Inspired by this post, 100 Books Every Man Needs to Read, I tried to come up with my own 100-book list. I got up to 65, then 118, and then cut it back down to 86, then back up to 112, down to 91, and so on…. I’m at 96 now and tired of trying to decide what should go on it and what shouldn’t. I’m trying to achieve some sort of balance, I suppose — genre, history, voices, etc… but I don’t know if it’s realistic to put a limit on myself, though it’s a good question to ask: If I could read ONLY 100 books, what should they be? I may tweak pending input, or not. 🙂
THIS LIST WAS LAST UPDATED JUNE 2024.
A Biblical Walk Through the Mass – Edward Sri
A Mother’s Rule of Life – Holly Pierlot
A Return to Modesty – Wendy Shalit
A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Mosseini
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn – Betty Smith
Abandonment to Divine Providence – Jean Pierre de Caussade
Adam and Eve After the Pill – Mary Eberstadt
An Introduction to the Devout Life – St. Francis de Sales
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle – Barbara Kingsolver
Anne of Green Gables (series) – Lucy Maud Montgomery
Arriving at Amen – Leah Libresco
Breaking Through: Catholic Women Speak for Themselves – Helen Alvare
Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
Building the Benedict Option – Leah Libresco Sargeant
Catherine of Siena – Sigrid Undset
Chiara Corbella Petrillo – Simone Troisi & Cristiana Paccini
Chiara Luce: A Life Lived to the Full – Michele Zanzucchi
Come Be My Light – St. Teresa of Calcutta
Covenanted Happiness – Cormac Burke
Divine Intimacy – Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene
Essays on Woman – Edith Stein (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross)
Extreme Makeover – Teresa Tomeo
For Women Only – Shaunti Feldhahn
God Has No Grandchildren – Leila Marie Lawler
Hold On to Your Kids – Gabor and Mate
Holiness for Housewives – Hubert Van Zeller
Home Comforts – Cheryl Mendelson
In This House of Brede – Rumer Godden
Interior Castle – St. Teresa of Avila
Interior Freedom – Fr. Jacques Philippe
Introduction to the Devout Life – St. Francis de Sales
Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary – Edward Sri
Jesus of Nazareth – Pope Benedict XVI
Joseph of Nazareth – Federico Suarez
Kristin Lavransdatter – Sigrid Undset
Left to Tell – Immaculee Ilibagiza
Life-Giving Love – Kimberly Hahn
Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
Love and Responsibility – St. John Paul II
Making Sense Out of Suffering – Peter Kreeft
Man and Woman He Created Them – Michael Waldstein
Married Saints and Blesseds – Ferdinand Holbock
Mulieris Dignitatem – St. John Paul II
My Sisters, the Saints – Colleen Carroll Campbell
North and South – Elizabeth Gaskell
Nudging Conversions – Carrie Gress
Of Boys and Men – Richard Reeves
Please Don’t Drink the Holy Water – Susie Lloyd
Poems and Prose – Gerard Manley Hopkins
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
Rome Sweet Home – Scott and Kimberly Hahn
Saintly Women of Modern Times – Joan Carroll Cruz
Searching for and Maintaining Peace – Jacques Philippe
Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
Simplifying Your Domestic Church – Abby Sasscer
Something Other than God – Jennifer Fulwiler
Splendor in the Ordinary – Thomas Howard
St. Monica Club – Maggie Green
Strange Gods: Unmasking the Idols in Everyday Life- Elizabeth Scalia
Strangers in a Strange Land – Charles Chaput
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey
The Abolition of Woman – Fiorella Nash
The Anti-Mary Exposed – Carrie Gress
The Art of Living – Dietrich von Hildebrand (with Alice)
The Authentic Catholic Woman – Genevieve Kineke
The Betrothed – Alessandro Manzoni
The Catholic All Year Compendium
The Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor – Flannery O’Connor
The Dark Night of the Soul – St. John of the Cross
The End of the Affair – Graham Greene
The Eternal Woman – Gertrude von le Fort
The Fairy Tale Novels (series) – Regina Doman
The Five Love Languages – Gary Chapman
The Fulfillment of All Desire – Ralph Martin
The Genesis of Gender – Abigail Favale
The Hidden Power of Kindness – Fr. Lawrence Lovasik
The Imitation of Christ – Thomas a Kempis
The Little Oratory – Leila Lawler & David Clayton
The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
The Marian Option – Carrie Gress
The Noonday Devil – Jean-Charles Nault
The Omnivore’s Dilemma – Michael Pollan
The Other Side of Beauty – Leah Darrow
The Power of Silence – Cardinal Sarah
The Practice of the Presence of God – Brother Lawrence
The Privilege of Being a Woman – Alice von Hildebrand
The Reed of God – Carryl Houselander
The Rights of Women – Erika Bachiochi
The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur – Elisabeth Leseur
The Sinner’s Guide – Luis de Granada
The Sinner’s Guide to Natural Family Planning
The Song of Bernadette – Franz Werfel
The Spiritual Combat – Dom Lorenzo Scupoli
The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius – St. Ignatius of Loyola
The Summa Domestica – Leila Lawler
The Story of a Soul – St. Therese of Lisieux
The World’s First Love – Fulton Sheen
True Devotion to Mary – St. Louis de Montfort
Unrepeatable – Luke Burgis and Joshua Miller
What We Can’t Not Know – J. Budziszewski
What a great list! You have my very favorite Catholic book, The Lord. Another good one is Frank Sheed’s Theology and Sanity.
A brilliant list Congratulations Thankyou 💖💖👏👏🙏🙏