Big News!

IVP sent out this press release on December 18, which included a photo of me and a shot of Nobody’s Mother:

Sandra L. Glahn Signs Two-Book Contract
with IVP Academic

December 2023 | Krista Clayton | kclayton@ivpress.com

LISLE, IL—Sandra L. Glahn has signed a two-book contract with IVP Academic for the spring 2026 release of A Woman's Place Is in the Story. Her second contracted book, a work in biblical studies yet to be determined, will release at a later date.  

Alexandra Horn, marketing manager for IVP Academic, said, “There is scholarship that moves scholarship forward, and then there’s scholarship that has the potential to heal the church. Sandra L. Glahn is a rare and superb scholar whose work has the ability to do both.”

Glahn (PhD, University of Texas at Dallas) is professor of media arts and worship at Dallas Theological Seminary, where her emphases are first-century backgrounds related to women, culture, gender, and the arts. She has authored or edited more than twenty books, including Vindicating the Vixens, Earl Grey with Ephesians, Sanctified Sexuality (coeditor),Sexual Intimacy in Marriage (coauthor), and most recently Nobody's Mother: Artemis of the Ephesians in Antiquity and the New Testament.

“Working with Sandra Glahn on her stellar book Nobody’s Mother has been a career highlight for me personally, as I daresay that book will be a highlight for readers,” said Jon Boyd, acquiring editor and IVP’s academic editorial director. “Her meticulous scholarship behind the scenes is matched by her skilled attention to the craft of writing, so I’m frankly reveling in the prospect of reading her next manuscript.”

In Nobody’s Mother Glahn combined spiritual autobiography with scholarly exploration to take readers on a journey to ancient Ephesus and across early church history. Ultimately, she lays a biblical foundation for men and women serving side by side in the church.

Boyd said, “Nobody's Mother zoomed all the way in on Ephesus, and her next book zooms way back out to consider the biggest arcs of Scripture’s narrative, and how women are present in them, not segregated off to the side. Glahn knows how to read a story (just as she knows how to write one), so her insights should be golden.”

Glahn’s next book, A Woman’s Place Is in the Story, will provide a broader view of the role of women in the whole of Scripture. Glahn said, “First, we had men’s history. As a corrective, we added women’s history. Now it’s time to integrate the two. Women in the Bible are participants in the grand narrative rather than missing altogether or stars of isolated cameos. A woman’s place is in the story. She’s not absent from it nor is she a sidebar. This work will explore how women of the Bible appear in their literary contexts—that is, how their narratives fit as part of a whole.”

Glahn says that she is passionate about subjects relating to women, gender, and justice. This focus came out of the decade that Sandra and her husband spent going through infertility and pregnancy loss. “Our trauma led me to take a closer look at the Scriptures and their blueprint for marriage, women, gender, the human body, and bioethics,” Glahn said. “The answers I found drove me to look more closely at the cultural backgrounds that influence biblical texts that relate to these topics. I love helping people engage their hearts and minds in these important issues.”

Glahn is represented by Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary Inc. Both titles will have world rights.

3 Book Recommendations for Ministry Leaders

I am here to commend to you three new ministry resources that belong on your reading (or listening) list. All three are available on Audible and read by the authors themselves:

Released this week:

Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church (IVP Academic), by Nijay Gupta

Matthew. Mark. Luke. John. Jesus. Paul. When most of us learn about the early church, we hear stories of prominent men. But ample evidence exists in the New Testament that women were actively involved on the front lines of the gospel mission, too. And not just baking cookies. They were respected leaders. Mary Magdalene supported Jesus and the male disciples from her income (Luke 8:1-2). Nympha led a house church (Col. 4:15). And Phoebe was a deacon and benefactor (Rom. 16:1). 

Northern Seminary New Testament professor Nijay Gupta brings these women—and many more—out of the shadows as he shines light on their contributions. Before reading Tell Her Story, I had never imagined Junia the apostle in jail (see Rom. 16:7), nor considered how dangerous it would have been for her to suffer for her faith in a dark, dank place where men and women coexisted without protection. Gupta brings out these details. 

Last year I conducted an informal poll among my Twitter followers who went to seminary asking them if they’d ever studied the sixteenth chapter of Romans. Forty percent of them had never translated it nor heard a lecture or message on its contents. One person even took two separate classes on the Book of Romans in which students were never required to read Romans 16. In contrast, Gupta explores it. In depth. My favorite section of Tell Her Story is the work he has done here—exploring the multiple women named and described by Paul in this oft-overlooked chapter—boldly going where few men have gone before. 

