Here are 100 books that Pearl in the Sand fans have personally recommended if you like
Pearl in the Sand.
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I worked in publishing while earning my master’s degree in English, thinking I would eventually teach. Stories, however, were my first love, as was theology. I grew up in the church, but it wasn’t until I discovered how to study the Bible through a cultural lens that Scripture came springing to life in a new way. I was hooked, and I began to see an intersection between my passions—storytelling, teaching, and theology. Now, I pen stories that highlight the humanity of Bible characters and the goodness of the God they serve. My hope is that the Bible will spring to life for others the way it did for me.
I loved how the author took multiple “minor characters” in the Bible and connected their stories, causing me to take a closer look at these lesser-known individuals.
In this book, Angela Hunt identifies the Lydia mentioned in Acts 16 as the same person called Euodia in Philippians 4 and presents a compelling argument as to why in her Author’s Note. The slave girl Paul liberates from a demon in Acts 16 is also given a prominent role as Euodia attempts to rescue her from a cruel master who seeks to restore her “gift.”
I enjoyed the quick pace and ever-changing setting as Euodia travels throughout Macedonia. Rich cultural details coupled with a marriage of convenience that blossoms into more made this a satisfying adventure!
"I love the way Hunt weaves history throughout to bring readers into ancient times. The book is rich in detail, and the characters are fully rendered."--FRANCINE RIVERS, bestselling author of Redeeming Love
"I completely lost my heart to Euodia, Ariston, and Sabina. . . . A beautiful beginning to a new series."--ROBIN LEE HATCHER, bestselling author of All She Ever Dreamed
Widowed Euodia, known to her neighbors as "the Lydian woman," seeks to make a fresh start by moving to the foreign city of Philippi. She finds new purpose after meeting Paulos, apostle to the Gentiles, who opens her eyes…
I worked in publishing while earning my master’s degree in English, thinking I would eventually teach. Stories, however, were my first love, as was theology. I grew up in the church, but it wasn’t until I discovered how to study the Bible through a cultural lens that Scripture came springing to life in a new way. I was hooked, and I began to see an intersection between my passions—storytelling, teaching, and theology. Now, I pen stories that highlight the humanity of Bible characters and the goodness of the God they serve. My hope is that the Bible will spring to life for others the way it did for me.
The name Judas Iscariot has become synonymous with treachery, but in her novel, Tosca Lee humanizes this man who would eventually betray Jesus Christ.
I loved how this book asked me to set aside my preconceived notions of an infamous man and instead see him as a nuanced, flesh-and-blood person who made thousands of small choices leading up to the big choice we all remember.
This is a haunting and heartbreaking story that continues to linger in my mind.
Acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Tosca Lee brilliantly adapts the life of Judas Iscariot into a dazzling work of fiction—humanizing the man whose very name is synonymous with betrayal.
Based on extensive research into the life and times of Judas Iscariot, this triumph of fiction storytelling by the author of Havah: The Story of Eve revisits one of biblical history’s most maligned figures and brings the world he inhabited vividly to life.
In Jesus, Judas believes he has found the One—the promised Messiah and future king of the Jews, destined to overthrow Roman rule. Galvanized, he joins Nazarene’s followers,…
I worked in publishing while earning my master’s degree in English, thinking I would eventually teach. Stories, however, were my first love, as was theology. I grew up in the church, but it wasn’t until I discovered how to study the Bible through a cultural lens that Scripture came springing to life in a new way. I was hooked, and I began to see an intersection between my passions—storytelling, teaching, and theology. Now, I pen stories that highlight the humanity of Bible characters and the goodness of the God they serve. My hope is that the Bible will spring to life for others the way it did for me.
Egypt’s culture jumps vividly to life in this beautiful book by Mesu Andrews.
The book examines the relationship between Joseph and Asenath, the Egyptian daughter of a pagan priest. I enjoyed how the author fills in the cracks of everything we don’t know in the biblical account with a believable story that fleshes out the personal histories of these two characters.
The story manages to feel both epic and intimate, inviting me to view the land and its politics through the eyes of a couple learning to love one another despite their vast differences.
Thrust into an arranged marriage, the daughter of ancient Egypt’s high priest plays a pivotal role in Joseph’s biblical narrative in this powerful novel from the award-winning author of Potiphar’s Wife.
After four-year-old Asenath’s mother is murdered by Egypt’s foreign rulers, the child is raised to be a priestess by her overprotective father—high priest of Egypt’s sun god. For fifteen years, Asenath is sequestered in the upper levels of Ra’s temple, convinced it is her destiny to heal the land by becoming queen to the next Egyptianpharaoh. But when Egypt’s foreign king instead gives her as a bride to the…
I worked in publishing while earning my master’s degree in English, thinking I would eventually teach. Stories, however, were my first love, as was theology. I grew up in the church, but it wasn’t until I discovered how to study the Bible through a cultural lens that Scripture came springing to life in a new way. I was hooked, and I began to see an intersection between my passions—storytelling, teaching, and theology. Now, I pen stories that highlight the humanity of Bible characters and the goodness of the God they serve. My hope is that the Bible will spring to life for others the way it did for me.
