Every year from all the books we review on this website, we choose the Best Spiritual Books. In addition to 50 adult books, we include 20 Best Spiritual Children's Books.
These are the titles that have most impressed and inspired us during the year. Since we only review books that we want to recommend to you for your spiritual journey, this selection actually represents the best of the best. Through diverse approaches, drawing upon the wisdom and practices of the world's religions and spiritual paths, these books explore the quest for meaning and purpose, wholeness and healing, commitment and community, contemplation and activism.
We congratulate the authors and publishers of these exceptional contributions to today's spiritual renaissance. Click on the title link to read the full review.
The Black Practice of Disbelief by Anthony P. Pinn
A Black scholar on how Black humanism has become a movement of its own.
Blessing It All by Heather Concannon and Allison Palm
A wonderful, expansive collection of rituals for many of life’s experiences.
A Bowl of Perfect Light by Megan McKenna
A Christian teacher on how compassion, love, and justice begin with forgiveness.
Breathe Restlessness into Me by Ted Loder
A thick treasury of subversive inspiration.
Broken Heart, Shared Heart, Healing Heart by Barbara Allen
The founder of Australia's first animal chaplaincy program with resources and rituals for grieving an animal companion.
The Buddha by Philip C. Almond
A cultural history of the Buddha’s impact on the West.
Circle of Hope by Eliza Griswold
A journalist investigation of faith and community in a fading church.
Come Have Breakfast by Elizabeth A. Johnson
Fresh theological angles for seeing the living God.
Deep Reading by Rachel B. Griffis, Julie Ooms, Rachel M. De Smith Roberts
Virtues learned from simply reading deeply.
The Devotional Qur'an by Shawkat M. Toorawa
An essential Qur’an for Muslim devotional practice.
Ecological Spirituality by Diarmuid O’Murchu
How only a change of theology will heal us and the planet.
Field Notes for the Wilderness by Sarah Bessey
Hope and spiritual practices for people experiencing loss at the hands of faith.
Flourishing Kin by Yuria Celidwen
Practices for being part of the Whole.
For Love of the Broken Body by Julia Walsh
A Catholic memoir that shows the joy in self-discovery.
The Free Mind by Dza Kilung Rinpoche
Buddhist practices for distracted people to find peace.
The Great Search by John Philip Newell
Spiritual questing rooted in Earth as our shared home.
Green Saints for a Green Generation by Libby Osgood, editor
Portraits by scientists, religious sisters, and theologians of “green” leaders from five continents.
Have a Beautiful Terrible Day by Kate Bowler
A plan for emotional honesty on the spiritual path.
Healing Our Way Home by Valerie Brown, Marisela B. Gomez, Kaira Jewel Lingo
Buddhist practices to cultivate self-care, liberation, and wholeness.
How to End Christian Nationalism by Amanda Tyler
A guide to what Christian Nationalism is and how to surmount it.
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How to Train a Happy Mind by Scott Snibbe
Tibetan Buddhist practices for finding joy in life.
The Islamic Moses by Mustafa Akyol
An eye-opening portrait of the Prophet Muhammad as an interfaith unifier.
Judaism Is About Love by Shai Held
A call to remember that Jewish ethics and theology are about love.
Life After Doom by Brian D. McLaren
A public theologian's deep analysis and proscriptive and practical suggestions for healing ways forward.
Living in the Presence by Burt Jacobson
A Jewish writer's pursuit of oneness through discovering the historical Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism.
Making Room by Carl Siciliano
A spiritual memoir that’s also a call to action.
A Meditator’s Guide to Buddhism by Cortland Dahl
Tools for getting started in meditation with a Buddhist perspective.
A Midwinter God by Christine Valters Paintner
Shows from experience, with practice, the generative power of grief and loss.
My Life in Seventeen Books by Jon M. Sweeney
Brief tributes to books that turned out to be the right coalescence of person and situation.
Ordinary Mysticism by Mirabai Starr
The most important book to date by one of our most esteemed interspiritual practitioners and teachers.
The Perennial Philosophy Reloaded by Dana Sawyer
A discussion of the link from Alan Watts and Ram Dass to Mirabai Starr and Richard Rohr.
