2026
Books That Shaped My Faith, Mind, and Work
I’ve never believed in reading lists built around trends or productivity.
The books that stay with me, the ones I return to again and again, are the ones that form me. They shape how I live, how I work, how I think, and how I carry my faith into ordinary days.
To make sense of that, I group books not by genre, but by the principle of Heart, Head, and Hands that I learned through the Waldorf School.
Some books shape the heart (HEART).
Some sharpen the mind (HEAD).
Some help us live it out (HANDS).
Most of these books shape more than one area of life, but I’ve placed each where its influence is strongest.
The most important book in my life is the Bible.
The edition I use most often for study and journaling is the Inspire Bible (NLT), a physical Bible designed for colouring and creative journaling. I love it because it invites me to slow down, sit with Scripture, and engage with it visually and prayerfully.
It’s not about making the Bible pretty though I enjoy that.
It’s about making space for attention, reflection, and presence. I also love the Bible App as I love to read various translations.
A small note before you browse: I use Amazon Canada affiliate links on this page. If you choose to purchase through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. You’re also welcome to copy any book title and find it in your local Amazon store, a bookstore you love, or your library.
May these books serve your life the way the have mine, however you access them.
Books that form who we are before they teach us what to do.
These are not books to rush through.
They are companions, often revisited, often read slowly.
These are the physical books on the shelves in my home, treasured and passed down.
M. Scott Peck
A lifelong companion on discipline, truth, love, and spiritual maturity. This one I have read many, many times throughout my different seasons of my life and I get something new out of it each time I read it, applicable to the season I find myself in.
Rick Warren
Identity and calling anchored in God’s purposes rather than one single individual life purpose. I read this first as a 19 year old and it anchored the direction of my life. I read it again in my late 30s with a group of young women as a book study and I gleaned even more from it.
Paulo Coelho
A reflective spiritual journey shaped by discipline, attentiveness, and trust. One day, I will do the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compestella, perhaps alone, perhaps with someone I love, this journey was one I travel back to regularly
Viktor E. Frankl
A quiet, powerful meditation on suffering, meaning, and the human spirit reminding us that purpose, not comfort, is what sustains us. It was a book that made me humble and confident in my own suffering and trauma and I believe everyone should read it.
John Eldredge & Stasi Eldredge
Identity, belovedness, and the restoration of the feminine heart beneath roles and expectations. This one meant a great deal to me as a young adult and I recently reread it as I am a mother to a young girl. If you are a husband, father, or even just a young single man, this book will transform how you relate to the women in your life.
John Eldredge
Recovering courage, purpose, and the heart beneath cultural scripts. This one is excellent to understand the heart of a man the way God made them. It is written for men, yet I recommend that women read this understand the men in your life more.
Mitch Albom
Formation through mortality, love, and meaning. A classic must read. One of those books that makes me ugly cry. Yet I read it over and over again, and yes, I cry every time.
Bruce Wilkinson
A parable of calling, desire, and faithfulness formed before outcomes. I love parable style stories, and this one encourages me every time I doubt my calling. I discovered this book by accident too, in a small church library while my daughter was in musical theatre rehearsals.
Mark Batterson
You will look back longingly on risks not taken, opportunities not seized, and dreams not pursued. Stop running away from what scares you most and start chasing the God-ordained opportunities that cross your path. This book gave me the courage to chase God-sized dreams! This book challenges you by asking: “Are you living your life in a way that is worth telling stories about?”
Books that sharpen how we see the world.
These books give language to what we already sense, shaping worldview, imagination, and clarity.
This section contains both fiction and non-fiction.
Joshua Medcalf
This is one of my favourite books ever. It's not even written that well grammatically but I love it. I read it to Nova-Mae, I do my best to Chop Wood and Carry Daughter every day (personal joke, ask me and I'll gladly share the story) and I have read and will read anything that Joshua Medcalf has published. It's about love of the journey written as a parable style story.
Joshua Medcalf
Stewardship over a lifetime, giving fully and wisely without burning out. Deeply formative to both my practice and my heart. I enjoy all of Joshua Medcalf’s book but this one and Chop Wood Carry Water are my favourite. I pray for a Sensie like Akira in my own life, if you've read it, you know what I mean.
John Mark Comer
Slowing down as a spiritual discipline, foundational to my understanding of Sabbath and pace. I need to read this one again this coming year. It changed so much in my life for the better.
C. S. Lewis
A challenging read that took me time, but one I return to often. Lewis doesn’t argue from emotion. He reasons his way from atheism to Christianity with remarkable clarity.
C. S. Lewis
Moral imagination and spiritual clarity delivered through satire. Pretty eye opening even in modern times. It's humbling to say the least and will have you think deeply on ways you have been decieved in our world. It helped me realize where all my self doubt and self pity came from.
Max Lucado
An invitation to release burdens we were never meant to carry. This book was a chance buy in a local bookstore. I had been carrying a lot for a long time and sometimes I feel God places a book directly in my path, have you ever had that happen to you?
