Religion book series in reading order

Matthew Kelly, born 12 July 1973 in Sydney, is an Australian motivational speaker, business consultant and founding partner of the management consulting firm Floyd Consulting. The catalogue lists 48 Kelly books from Our Father (1995) to Nothing Is Random (2025). Subjects include the Catholic Church, spirituality, self-help, happiness, parenting and business. Titles include The Rhythm of Life (1999), Rediscover Catholicism (2002) and The Dream Manager (2007).

Carlos Castaneda (25 December 1925 - 27 April 1998) was a Peruvian-American writer trained as an anthropologist. From The Teachings of Don Juan (1968) onward, Castaneda set out an apprenticeship in shamanism under a Yaqui man of knowledge called Don Juan Matus; that figure and that training are now generally considered fabricated, with little connection to actual Yaqui cultural practice. The catalogue lists 13 books ending with The Active Side of Infinity (1999), tagged for religion, shamanism, hallucinogenic drugs and religious experience, and Yaqui mythology. The run is listed as likely complete.

Max Lucado

278 books• 6 series

Max Lucado has 278 books in the catalogue, published between 1985 and 2026, and subject headings centre on Christian life, the Bible, Jesus Christ, meditations and biblical teaching. Lucado, born January 11, 1955, is an American author and minister at Oak Hills Church, formerly Oak Hills Church of Christ, in San Antonio, Texas. The earliest titles are No Wonder They Call Him the Savior and On the Anvil (both 1985), then God Came Near (1986), The Applause of Heaven (1990) and He Still Moves Stones (1992). Series include Life Lessons, Hermie & Friends, Max Lucado's Wemmicks and Just in Case, and children's fiction is also among the subjects. The newest listed title is Unbreakable Courage Bible Study Guide (2026).

Philip Yancey

71 books• 1 series

Philip Yancey writes about Christian faith and spiritual questions. Born November 4, 1949, and now retired, the American author has sold more than 15 million books in English, with translations into 40 languages. The Jesus I Never Knew won the ECPA Christian Book of the Year Award in 1996, and What's So Amazing About Grace? won it in 1998. Publishers include Hachette, HarperCollins Christian Publishing, InterVarsity Press, Rabbit Room Press and Penguin Random House. The catalogue lists 71 titles, from After the Wedding (1976) to Undone: A Modern Rendering of John Donne's Devotions (2023). Grace, pain, the Bible and theology lead the subject tags.

Anne Lamott

23 books

Faith, family and the writing life are Anne Lamott's recurring subjects. Hard Laughter (1979) is the earliest of 23 catalogued titles, which include Operating Instructions (1993), Bird by Bird (1994) and Traveling Mercies (1999) and reach Good Writing in 2026. Christian biography, spirituality and mothers and sons fill the subject tags.

Wanda E. Brunstetter writes Amish romance and has sold more than 10 million books, with titles on the New York Times Best Seller list; Brunstetter is based in Washington. The catalogue lists 125 books from A Merry Heart (1997) to A Castle of Sand (2026). Series include Brides Of Lancaster County, Brides Of Webster County, Brides Of Lehigh Canal, Daughters Of Lancaster County, Sisters Of Holmes County, Half-Stitched Amish Quilting Club, Amish Millionaire, Creektown Discoveries and Rachel Yoder: Always Trouble Somewhere. Subjects include Amish women and children, Pennsylvania and Amish cooking.

Ursula K. Le Guin

121 books• 18 series

Ursula K. Le Guin (born Ursula Kroeber, 21 October 1929 to 22 January 2018) was an American writer of speculative fiction, including science fiction set in the Hainish universe and the Earthsea fantasy series. First published in 1959, Le Guin wrote for nearly sixty years, producing more than twenty novels and over a hundred short stories alongside poetry, criticism, translations and children's books. Catalogued titles include April in Paris (1962), Rocannon's World (1966), A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) and The Left Hand of Darkness (1969). Le Guin series include Hainish Cycle, Catwings, Orsinia and Annals of the Western Shore.

