These are just a few from my own library, and if you have some you think worthy of sharing, please let me know. I love to read!

The links to the books below all lead to Amazon.com because as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. It seemed like a convenient way to get you the best price I know of. However, if you trace the author’s book back to its publishing company, then the author gets a better commission, and the publishing company fairs better as well.

At the bottom of this page (you will have to scroll a bit) are books that have changed me.

Book Reviews

For the heart

Courage to Care

If you are part of a Life Group or Care Group, or whatever your church calls it, this is well worth sharing together, perhaps over a meal, and with plenty of time to participate on the reflection questions.

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by Joanne Guarnieri Hagemeyer

The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism

I think I had heard about Christian mysticism, but I was not sure what it was, or what mysticism meant. Either way, I did not think of myself as a likely candidate to read mystical literature, or be interested in mystics.

The irony is that the Gospel of John, the letters of John, and the Revelation of John are among my most cherished and beloved books of the Hebrew scriptures!

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by Joanne Guarnieri Hagemeyer

The Oracle

I’ll be in Jerusalem for a couple of days, and while there, I’ll have Cahn’s visions in mind, marveling at how powerfully God is at work—not just in our individual lives, but in the movement of history across earth.

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by Joanne Guarnieri Hagemeyer
  1. Anything by Brene Brown
  1. Curt Thompson
Intimacy with God
  1. Ten Prayers God Always Says Yes To (Anthony DeStefano)

I am a Protestant, and DeStefano is a Catholic writer, so there are some ways in which he and I do not share the same perspective, or theology. However, I found this book on prayer transforming.

  1. Practicing the Presence of God (Brother Lawrence)

This book is three hundred years old, yet the truths are timeless.

  1. The Cloud of Unknowing (Anonymous)

This book comes from the middle ages, and speaks from that Catholic perspective, yet the overall wisdom is worth gleaning.

  1. The Knowledge of the Holy (AW Tozer)

I included the three-volume work because the other two books are just as important, and included a couple of other Tozer books as well.

  1. Anything by Hildegard of Bingen

The first book is an overview. She was a mystic who lived a thousand years ago, who wrote poetry, music, and books about her visions from God.

For the mind
  1. Love Your God With All Your Mind (JP Moreland)
  2. Heresy: A History of Defending the Truth (Alister McGrath)
  3. Total Truth (Nancy Pearcey)
If you like science
  1. Reasons to Believe (website of Hugh Ross)
  2. The Language of God (Francis Collins) 
If you’re into alternatives to traditional church
  1. Reimagining Church (Frank Viola)
  2. Pagan Christianity (George Barna and Frank Viola)
  3. The Rabbit and the Elephant (Tony and Felicity Dale)
  4. ReJesus (Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch)

And I included more very good reads from Alan Hirsch in terms of re-imagining how we live out being the church, the community of Christ.

Women and the Church
  1. Beyond Sex Roles (Gilbert Bilezikian)
  2. Good News for Women (Rebecca Merrill Groothuis)
  3. I Suffer Not a Woman (Richard and Catherine Clark Kroeger)
  4. Discovering Biblical Equality (Ronald W Pierce, editor)
  5. Women and Men in the Light of Eden (Bruce Fleming)
  6. Familiar Leadership Heresies Uncovered (Bruce Fleming)
  7. Recovering From Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (Aimee Byrd)
If you’re dealing with spiritual darkness
  1. The Bondage Breaker and Victory Over the Darkness (Neil Anderson)
  2. People of the Lie (Scott Peck)
  3. 12 Steps for the Recovering Pharisee (John Fischer)
If you like devotionals, but are getting tired of same old-same old

The Book of Mysteries (Jonathan Cahn)

Stories that changed me
  1. The Heavenly Man (Christian Brother Yun)
  2. Killing Christians (Tom Doyle)
  3. Created for Commitment (A Wetherell Johnson)
  4. Christ in the Passover (Ceil and Moishe Rosen)
  5. Pretty much every Francine Rivers book
Commentary written for real people
  1. Anything written by Nijay Gupta
  1. Anything written by Walt Kaiser
  1. Anything written by Ray Stedman
  1. My great great grandfather, Jesse Lyman Hurlbut, wrote a lot of books and they’re still in print! They’re written for real people.
  1. My very favorite commentator is Alfred Edersheim, I go to his books all the time, and he includes those fascinating details about culture and archaeology that many commentators skip over.