Wondering what to read next? We’ve got you covered. 📚

American thought has long been shaped by powerful works of fiction and nonfiction that help illuminate national issues and concerns.  As we become more entrenched and addicted to mind-numbing scrolling on our phones and Netflix binge-watching, it is more important than ever for us to crack open books that educate, empower, enlighten, and entertain.

The following is a list of recommendations that will get you started on a path of knowledge, wisdom, and increased literacy. Comment below or tag @ndcadvocates on social media to share your insights on the book(s) you’re reading. Please also share any recommendations that are not on this list.

Happy Reading!

Social Issues

Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up by Abigail Shrier

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt

Them Before Us: Why We Need a Global Children’s Rights Movement by Kathy Faust

Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda by Megan Basham

Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children by Hannah Barnes

Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions About Life and Sexuality by Nancy Pearcey 

The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution by Carl Trueman 

White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the  Promise of the Civil Rights Era by Shelby Steel

The Christian Response to Abortion: An Unapologetically Biblical Approach to Abolishing Preborn Homicide by Micheal Harding

Policy

Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas—Not Less by Alex Epstein

Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All by Michael Shellenberger

Wrong: Why Experts Keep Failing Us and How to Know When Not to Trust Them by David Freedman 

Discriminations and Disparities by Thomas Sowell

The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture by Heather MacDonald

Marxification of Education: Paulo Freire’s Critical Marxism and The Theft of American Education by James Lindsay

True Stories

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer

The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote 

Endurance: Shakleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

Night by Elie Wiesel 

The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksander Solzhenitsyn 

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

Lessons and Warnings

Live Not By Lies by Rod Dreher

1984 by George Orwell

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 

The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt

We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China's Surveillance State by Kai Strittmatter 

The Great Reset: Global Elites and the Permanent Lockdown by Marc Morano

Snake Oil: How Xi Xinping Shut Down the World by Michael Senger

Rise of the Fourth Reich: Confronting COVID Fascism with a New Nuremberg Trial, So This Never Happens Again by Daniel Horowitz and Steve Deace

Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence by Alex Berenson

Uniquely American 

The 5000 Year Leap: Principles of Freedom by W. Cleon Skousen

Common Sense by Thomas Paine

The American Covenant: The Untold Story by Marshall Foster

The American Story: The Beginnings by David Barton 

1776 by David McCullough

The Federalist Papers - essays by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay

Classic Literature

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Call of the Wild by Jack London

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Christian Wisdom

The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate: A Proper Resistance to Tyranny and a Repudiation of Unlimited Obedience to Civil Government by Matthew Trewhella

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

Tactics by Gregory Koukl

Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Life-Changing Truths for a Skeptical World by Josh McDowell

You’re Not Enough (And That’s OK): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love by Allie Beth Stuckey

The Suffering of Man and the Sovereignty of God by Charles Spurgeon

The Lust of the Flesh: Thinking Biblically About “Sexual Orientation,” Attraction, and Temptation by Jared Moore

History

Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery by Eric Metaxas

Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler's Defeat by Giles Milton

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas

Valley Forge by Bob Drury

The Greatest Medal of Honor Stories Ever Told by Tom McCarthy

September 1918: War, Plague, and the World Series by Skip Desjardin

The Cold War: A World History by Odd Arne Westad

Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer

Fiction

The Source by James A. Michener

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

City of Thieves by David Benioff 

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

The Scarlet Feather by Maeve Binchy

The Shoemaker’s Wife: A Novel by Adriana Trigiani

The Taster by V.S. Alexander