The Spiral Staircase

I think Karen Armstrong is simply one of the best religious writers of the modern era!  A book of hers I cannot recommend highly enough is The Spiral Staircase, her 2004 autobiography about her total loss of herself and her faith during her seven years as a nun during the upheavals in the Catholic Church after Vatican II in the 60's, and her laborious rediscovery of her gifts of self and eventual spiritual rebirth.  She is such a delightful writer with precision of phrase and pointed humor.