The best new books I’ve read in the last month are
- (5.0) A Change of Habit: Leaving Behind My Husband, Career, and Everything I Owned to Become a Nun by Sister Monica Clare (Crown, 2025)
- (4.5) Lessons from Eviction Course: How We Can End Our Housing Crisis by Fran Quigley (ILR Press, 2025)
- (4.5) Queer Christian: Reclaiming the Bible, Our Faith, and Our Place at the Table by Brandan Robertson (St. Martin’s Essentials, 2025)
- (4.5) Proclaiming the Parables: Preaching and Teaching the Kingdom of God by Thomas G. Long (Westminster John Knox, 2024)
- (4.0) Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned While Staying Put by Annie B. Jones (HarperOne, 2025)
- (4.0) Drag Queen Preacher by R.R. Tavárez (Pilgrim Press, 2025)
- (4.0) Deep Listening: Transform Your Relationships with Family, Friends, and Foes by Emily Kasriel (William Morrow, 2025)
- (3.5) The Multigenerational Church Crisis: Why We Don’t Understand Each Other and How to Unite in Mission by Bryan Chapell (Baker Books, 2025)
A Change of Habit
While I’m not generally a fan of memoir or one to heap praise on debut authors, I’m thankful I picked up a copy of Sister Monica Claire’s A Change of Habit: Leaving Behind My Husband, Career, and Everything I Owned to Become a Nun. I was drawn in by her storytelling then captivated by her story. With a voice that’s authentic, candid, and deeply reflective, Sister Monica Claire takes us on an extraordinary journey from a life of worldly success to one of radical surrender.
What could drive a woman to leave behind a thriving career, a complicated marriage, and what many would see as the good life to pursue the quiet, disciplined, and entirely different life of an Episcopalian nun? The answer unfolds in scenes that are at once awkwardly human and spiritually profound. This is not an account of saintly perfection; it is the frank and personal story of how one woman responds to a lifelong calling.
Welcome Back
Brandan Robertson first appeared on So What Faith in 2018, when I awarded a 4.5 rating to his recently published book: True Inclusion: Creating Communities of Radical Embrace (Chalice Press , 2018).