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by Marilynne Robinson
Gilead: A Novel: One thing that I really appreciated about this book was reading something from the point of view of someone who is conventionally religious in a way that I definitely am not, and his world view being something I could respect. Recently I read a book about the Amish and forgiveness (Amish Grace) and one theme of this book, about forgiveness, made me think of that, about how you forgive and what you can forgive and whether you should. 
Home: A Novel: This is a companion book to Gilead. The subject matter is the same, but Gilead was from the point of view of a minister who knew he was soon to die and had found happiness in marriage and a child at an older age. That book was partly concerned with the son of his best friend, who was kind of a prodigal son, and whether it was possible for him to forgive the son. This book is told from the point of view of the prodigal son's sister, and tells about him coming home for a while and his struggle to feel home. Both books are very quiet in a way. Home was the harder for me to read, in the same way that it was hard for me to read the short story, the Yellow Dress, by Virginia Woolf. In that short story the self-consciousness was evoked so well, it was difficult for someone to read who shares it, and likewise, the sense of not being able to take home for granted, or never quite being able to settle in and trust it, is expressed so well that it is a little hard for me to take.