Spiritual life book series in reading order

by Christine Valters Paintner

by John F. MacArthur Jr.

by Vladimir Megre

by James Redfield

by J. Brent Bill

Jack Canfield, born August 19, 1944, is an American author and motivational speaker. Canfield co-authored the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, which has more than 250 titles and 500 million copies in print across over 40 languages. The Success Principles, written with Janet Switzer, followed in 2005. The catalogue lists 182 books from Dare to Win (1988) to Everyday Catholicism (2020), with Mark Victor Hansen co-credited on 148 and Amy Newmark on 46. Chicken Soup for the Soul appeared in 1993.

Dan Millman writes and lectures in the personal development field. The catalogue of 22 titles opens in 1992 with No Ordinary Moments, Quest for the Crystal Castle and Warrior Athlete, takes in The Life You Were Born to Live (1993), Body Mind Mastery (1999) and Divine Interventions (1999), and closes with Peaceful Heart, Warrior Spirit in 2022. Spiritual life, self-actualisation and the psychology of athletics and physical fitness are the recurring subjects. The film Peaceful Warrior, drawn from one of Millman's books and from his own life, is the work he is best known for.

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).

Eckhart Tolle

49 books• 1 series

Eckhart Tolle, born Ulrich Leonard Tölle on 16 February 1948, is a German spiritual teacher and self-help author. Tolle left doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge in 1977 after what Tolle describes as a spiritual awakening, and gained prominence in the 2000s with promotion from Oprah Winfrey. Key books are The Power of Now (1997), A New Earth (2005) and the picture book Guardians of Being (2009). The catalogue holds 49 Tolle titles through 2023, and some of those entries sit in an Audio series.

Sylvia Browne wrote about psychic phenomena and the afterlife. The American author, who described herself as a medium, published 55 catalogued books between 1990 and 2012, from Adventures of a Psychic (1990) to Past Lives of the Rich and Famous (2012). Spiritualism, parapsychology, the New Age movement and life after death are the recurring subjects, and the Journey of the Soul sequence collects part of the work. Browne appeared regularly on television and radio, including The Montel Williams Show and Larry King Live. Statements she made about missing persons were later shown to be false, and in 1992 she pleaded no contest to securities fraud. Browne was born in 1936 and died in 2013.

Christine Valters Paintner writes on Christian spiritual life. Prayer, devotional use of the Bible, the Desert Fathers, spiritual direction, and Christianity and the arts run through 22 catalogued books published between 2008 and 2026. Lectio Divina the Sacred Art (2008) opens the catalogue, A Book of Everyday Blessings (2026) is the newest title, and Practicing Resurrection is announced for 2027. Christine Valters Paintner Religion and Journeys of Breath are the two series listed. The books are short, with a median recorded length of 160 pages, and the 2010s are the busiest decade.

John F. MacArthur Jr. is catalogued with 362 books published from 1972 to 2024, the first being Found: God's Will (1972). Subjects include the Bible, biblical interpretation, commentaries on the New Testament gospels and epistles, Bible study, prayer, Christian life and marriage. Series include MacArthur Bible Studies, MacArthur New Testament Commentary, MacArthur Old Testament Study Guide, Great Hymns of Our Faith and John MacArthur Pastor's Library. Early titles include Liberated for Life: Galatians (1976) and The Charismatics: A Doctrinal Perspective (1978), and the newest is The War On Children (2024).

Eugene H. Peterson

105 books• 14 series

Eugene H. Peterson (November 6, 1932 to October 22, 2018) was an American Mainline Protestant minister, Presbyterian theologian, scholar, poet and author. The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (NavPress, 2002), a paraphrase and translation of the Bible into modern American English, won a Gold Medallion Book Award. The catalogue holds 105 books from Foundations for Faith (1973) to Lights a Lovely Mile: Collected Sermons of the Church Year (2023), including A Long Obedience in the Same Direction (1980) and Run with the Horses (1983). Subjects include the Bible, prayer, meditations, devotional calendars, spiritual life and pastoral theology.