My friend Cynthia Hester recently reviewed this book on her blog. I was honored to be one of Tell Her Story‘s pre-publication endorsers, and yes, I read the book in its entirety. Here’s what I wrote:

In Tell Her Story Nijay Gupta brings to the topic of early Christian women (and some of their foremothers) a mastery of New Testament texts and backgrounds. Combining academic expertise with approachable prose, Gupta takes a fresh look at stories, people, and contexts—from judge Deborah leading Israel to deacon/patron Phoebe delivering “Romans” to apostle Junia doing prison time. In exploring the prominent place of women in the history of our faith, the author recovers lost meanings and casts a vision for men and women partnering to serve God’s people.  

Get it. 

Women and the Gender of God (Eerdmans), by Amy Peeler

Over the 22/23 winter school break, I co-taught a course in Italy with Dr. Lynn Cohick on Early Church Women in the Visual Record. That is, art. In the van returning to the Rome airport at the end of our sixteen days, I asked the students in the vehicle with me what they saw emphasized in churches that they don’t see emphasized in the US. They unanimously agreed that art of the Annunciation—the scene where Gabriel appears to the Virgin Mary to announce God’s plan for her to bear the Messiah—surprised them. It appeared in just about every church, sometimes twice. The scene pointed largely preliterate people to the incarnation. And we acknowledged that in our Protestant de-emphasis on Mary, we have lost something important.

Rev. Dr. Amy Peeler’s work Women and the Gender of God helps readers recover some of what we’ve lost.

Does God like men more than women? Of course not. We know better. And yet some things make us wonder…. Isn’t God male? After all, we refer to God as “he” and “him,” and “Father.” And certainly the Son of God, Jesus Christ, was embodied as male. John Piper famously said that Christianity is meant to have a masculine feel to it. Some even wonder, Did God violate Mary’s agency in the incarnation? Did she even have a choice—who can say no to God? 

Some of my readers will recognize Amy Peeler as the name of the scholar who contributed the chapter on Junia for Vindicating the Vixens. This time she’s the sole author, and she takes a deep dive into incarnation narratives in the New Testament—along with some other relevant biblical texts—to address the questions cited above and more. Peeler makes a compelling argument for how God both empowers women and honors women’s agency. She also explores from a theological perspective how the virgin birth of the second Adam reverses the power struggle introduced in the Garden of Eden. One of her strengths is that she is familiar with the works of both conservative and feminist theologians and demonstrates she is conversant with their questions before providing what I found to be compelling answers. 

In the publisher’s description of Women and the Gender of God they write, “While acknowledging the significance of the Bible’s frequent use of ‘Father’ language to represent God as a caring parent, Peeler goes beneath the surface of this metaphor to show how God is never sexualized by biblical writers or described as being physically involved in procreation—making the concept of a masculine God dubious, at best. From these doctrinal centers of Christianity, Peeler leads the way in reasserting the value of women in the church and prophetically speaking out against the destructive idolatry of masculinity.” 

My colleague John Dyer, a theology professor whose syllabus includes works by both male and female scholars, has written insightful analysis of Peeler’s book here and here.

I highly recommend Women and the Gender of God. In it Peeler answers a few questions I had and others I did not even realize stood hovering in the corner waiting for permission to come out. 

All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir (Tyndale House), by Beth Moore

Best memoir I’ve ever read.

And I’ve read a few, because I teach writers to tell their stories. If you can get the audio version, all the better, because Moore reads it herself. I laughed and cried, partly because of how she told her story.

Moore’s work is brilliant, wise, raw, witty, honest, riveting, heartbreaking, inspiring, devastating, and true. It ranges from Vacation Bible school to mental illness to sexual abuse to infidelity to church potlucks to salsa at Pappadeaux. One of my Instagram followers said this after reading it: “I so appreciate her care in the art of storytelling without triggering or exhibitionism of graphic details. Her word choice and narrative style are lovely.” Agree.

The woman can write. Her chapter ending with “And you can bet your toy poodle on that” is one of the funniest “stuck landings” you will find in any memoir. All the funnier if you can hear her punctuate it with that deep Arkansas drawl.

