10 books like What's So Amazing About Grace?

By Philip Yancey,

Here are 10 books that authors have personally recommended if you like What's So Amazing About Grace?. Shepherd is a community of 8,000+ authors sharing their favorite books with the world.

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The Sacred Romance

By Brent Curtis, John Eldredge,

Book cover of The Sacred Romance: Drawing Closer to the Heart of God

Harry Kraus Author Of Could I Have This Dance?

From the list on Christians who feel like there has to be something more.

Who am I?

I am a practicing board-certified general surgeon and my writing reflects the medical authenticity of an “insider.” I have divided my professional life between practice in America, and also in East Africa, serving as a surgeon and instructor. I am also a man of grace, who has sought to fight against a legalistic Christianity of my youth. We experience life in story, and fiction is the perfect way to teach the heart concepts of love, and perhaps stir within the reader a longing for something more.

Harry's book list on Christians who feel like there has to be something more

Discover why each book is one of Harry's favorite books.

Why did Harry love this book?

This book presents Christianity the way it was intended to be, but is rarely experienced: a love relationship initiated by our Heavenly Father who has pursued us with a quiet, lifelong haunting. 

The Sacred Romance

By Brent Curtis, John Eldredge,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

If you're feeling lost, disconnected, or longing for something more, join bestselling authors John Eldredge and Brent Curtis as they explore the greatest love of our lives: our faith. The Sacred Romance invites us to find the peace and purpose we crave by slowing down, asking questions, and deepening our relationship with God.

Eldredge and Curtis believe that modern Christians have lost touch with our hearts. We've left that essential part of ourselves behind in the pursuit of efficiency, success, and the busyness of our lives.

The Sacred Romance will guide you through a journey to getting to know yourself…


Book cover of The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life

Harry Kraus Author Of Could I Have This Dance?

From the list on Christians who feel like there has to be something more.

Who am I?

I am a practicing board-certified general surgeon and my writing reflects the medical authenticity of an “insider.” I have divided my professional life between practice in America, and also in East Africa, serving as a surgeon and instructor. I am also a man of grace, who has sought to fight against a legalistic Christianity of my youth. We experience life in story, and fiction is the perfect way to teach the heart concepts of love, and perhaps stir within the reader a longing for something more.

Harry's book list on Christians who feel like there has to be something more

Discover why each book is one of Harry's favorite books.

Why did Harry love this book?

This Christian classic opened my heart to the concept that the Christian life is to be lived out of carefree trust and not anxious duty. She deals with the honest struggles and gives practical advice on dealing with temptations, failures, and doubts. If you find yourself anxious over life’s pressure, this is a must-read.

The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life

By Hannah Whitall Smith,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Every person experiences doubts. What keeps someone together in these times is a firm foundation in God's faithfulness, rather than allowing their lives to be moved on a roller coaster of emotions. The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life has stood the test of time, and helped millions understand how to have full and complete assurance in God alone. Personal reflection questions help the reader to remember that this is not just a classic to be enjoyed, but also a journey to walked.


The Ragamuffin Gospel

By Brennan Manning,

Book cover of The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out

Harry Kraus Author Of Could I Have This Dance?

From the list on Christians who feel like there has to be something more.

Who am I?

I am a practicing board-certified general surgeon and my writing reflects the medical authenticity of an “insider.” I have divided my professional life between practice in America, and also in East Africa, serving as a surgeon and instructor. I am also a man of grace, who has sought to fight against a legalistic Christianity of my youth. We experience life in story, and fiction is the perfect way to teach the heart concepts of love, and perhaps stir within the reader a longing for something more.

Harry's book list on Christians who feel like there has to be something more

Discover why each book is one of Harry's favorite books.

Why did Harry love this book?

This book is a welcome relief to burnt-out and bedraggled Christians who have slipped into a life of duteous religious activity in the place of a love relationship. The answer is found in one word: Grace. If you have doubts about God’s relentless tenderness towards you, read this book. Reread this book. We are all ragamuffins, but we are all loved without conditions.

The Ragamuffin Gospel

By Brennan Manning,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Are you bedraggled, beat-up, burnt-out?

Most of us believe in God’s grace—in theory. But somehow we can’t seem to apply it in our daily lives. We continue to see Him as a small-minded bookkeeper, tallying our failures and successes on a score sheet.