Vladimir Megre, born Puzakov on 23 July 1950, is a Russian entrepreneur and writer. The Ringing Cedars of Russia books, also known as the Anastasia series, are the work he is known for, and from the 1990s they gave rise to a socio-religious movement of the same name. Nine titles are catalogued between Anastasia (1996) and Rites of Love (2006), including The Ringing Cedars of Russia (1997), The Space of Love (1998), Co-Creation (1999), Who Are We? (2000), The Book of Kin (2002), The Energy of Life (2002) and The New Civilization (2005). Subjects record spirituality, human ecology, nature and child rearing.

Richard Rohr

37 books

Richard Rohr writes on Christian spirituality from within the Catholic tradition, on contemplation, scripture and the inner life of men. 37 catalogued titles run from The Wild Mans Journey (1986) through The Enneagram (1989), Simplicity: The Art of Living (1991), Near Occasions of Grace (1993), Radical Grace (1993) and Quest for the Grail (1994). The newest is The Tears of Things: Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage.

The Celestine Prophecy (1993) is what James Redfield is known for: an adventure parable about a found manuscript and spiritual awakening. Redfield, born in 1950, is an American writer, lecturer, screenwriter and film producer. Nine catalogued books run to 2011, among them The Tenth Insight: Holding the Vision (1996), The Celestine Vision (1997), The Secret of Shambhala (1999) and The Twelfth Insight: The Hour of Decision (2011), plus an account of the film adaptation. New Age spirituality, travel and millennialism run through them, at a median of 256 pages.

Wayne W. Dyer

47 books• 1 series

Wayne W. Dyer (May 10, 1940 - August 29, 2015) was an American self-help author and motivational speaker. Dyer completed a bachelor's degree in history and philosophy, a master's in psychology and, in 1970, an Ed.D. in guidance and counseling at Wayne State University. After working as a high school guidance counselor and running a private therapy practice, Dyer taught counselor education at St. John's University, where a literary agent's approach produced Your Erroneous Zones (1976). Success, spiritual life, meditation and self-realization appear among the subjects, and Pulling Your Own Strings (1978) and You'll See It When You Believe It (1989) are among the 47 catalogued books.

The books published under Mother Teresa's name collect meditations, prayers and spiritual counsel. Thirty-eight titles are catalogued between 1975 and 2019, from Gift for God to Do Something Beautiful for God, at a median of 144 pages. Subjects centre on Christian life, the Catholic Church, the Missionaries of Charity and church work with the poor. The Love of Christ: Spiritual Counsels (1982), My Life for the Poor (1985) and Meditations On The Way Of The Cross (1986) come from the earlier part of the run. Mother Teresa lived from 1910 to 1997.

Sue Monk Kidd

17 books• 1 series

Sue Monk Kidd, born August 12, 1948, is an American writer from Sylvester, Georgia. Kidd's historical novels include The Secret Life of Bees (2001) and The Book of Longings, and race, feminism and religion recur as themes. Subjects on the list also cover spiritual life and Christian life, and the earliest catalogued title is God's Joyful Surprise: Finding Yourself Loved (1987). The Dance of the Dissident Daughter (1996) is subtitled A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine. The Mermaid Chair appeared in 2004, and the newest listed title is Writing Creativity and Soul (2025).

Sadhguru

20 books

Sadhguru is the name by which Jagadish Vasudev, an Indian guru born on 3 September 1957, is widely known. Sadhguru founded the Isha Foundation in Coimbatore in 1992, and the foundation runs an ashram and yoga centre. Sadhguru has taught yoga since 1982. Inner Engineering and Karma both became New York Times bestsellers. The 20 catalogued books span 2000 to 2022, from Dhyanalinga: The Silent Revolution to Youth and Truth, covering meditation, spiritual life and pilgrimage.

Creative non-fiction and essays on Native American life, American culture and spirituality make up Kent Nerburn's work. Nerburn, born in Minneapolis in 1946, opened the catalogue with Native American Wisdom (1991) and has reached 19 books, the most recent Lone Dog Road (2025). The Neither Wolf Nor Dog trilogy is the best known sequence: its first book took a Minnesota Book Award in 1995, The Wolf At Twilight took a second in 2010, and The Girl Who Sang to the Buffalo closes the set. Dakota philosophy, biography and the spiritual life recur across the catalogue.