On Narratives and Central Propositions

Someone asked me this question recently: "Do authors (of classic literature, broadly, and the Bible, specifically) have an agenda/thesis/big idea/etc. in mind before/when they write? Or do they start writing and let an agenda emerge?"

And I said I think it depends on the genre.

If someone picked up a modern hymn book and tried to find a thesis, they’d be hard pressed to do so. Yet they would find a certain organization. I think the same is true with the Psalms. The psalms are a collection. Same with Proverbs. People look for outlines and central ideas on those books and…nada. That may even be the case with Song of Songs. For sure I think those who see a beginning-middle-end structure to Song of Solomon are pressing a later Greek storytelling structure on a 10th-century-BC book that was more likely chiastic if there is actually even a story to it.

I think the apostle Paul did have an organization in mind with the Book of Ephesians. In that book we see such a clear difference between the first half and the second. There's almost no application in the beginning; but it flips and then there's almost no theory at the end. Rather, application (second half) seems to flow from theory (first half).

The Book of Job seems to answer whether there is a clear cause/effect relationship between sin and suffering. (Often not.) But the work addresses a whole lot of other stuff too. Who knows how mountain goats calve? Who names the stars? Who keeps the ocean within its border? Whether the author set out to demonstrate that God is beyond us or whether he wanted to demonstrate how stupid our arguments can be when we accuse the suffering, there does seem to be an argument going, but not a sole argument.

Luke seems really into the insider/outsider emphasis, preparing his readers starting with Gentile women in Jesus's genealogy to accept that the Gentiles are “in.” Then he tells us about Jesus's encounter with the Syrophoenician woman. And the Roman centurion. He emphasizes believing Gentiles in a way we don’t see in other Gospel writers. But I’m not sure that means he set out only to do that when he puts together his history for Theophilus.

I think in Genesis, we’ve missed the boat by going with an "Abraham - Isaac - Jacob - Joseph" outline. If we replaced Joseph with Judah, we’d see that the author following the Messianic line from Genesis 3, and we’d no longer view Tamar’s story as a weird interruption to the Joseph narrative. Instead, that story serves as a pivot point between Judah selling a brother and Judah offering his life for a brother. Wow. Something has changed! This Gentile woman ("outsider") who was not supposed to give a rip about the Messianic line apparently values it more than he ("insider") does. He is ready to do an honor killing when she is actually the righteous one and he is the one deserving death. And in a O'Connor-misfit-like moment, Judah sees himself. Joseph's story then fits how God is preserving that Messianic line, but the focus is on the line. So yeah, I think Moses was going somewhere and not just telling a general history of humanity and then switching to follow Jacob’s family. From the beginning he seems to be tracing God's hand as he keeps his promise to save humanity through the seed of the woman.

Some classic texts have a concept. Tale of Two Cities…tells the story of a substitutionary death for love.  But that does not mean every chapter has that idea.

Even J. K. Rowling said early on that she was a member of the Church of Scotland, and that if people knew that about her, they might figure out where her series was “going.” But not every chapter has a central idea/thesis.

Many writers also sit down with some characters in mind, and they don’t know where the story will take them. I didn’t write my novels with a central idea in mind. I wanted to “explore” some “themes.” Most stories are wrecked with too much of a didactic thrust.

I do think we do something bad to great texts when we dissect them to find only the ONE thing. When we re-read the Bible in different seasons, different truths jump out. Okay, I do think it’s doing violence to the text to make the stones in the Goliath story = faith, hope, and love or something that has nothing to do with the actual story. Or to make the story of Lydia only a treatise on women in the business world—which is not how her story functions at all in the Book of Acts.  But still, I might identify with the Prodigal’s older brother in one season and with the father in another. And with the prodigal himself in yet another. Jesus told that story to tell listeners something about God and grace, but he also did it in the presence of Pharisees. So the point of view we bring to a story might give us a different take-away from what someone else takes, or even what we ourselves take away in a different season. That is part of the beauty of story.

The beauty of a “Who is my neighbor, Good Samaritan” narrative is that it does way more than provide a dictionary definition of "neighbor." If Jesus was so set on the one thing, a Webster’s definition would have done a better job of closing the gap of potential for “missing IT.”

What do you think? How would you have answered?

What Are You Worth?

