Why a Reading Curriculum for Prayer?

I will be open and honest with you all, I devised this reading curriculum because while I am a devout Christian, fully surrendered to Christ, my prayer life is nearly non existent. Relationships and conversations with other human beings is something that I struggle with, and that carries over to my relationship and conversations with God.

Upon reflecting upon my own struggles, I come to realize that I am not the only devout Christian that struggles with their prayer life. This guide is to help tackle the formation healthy prayer life from multiple different angles over the course of the year, while understanding that this struggle is not a failure of faith, but rather of formation.

It seems to me that modern Christianity heavily emphasizes knowledge of God. I struggle with this, leaning heavily on trying to know about God, rather than of God. I focus on God the Creator, failing to focus also on God the Father. I hope this curriculum can help myself, and others, build a healthier prayer life!

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The Guiding Principle — Prayer Comes First

I want to make this clear to myself and others, prayer is the North Star of this curriculum, not reading books. While reading is the medium in which this curriculum will be guided by, the objective is to build a better payer life.

I am a reader, I run have my Christian Book Instagram and run multiple book clubs over on Fable, it is my one and only hobby really. While my faith, family, and work come before reading, I am always in a book when I get little windows of free time throughout the day. It is easy for me to replace prayer with reading, this is something I will need to work on and constantly remind myself when working through this curriculum. Books are witnesses, not authorities — Scripture remains central!

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The Rhythm — How This Curriculum Is Practiced

Daily Practice

• 10–15 minutes of prayer (morning, afternoon, night)

• 10–20 minutes of reading

• Log short reflection in journal

These are just the minimum requirements that we strive to hit every day during this curriculum, more is always welcome as long as it does not interfere with your priorities! To me, short daily practices are far more productive than forced intensity.

While I think long journaling is a great practice, I think minimal daily journaling will be perfect! Save those longer journaling and reflections for weekly sessions, focus on prayer and digesting the reading during the daily practice! Let’s make consistency easily obtainable, it is easy to move on when one gets overwhelmed.

Phase One — Relearning How to Be With God

Theme: Presence before productivity
Problem addressed: Prayer feels awkward, forced, or performative

Primary readings

• The Way of a Pilgrim

• The Life of Moses

• The Practice of the Presence of God

When it comes to phase one, it is all about being present with Christ. This is what I struggle with the most and I think is the biggest hindrance to my personal prayer life. I feel as if a solid foundation when it comes to cultivating a better prayer life I to value presence over productivity. Let’s make sure we are not making our payers feel awkward, forced, or performative!

Let’s make sure that we are paying attention to Christ in our prayers, not overanalyzing on what we say and how we say it. Let that come naturally with our mind centered on Christ, He is never absent from us!

Phase Two — Learning to Speak Honestly to God

Theme: Desire, lament, and trust
Problem addressed: Prayer feels shallow or emotionally dishonest

Primary readings

• The Psalms

• A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

• Reflections on the Psalms

We are kicking this phase off with Psalms, a way to lean into scripture and learn how to be honest with God in our prayers! This section is all about legitimizing our emotions we try to hide, being obedient with Christ, and digging deeper into scripture!

The goal here is to pray the Psalms aloud, removing our cage around our emotions, and letting scripture reshape the honesty of our prayers. This will set up up for the interior transformation in phase three!

Phase Three — Interior Transformation

Theme: The heart reordered by grace
Problem addressed: Prayer feels stagnant or disconnected from daily life

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When it comes to reading, my tastes have changed drastically over the years and there are many books that I wish I have read sooner (some I wish I have read by now!). From books that have completely changed what I consumed, to books that impacted me greatly, to books I have yet to read but wish I had already…there are so many books out there I believe I should not have waited to pick up. That being said, maybe these books came at just the right time!

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East of Eden - John Steinbeck

If you have been following me for any amount of time, you have heard me state how impactful East of Eden had on myself and the books I consume. Before reading this book, I was ignorant to the fact that I did not need to separate my faith & fiction books. I had always thought that I needed to read fiction books for pure enjoyment and leave my Christian books to enhance my faith…boy was I wrong!

East of Eden threw that idea away, leaving me to expanding my faith journey into the fictional side of books! Who knows, maybe I needed to wait until I was older to understand this and it was all on Gods timing, but present me really wishes he had picked this book up sooner! I could only imagine where I would be at in my reading and faith journey if I would have understood this many years and many books ago!