Yet God gives us His grace, willingly, no matter what we’ve done. We come to Him as ragamuffins—dirty, bedraggled, and beat-up. And when we sit at His feet, He smiles upon us, the chosen objects of His “furious love.”

Brennan Manning’s now-classic meditation on grace and what it takes to access it—simple honesty—has changed thousands of lives.…


Intimacy with the Almighty

By Charles Swindoll,

Book cover of Intimacy with the Almighty

Harry Kraus Author Of Could I Have This Dance?

From the list on Christians who feel like there has to be something more.

Who am I?

I am a practicing board-certified general surgeon and my writing reflects the medical authenticity of an “insider.” I have divided my professional life between practice in America, and also in East Africa, serving as a surgeon and instructor. I am also a man of grace, who has sought to fight against a legalistic Christianity of my youth. We experience life in story, and fiction is the perfect way to teach the heart concepts of love, and perhaps stir within the reader a longing for something more.

Harry's book list on Christians who feel like there has to be something more

Discover why each book is one of Harry's favorite books.

Why did Harry love this book?

This little book prods us to silence and solitude to recapture the intimacy that we crave but few experience. I have reread this little book many times and it gently reminds me of what is so easily lost in the hurry of modern life. Our present society has pushed these disciplines, not just off the front burner, but off the stove entirely. When solitude and silence are recaptured, we find ourselves at rest, enjoying the presence of our loving Father.

Intimacy with the Almighty

By Charles Swindoll,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Intimacy with the Almighty as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Noise and words and frenzied, hectic schedules dull our senses, closing our ears to His still, small voice and making us numb to His touch.

Charles Swindoll offers all new insights from his own journal to guide people on a journey of intimacy with God. This keepsake book includes pages in Swindoll's handwriting collected in an embossed, antique-looking cover.


Finally Free

By Heath Lambert,

Book cover of Finally Free: Fighting for Purity with the Power of Grace

Kristen Clark and Bethany Beal Author Of Sex, Purity, and the Longings of a Girl's Heart: Discovering the Beauty and Freedom of God-Defined Sexuality

From the list on Christian books on marriage and sexuality.

Who are we?

We are sisters and the co-founders of Girl Defined Ministries, where our goal is to help modern girls understand and live out God’s timeless truth for womanhood. Through Girl Defined we talk about such topics as biblical womanhood, relationships, love, marriage, sexuality, identity, and much more.

Kristen's book list on Christian books on marriage and sexuality

Discover why each book is one of Kristen's favorite books.

Why did Kristen love this book?

In Finally Free, Heath Lambert details a Biblical process for fighting and overcoming pornography and sexual sin. No matter how long or hard the battle, there is so much hope in Christ! Whether you’ve struggled with this, or know someone who has, read this book! It’s transformative! It’s not about porn; it’s about Christ and the hope of the gospel. He can lead you to finally find freedom.

Finally Free

By Heath Lambert,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Finally Free as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Eight gospel-centered strategies for overcoming the lure of pornography and finally breaking free.

This book is not about pornography. You won't find graphic depictions about the porn industry, the catastrophic effects it has on individuals and relationships, or how to think differently about porn. If you're reading this book, you probably have some understanding of those things already-the last thing you need is to be subjected to that kind of detail...again.

Finally Free is about hope. It's about discovering the freeing power available to those who trust in Jesus Christ, who can, will, and does set people free from the…


The Knot of Vipers

By Francois Mauriac,

Book cover of The Knot of Vipers

Kenneth Steven Author Of Iona: New and Selected Poems

From the list on spiritual places.

Who am I?

I’ve been fortunate enough to have had a different kind of life. I was brought up by two writers who took me to magical places, far away from cities, to meet magical people. I spent my childhood searching for horse chestnuts and looking for otters. I wasn’t interested in electronic games and loud music: I wanted instead to be out in nature, watching for wild things and listening to the song of birds. It comes back to Iona, to this tiny little island on the west coast of Scotland which I will feel always is my spiritual home. In that place, I have everything I need. Nothing that a big city can offer tempts. Ever.

Kenneth's book list on spiritual places

Discover why each book is one of Kenneth's favorite books.

Why did Kenneth love this book?

