I read these recently and recommend them to you.
Biography
Ten Baptists Everyone Should Know: William Carey
Although he probably wouldn’t be comfortable with you reading about his accomplishments.
Women of the Reformation: Argula von Grumbach
“They called Argula a wretched and pathetic daughter of Eve, a female desperado, an arrogant devil, and a shameless whore. They wanted the ‘silly bag’ tamed and punished. Her husband lost his administrative post in Dietfurt as punishment for not properly controlling his wife.” Luther, on the other hand, called her “a singular instrument of Christ.”
Women of the Reformation: Jane Grey
Because I can’t stop at just one. Jane’s story is one of amazing faithfulness in the face of martyrdom, especially considering she was only sixteen or seventeen when she died.
Church History
Why the Reformation Still Matters
“Five hundred years later, the Roman Catholic Church has still not been reformed. For all the warm ecumenical language used by so many Protestants and Roman Catholics, Rome still repudiates justification by faith alone.” What’s more, “[o]utside Roman Catholicism, the doctrine of justification by faith alone is routinely shied away from as insignificant, wrongheaded, or perplexing.” So “[n]ow is not a time to be shy about justification or the supreme authority of the Scriptures that proclaim it. Justification by faith alone is no relic of the history books; it remains today as the only message of ultimate liberation, the message with the deepest power to make humans unfurl and flourish.”