Today I'm delighted to feature a guest post from my friend Mary DeMuth, who has a new book out:

I’ve been thinking a lot about my childhood lately. I saw a Netflix show where drug abuse was rampant, and I had to shield my eyes. I simply couldn’t see people snorting and drinking and shooting up. It brought back memories of my early life where my life was anything but safe.I was five, then. And the adults around me had parties. They would get stoned and unsafe. I would try to hide in my room, but the only route to the bathroom was through my bedroom, so they would parade through on unsteady legs, eyes red, hands flailing to keep balance.I turned my head to the wall, trying to escape into the well made between my twin bed and the wall. I fit like a snake into that skinny place, wanting to be so small no one would notice me. If you’re unnoticed, you can’t be hurt, at least that's what I hoped.This trauma affected me throughout my growing up years. I constantly found myself running—away from strangers, adult friends, and anyone who smacked of substance abuse.I couldn’t articulate it then, but deep down I felt my worth was tied to either being so small no one would notice or being noticed and finding out some people in the world liked to steal innocence from children.Worth has been a titanic struggle in light of that.So it’s strange that I would write a book about it. I’m not 100% healed of this little girl afraid of druggie parties. I literally shielded my eyes, hand in front of my face, when I watched the Netflix show.But I’m growing.I’m realizing that I’m not alone in this battle for worth. Most of you struggle too. We may have different reasons as to why, but that doesn’t lessen the fact that we desperately want to know we’re worthy.My worth, I realized, was tied to lies I believed about myself. I tackle ten of those lies in Worth Living: How God’s Wild Love Makes You Worthy.One of the lies is one that’s tied to my past: I deserve to be overlooked. The problem when you try to make yourself small and unnoticed is that eventually, you are. And then you feel unworthy of attention. What has helped me is healthy theology. The truth is God has chosen me (and you!). Before the foundation of the world, He has noticed you. He sent His son to die for you. And because of that love, you can live knowing that the Almighty God sees you. His love ushers in worth.I don't know when I’ll be able to watch drug parties on TV (or if I would ever want to). The nausea is real. But I’m grateful for bedrock truth: God saw me even then, and He set in motion a plan to save me before I even knew I needed saving.What about you? In what ways do you struggle with worth? How has God healed your understanding of who you are? Want to uncover the 10 lies and 10 truths that inform your worth? Get them free today at http://www.marydemuth.com

Toni Morrison on Un/Happy Endings

On the way home from aspring break trip with my family, I read “What Moves at the Margin,” an interview in American Way magazine with Toni Morrison. I loved what thePulitzer-winning author said about happy endings. Her words reminded me of theBook of Job in which he told God, “Before, I had heard about you. Now I haveseen you.” Here's a short excerpt from the article:

One of the questionsMorrison is most commonly asked in public by longtime readers is why she sosteadfastly resists happy endings in her books. Morrison laughs again, ashuffling purr, insisting that these readers are getting it all wrong. Sheturns simultaneously serious and exhilarated, leaning forward ever so slightlyin her chair to speak in that miraculous voice.

“The consequences of traumaand pain and love, all of it is about the search for self-knowledge. Every oneof my books is about that,” Morrison says, her eyes suddenly full of wonder.“At the end of these books, these people know certain things that they did notknow before, and that, to me, is a happy ending. I can’t guarantee anythingelse. But if you can learn anything in this life, that’s beautiful andbedazzling to me.”

PW's Top Books of 2012

Publishers Weekly, the publication of the publishing industry, recently announced their picks for the top ten books of the year: 

Building Stories

Chris Ware(Pantheon)

Bring Up the Bodies

Hilary Mantel (Holt)

The Round House

Louise Erdrich(Harper)

Happiness Is aChemical in the Brain

Lucia Perillo (Norton)

The Devil in Silver

Victor LaValle(Spiegel & Grau)

Detroit City Is the Place to Be: TheAfterlife of an American Metropolis

Mark Binelli(Metropolitan)

All We Know: ThreeLives

Lisa Cohen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

People Who EatDarkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets ofTokyo

Richard Lloyd Parry (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

The Barbarous Years: The Peopling of BritishNorth America: The Conflict of Civilizations, 1600–1675

Bernard Bailyn(Knopf)

Iron Curtain: TheCrushing of Eastern Europe, 1945–1956

Anne Applebaum (Doubleday)

