I Am Hutterite: The Fascinating True Story of a Young Woman's Journey to Reclaim Her Heritage

Priestdaddy: A Memoir

Patricia Lockwood · 352 pages

Father Greg Lockwood is unlike any Catholic priest you have ever met, a man who lounges in boxer shorts, loves action movies, and whose constant jamming on the guitar reverberates "like a whole band dying in a plane crash in 1972." His daughter is an irreverent poet who long ago left the Church's country. When an unexpected crisis leads her and her husband to move back into her parents' rectory, t

Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror

Nonie Darwish · 272 pages

Narrative of Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth, Olive Gilbert · 144 pages

"A symbol of the strength of African-American women, and a champion of the rights of all women, Sojourner Truth was an illiterate former slave named Isabella who became a vastly powerful orator. Dictated to a neighbor and first published in 1850, Truth's celebrated story chronicles her life as a slave in New York State, her 1827 emancipation under state law, her religious experiences and her trans

Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape

Jenna Miscavige Hill, Lisa Pulitzer · 416 pages

Jenna Miscavige Hill was raised to obey. As the niece of the Church of Scientology's leader David Miscavige, she grew up at the center of this highly controversial and powerful organization. But at twenty-one, Jenna made a daring break, risking everything she had ever known and loved to leave Scientology once and for all. Now she speaks out about her life, the Church, and her dramatic escape, goin

Infidel

Ayaan Hirsi Ali · 353 pages

"Ultimately a celebration of triumph over adversity, Hirsi Ali's story tells how a bright little girl evolved out of dutiful obedience to become an outspoken, pioneering freedom fighter. As Western governments struggle to balance democratic ideals with religious pressures, no story could be timelier or more significant.--From publisher description."--From source other than the Library of Congress

Amen, Amen, Amen: Memoir of a Girl Who Couldn't Stop Praying

Abby Sher · 311 pages

The memoir of a young woman whose life was shaped by obsessive-compulsive disorder and her fiercest obsession--prayer--describes how a major life event compelled her to redefine the terms of her illness and her faith.

Gladys Aylward: The Little Woman

Gladys Aylward, Christine Hunter · 160 pages

The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist

Dorothy Day · 288 pages

This inspiring and fascinating memoir, subtitled, “The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist,” The Long Loneliness is the late Dorothy Day’s compelling autobiographical testament to her life of social activism and her spiritual pilgrimage. A founder of the Catholic Worker Movement and longtime associate of Peter Maurin, Dorothy Day was eulogized in the New York Times as, “a no

Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis

Lauren F. Winner · 272 pages

Unorthodox : Mi Verdadera Historia / Unorthodox

Deborah Feldman · 416 pages

Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs

Elissa Wall, Lisa Pulitzer · 438 pages

In September 2007, a packed courtroom in St. George, Utah, sat hushed as Elissa Wall, the star witness against polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs, gave captivating testimony of how Jeffs forced her to marry her first cousin at age fourteen. This harrowing and vivid account proved to be the most compelling evidence against Jeffs, showing the harsh realities of this closed community and the lengths

The Butterfly Mosque: A Young American Woman's Journey to Love and Islam

G. Willow Wilson · 304 pages

Documents the author's conversion from all-American atheist to Islam, a journey marked by her decision to relocate to Cairo, romance with a passionate young Egyptian, and her efforts to balance the virtues of both cultures.

Tramp for the Lord

Corrie ten Boom · 202 pages

For the past twenty years Corrie ten Boom has crisscrossed the globe, slept in more than a thousand different beds, and lived out of suitcases...all to fulfill her God-given mission to tell people everywhere that Jesus Christ is reality, that He Lives, that He is Victor. This remarkable woman of eighty-one years served time in a German concentration camp during World War II for the "crime" of h

Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions

Rachel Held Evans · 232 pages

Hiding in the Light

Rifqa Bary · 240 pages

The compelling personal story of a teenage girl who stood against her family's faith to convert to Christianity and who gave up everything in her flight from religious persecution. In 2009 the story broke in national media of a teenage girl who had run away from her Ohio home, claiming that her Muslim father had threatened to kill her for refusing to renounce her Christian faith. Her parents denie

The Book of Margery Kempe

Margery Kempe · 343 pages

"Margery Kempe's autobiography engages the modern reader with its richly textured images of late-medieval England - its town life, customs, means of travel, dress, food, and, most notably, its observations of the religious rituals that prevailed in the author's lifetime (ca. 1373-ca. 1440). Lynn Staley's new translation does not modernize; rather, it stays as close to the original Middle English a

All Who Go Do Not Return: A Memoir

Shulem Deen · 299 pages

Shulem Deen was raised to believe that questions are dangerous. As a member of the Skverers, one of the most insular Hasidic sects in the US, he knows little about the outside world--only that it is to be shunned. His marriage at eighteen is arranged and several children soon follow. Deen's first transgression--turning on the radio--is small, but his curiosity leads him to the library, and later t

Joni: An Unforgettable Story

Joni Eareckson Tada, Joe Musser · 224 pages

Autobiography of Joni Eareckson, who at 17 was left a quadriplegic as a result of a diving accident, and who today as an accomplished artist drawing with a pen held in her teeth, describes her struggles and her abiding faith in Christ.

The Book of Mormon Girl: Stories from an American Faith

Joanna Brooks · 209 pages

Story about leaving behind the innocence of childhood belief and embracing the complications and heartbreaks that come to every adult life of faith. Explores the author's journey through her faith, and the experience of being a Mormon.

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Jeanette Winterson · 240 pages

Memories of the author about her difficult childhood as the adopted daughter of an English mother with strong religious convictions, and her subsequent search for her biological mother.

Secret Ceremonies: A Mormon Woman's Intimate Diary of Marriage and Beyond

Deborah Laake · 240 pages

In this book, Deborah Laake, a former member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, chronicles her experiences with Mormonism and the various rituals performed in their temples. Laake recounts her studies at the Brigham Young University, her loveless first marriage at nineteen, her subsequent divorce and the problems she encountered with the Mormon authorities and her relatives due to

Through the Narrow Gate

Karen Armstrong · 285 pages

Recounts the seven years that the author spent in a convent beginning at the age of seventeen, describing her religous doubts and spiritual struggles which led to her final recognition that she was not suited for life as a nun.

Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear

Jinger Duggar Vuolo · 221 pages

The Imam's Daughter

Hannah Shah · 288 pages

"Hannah Shah is an Imam's daughter. She lived the life of a devout family of Muslims in England but, behind the front door she was a caged butterfly. For many years, her father abused her in the cellar of their home. At 16 she discovered a plan to send her to Pakistan for an arranged marriage, and she ran away. Hunted by her angry father and brothers, who were intent on making her an honour killin