- The Eucharist and the Hunger of the World, Monika K. Hellwig
- Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, Paula Fredriksen
- The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus, Amy-Jill Levine
- Fortress Introduction to The Gospels, Mark Allan Powell
- Social Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels, Bruce J. Malina and Richard Rohrbach
- John, the Maverick Gospel, Robert Kysar
- Written that you May Believe: Encountering Jesus in the Fourth Gospel, Sandra M. Schneiders, IHM
- The Middle Ages, Morris Bishop
- Models of the Church, Avery Dulles, SJ
- The Sacred Pipe, Joseph Brown
- A New Christian Paradigm: The Making of Post-Protestant Christianity, Ben M. Carter
- Jesus and the Quest for Meaning, Thomas H. West
- The Church Unfinished: Ecclesiology Through the Centuries, Bernard K. Prusak
- Salt: A World History, Mark Kurlansky
- Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, Mark Kurlansky
- Jesus as a Figure in History: How Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee, Mark Kurlansky
- Paul–A Jew on the Margins, Calvin J. Roetzel
- The Spirituality of Paul, Thomas H. Tobin
- Navigating Paul: An Introduction to Key Theological Concepts, Jouette M. Bassler
- Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt
- The Hollow Crown: A History of Britain in the Late Middle Ages, Miri Rubin
- Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom, John O’Donohue
- The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, Daniel Mendelsohn
- Whitethorn Woods, Maeve Binchy
- Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain & Ireland, Bryan Sykes
- The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon
- The Rule of Four, Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason
- The Children of Henry VIII, Alison Weir
- On Hitler’s Mountain: Overcoming the Legacy of a Nazi Childhood, Irmgard A. Hunt
- My Life with the Saints, James Martin, SJ
- The Monster of Florence: A True Story, Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi
- Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter, Thomas Cahill
- How the Irish Saved Civilization, Thomas Cahill
- Christianity Rediscovered, Vincent J. Donovan
- Doors to the Sacred: A Historical Introduction to Sacraments in the Catholic Church, Joseph Martos
- The Catholic Myth: The Behavior and Beliefs of American Catholics, Andrew Greeley
- The Amber Room: The Fate of the World’s Greatest Lost Treasure, Catherine Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy
- No Place Like Home, Mary Higgins Clark
- The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History, John Barry
- The Last Knight: The Twilight of the Middles Ages and the Birth of the Modern Era, Norman Cantor
- Soldier from the War Returning: The Greatest Generation’s Troubled Homecoming from World War II, Thomas Childers
- The Basque History of the World, Mark Kurlansky
- Catherine the Great: Love, Sex, and Power, Virginia Rounding
- Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, and Queens, Jane Dunn
- Devil’s Brood, Sharon Kay Penman
- Falls the Shadow: A Novel, Sharon Kay Penman
- Queen Emma and the Vikings: Power, Love and Greed in 11th Century England, Harriet O’Brien
- Time and Chance, Sharon Kay Penman
- Dragon’s Lair, Sharon Kay Penman
- The Queen’s Man: A Medieval Mystery, Sharon Kay Penman
- When Christ and his Saints Slept, Sharon Kay Penman
- The Reckoning, Sharon Kay Penman
- The Sunne in Splendor: A Novel of Richard III, Sharon Kay Penman
- The Year 1000: What Life was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium, Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger
- Here be Dragons, Sharon Kay Penman
- Walking on a Rolling Deck: Life on the Ark, Kathy Berken
- The Civilization of the Middle Ages, Norman Cantor
- Mistress of the Monarchy: The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster, Alison Weir
- Lucia: A Venetian Life in the Age of Napoleon, Andrea D. Robilant
- A Venetian Affair: A True Tale of Forbidden Love in the 18th Century, Andrea D. Robilant
- The Gift of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels, Thomas Cahill
- Restoration London: From Poverty to Pets, from Medicine to Magic, from Slang to Sex, from Wallpaper to Women’s Rights, Liza Picard
- The Seville Communion, Arturo Perez-Oerveto
- In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World it Made, Norman Cantor
- The Lady Elizabeth: A Novel, Alison Weir
- Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot, Antonia Fraser
- Blue Iris: Poems and Essays, Mary Oliver
This year’s list is dedicated to some of my favorite fellow bookworms: Aunts Barb and Jo, Emilie, Liz P., Liz H., Roxane S., and Kristine.
But most of all, this list is dedicated to my darling sister-in-law Fran, who shares my intense love of books and often subsidizes my Barnes and Noble habit, and to my mom, who instilled in me a love of the power of words and the magic of language, as well as an intense curiosity about the world around me.