Christian Retailers Choice Awards Announced

It's that time of year... Everybody's announcing their awards. Here's the list from Christian Retailers, who choose what they have the best time selling:

BIBLES

Bibles: Children's

•      NIV Youth Quest Study Bible (Zonderkidz)

Bibles: Devotional/Study (tie)

•      The KJV Study Bible (Barbour Publishing)

•      The Names of God, Mahogany, Hebrew Names,Ann Spangler (Baker Publishing Group)

Bibles: Teen

•      The ESV Student Study Bible (Crossway)

BOOKS

Audio

•      Jesus Calling, Sarah Young (eChristian)

Auto/Biography

•      Kisses From Katie, Katie Davis (HowardBooks)

Bible Reference/Study

•      The Baker Illustrated Bible Handbook, J.Scott Duvall, J. Daniel Hays (Baker Publishing Group)

Catholic/Liturgical

•      The Living Mass, Heliodoro Lucatero(Liguori Publications)

Charismatic

•      Purging Your House, Pruning Your Family Tree,Perry Stone (Charisma House)

Children's Fiction

•      Ronnie Wilson's Gift, Francis Chan (DavidC Cook)

Children's Nonfiction

•      Heaven Is for Real for Kids, Todd Burpo,Sonja Burpo (Thomas Nelson)

Christian Education

•      Big Book of History, Laura Welch, BodieHodge (New Leaf Publishing Group)

Christian Living: Practical Life

•      Indescribable, Louie Giglio, Matt Redman(David C Cook)

Christian Living: Spiritual Growth (two winners)

•      Nearing Home, Billy Graham (ThomasNelson)

•      One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp(Zondervan)

Church and Culture

•      Erasing Hell, Francis Chan (David C Cook)

Devotionals

•      The One Year Uncommon Life Daily Challenge,Tony Dungy (Tyndale House Publishers)

Evangelism

•      Not a Fan, Kyle Idleman (Zondervan)

Fiction: Contemporary Romance

•      Deadly Pursuit, Irene Hannon (BakerPublishing Group)

Fiction: General (two winners)

•      Courageous, Randy Alcorn, Alex Kendrick,Stephen Kendrick (Tyndale House Publishers)

•      Forbidden, Ted Dekker, Tosca Lee (CenterStreet)

Fiction: Historical Romance (tie)

•      The Girl in the Gatehouse, Julie Klassen(Baker Publishing Group)

•      The Lightkeeper's Ball, Colleen Coble(Thomas Nelson)

Fiction: Mystery and Suspense

•      The Tehran Initiative, Joel C. Rosenberg(Tyndale House Publishers)

First-Time Authors

•      A Confident Heart, Renee Swope (BakerPublishing Group)

Health and Fitness (tie)

•      Dr. Colbert's "I Can Do This" Diet,Don Colbert, M.D. (Siloam/Charisma House Book Group)

•      Reshaping It All, Candace Cameron Bure(B&H Publishing Group)

Nonfiction: Men's

•      The Resolution for Men, Stephen Kendrick,Alex Kendrick, Randy Alcorn (B&H Publishing Group)

Nonfiction: Women's

•      The Resolution for Women, PriscillaShirer (B&H Publishing Group)

Prayer

•      The Circle Maker, Mark Batterson(Zondervan)

Relationships (tie)

•      Beyond Boundaries, John Townsend(Zondervan)

•      Have a New Teenager by Friday, KevinLeman (Baker Publishing Group)

Social Issues

•      Unplanned, Abby Johnson (Tyndale HousePublishers)

Youth/Teen

•      Through My Eyes: Young Readers Edition,Tim Tebow (Zondervan)

GIFTS

Accessories/Apparel

•      Courageous Athletic T-shirt (Kerusso)

General Gift Product

•      Jesus Crown of Thorns cross (LighthouseChristian Products)

Gift Books

•      I Love You Head to Toe Recordable Storybook (DaySpring)

Home/Kitchen

•      Cup of Strength, "Cups ofEncouragement" (Lighthouse Christian Products)

Wall Décor

•      Prince of Peace #23404 (Carpentree)

OTHER

Backlist

•      Crazy Love, Francis Chan (David C Cook)

Curriculum: Vacation Bible School (tie)

•      Sky (Group Publishing)

•      Son Surf Beach Bash (Gospel Light)

