding the Left Behind Books. They're both theologically and logically unsound and are written by people who seem to have no idea what a disaster... or any worldwide event is actually like.

If I do read them I'll probably just see if I can rent them from the local library. If they're as bad as everyone says I don't think I want to buy them.

[Okami]

I second Huck Finn (Read it in HS, loved it, and own a copy) and also Pilgrim's Progress and Dante's Inferno (read them in my first year of college, and loved them--I want to read the entire Comedy someday when I have the time)

As far as Left Behind goes, I read the entire series a few years back and loved it. I own it because my family at the time was collecting the books, so my series collection is only missing two of them. At the time I was a new believer and didn't really know what I believed, other than Jesus is Lord. I didn't know much about the Bible and was pretty naive and would believe whatever I read, really. Now that I'm an adult and know my theology better, looking back I wish I would have tested it to what I knew. Now it just seems poorly written and laughable. The subject matter is certainly one to take the time to figure out what you believe outside of the books.

[MomentOfInertia]

•]The Man who was Thursday[/I] by GK Chesterton
If the Wachowski Bros (The Matrix) were to team up with the Monty Python gang to write a religious allegory in the form of a James Bond parody then they'd create something similar to this book. Its meaning requires re-readings to figure out, but is well worth it.

I know of a webcomic that is doing a version of this story, its kind of an awkward every third page sort of thing, but if anybody's interested let me know.

[FllMtl Novelist]

I personally haven't read it, but my mom read The Blood Of Kings books. (Third is due out next year, I think.) It's a Christian Fantasy title, and my mom liked it a lot.

...Not the best recommendation, (since I personally didn't read it), but it's what I could think of.

[bigsleepj]

I know of a webcomic that is doing a version of this story, its kind of an awkward every third page sort of thing, but if anybody's interested let me know.

Mayhaps I am interested. PM me the link, or post it here.

[rocklobster]

Is The Giver and its sequels Christian? It seems to lean toward a warning of what the world would be like without love.

[Atria35]

Is The Giver and its sequels Christian? It seems to lean toward a warning of what the world would be like without love.

Really? I took it as a warning of homogenizing society and being afraid of differences.

Regardless, the author does not seem to be Christian.

And that's another book that's considered required reading for 95% of America. Read it in 7th Grade.

[TopazRaven]

Dude! The Giver has a sequel!?!? Must have! What's it called?

[Atria35]

Gathering Blue and The Messenger are not technically sequels but they take place in the same society and whatnot. I didn't think they were as good as The Giver, but they were still good reads.