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I was never an atheist, but one of my favorite writers was until his 30s: C. S. Lewis. You might try some of his slim books: The Problem of Pain or Mere Christianity.

Not sure where you're at with philosophy, but "The Problem of Pain" by C.S. Lewis blew me away and changed a lot of my thinking about suffering and reality.

C.S. Lewis' 'The problem of pain', and 'A grief Observed' I think is relevant, even if you are trying to avoid reading apologetics.

I would definitely consider reading Julian Jaynes' 'The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind' in this context as well.

1. The Problem of Pain by CS Lewis
2. A Philosophy of Software Design https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732102201/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_EK...
3. Haskell from First Principles http://haskellbook.com
4. Les Miserables
5. Continuous Delivery https://continuousdelivery.com

The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E. B. White

The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker

The Problem of Pain by C. S. Lewis

The Mac Is Not a Typewriter by Robin Williams

Getting Real by 37 Signals

Someone here recommended The Problem of Pain and A Grief Observed, and I would add Mere Christianity and The Four Loves.

The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E. B. White

The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker

The Problem of Pain by C. S. Lewis

A bunch of books by Kahlil Gibran. Read The Prophet twice.

One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Love In The Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Problem Of Pain by C S Lewis

Disgrace by J M Coetzee

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek

On Writing by Stephen King

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Dictionary Of The Khazars by Milorad Pavic

Candide by Voltaire

The Labyrinth Of Solitude | Life And Thought In Mexico by Ocavio Paz

I finished that last one today. Read this:

All men, at some moment in their lives, feel themselves to be alone. And they are. To live is to be separated from what we were in order to approach what we are going to be in the mysterious future. Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone, and the only one who seeks out another. His nature -- if that word can be used in reference to man, who has "invented" himself by saying "No" to nature -- consists in his longing to realize himself in another. Man is nostalgia and a search for communion. Therefore, when he is aware of himself he is aware of his lack of another, that is, of his solitude.

I recommend this old book.

C. S. Lewis does a fine job in his book Mere Christianity. He talks about the conscience, where does it come from? It seems to hold us all to higher standard, including ourselves, but we fail to fulfill it. It's not just a matter of disliking another's actions because they are inconvenient. For example, say someone takes my shirt, and now I'm mad because I'm missing a shirt. Someone might argue that that is all conscience is. But it's not like that. It's a sense that it was objectively wrong, and so it would be wrong for me to take your shirt even though it improves my situation.

I also recommend his book The Problem of Pain, which talks about man's long history of belief in the supernatural, despite the outlandishness of the idea.

C. S. Lewis was an atheist until his early 30s. He taught at Oxford and then Cambridge, during the first half of the 20th century.