NCR Members read: Nonfiction

In fall 2025, more than 150 NCR Forward members answered the question, "Tell us the name of a book, fiction or nonfiction, that you enjoyed, and/or made a lasting impression on you." Last week we reported their answers for fiction and memoir. Below is a compilation of their responses in five nonfiction categories.

Titles recommended by multiple people are indicated by an asterisk.

 Faith, God and the spiritual journey 

• Ladder to the Light by Steven Charleston
• Saint Francis of Assisi by G.K. Chesterton 
• In Search of Belief by Joan Chittister 
• The Awakened Way by Suzanne Giesemann 
• Living Presence by Kabir Helminski 
• Ask the Beasts by Elizabeth Johnson
• Life Is Messy by Matthew Kelly
• Holy Moments by Matthew Kelly
• Every Day Sacred, Everywhere Beauty by Mary Lou Kownacki 
• Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence 
• Short Stories by Jesus by Amy-Jill Levine 
• Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis 
• Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
• Our Hearts Are Restless by Richard Lischer 
• Jesus by James Martin
• New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton 
• The Seven Storey Mountain* by Thomas Merton
• Lost Christianity by Jacob Needleman 
• Anam Cara by John O'Donohue 
• Everything Belongs by Richard Rohr 
• Falling Upward by Richard Rohr 
• The Divine Dance* by Richard Rohr
• The Tears of Things* by Richard Rohr 
• The Universal Christ* by Richard Rohr
• Cherished Belonging* by Richard Rohr 
• Wild Man to Wise Man by Richard Rohr
• A Hill of Beans by Valerie Schultz 
• Made for Goodness by Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu
• When No Thing Works by Norma Kaweloku Wong 

Justice, conscience and the moral life

• Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle
• Barking to the Choir by Gregory Boyle
• Cherished Belonging by Gregory Boyle
• Spirituality of the Beatitudes by Michael H. Crosby 
• White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo 
• Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop by Lee Drutman 
• Separation of Church and Hate* by John Fugelsang 
• Theology of Liberation by Gustavo Gutiérrez 
• The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt
• Less Is More by Jason Hickel 
• Unprotected Texts by Jennifer Wright Knust 
• Christianity’s Dangerous Memory by Diarmuid O'Murchu 
•Divine Radiance in Human Evolution by Diarmuid O'Murchu 
• A Problem from Hell* by Samantha Power 
• Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists by Raghuram Rajan and Luigi Zingales 
• Sacrament of Same-Sex Marriage by Bridget Burke Ravizza 
• The Baptizing of America by Rabbi James Rudin 
• Human Scale by Kirkpatrick Sale 
• What Money Can't Buy by Michael Sandel
• Grace at the Table by Arthur Simon and David Beckmann
• On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
• On Freedom by Timothy Snyder
• Caste by Isabel Wilkerson 
• Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams 
• Sources of the Self by Charles Taylor

Creation, ecology and our common home

• The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry 
• Laudato Si' by Pope Francis
• Climate Generation by Lorna Gold 
• Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green 
• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl 
• The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger

Suffering, death, healing and hope

• The Tenderness of God by Gillian Ahlgren 
• Elderhood by Louise Aronson
• How We Learn to be Brave by Mariann Edgar Budde
• Imagine Heaven by John Burke 
• The Gift of Years by Joan Chittister 
• Dealing with Loneliness and Intimacy by Michael Decewicz 
• While I Breathe, I Hope by Richard Gaillardetz 
• Being Mortal by Atul Gawande 
• I See Satan Fall Like Lightening by René Girard 
• Healing After Loss by Martha Hickman 
• The 36-Hour Day by Nancy Mace and Peter Rabins
• How We Die by Sherwin Nuland
• Sacred Fire by Ronald Rohlheiser
• The Years of Ripening by Joyce Rupp

History, biography, and the shaping of the church and world

• Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose
• The Accidental President by A.J. Baime 
•When the Church Was Young by Marcellino D'Ambrosio
• A Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan
• Hitler's People by Richard J. Evans 
•The Wager* by David Grann
• Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger 
•Christianity by Diarmaid MacCulloch 
•What Happened at Vatican II by John W. O'Malley
•Pope Leo XIV by Christopher White