Why am I passionate about this?

My very intelligent, very (self-described) un-literary father taught me all about the complexities and beauty of God. My librarian mother gave me the literature that would introduce me to the most profound descriptions of those complex beauties. As the author of Marvelous Light, numerous metaphor-dependent blog posts, and future allegorical novels, I hope to introduce each of my readers to the divine realities on which I depend daily.


I wrote

Marvelous Light

By Paul Frank Spencer,

Book cover of Marvelous Light

What is my book about?

People use metaphors to understand complex concepts. The most universal image used to describe profound realities is light. Light as…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of More Than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor

Paul Frank Spencer Why did I love this book?

Lakoff famously contends that metaphor is the crux of all human understanding. This classic academic, literary, philosophical, and sociological text suggests that at the root of what it means to be human is an absolute need to describe all experience and knowledge through comparison. Read More Than Cool Reason to begin gaining an appreciation for the theory of how metaphor makes us who we are and establishes our place in the universe.

By George Lakoff, Mark Turner,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked More Than Cool Reason as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"The authors restore metaphor to our lives by showing us that it's never gone away. We've merely been taught to talk as if it had: as though weather maps were more 'real' than the breath of autumn; as though, for that matter, Reason was really 'cool.' What we're saying whenever we say is a theme this book illumines for anyone attentive." - Hugh Kenner, Johns Hopkins University

"In this bold and powerful book, Lakoff and Turner continue their use of metaphor to show how our minds get hold of the world. They have achieved nothing less than a postmodern Understanding…


Book cover of Till We Have Faces

Paul Frank Spencer Why did I love this book?

I remember reading that Lewis considered Till We Have Faces his crowning achievement in fiction, a book he published the same year he married Joy Davidman, only seven years before his death. My college roommate recommended the book, saying that he quit reading it about 3 chapters before the end because he was fed up. When I finished it (including the last 3 chapters), I told him he was an idiot. He knew it, cause the last chapters explain the metaphor that is the rest of the book. Till We Have Faces is the most beautiful depiction of faith in God and the ache in those who see it in others but don’t have it themselves.

By C. S. Lewis,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Till We Have Faces as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Fascinated by the myth of Cupid and Psyche throughout his life, C. S. Lewis reimagines their story from the perspective of Psyche's sister, Orual.

'I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer . . . Why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?'

Till We Have Faces is a brilliant examination of envy, betrayal, loss, blame, grief, guilt, and conversion. In this, his final - and most mature and masterful - novel, Lewis reminds us of our…


Book cover of The Complete Fairy Tales

Paul Frank Spencer Why did I love this book?

Lewis considered George MacDonald his spiritual father, having never met the man. He said that MacDonald introduced him to the gospel through his stories before he even knew that that’s what was happening. How? Metaphor. George MacDonald knew of God’s love more than most and did his best to share it with the world, deeply hidden in fairy tales, the kind of folklore that Lewis, Tolkien, and the rest of the Inklings loved so dearly.

By George MacDonald, U.C. Knoepflmacher,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Complete Fairy Tales as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

George MacDonald occupied a major position in the intellectual life of his Victorian contemporaries. This volume brings together all eleven of his shorter fairy stories as well as his essay "The Fantastic Imagination". The subjects are those of traditional fantasy: good and wicked fairies, children embarking on elaborate quests, and journeys into unsettling dreamworlds. Within this familiar imaginative landscape, his children's stories were profoundly experimental, questioning the association of childhood with purity and innocence, and the need to separate fairy tale wonder from adult scepticism and disbelief.


Book cover of The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare

Paul Frank Spencer Why did I love this book?

If Lewis’ Till We Have Faces is a deeply buried metaphor for religious experience, The Man Who Was Thursday requires an excavator to unearth. Both books explain their metaphors in the final pages, but Thursday does this much less clearly. Unless you’re pretty familiar with Christianity, you’re probably gonna miss it. But what a wonderful surprise to get to the end of this strange story and realize that Chesterton was sneakily describing the sneakiness of God’s beauty, just like Lewis did.