Neale Donald Walsch, born September 10, 1943, is an American author of the Conversations with God series who also works as an actor, screenwriter and speaker. Catalogue subjects centre on spiritual life, God, prayers, meditations and imaginary conversations. The 21 listed books span 1995 to 2026, from An Uncommon Dialogue, Book 1 (1995) to Letters to a Young Seeker (2026). Conversations with God for Teens (1998), Friendship with God (1999) and Communion with God (2002) are among the titles, and Conversations with Humanity is a second series.

Paulo Coelho

35 books• 2 series

Pilgrimage, metaphysics and the conduct of life run through Paulo Coelho's writing, catalogued under Portuguese fiction and listed in Spanish and Russian translation as well. The Pilgrimage and The Diary of a Magus (1987) open the list, and The Alchemist (1988), Brida (1990), By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept (1994) and The Fifth Mountain (1996) follow. Thirty-five catalogued titles reach The Supreme Gift in 2026.

Beth Moore

41 books• 1 series

Beth Moore, born Wanda Elizabeth Green on June 16, 1957, is an American Anglican evangelist, author and Bible teacher. Moore is president of Living Proof Ministries, a Houston-based Christian organization Moore founded in 1994 to teach women. Moore speaks at arena events and has sold millions of books. The catalogue lists 41 books from A Woman's Heart (1995) to Walking with God (2026), including Breaking Free (1999) and Jesus: The One and Only (2000). Subjects include the Bible, Christian women and devotional literature.

Tricia Goyer is an American author of Christian fiction, with 68 books catalogued from From Dust and Ashes (2003) to Twist of Time (2026). Series include World War II Liberator, Chronicles of the Spanish Civil War, Big Sky Amish, Pinecraft Pie Shop, Seven Brides for Seven Bachelors, Swiss Agents, London Chronicles and Clockwork Chronicles. Non-fiction on parenting appears too, such as Life Interrupted: The Scoop on Being a Young Mom (2004). The Second World War and the Amish recur in the subjects.

Jane Roberts (1929-1984) was an American author and poet who described herself as a psychic and spirit medium channelling a personality named Seth. The resulting Seth Material made Roberts a leading figure in writing on paranormal phenomena, through The Seth Material (1970), Seth Speaks (1972) and The Nature of Personal Reality (1974). Roberts also wrote fiction, including the Oversoul Seven novels. Reincarnation, parapsychology and the nature of reality run through 47 catalogued titles.

Thom Hartmann

42 books• 1 series

Thom Hartmann, born in 1951, is an American author, broadcaster and progressive political commentator. Two bodies of work sit in the catalogue: books on attention deficit disorder, from Attention Deficit Disorder (1993) through Beyond ADD (1996), Healing ADD (1998) and a complete guide to ADHD (2000); and political and historical writing, including the Hidden History series and The Last American President (2025). Hartmann has hosted The Thom Hartmann Program on syndicated radio since 2003 and presented the television show The Big Picture from 2010 to 2017. Forty-two titles are catalogued in all.

Katherine Spencer has 37 catalogued books from The Goofy Gamble (1989) to Death on the Argyle (2022). Several early titles, including Ghosts, UFOs and Sam Walton: The Giant of Wal-Mart, are listed under the name Anne Canadeo. Spencer series include Cape Light, Black Sheep & Co. Mystery, Fifth Grade S.T.A.R.S. and Haven Harbor. Subject tags cover knitting, murder investigation, New England and the imaginary place Cape Light, and Home Song (2002) and The Gathering Place (2003) are among the later titles.

Pico Iyer

22 books

Travel writing is the main work of Pico Iyer, an English-born essayist and novelist born on 11 February 1957. Iyer's books on crossing cultures include Video Night in Kathmandu (1988), The Lady and the Monk (1991) and The Global Soul (2000). Japan and Buddhism are recurring subjects. Iyer has written for Time, Harper's, The New York Review of Books and The New York Times. His 22 books reach Aflame: Learning from Silence (2025).