Sir Ken Robinson
Reframing creativity, vocation, and being fully alive.
Stephen King
A grounded reflection on writing as discipline and craft.
Jim Murphy
A grounded exploration of inner discipline, presence, and character as the foundation of lasting excellence.
Some stories don’t stay in the mind.
They move through the imagination and settle in the heart.
These are the story books that give me what I call the holy shivers, the ones that make me feel, they make me cry, they restore hope, and they quietly reshape how I understand goodness, courage, sacrifice, and love.
I place them here not because they are only about thinking and imagination, but because story is often how truth reaches us first.
C.S. Lewis
Honestly, these have been favourites since childhood, I even had good ol' casette tapes that were the OG audiobooks that I listened to over and over again. I have reread them many times and I have fond memories of the first time that I read them to Nova-Mae.
Andrew Peterson
Hope, loss, courage, and goodness shaped through richly moral storytelling and great humour! These are Nova-Mae’s favourite too. And honestly, I would read them again and again and then again. There author is phenomenal and not since Narnia have I loved a fantasy series this much!
Charlie Mackesy
A beautiful visual book about friendship, tenderness, meaning, and truth held gently. The illustrations and deep feelings in this book held me through heartache and hope simultaneously. There are illsutrations in here I would love to print out on canvas.
Francine Rivers
Just read it. I know the covers may look cheesy, I know they categorize it as Christian romance but it is so much more, it is historical fiction with a deep interwoven story at it's finest.
Francine Rivers
The second book after a Voice in the Wind. These books inspired my faith in so many ways and I even found myself in Ephesus, the historical site, marvelling at the past and what people of faith endured and overcame and I was stronger for it.
Redemption and belovedness encountered through story. So much more than just a love story. I read this book in Afrikaans first, can you believe it, during my Au Pair in the US in 2003. I've reread it in English multiple times. It changed how I viewed true love, it enabled me to feel so much more and understand so much more.
Books that help belief become daily life.
These books translate wisdom into rhythms, habits, and stewardship.
Several of them have deeply shaped my heart as well, even though they live primarily in practice.
John C. Maxwell
I love all the John Maxwell books that I have read, this one is by far my favourite though. This book opened my eyes to how my values and faith can and should in fact be synonymous with who I am so that what I do has the best foundation to live for significance not just chase success. Highly recommend for everyone!
Systems thinking for work and business, structure that supports sustainability and the book that started my love for systems thinking whilst I was still a university student. He has a few others books I recommend whether you own a business or work in a business they are great!
Hal Elrod
A practical framework for establishing morning rhythms that honestly change your life. I still do mine almost every morning, this year I am to do it every morning regardless of where I am or what is going on, this book has helped me improve my life significantly and I love his podcast too.
Joshua Medcalf
Letting go of outcome-obsession in favour of values, process, and character. This threw my goal driven, vision board loving, process for a loop. Iit's so counter cultural that my rebellious side just soaked it all up, and yep, I burned my goals for what I wanted and replaced them instead with commitments on who I wanted to become, well some of them, I'm still learning!
Julia Cameron
Seeing creativity as attentiveness, practice, and listening. It's a journey of depth, persitance, and revelation. Even if you don't consider yourself a creative I highly recommend this book. I still do my Morning Pages, just part of my Miracle Morning now.
Joshua Becker
Practical simplicity, owning less so life can hold more freedom and intention. It's not really about minimalism, for me it's more about essentialism. I love all his books on the subject. There is also a great one called Clutter Free with Kids and it is a great way to work on this concept with children.
John Medina
A foundational book that changed how I understand early brain development. Once you know how deeply presence, connection, and attention shape a child’s nervous system, it’s impossible to unsee the cost of distraction in those early years. Understanding how a baby’s brain develops makes it heartbreaking to see how often presence is replaced by screens, not from malice, but from not knowing.
Sharifa Oppenheimer
As familiar structures shift and the world our children are growing into feels less certain, this book grounded me in what actually matters. It’s a reminder that while culture and systems may change, the atmosphere of the home remains formative. It is how I have structured my daughter's environment for home, learning, and growing, it has grown and taught me more than I ever expected.
Kathy Koch
A deeply affirming book about shaping children through identity, dignity, and connection, reminding us that who a child is always matters more than what they do. All of Kathy Koch’s books are great but this one is foundational for me.
I’m always open to meaningful recommendations, especially books that have shaped your heart, your thinking, or how you live day to day.
If there’s a book you’ve returned to, kept on your shelf, or carried with you through a season of life, I’d love to hear about it.
Feel free to share the book title and author, and, if you’d like, a sentence or two about why it mattered to you.
I love a good book, and I especially love a thoughtful recommendation.
You don’t need to read everything.
You don’t need to read quickly.
And you don’t need to read what everyone else is reading.
The books that matter most are the ones that form you over time.
But reading matters.
Books shape the heart and stretch the mind, and over time they shape the way we live. Through them, we sit with great minds, faithful lives, enduring truths, and at their best, we are drawn closer to the One from whom all wisdom flows.