Peter Matthiessen

41 books• 3 series

Peter Matthiessen is the only writer to win the National Book Award in both nonfiction, for The Snow Leopard in 1979, and fiction, for Shadow Country in 2008. Matthiessen, an American novelist, naturalist, wilderness writer, Zen teacher and one-time CIA agent, was born May 22, 1927, died April 5, 2014, and co-founded The Paris Review. Nonfiction covered nature, travel and American Indian history, including In the Spirit of Crazy Horse (1983) on the Leonard Peltier case, and Matthiessen was also a prominent environmental activist. The catalogue lists 41 books from The Year of the Tempest (1957) to In Paradise (2014), including Wildlife in America (1959), The Cloud Forest (1961) and At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1965).

C.S. Lewis

59 books• 9 series

C.S. Lewis wrote fantasy fiction and Christian apologetics, and the two meet in Narnia. Spirits in Bondage (1919) opens a catalogue of 59 books that holds the Chronicles of Narnia, the Cosmic Trilogy beginning with Out of the Silent Planet (1938), The Screwtape Letters (1942) and Mere Christianity (1943). The 1950s carry the largest share of the list, and catalogued editions run to 2022.

Gabrielle Meyer writes Christian romance, historical and contemporary, in small-town and frontier settings. Thirty-six catalogued books run from A Family Arrangement (2016) to Into a Golden Era, and To Marry a Marquess is scheduled for 2027. The American Brides Collection, the Dollar Princess books, the Little Falls Legacy and the Ladies of the Wilderness are the series lines. Minnesota and pioneer life recur as subjects.

Lee Strobel

36 books• 3 series

Lee Strobel is an American Christian author, Baptist pastor and professor, born January 25, 1952, and formerly an investigative journalist. Strobel's books include a series answering challenges to the truth of Christianity, and four titles received ECPA Christian Book Awards. The catalogue counts 36 books from Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary (1993) to Seeing the Supernatural for Teens (2026), among them The Case for Christ (1998) and The Case for Faith (2000). Strobel hosted Faith Under Fire on PAX TV.

Leslie Gould writes Christian fiction, and subjects include the Amish and Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Series include Courtships of Lancaster County, Neighbors of Lancaster County, Sisters of Lancaster County, Letters from Lancaster County, Cousins of the Dove, Plain Patterns and Amish Memories. The catalogue counts 41 books from Garden of Dreams (2003) to When They Met Again (2026), with Courting Cate (2012) among them. Subjects also include family life, friendship, gardening and Christian romance.

Stephen Fry

29 books• 2 series

Stephen Fry is an English actor, comedian, writer and broadcaster, born in 1957. His 29 catalogued books run from A Bit of Fry & Laurie (1990) to Odyssey (2024), taking in The Liar (1991), The Hippopotamus (1994), Making History (1996) and Moab Is My Washpot (1997). Humour, English wit, comedians, diaries and travel are the recurring subjects. Two series are catalogued: A Bit of Fry and Laurie, drawn from the sketch show Fry made with Hugh Laurie, and Mythos. Fry continues to publish.

Jimmy Carter

51 books• 1 series

Jimmy Carter (1924-2024) served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981, and wrote 51 books. Carter's subjects cover his own childhood and career, American politics and government, peace negotiation, the Arab-Israeli conflict and Christian faith. The catalogue opens with Why Not the Best?: The First Fifty Years (1975), two years before he took office, and takes in Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President (1982) and The Blood of Abraham: Insights into the Middle East (1986). Later titles turn to the Bible and devotional writing, the most recent dated 2020. Books median 224 pages, and the 2000s were Carter's most productive decade.

Newt Gingrich

49 books• 6 series

Newt Gingrich, born June 17, 1943, is an American Republican politician who served as the 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. Gingrich represented Georgia's 6th congressional district from 1979 until resigning in 1999, sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, and taught history and geography at the University of West Georgia in the 1970s. The catalogue lists 49 books from Window of Opportunity (1987) to Trump's Triumph (2025), mixing politics with historical fiction series on the Civil War, the Revolutionary War and Pearl Harbor. Gettysburg (2003) and Grant Comes East (2004) are among them.

