A friend wrote asking me which book he should recommend to a friend of his that is LDS and willing to read one of my books.
Here is my response:
It’s tricky to give advice not knowing the person. On the one hand, “Teaching for Doctrines” is useful because there are so many basic ideas where an honest person will say “but if this is true why didn’t the Brethren tell me?” Or “I heard a talk at church once that said the opposite of this.” But of course “Teaching for Doctrines” is a lot to handle all at once. “Seek Ye This Jesus” was written to those who are interested in experiences with God, “Men Are That They Might Have Joy” to those who are more than normally aware of life’s challenges, “Faith” to those trying to get to the next level in life, and so on. “Repentance” and “Be Who You Are” are excellent books to start on, and my favorite is probably the latter. Many people enjoyed “The Glory of God is Intelligence” the most, and “Joy on Purpose” is full of practical power. In short, you can’t go wrong.
But to answer your question, I’d go with whichever book you imagine her most likely to read and benefit from.
By the way, for some time I have been preparing a short argument about Mormon apostasy that will be a much better introduction to the topic than "Teaching for Doctrines." It has been on my to do list for a few months, but getting the draft of my next book done has been a higher priority.
To this, I'm sure someone will ask "why aren't your other two books on this list?" The short answer is that I don't think either one has resulted in anyone but their author to become a better person because of them. "Holiness to the Lord" is a short book full of concentrated, excellent doctrine. However, I have never met anyone who changed their lives because of it, so I conclude that much more was and is needed to unfold the intent of that book than what is within its pages. I think the ideas in "Commanded in All Things" are not developed enough for those who read it to know what they should change in life and why, but an LDS person might find it to be full of interesting insights.
All of these books are available for free in various formats at upwardthought.org/books.
I'd just like to note that, at least in my opinion, Joy on Purpose is easily the most accessible book on the list that could and should be given to far more people than just the "religiously/spiritually intense" folks. I wouldn't want to compare sharing ideas with sales too much, but that book is a great gateway book for those looking to improve their life. A great and crucial question to always ask is "what's the next step for them". For a number of people I know, Joy on Purpose is it, and for others it is definitely not. People who are not interested in improvement but claim to be invested in gospel learning might enjoy "Through Faith" or "Repentance". The questions of "what would they value" and "what new ideas are they most likely to grab onto" are crucial. It is funny to note that the first book that I read was Men Are That They Might Have Joy. Although I didn't think of the ideas as terribly novel in the first read, I knew that they were true in a way I deeply resonate with and then I wanted to investigate the author more. I hope that helps, and I'd also like to note that being deeply familiar with the books' contents helps in determining which groups of ideas would be best to present first. Know your product and know your buyer!