After reading this book by Stephanie Landsem, I feel as though I’ve lived in the Samaritan village of Sychar, drawn water from the well, sat beneath the wagging tongues of villagers, and experienced the transformative love of Jesus the Messiah.
This immersive story gives a beautiful background to the Samaritan woman in John 4, told from the perspective of her daughter, Mara. The hurt and desperation in Mara were gut-wrenching and pulled me right into the story.
I appreciated how the author focused on all the people surrounding the main character from the Bible, showing how one person’s choices—and transformation—impact so many others. A beautiful book full of heartbreak and hope.
In the rich tradition of Francine Rivers's Lineage of Grace series, comes a beautiful retelling of the biblical story of the woman at the well-bringing to life this poignant young woman struggling to survive love and heartbreak.
Could he be the One we've been waiting for?
For the women of the Samaritan village of Sychar, the well is a place of blessing-the place where they gather to draw their water and share their lives-but not for Mara. Shunned for the many sins of her mother, Nava, Mara struggles against the constant threats of starvation or exile.
Joy Schroeder is a historian devoted to examining the experiences of women in Christianity and Judaism. With concern for female and male victims of violence, Schroeder scrutinizes historical documents to find accounts of harassment, rape, clergy sexual abuse, and other violence. She brings the historical accounts to light while critiquing the cultural patterns that perpetuate violence in our own day. In her work as a pastor and as a professor, she has worked to support victims of harassment, sexual violence, domestic violence, and child abuse. Schroeder is a professor of church history at Capital University (Columbus, Ohio), where she teaches at Trinity Lutheran Seminary and the department of religion and philosophy.
Published in 1984, this book is an enduring classic. Filled with sympathy for victims and survivors, it is a groundbreaking, poignant feminist reading of biblical “texts of terror” about violence against women who were raped, enslaved, ritually sacrificed, or forced to become surrogate mothers. This book transformed the way people now read stories of biblical violence. It calls on readers to acknowledge and remember the suffering of victims—in biblical times and in our own.
Professor Trible focuses on four variations upon the theme of terror in the Bible. By combining the discipline of literary criticism with the hermeneutics of feminism, she reinterprets the tragic stories of four women in ancient Israel: Hagar, Tamar, an unnamed concubine, and the daughter of Jephthah. In highlighting the silence, absence, and opposition of God, as well as human cruelty, Trible shows how these neglected stories interpreted in memoriam challenge both the misogyny of Scripture and its use in church, synagogue, and academy.
Joy Schroeder is a historian devoted to examining the experiences of women in Christianity and Judaism. With concern for female and male victims of violence, Schroeder scrutinizes historical documents to find accounts of harassment, rape, clergy sexual abuse, and other violence. She brings the historical accounts to light while critiquing the cultural patterns that perpetuate violence in our own day. In her work as a pastor and as a professor, she has worked to support victims of harassment, sexual violence, domestic violence, and child abuse. Schroeder is a professor of church history at Capital University (Columbus, Ohio), where she teaches at Trinity Lutheran Seminary and the department of religion and philosophy.
Inspired by midrashic approaches of rabbis who use storytelling to fill in the “gaps” in scriptural narratives, Dr. Wilda Gafney combines her expertise as a biblical scholar with her commitment to racial and gender justice. Gafney expresses particular sympathy for enslaved women forced into sexual servitude and surrogate motherhood, especially Rachel and Leah’s servants (“womb-slaves”) Bilhah and Zilpah (Genesis 30).
Womanist Midrash is an in-depth and creative exploration of the well- and lesser-known women of the Hebrew Scriptures. Using her own translations, Gafney offers a midrashic interpretation of the biblical text that is rooted in the African American preaching tradition to tell the stories of a variety of female characters, many of whom are often overlooked and nameless. Gafney employs a solid understanding of womanist and feminist approaches to biblical interpretation and the sociohistorical culture of the ancient Near East. This unique and imaginative work is grounded in serious scholarship and will expand conversations about feminist and womanist biblical interpretation.
I’m an Egyptologist by training and a storyteller by nature. Fascinated by the origins of patriarchy since I was a small girl raised by strong women in a patriarchal context, I turned to Greek and Roman history for answers. I earned an MA and a richer understanding of the civilizations that influenced the classical period, which led to the study of Egypt and Mesopotamia and finally to a Ph.D. in Egyptology. At heart, I’m more creative than scholar. Telling stories that bring ancient Egypt to life and leave readers better informed of the challenges women have faced, and sometimes overcome, is my passion.
This book fueled my feminist rage and left me thinking about it for months after I put it down.