DVD/Video: Book/Bible Study

•      Courageous Living Bible Study Leader Kit,Michael Catt, Stephen Kendrick, Alex Kendrick (B&H Publishing Group)

DVD/Video: Documentary (tie)

•      Against All Odds: Israel Survives,Michael Greenspan (Questar)

•      Ed's Story, Ed Dobson (David C Cook)

DVD/Video: Movie

•      What If ... (Pure Flix)

Marketing/Promotion Campaign

•      KJV400 (Thomas Nelson)

Music

•      Jesus Culture Awakening: Live From Chicago,Jesus Culture (Kingsway)

On the Future of Books

The NY Times had an interesting short editorial this morning on the future of books. Especially of interest to authors. Or wannabe authors.

Oh, and yesterday they had a good short editorial on how having a fighting spirit (against, say, cancer) will not save your life. Elizabeth Edwards being a case in point.

When my hubby and I were going through infertility, people kept telling us that a positive outlook would bring a positive outcome. But ya know, that is not actually what our theology teaches. Paul had this thorn in the flesh that no prayer or positive thinking could fix. Why? So he would remember his strength came not from himself but from the One whose grace is sufficient. People cannot will a positive outcome. If so, do we blame those who are sick or have died for failing to have the right mental stuff?

A Christ-follower has a hope, a know-so hope, that will not disappoint. But that hope is not based on any of this world's events. Our positive mental state comes from trust in the one who knows best, not from willing events as we want them.

I do believe having a will to live makes one more apt to stay the course of treatment, which might lead to a better outcome. And prayer brings comfort and encouragement and sometimes miracles. But it's the Object of the prayer and not the prayer itself that does the work.

Booklovers' Tag

Mary and Kelley tagged me to talk books. My instructions were to bold the books I’ve read, italicize the ones I want to read, and leave in normal text the ones that don’t interest me. Everything in caps indicates those I’ve never heard of. The asterisks indicate those I recommend. Now, I couldn't just follow directions, because the instructions didn't allow for books I started and didn't finish. So the ones you see in only half bold are those I started but didn't finish. Some I still want to complete...those are in italics:

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)

2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)

3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)

4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)

5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)

6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)

7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)

8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)

9. OUTLANDER (Diana Gabaldon)

10. A FINE BALANCE (Rohinton Mistry)

11. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Rowling) **

12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)

13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling) **

14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)

15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)

16. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)

17. FALL ON YOUR KNEES (Ann-Marie MacDonald)

18. THE STAND (Stephen King)

19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)

20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)

21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)

22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)

23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) **

24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)

25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)

26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)

27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)

28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis) **

29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck) **

30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)

31. Dune (Frank Herbert)

32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)

33. ATLAS SHRUGGED (Ayn Rand)

34. 1984 (Orwell)

35. THE MISTS OF AVALON (Marion Zimmer Bradley)

36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)

37. THE POWER OF ONE (Bryce Courtenay)

38. I Know This Much Is True (Wally Lamb)

39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)**

40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)

41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)

42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)**

43.Confessions of a Shopahaulic (Sophie Kinsella)

44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)

45. The Bible **

46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) **

47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) **

48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt) **

49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)

50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)

51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)**

52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens) **

53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)

54. Great Expectations (Dickens) **

55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)

56. THE STONE ANGEL (Margaret Laurence)

57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)

58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)

59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)

60. The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)

61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)

63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)

64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)

5. FIFTH BUSINESS (Robertson Davies)

66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)

68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)

69. Les Miserables (Victor Hugo) **

70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

71. Bridget Jones’s Diary (Helen Fielding)

72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

73. Shogun (James Clavell)

74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson)

76. THE SUMMER TREE (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows In Brooklyn (Betty Smith)

78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)

79. THE DIVINERS (Margaret Laurence)

80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White) **

81. NOT WANTED ON THE VOYAGE (Timothy Findley)

82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)

83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)

84. WIZARD’S FIRST RULE (Terry Goodkind)

85. Emma (Jane Austen)

86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)

87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)

88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)

89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)

90. KANE AND ABEL (Jeffrey Archer)

91. IN THE SKIN OF A LION (Michael Ondaatje)

92. Lord of the Flies (William Golding)

93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)

94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)**

95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)

96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)**

97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)

98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)

99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)

100. Ulysses (James Joyce)