I studied this book at school and found myself coming back to it again and again long after I had grown into adulthood. It’s inspired by a part of France that the author knew well and loved deeply. It was a place of pine forests and great summer heat, and you can smell the trees and feel yourself in that landscape on every page of the work. The book is about an old man nearing the end of his life. He is not a good man nor a kind one: quite the reverse. And yet in these pages, there is redemption: he finds himself and he finds the peace he has longed for all the days of his life.

The Knot of Vipers

By Francois Mauriac,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The masterpiece of one of the greatest modern Catholic writers, The Knot of Vipers tells the story of Monsieur Louis, an embittered ageing lawyer who has spread his misery to his entire estranged family. Louis writes a journal to explain to them, and to himself, why his soul has been deformed, why his heart seems like a foul nest of twisted serpents. Mauriac's novel masterfully explores the corruption caused by pride, avarice and hatred, and its opposite the divine grace that remains available to each of us until the very moment of our deaths. It is the unforgettable tale of…


The Quest of the Holy Grail

By Unknown, Pauline M. Matarasso (translator),

Book cover of The Quest of the Holy Grail

Graeme Davis Author Of Thor: Viking God of Thunder

From the list on mythology and its impact on the world.

Who am I?

Graeme Davis has been fascinated by myth and folklore ever since he saw Ray Harryhausen’s creatures in Jason and the Argonauts as a child. While studying archaeology at Durham University, he became far too involved with a new game called Dungeons & Dragons and went on to a career in fantasy games. He has written game sourcebooks on various ancient cultures and their myths, and worked as a researcher and consultant on multiple video games with historical and mythological settings.

Graeme's book list on mythology and its impact on the world

Discover why each book is one of Graeme's favorite books.

Why did Graeme love this book?

This is an early example of mythology being used for a deliberate purpose: in this case, the promotion of Christian chivalric virtue. Full of dreamlike images and allegories, it also had a great influence on early fantasy writing, even if those creating early fantasy tales had never read it. And then, of course, there’s Monty Python.

The Quest of the Holy Grail

By Unknown, Pauline M. Matarasso (translator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Quest of the Holy Grail as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Composed by an unknown author in early thirteenth-century France, The Quest of the Holy Grail is a fusion of Arthurian legend and Christian symbolism, reinterpreting ancient Celtic myth as a profound spiritual fable. It recounts the quest of the knights of Camelot - the simple Perceval, the thoughtful Bors, the rash Gawain, the weak Lancelot and the saintly Galahad - as they journey through danger and temptation to reach the elusive Holy Grail. But only one of them is judged worthy to see the mysteries within the sacred vessel, and look upon the ineffable. Enfused with tragic grandeur and an…


Book cover of Flannery O'Connor Collected Works

Brian Malloy Author Of After Francesco

From the list on that mix comedy and tragedy.

Who am I?

I’m a gay Midwestern novelist who finds that literary fiction is often humorless, with a narrow emotional range that begins with ennui and ends in despair. If you're weary of trauma porn and want to read books with a broad emotional range, this list of recommendations is for you. My favorite writers ably mix laughter and tears, and are able to find the funny in just about anything life can throw at us. 

Brian's book list on that mix comedy and tragedy

Discover why each book is one of Brian's favorite books.

Why did Brian love this book?

If you’re older, you probably read O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” for one or more lit classes; if you’re younger, you may have never heard of her as she is now “problematic” according to the unfunny woke-on-steroids crowd. I love O’Connor because I love characters with moral failings, I love mordant humor, and I love the possibility that even the most irredeemable among us can experience moments of grace. The brief details in her stories do such heavy lifting in terms of irony, for example when a Wellesley undergrad hits Mrs. Turpin in the head with a copy of Human Development in the short story “Revelation.” The action itself – a privileged white college student from an elite school inflicting violence upon a rural white woman – also speaks to our ongoing culture wars. 

Flannery O'Connor Collected Works

By Flannery O'Connor,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Flannery O'Connor Collected Works as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In her short lifetime, Flannery O’Connor became one of the most distinctive American writers of the twentieth century. By birth a native of Georgia and a Roman Catholic, O’Connor depicts, in all its comic and horrendous incongruity, the limits of worldly wisdom and the mysteries of divine grace in the “Christ-haunted” Protestant South. This Library of America collection, the most comprehensive ever published, contains all of her novels and short-story collections, as well as nine other stories, eight of her most important essays, and a selection of 259 witty, spirited, and revealing letters, twenty-one published here for the first time.…


Ring Shout

By P. Djèlí Clark,

Book cover of Ring Shout

K.R. Wilson Author Of Call Me Stan: A Tragedy in Three Millennia

From the list on deeply weird historical novels.

