Every year around this time, I try to think back to the books I’ve read over the past 12 months and choose my top 10 favorites. And every year, inevitably, I find that I’m not able to limit myself to 10.
But I find solace in the fact that the list I’ve compiled here is 10 and 7—both significant biblical numbers. Maybe more lists should be “Top 17s” after all.
One last note, as I always point out: I don’t agree with everything in these books. (How could I? How dull to only read books that affirm what you already know!) But I was glad to have invested the time in every one on this list.
The Familiar Stranger: (Re)Introducing the Holy Spirit to Those in Search of an Experiential Spirituality, Tyler Staton
This was a fantastic book on the Holy Spirit. I told our church when I had Tyler come and share with us that when I wrote Jesus, Continued …, the book I was trying to write was The Familiar Stranger. As with all things, there are parts I love and some parts I would say differently, but Tyler’s book helped lead me into some of the next steps of maturity in what God is doing. Every day this year, I am asking God for a greater bestowal of the gift of prophecy, and this book was helpful to that end.
Patriot: A Memoir, Alexei Navalny
This was one of the most heart-stirring books I read this year, about a Russian dissident who had the courage to speak out and lost his life for it. It’s obvious Navalny, in his latter years, became a Christian, but his example of bravery is inspiring and instructive for all of us. It was a page-turner, and I couldn’t stop reading it. The corruption in the Russian state is pretty staggering.
Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space, Adam Higginbotham
If you want a historical recounting of an iconic event in American history, told through the lens of explaining the science while capturing the interpersonal human drama of how disasters happen, this book is for you. A couple of really strong leadership lessons come out of this book, like the importance of always telling the truth, and how a leadership culture that fosters refusal to accept responsibility, blame-shifting, and punishment for speaking hard truth will lead to disasters of the highest level (no pun intended).
An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s, Doris Kearns Goodwin
You may know Goodwin from Team of Rivals. This was an absolutely fascinating book from deep inside the Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson administrations. The ’60s is such a fascinating historical era, and this was a look from a vantage point I’d never seen before. The author and her husband, who were both speechwriters for the presidents, are slanted in directions I certainly don’t care for, but it’s still a fascinating look. Goodwin is a great writer, and this is a hard book to put down.
One Lost Soul: Richard Nixon’s Search for Salvation, Daniel Silliman
Wow. My heart broke for Richard Nixon, and I felt like I understood him on a whole different level. I wish we could have these kinds of biographies for all leaders, showing how, ultimately, Richard Nixon’s problems grew out of idolatries and misunderstandings he had of Christian truth. I’ve heard it said that the greatest errors can happen from being close to the truth but not fully gripped by it, and that appears to be the case with Richard Nixon. Lots of history and lots of reflection on Nixon’s idolatries that helped me reflect on my own.
Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me: Debunking the False Narratives Defining America’s School Curricula, Wilfred Reilly
For those of you who want to “go there,” this book was a shocking countertruth to some of the cultural narratives that are often put forward. I certainly found a lot of places where I still have more questions, but Reilly’s careful research demonstrates that what we’re told to accept as axiomatic historical truth is not always the truth. To be fair, I read this one right after Lies My Teacher Told Me (2nd ed., by James Loewen). I’m not a history expert, but it was pretty obvious that Loewen’s book omitted a number of salient points when it comes to American history, and Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me helped fill in some of the gaps. Personally, I think Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me by itself would not be sufficient, but as a response to Lies My Teacher Told Me, it’s pretty devastating.
Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, Sarah Wynn-Williams
This is the story of Facebook’s idealistic beginnings and the corrupting effects of wealth and power. I found it quite entertaining, not only because you get a look at the inside of one of recent history’s biggest economic juggernauts and global media conglomerates; you also see the corrupting effects of power and money that apply to all of us. It’s also a little entertaining because it’s written by, and pardon the generalization, but a classic millennial who is sometimes outraged at things that, in previous generations, would have just gone under the banner of good leadership. There are times she seems quite disgusted that Zuckerberg had the audacity to make decisions that, as CEO, he absolutely had to make. Anyway, it’s very entertaining, very interesting, and it’ll help you understand some of the power dynamics at work when it comes to social media and how it’s designed to manipulate us. Because as with The Matrix, that saw humans as only energy pods, social media sees us primarily as economic pods, shaping our interests to that end.
Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to Donald Trump, Molly Worthen
As you know, we have a special love in our heart at this church for Molly Worthen, our UNC-Chapel Hill historian and journalist who came to Christ at our church a few years ago. In this historical masterpiece, she shows how Americans in both religious and secular spheres have always had a penchant for recognizing a quality hard to describe, at least in secular terms, called charisma. It’s a yearning for certainty in the divine, a fascinating look, and I know for a fact that N.T. Wright loves it because Molly shared with me the email from him where he talked about how amazing it was.
Preaching: A God-Centred Vision
// Authentic Ministry: Serving from the Heart // Gospel People: A Call for Evangelical Integrity, Michael Reeves
I got on a kick this summer of Michael Reeves books. These are great; Michael Reeves is the Reformed theologian who wrote Delighting in the Trinity. That was one of my favorite theological devotional books from a few years ago. I couldn’t decide if it was more a theological book or a devotional book, because he has a way of taking deep theology and making your heart really come on fire with it. It is so readable. I would recommend it to you whether you are a high school student or a PhD in theology. These books are short, accessible, 100 pages, and you will come out on fire for the gospel. I went through my own little personal revival this summer, and these books were at the core of it.
