Karen Armstrong

In the year 1962, when she was 17 years old, she became a member of the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus, a teaching congregation, in which she stayed in for seven years. Karen says that she suffered psychological and physical abuse in the convent. She was required to wear a spiked chain around her arm and mortify her flesh with whips.

The best place to start is the Modern Library Chronicles series, the earliest of Karen Armstrong's multi-book series: it opens with California (1980) and runs to 33 books across 1980–2010, ending with The Korean War (2010). Karen Armstrong's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Karen Armstrong has 133 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1960 and 2022. 105 of them belong to 6 named series — the largest being the Modern Library Chronicles series with 33 books — and 28 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Karen Armstrong's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Modern Library Chronicles (1980–2010, 33 books), Eminent Lives (1991–2009, 13 books) and Canongate's The Myths (2004–2013, 9 books), plus 2 more.

This guide splits Karen Armstrong's 133 books into 6 named series and 28 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Modern Library Chronicles (33 books, 1980–2010); Eminent Lives (13 books, 1991–2009); Books That Changed the World (11 books, 2006–2007); Canongate's The Myths (9 books, 2004–2013); Icons (7 books, 2013–2015), plus 1 further series.