Daughter Zion by Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI

This is another book exploring Catholic Theology, and if you don't read other books about theology, this one is probably not the best place to start.  It's very short, but not light reading. 

The first portion of the book provides one of the best explorations of Mary as Virgin and Mother, as Theotokos, that I've encountered. The meditations in the portions on the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption included some beautiful insights into the Catholic faith. For such a short work, Daughter Zion is certainly quite an accomplishment. Readers should be aware going in, however, that the book is a theological meditation... it goes into more theological and exegetical detail than a prayerful meditation, but it doesn't really seek to be a rigorous theological proof. The sections on the Immaculate Conception and Assumption are thought provoking and spiritually uplifting, and they point in an interesting direction for rational consideration of these Marian doctrines, but they leave a lot of room for questioning. I'm not sure that this is a weakness, but I think that readers will get a lot more out of the work if they go in expecting insightful observations rather than a complete theological defense of controversial doctrines.