Who am I?

I’m a writer in Toronto, Canada. My novel Call Me Stan is weird historical fiction. Probably not as weird as the books below, but still weird. Its initial inspiration was the stunning cognitive dissonance between composer Richard Wagner’s vile anti-Semitism and his fascination with the Buddha. If I’d stuck with just that idea, I might’ve ended up with a fairly conventional historical novel. But a second idea collided with it and gave it energy: the legend of the cursed immortal referred to as the Wandering Jew. That gave me a present-day narrator who could carry us through a vast sweep of history in a jarringly anachronistic way. Which was exactly weird enough for me. 

K.R.'s book list on deeply weird historical novels

Discover why each book is one of K.R.'s favorite books.

Why did K.R. love this book?

Ring Shout is historical fiction on a whole other level of weirdness, in the best possible way. It’s 1922 in Macon, Georgia, and a ragtag group of Black women and their allies are fighting back against the Ku Kluxes. But not all Ku Kluxes are just men in white hoods. Sure, they all start out that way, but a malign supernatural influence spread by the white supremacist film The Birth of a Nation has started transforming them into bone-white, red-eyed, nine-foot-tall demons. Yes, Klansmen as literal demons. It’s a bit on the nose, but it totally works. Ring Shout is both unapologetically political horror writing and a superbly well-crafted novel. 

Ring Shout

By P. Djèlí Clark,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Ring Shout as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark returns with Ring Shout, a dark fantasy historical novella that gives a supernatural twist to the Ku Klux Klan's reign of terror

“A fantastical, brutal and thrilling triumph of the imagination...Clark’s combination of historical and political reimagining is cathartic, exhilarating and fresh.” ―The New York Times

A 2021 Nebula Award Winner
A 2021 Locus Award Winner

A New York Times Editor's Choice Pick!
A Booklist Editor's Choice Pick!

A 2021 Hugo Award Finalist
A 2021 World Fantasy Award Finalist
A 2021 Ignyte Award Finalist
A 2021 Shirley Jackson Award Finalist
A 2021…


Book cover of The Second Coming of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition

Jeff Stookey Author Of Dangerous Medicine

From the list on the 1920s Ku Klux Klan in Oregon and the USA.

Who am I?

When I first moved to Portland, Oregon, I heard about the 1988 murder of an Ethiopian student by skinheads of the White Aryan Resistance. A famous trial subsequently bankrupted that white supremacist organization. When I began writing my trilogy, set in 1923, I learned about the strength of the Oregon KKK during the 1920s. I could see a direct line between the bigotry of that era and contemporary Portland. The more I studied the Klan of the 20s, the more I knew this information had to be part of my novels. Besides these book recommendations, I read numerous articles about Klan history. Everyone should learn this history.

Jeff's book list on the 1920s Ku Klux Klan in Oregon and the USA

Discover why each book is one of Jeff's favorite books.

Why did Jeff love this book?

I value this book for its thorough description of the many elements that made the Klan of the 1920s so ascendant: its hostility toward immigrants, big city liberal elites, intellectuals, Jews, Catholics, and fear of the many changes in society. The author says she began writing an article about 20th-century American social movements, but because of the 2016 election, expanded it into this book. Similarly, I felt the same urgency to complete my trilogy and get it out to the public at that time. Just as I tried to portray 1920 parallels with our contentious politics today, Gordon concludes by illuminating correlations between the 1920s KKK and contemporary right-wing beliefs, and their similarities and differences regarding European fascism. Bigotry-fueled fear waxes and wanes in America.

The Second Coming of the KKK

By Linda Gordon,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Second Coming of the KKK as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Extraordinary national acclaim accompanied the publication of award-winning historian Linda Gordon's disturbing and markedly timely history of the reassembled Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s. Dramatically challenging our preconceptions of the hooded Klansmen responsible for establishing a Jim Crow racial hierarchy in the 1870s South, this "second Klan" spread in states principally above the Mason-Dixon line by courting xenophobic fears surrounding the flood of immigrant "hordes" landing on American shores. "Part cautionary tale, part expose" (Washington Post), The Second Coming of the KKK "illuminates the surprising scope of the movement" (The New Yorker); the Klan attracted four-to-six-million members through secret…


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