Unapologetically pro-women, Marmery challenges some of the patriarchy’s most sacred foundations. I love the courage of this book. It’s an intimate read but somehow also feels large and distant. For me, this one is a ca n’t-miss read that makes you think, wonder, and fume.
A triumphantly feminist retelling of ancient creation myths in the tradition of Madeline Miller and Claire North.
Lyrically rendered, this epic U.S. debut tells the story of the woman known as Adam's first wife and her fall from Paradise and quest for revenge.
Before Eve, there was Lilith.
Lilith and Adam are equal and happy in the Garden of Eden. Until Adam decides Lilith should submit to his will and lie beneath him. She refuses—and is banished forever from Paradise.
Demonized and sidelined, Lilith watches in fury as God creates Eve, the woman who accepts her submission. But Lilith has…
I’ve been a reader since childhood and books have simply become a part of my life’s tapestry. They have comforted me in times of stress. They have provided me with ripples of joy. And simply kept me up almost all night. The books that I have recommended underscore the changing cultures of the human condition all centered around three universal themes, faith, mental illness, and family. When drafting my first novel I dived into simply capturing aspects of the human condition. As a mental health clinician I see the many tides of life and how the human condition has many times been couched within family dynamics.
This novel is simply beautiful. It surrounds the biblical character Esther and her unexpected transition from being snatched from her home and dumped into the harem of the king. This novel highlights coping with the unexpected path that life sometimes presents. It is also careful to highlight how culture can influence our experiences and decisions. Esther dives into how this young woman learns to navigate the road less traveled and finds a new one all her own. It is not a coming-of-age story, it is a coming of self story. The power of a woman is clearly outlined in this novel and how being buried under pressure can create a diamond indeed.
When an ambitious tyrant threatens genocide against the Jews, an inexperienced young queen must take a stand for her people.
When Xerxes, king of Persia, issues a call for beautiful young women, Hadassah, a Jewish orphan living in Susa, is forcibly taken to the palace of the pagan ruler. After months of preparation, the girl known to the Persians as Esther wins the king's heart and a queen's crown. But because her situation is uncertain, she keeps her ethnic identity a secret until she learns that an evil and ambitious man has won the king's permission to exterminate all Jews--young…
This collection started when I had to take a course on Milton as part of my Literature degree program. It didn't make any sense to me blame Eve for the downfall of Man. (I hadn't yet developed much of a feminist consciousness and so didn't realize that women are always blamed... perhaps especially by men, perhaps especially for their own—i.e., men's—behaviour...) "I am Eve" (the first piece in the collection) is actually based on my term paper. After I graduated, I decided to go through the Bible to see who else needed to protest...
Written in 1899, this is still thebook to read. It contains thorough and thoughtful commentary on the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy (part one) and Joshua to Revelation (part two). 369 pages in all. It includes the original text to be commented upon, so there is no need to go out and buy a Bible. And it is, in a word, mind-blowing. (And it will depress the hell out of you to see where we still are 123 years later.)
The publication of The Woman's Bible in 1895 and 1898 represented the last crusade of pioneer feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton to strike at the roots of the ideology behind her gender's subordinate role in society. In the tradition of radical individualism that guided her philosophy, Stanton's attack on religious orthodoxy is more a forceful political treatise than a scholarly work. This clarion call to action, assembled by Stanton and a committee of prominent feminists, consists of a book-by-book examination of the Bible, placing events in their historical context, interpreting passages as both allegory and fact, and comparing them with the…
As an archaeologist for over 50 years, I specialized in Household Archaeology, the branch of archaeology that investigates daily life. I was born and spent my childhood in British Mandatorial Palestine and then grew up to adulthood in Israel after it was founded. I spent many years as a kibbutz member in the Northern Negev living near the Bedouin. These experiences brought me close to pre-industrial societies. All my life I was surrounded by archaeological sites, taught biblical archaeology for over 40 years in college and wrote several books and articles on subjects related to daily life in biblical times.
Women played an important role in daily life of biblical Israel, but not much has been written about them. This book uses a fictional character to describe the lifecycle events and daily life activities experienced by girls and women in ancient Israel using archaeological, iconographic, and ethnographic information. Each chapter is devoted to a major event in the life of the character, from birth to death, describing in a story-telling manner how women coped, focusing on the specific events, customs, crafts, technologies, and other activities in which an Israelite female would have participated on a daily basis.
This volume describes the lifecycle events and daily life activities experienced by girls and women in ancient Israel examining recent biblical scholarship and other textual evidence from the ancient Near East and Egypt including archaeological, iconographic and ethnographic data. From this Ebeling creates a detailed, accessible description of the lives of women living in the central highland villages of Iron Age I (ca. 1200-1000 BCE) Israel. The book opens with an introduction that provides a brief historical survey of Iron Age (ca. 1200-586 BCE) Israel, a discussion of the problems involved in using the Hebrew Bible as a source, a…
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