Why the Reformation Still Matters, Michael Reeves and Tim Chester
Yes, you are reading this correctly: It’s even more Michael Reeves. This one is a little bit more of a historical book but still very readable, showing why the Reformation matters in a very gracious but compelling way. Reeves shows why the Reformation was so important, why the gospel depended on it, and why the questions that it raised still matter. In a day when some are reverting back to Rome because of stylistic preferences or because of evangelical church excesses or because of caricatures of the issues at stake in the Reformation, Reeves lays out a compelling case for why the Reformation still matters in a way that will really set your heart ablaze and show you why the five solas of the Reformation are the core of Christian faith. It really was awesome.
Killing the Legends: The Lethal Danger of Celebrity
// Killing the Witches: The Horror of Salem, Massachusetts, Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard
I say with only a slight blush of embarrassment that I love this Killing series by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. Their storytelling ability is great, and factual accuracy seems important to them. A look at three of the most iconic and interesting personalities of the ’60s and ’70s. While I’m on this one, let me also add Killing the Witches. It was a fascinating look at the Salem Witch Trials and how they were central in the shaping of the personality and the future of America.
Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions, John Grisham and Jim McCloskey
Wow. This book left me speechless. I love and believe in our justice system, but Grisham and McCloskey show some tragic holes that we should be aware of, both for protection of ourselves and compassion for people around us.
2084 and the AI Revolution: How Artificial Intelligence Informs Our Future, John Lennox
I’ve always loved John Lennox as a careful apologist. One of our friends from Britain, he’s a clear thinker who has written out of the midst of deep secularism at Oxford University. This book is fashioned after George Orwell’s 1984. Orwell wrote the book predicting what the world might be like in 1984; Lennox does the same thing, but with respect to AI. He helped me really understand both the technology behind AI as well as some of the massive theological-sociological issues and how so much of what we’re seeing is a fulfillment of the Tower of Babel, ancient prophecies, and quite interestingly, the book of Revelation. Lennox presents some compelling parallels between what we’re seeing in AI and what is predicted in Revelation. I know that makes you skeptical; read it for yourself.
The Cost of Ambition: How Striving to Be Better Than Others Makes Us Worse, Miroslav Volf
Volf is a classic writer who’s written a lot of other great things (and someone I tend to quote pretty frequently). This is one I did not see coming, but it is an analysis of how, biblically, ambition is one of the core sins going back to the Satanic fall. Using Dante’s Inferno, Volf, a survivor of the Croatian genocide and a provocative writer, unpacks how ambition darkens and colors so much of the good we try to do. It humbled me and left me feeling very exposed and repentant. I think you’ll love it.
Democracy and Solidarity: On the Cultural Roots of America’s Political Crisis James Davison Hunter
James Davison Hunter is the UVA professor who literally coined the term “culture war.” This book, like Molly Worthen’s, trends toward the academic, but I feel it is destined to be a classic. He shows why we have real reason to ask whether the American experiment is over. We’ve been working in a hybrid Enlightenment project, trying to mix some of the best of reformed approaches toward government and an Enlightenment with a lot of secular roots, and we’re seeing those conflicts become greater. For a while, they led to flourishing, but recently, we’re seeing that the fruits of each might be irreconcilably in conflict. Hunter presents a compelling way forward, but it starts with a very honest and deep view of what is actually happening. The contents of this book are not beyond reach, and for those of you who want to invest the time, you’ll find it richly rewarding.
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
I have to admit, I do love Russian novels, and so I try to mix in some from time to time. This is a classic that I’m working my way through again.
The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work: A Practical Guide from the Country’s Foremost Relationship Expert, John Gottman and Nan Silver
This has been recommended to me and is really helping Veronica and me as we think through how small conflicts lead to big problems. The authors are not Christians, but as with many people in fields like this, they often stumble onto common grace in ways that I find compelling and helpful. It’s always entertaining to me when they stumble on a concept that they think they’re the first people to discover, only to know that it really came from the book of Romans. The authors show that we all have conflict, but through careful analysis of data and relational patterns, they can pretty reliably predict which relationships will end up in divorce or emotionally distanced and unrewarding marriages, and which will work through those conflicts to greater friendship and relationship, and how you can become the latter.
Honorable Mention!
Because apparently even a list of 17 cannot contain me …
What It Means to Be Protestant: The Case for an Always-Reforming Church, Gavin Ortlund
Gavin is a good friend of ours here at The Summit Church, and he has really developed a passion for giving clarity to these things. I’ve watched a number of his debates online, and this book is a masterpiece in dealing with the central disagreements between Roman Catholicism and evangelical Christianity in a gracious, theologically honest, but pretty convincing way.
Martin Luther’s Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: How the Great Reformer Cured OCD and What He Learned, Ian Osborn
This won’t interest all of you, but for those of you who may have borderline OCD tendencies (as I have sometimes wondered about myself) or for those who know someone in this category, this is a fascinating look at how Martin Luther likely had classic OCD and how at least part of it was exacerbated by wrong theology. Pretty amazing to think that one of the greatest and most necessary theological movements in Christian history came about through some brokenness that twisted theology only made a lot worse.
