20 Books to Read with Your Book Club

Since I began blogging in 2015, I’ve noticed a growing trend among the readers of my blog. Women want to know what to read! I love this, because I can certainly relate.

I’m often looking at the book lists of women who exhibit spiritual growth, integrity, or characteristics that I am working to develop as a wife, mother, teacher, friend, and servant of God. There are women I trust for recommendations because I see tremendous fruit in their lives.

For example, if Ann Voskamp recommends a book; I want to look it up on Goodreads, read the Amazon description, or look for it at my local library. I trust Ann because I see her passion for Jesus, her husband, her family, and the Kingdom of God. I see her serving the Lord through motherhood, adoption, missions, and most recently–hosting a refugee family in her own home. I see the way she lives with eternity in mind. This counter-culture worldview is the kind of reader I’m willing to trust. I know that her go-to book is the Bible. This is clear. {Same for me. Hopefully the same for you?} In addition to this, I want to know– What else inspires her to follow Jesus? Who is speaking truth into her life on pages? Who challenges Ann Voskamp and encourages her to grow? Ann is just one of the women whose book choices are of interest to me. You can read more from my favorite author by clicking here.

There are other women who follow Jesus with such a passion that I want to read their book lists. (I feel like that’s a funny sentence.) Here are a few of my own favorite authors/bloggers to follow for truly good reads: Kristen Welch, Jennie Allen, Allison Burr, and Sally Clarkson. They’re all vastly different, but I see something in each of them that encourages me to grow in the specific areas of my life that matter most in this season. This list of women is not exhaustive, (I have a few dozen other favorites) but you get the drift. Life is too busy to read lackluster literature. I appreciate a good recommendation that I can trust.

For the most part, I’m a social reader. I love to read books with groups of women. I want to hear their ideas and thoughts. A dozen women can read the same book, and they will have a dozen different takeaways. They’ll see different themes and draw different inspirations. From. The. Same. Book.

Today, I’m sharing 20 books that I know will lead you into deep and meaningful conversation with the women in your own book clubs.

These books are diverse and this list could easily have been 50 books, but this is a good starting place for such a topic. I picked these 20 books based on their ability to make us think and grow as women, followers of Jesus, wives, mothers, and kind human beings. That is not to say that they are all by Christian authors. There are a couple mainstream, secular books on this list. I have added them because they will make us think differently and will challenge us to live more compassionate lives as followers of Jesus. As Christian women, we need to be having these conversations. Most of these books are admittedly Christian non-fiction. I would call very few of them “self-help,” because that isn’t the main intent of most of these books. A few of these books are fiction and are well worth our time, affections, and conversations as well.

I cannot promise every one of these books is a good fit for your book club. I can promise that you will find one, two, or maybe a dozen that will work for your specific group. I highly encourage you to check the Amazon descriptions or the Goodreads reviews. (Maybe not so much on the Goodreads. Why are readers so cruel with their words to authors? Scratch that.) I highly encourage you to research a few titles of interest and to share this list with your own book club. I have shared almost every book on this list with other women in some way: Book clubs, swaps, recommendations from friends, passing the book onto a friend, reading at the same time, and the like. I guarantee these books will inspire you to grow and to share with the women in your own life.

Without further ado, here are twenty books to read with your book club, sisters, mom, or friends. Happy reading!

1) Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

2) Rhinestone Jesus by Kristen Welch

3) Love Lives Here by Maria Goff

4) Anything by Jennie Allen

5) The Fringe Hours by Jessica Turner

6) Crazy Love by Francis Chan

7) Uninvited by Lysa Terkeurst

8) Small, Great Things by Jodi Picoult

9) The Broken Way by Ann Voskamp

10) Raising Grateful Kids in and Entitled World by Kristen Welch

11) Love Does by Bob Goff

12) The Women of Easter by Liz Curtis Higgs

13) Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

14) The Lifegiving Home by Sally Clarkson

15) The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

16) The Women of Christmas by Liz Curtis Higgs

17) Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis Majors

18) Radical by David Platt

19) The Turquoise Table by Kristen

20) Hope Heals by Jay and Katherine Wolf
Have you read any of these books? Which would you recommend to a book club? Let us know in the comments!

From my book-loving heart to yours,

~Courtney

P.S. If your group of friends decides to read any of the books from this list, I would love to hear back from you! I want to know if you loved it, what you learned, and whether or not you’ll be recommending it to others. You can find me on Instagram at Court_Stanford or here on the blog in the comments. Happy reading, sweet friends! May we grow through reading as we seek to follow Jesus with our whole heart, soul, and mind!