G.K. Chesterton

114 books• 6 series

G.K. Chesterton (Gilbert Keith Chesterton, 29 May 1874 to 14 June 1936) was an English writer of Christian apologetics, noted for wit, paradox and a defence of tradition. Chesterton created the priest-detective Father Brown and wrote the apologetic works Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man. Chesterton converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism. The catalogue lists 114 books, opening with The Defendant (1901) and Robert Louis Stevenson and Thomas Carlyle (1902), and including The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904), Heretics (1905) and The Club of Queer Trades (1905). Biographers place Chesterton as a successor to Matthew Arnold, Thomas Carlyle, John Henry Newman and John Ruskin.

Aldous Huxley

68 books• 5 series

Aldous Huxley (Aldous Leonard Huxley, 26 July 1894 to 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher from the prominent Huxley family. Huxley studied English literature at Balliol College, Oxford, and edited the magazine Oxford Poetry before turning to novels, both social satire and grimly serious work, as well as travel writing and screenplays. The bibliography comes to nearly 50 books. The catalogue begins with The Burning Wheel (1916), then Limbo (1918), Crome Yellow (1921), Antic Hay (1923) and Along the Road (1925). Huxley lived in Los Angeles from 1937 until death in 1963. Subjects include intellectuals, Italy, passivity and brainwashing.

Leo Tolstoy

74 books• 3 series

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) was a Russian writer, born Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy into an aristocratic family. Tolstoy's early reputation rested on the autobiographical trilogy of Childhood (1852), Boyhood (1854) and Youth (1856), and on The Sebastopol Sketches (1855), drawn from service in the Crimean War. War and Peace followed in 1867. The catalogue lists 74 Tolstoy titles in English, fables and short stories among them, with editions dated as late as 2020.

Frank E. Peretti (Frank Edward Peretti, born January 13, 1951) is a New York Times bestselling author of Christian fiction about the supernatural and spiritual warfare. The New York Times has credited Peretti with creating the Christian thriller genre, and This Present Darkness (1986) and Piercing the Darkness (1989) are the best-known novels. The catalogue lists 30 books from The Door in the Dragon's Throat (1985) to Hybrids (2015). Cooper Kids Adventures and Veritas Project are series. Peretti has held ministry credentials with the Assemblies of God and lives in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

Janice Thompson has 148 books in the catalogue, from Duty to Die (2001) to Mistletoe and Mayhem (2025). Subjects include weddings, Christian romance, dating, Christian life, mystery, girls and children's fiction. Series include Weddings by Bella, Texas Weddings, Bridal Mayhem Mystery, Hill Country Bride, Boardwalk Brides, Brides With Style, Red, White, and Blue Weddings, Freedom Express and Red Truck Mysteries. Early titles include A Class of Her Own (2002), Angel Incognito (2004) and The Wedding Caper (2006).

Andrew M. Greeley's catalogue spans fiction, non-fiction and poetry, and runs to 82 books published between 1967 and 2010. Subjects settle on the Catholic Church, its clergy, Irish Americans and Chicago. Blackie Ryan and Nuala Anne McGrail are the recurring detectives; other groupings include the O'Malley's family saga, Time Between The Stars, Passover and the World Of Maggie Ward. The listing opens with Letters to Nancy (1967) and ends with Chicago Catholics and the Struggles Within Their Church (2010).

Philosophy and fiction sit side by side in Iris Murdoch's catalogue of 43 titles. The run opens with Sartre: Romantic Rationalist (1953), a study rather than a novel, and Under the Net follows. Good and evil, morality and the unconscious recur across the novels. Murdoch lived from 1919 to 1999, and collections such as Poems from an Attic continue to appear.

Catherine Marshall was an American author of inspirational non-fiction, devotional writing and fiction, married to the minister Peter Marshall. A Man Called Peter (1951) opens a catalogue of 42 books, and Christy (1967) sits in it alongside the Christy of Cutter Gap series. Christian life, faith, prayer and biography are the recurring subjects, with teachers and schools among them. The catalogue closes with Moments That Matter (2001).

Anne Graham Lotz is an American evangelist and the second daughter of Billy Graham and his wife Ruth. Lotz founded AnGeL Ministries and writes devotional and Bible-study books; Just Give Me Jesus (2000) is the best known of them. Thirty-eight titles are catalogued, from Daily Light Devotional (1985) to God Won't Leave You There (2026), including The Vision of His Glory (1996), God's Story (1997) and several daily-reading journals. Scripture, Christian life and meditation are the standing subjects.