By G.K. Chesterton,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Man Who Was Thursday as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Can you trust yourself when you don't know who you are? Syme uses his new acquaintance to go undercover in Europe's Central Anarchist Council and infiltrate their deadly mission, even managing to have himself voted to the position of 'Thursday'. In a park in London, secret policeman Gabriel Syme strikes up a conversation with an anarchist. Sworn to do his duty, When Syme discovers another undercover policeman on the Council, however, he starts to question his role in their operations. And as a desperate chase across Europe begins, his confusion grows, as well as his confidence in his ability to…


Book cover of The Pilgrim's Regress

Paul Frank Spencer Why did I love this book?

Sorry that Lewis made my list twice. Honestly, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to do it. But two images in this book have wheedled their way into my brain so deeply that the metaphors have become a part of me.  Glimpsing that far-off paradise through the hedge as a child! Only seeing the precariousness of his path in retrospect! Wow! Read it and you’ll understand. These two metaphors will be with me until I die.

By C. S. Lewis,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Pilgrim's Regress as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One of C. S. Lewis' works of fiction, or more specifically allegory, this book is clearly modelled upon Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, as Lewis cleverly satirizes different sections of the Church.

Written within a year of Lewis' conversion, it characterises the various theological and temperamental leanings of the time. This brilliant and biting allegory has lost none of its freshness and theological profundity, as the pilgrims pass the City of Claptrap, the tableland of the High Anglicans and the far-off marsh of the Theosophists. As ever, Lewis says memorably in brief what would otherwise have demanded a full-length philosophy of religion.


Explore my book 😀

Marvelous Light

By Paul Frank Spencer,

Book cover of Marvelous Light

What is my book about?

People use metaphors to understand complex concepts. The most universal image used to describe profound realities is light. Light as metaphor is strewn throughout literature; poetry, novels, and non-fiction. Light is used to get at the deepest philosophical ideas. Science employs models to help us understand how physical light behaves, and those mental pictures in turn can be used to understand theological truths. And anyone who talks about divinity, from any religious tradition, will describe their god in terms of light. Light is unavoidable when revealing the character of reality.

Marvelous Light demonstrates that light is used in practically all attempts to find truth. It dives into the science, philosophy, and theology of light to reveal God’s character and the nature of reality.

Book cover of More Than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor
Book cover of Till We Have Faces
Book cover of The Complete Fairy Tales

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Knife Skills

By Wendy Church,

Book cover of Knife Skills

Wendy Church Author Of Knife Skills

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a thrill seeker when it comes to reading, and I want to be so immersed in a story that I have to read it in one sitting and then can be completely taken by surprise by a plot twist. It was extremely hard to pick only five titles, so to narrow it down, I 1) made an attempt to pick from a few different sub-genres and, 2) stipulated that Agatha Christie could populate the entire list. All of these titles blend wonderful writing with great twists, and I hope you enjoy them. I did my best to avoid spoilers in the descriptions, although by being on this list, it’s a little bit of a spoiler…

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What is my book about?

"Dizzying . . . Audiences who wished the TV series The Bear had made room for Russian mobsters are in for a treat" - Kirkus Reviews Starred Review

Sagarine Pfister is a great cook but has been blacklisted by almost every restaurant in Chicago. She gets her chance at Louie's, a below-average restaurant, the only place that will give her a job. Things change when she finds head chef Louie Ferrar dead in the walk-in freezer of his restaurant. But instead of closing the place down, the owner, Russian gang boss Anatoly Morozov, offers not only her Louie's job but…

Knife Skills

By Wendy Church,

What is this book about?

"Dizzying . . . Audiences who wished the TV series The Bear had made room for Russian mobsters are in for a treat" Kirkus Reviews Starred Review

Sagarine Pfister is a great cook but has been blacklisted by almost every restaurant in Chicago. She gets her chance at Louie's, a below-average restaurant, the only place that will give her a job.

Things change when she finds head chef Louie Ferrar dead in the walk-in freezer of his restaurant. But instead of closing the place down, the owner, Russian gang boss Anatoly Morzov, not only offers her Louie's job, but also…


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Pilgrimages 28 books
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Fairy Tales 315 books