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The Pilgrim’s Progress - John Bunyan

This hits from the opposite side of East of Eden! Where I thought fiction couldn’t enhance my faith, I couldn’t fathom a Christian allegory to be such an enjoyable experience! I had read books like Lord of the Rings & The Chronicles of Narnia that are heavily influenced by faith, but nothing so upfront allegorical as The Pilgrims Progress. I never fathomed that a book like The Pilgrim’s Progress could be as enjoyable and entertaining as it was informative and transformative!

I put off this book for quite some time, but when I finally picked it up I could not have been more ready! I could not put this book down, it is an absolute masterpiece! While I do wish I had read this book sooner, given it a chance, I cannot help but wonder if it came at just the right time.

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Notes from Underground - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

That leaves us with Notes from the Underground, a book that I have yet to read but wholeheartedly wish I have read it by now! I jumped right into Dostoevsky with The Brothers Karamazov and followed it up with Crime and Punishment…yeah it was a pretty heavy year! While both of those novels are in my top 10 novels of all time, if I had to do it all over again, I would of moved some of his shorter works ahead of these two chunky novels!

I cannot wait to get into some of Dostoevsky’s shorter works this year and will revisit this thought when I come around to doing so! I have a lot of people wondering where to start with Dostoevsky and I am excited to figure that out myself.

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Like I stated before, maybe these books all came at the right time, but looking back it leaves one to wonder what would be if things were to have shaken out a little differently. As humans, we tend to think hindsight is 20/20, looking back at what has been and wondering would it could be. One thing we always need to remember is Gods timing is perfect, there are no coincidence in life, even with things as minute as reading books. While it can be fun to ponder on thoughts such as these, just know that it is all according to His plan.

Happy reading everyone! Peace & God Bless

This year I shifted into focusing on putting my faith first in my reading, ensuring that all my reads brought me one step closer in my relationship with Christ (which is my mission here at Faith & Fiction Book Club)! Classics, contemporary literature, theology, christian living, and of course still a little bit of sci-fi and fantasy! It has been a transformative year for me and I cannot wait to see where the years ahead take me!

Here we go, let’s dig into my top 10 books of 2025!

I do not log or rate my reads at the moment, so I am going to do my best here to accurately rank these, but they are subjective to change at any moment!

Let me know what you think of my rankings, would you switch any of these around?

10. The Terminal List by Jack Carr

This was a last second swap out with Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (how different could two books possibly be?). That being said, I am happy with adding this to the list as I have never read a book like this before and it gripped my attention just about as good as any book has ever gripped it!

The plot and story line, although predictable, was absolutely fantastic. I am not sure what Mr. Carr saw during his time of service, but I can only imagine the thoughts that have went through his head to come up with such a great storyline! This was action packed and full of adrenaline, but don’t let that fool you - this book packs a lot of emotion and will leave you in tears more than once!

9. Of Mice & Men by John Steinbeck

This was my second Steinbeck read of the year and it did not disappoint! I remember reading this back in school, abut I cannot say I remembered much of anything this time around. Steinbeck is THE American author for me and Of Mice and Men is a prime example of that. It is full of biblical themes, brotherhood, has a wonderful atmosphere, and will leave you in tears while staring at a wall at the end.

This is a story about the importance of brotherhood, dreams, faith, and perseverance. There is a good reason this is a required read for many, it is an all-time classic!

8. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Demon Copperhead was my introduction to contemporary fiction and I did not know what I was getting into when I picked this up. I had been reading a lot of Russian Lit at the time so this was a major audible in the reading department. That being said, this book changed my outlook on life and altered the lens in which I view others - that is what reading is all about!

Demon Copperhead was such a lovable chapter, leaving you rooting for his success in a sea of misfortune since birth. I may have enjoyed a few books more than this, but I am not sure I can name a character that I enjoyed more than Demon. Thank you Barbara, you really nailed it on this one!

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7. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

Talking about faith and fiction, I am not sure a book on this list tackled it quite like The Power and the Glory! Set in Mexico when Catholicism is outlawed, punishable by execution, a sinful priest gets put to the test. Struggling with alcoholism and self doubt, our main character here is on the run, unable to renounce his faith like so many others.