Presence by Tracy Cochran
Stories aboaut living in the present like it’s a vital force.
Religion Is Not Done with You by Megan Goodwin, Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst
How religion influences your life whether you’re religious or not.
The River in Me by Dang Nghiem
Poems for living a spiritual life right now
A Sacred Argument by Christopher M. Leighton
Case studies in Abrahamic interfaith work.
Soil, Soul, Society by Satish Kumar
An eloquent book on trinity of wholeness and unity of life in its myriad forms.
Somehow by Anne Lamott
Poignant reminders of love’s fundamentals.
Sonnets to Orpheus by Ranier Maria Rilke, Mark S. Burrows (translator)
Rilke's strange poetic phrasings that reflect complex spiritual yearnings.
Sound Healing by Farzana Ali
A guide to natural and cultivated sound for self-care and healing.
This Sweet Earth by Lydia Wylie-Kellermann
A book on climate change blending practicality and poetry which asks, what do we tell our children about the earth and its future?
Thomas Keating by Cynthia Bourgeault
A biography by one of Keating's students on the final phase of this modern Christian mystic’s life and what it suggests for others.
Thomas Merton in California by David M. Odorisio (ed.)
Previously unpublished interspiritual writings from the famous Catholic monk.
To Love Our Neighbors by Joe Blosser
How to help people in need to more lasting effects.
Vessels of Love by Joyce Rupp
Poetic love-wisdom from a Christian spiritual master.
Walking Well by Michael J. Gelb, Bruce Fertman
A guide to walking more often and more contemplatively.
We Are Only Saved Together by Colin Miller
A vision of salvation that is community-focused.
White Poverty by William J. Barber II
An inspiring corrective to U.S. myths about race and class.
Wise Women by Sharon Blackie
Reminders of the wisdom of older women.
You Don't Have to Do It Alone by Mark Nepo
An intimate book with numerous examples of how deep companionship brings heaven and earth together.
All About Grief by Lora-Ellen McKinney
Support for young readers to navigate melancholy, mourning, and more.
All the Pieces by Hallie Riggs
Help navigating the complex emotions born of a loved one's overdose.
Angela's Glacier by Jordan Scott
How listening to nature can enrich our lives and protect the planet.
The Cat Way by Sara Lundberg, B.J. Woodstein (translator)
An extra-special book about the changes of perspective into which animals can lead us.
Dalmartian by Lucy Ruth Cummins
A heartwarming, humorous look at what happens when you invite in a stranger.
Dante Plays His Blues by Allen R. Wells
Turning the blues into a muse.
Emergency Quarters by Carlos Matias
A charmingly captured memory of growing independence under a mother's wise guidance.
I'm Here by James J. Crist
A thoughtfully designed book that covers multiple aspects of teen peer counseling.
In Praise of Mystery by Ada Limón
An awe-inspiring poem that's making a journey to one of Jupiter's moons with a NASA spacecraft.
Kindred Spirits by Leslie Stall Widener
A history of nearly 200 years of caring between the Choctaw and Irish Nations.
The Last Stand by Antwan Eady
A tribute to Black farmers that doesn't shy away from the heartbreak of losses due to discrimination.
Like So by Ruth Forman
A joyful ode to love from each other and nature.
Make Your Mark, Make A Difference by Joan Marie Galat
Encouragement for becoming a changemaker.
My Friend Andy by Emma Chinnery
A reminder that, housed or unhoused, we all deserve respect and care.
Oy, Santa! by Joyce Schriebman
A witty exchange of letters between a Jewish boy and Santa Claus that promotes religious understanding.
Someone Just Like You by Helen Docherty
A child's guide to empathy, compassion, and bonding with new friends.
The Squish by Breanna Carzoo
A sandcastle's tale of strength in togetherness.
A Star Shines Through by Anna Desnitskaya
Healing wisdom on how to carry your home with you even after irreversible loss.
There Was a Shadow by Bruce Handy
A celebration of the ephemeral beauty of shadows.
Use Your Voice by Alice Paul Tapper
An empowering story that helps kids speak up about their needs in medical crises.