A look forward to a cornucopia of New Year reading

Three years ago, Erik Varden (inset, top), Cistercian monk and Bishop of Trondheim, astonished reviewers with The Shattering of Loneliness, an extended essay on what it means to be human. Now, in Entering the Twofold Mystery (January, Bloomsbury, 272 PP, £14.99; Tablet price £12.99), he examines what we can learn from monastic life.

In Reality+ (January, Allen Lane, 544 PP, £25; Tablet price £22.50), David J. Chalmers argues that we can – and increasingly will – live a meaningful life in virtual worlds. The Caliph and the Imam (August, OUP, 400 PP, £25; Tablet price £22.50) by Toby Matthiesen illuminates the age-old division between Sunnism and Shiism that continues to shape events in the Middle East.

Former nun Karen Armstrong (inset, right) argues passionately in Sacred Nature (June, Bodley Head, 288 PP, £14.99; Tablet price £13.49) that we need to practise “deep ecology” by recovering a spiritual bond with the natural world. Equally concerned with ecology, George Monbiot, in Regenesis (May, Allen Lane, 304 PP, £20; Tablet price £18), offers a possible new future for food, people and the planet.