This book really gets you questioning “how strong is my faith?” and “what is the definition of good?”. It is a beautiful thing when a book can get you to ask yourself tough questions and strengthen your faith! Any other year this could have been atop my list, but it was fighting with some heavyweights!

6. The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Road, The Road, The Road….wow, what a powerful story! I am sure this would have hit me hard regardless, but it put in extra work with me having 3 kids of my own. I am not sure there is a better fiction book out there to teach you about what it means to be a good father and doing anything and everything to keep your kids faith alive!

The man and his son are in a post apocalyptic world where all hope seems lost, humanity is turning to the most grotesque sinful nature, and there seems to be no hope in sight. All that being said - The Man makes sure to keep his son’s faith alive, in hopes of the promised land. Cormac may not have been trying to preach about Heaven, but he did a darn good job at doing so!

5. Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Dostoyevsky may be my favorite author of all time, dishing out the best apologetics when it comes to literature. Crime & Punishment may be the greatest fictional work when it comes to explains the destructive nature of sin - and how it is impossible to defeat it on your own merit.

Our main character, Rodian Raskolnikov, commit a heinous crime and is trying to do everything he can in order to escape without any penalty. I don’t want to get into a spoilers here, but if you are a Christian you know for certain that is a feat that cannot be accomplished! I chewed through this chunk of a book in no time as it is dating in nature and size, but it is a deceptively easy read!

4. Disquiet Gods by Christopher Ruocchio

It wouldn’t be a list without me including at least one Sun Eater book, and I couldn’t think of a better book and a better placement than being sandwiched between some Dostoyevsky!

When it comes to modern science fiction, I would stake my reputation on saying Sun Eater sit atop the throne with ease! This is not only Christian apologetics, but also evangelism at its finest! With the widespread popularity of this series, it wholeheartedly brings tears to my eyes knowing that so many people who deny Christ are reading this book and loving it for all the reasons us Christians love Christ.

I know I didn’t talk much about the book, this is book 6 in a 7 book series, but just know that I think this stacks up with the greatest of greats! Ruocchio is the Sci-Fi Tolkien in my humble opinion, and I am so honored to be able to read this while it was being released!

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3. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I had a tough time deciding between the placement of this and Crime and Punishment, but ultimately ended up with Brothers K on top. Where Crime and Punishment tackled sin head on, Brothers K was an absolute assault and dismantling of philosophy on all fronts! With these three brothers being on all different spectrums of faith, and lack there of, Dostoyevsky tackles how each of them deal with a devastating crime against their father.

While you may be confused with each character having 100 different names, don’t let that distract you from how grand and wonderful this story is! There aren’t many books this large that leave you wanting more!

2. Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry

In a sea of deep and heavy reads, here comes ol’ barber Jayber Crow to the rescue. This book was such a stinking joy to read! I am not sure if I have ever read book before that made me feel so at peace and smiling from ear to ear. Yes there are sad moments in this story, but Jayber is such a wonderful soul and is the grandpa that everyone wishes they had.

This story is all about slowing down and enjoying the moments, not getting yourself tied up and controlled by the emotions of others and the hustle and bustle of life. This is a lesson we all need in today’s world of instant gratification and go-go-go! I cannot wait to come back to Port William next year with a few books set in this town!

1. East of Eden by John Steinbeck

This is the book that changed it all for me! I picked this book up and it single not only made me call an audible on my reading life, it forced me to trade away nearly all of my assets along the way (book assets not money….well…).

This book has some of the greatest and well developed characters I have ever read, and is full of wisdom that will keep me thinking for years to come! I am so blessed to have read this book at the time that I read it.

If it wasn’t for this book, there would be no Faith & Fiction Book Club, this is the book that started it all! I feel as if this book will stick with me forever and I am positive I will be revisiting the Trask family many times over!

Well there is the list! This was incredibly hard to narrow down to a top 10! I read so many great books this year that I am sure I could nearly interchange them with any of these on this list and be happy with it (I am looking at you Animal Farm & Gilead).

This is a list with a lot of variety and a lot of different emotions being stoked! How do you feel about my list? What are some of your top read of 2025? Let me know down in the comments, I would love to hear!

Peace & God Bless!

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