As the world raged into and through 2022, I sought out two kinds of books this year: (1) those that spoke truth into the dysfunction and (2) those that showcased an antithetical mood or a winsome antidote. That’s not by accident. This year, I wrote more than 60,000 words for a memoir about the darkness surrounding my childhood faith and the beautiful ways that trauma has been redeemed. I’ve been drawn both to narratives similar to mine and tales foreign to my lived experience. I’ve let my heart be broken by nonfiction stories, and then I comforted that broken heart with equally-true tales of shared humanity. In the contiguity of these books, I’ve learned how to live in the tension between the world as it should be and the world as it is. Here are the forty books I read this year in the order that I would recommend them.
You Are My Sunshine
A Story of Love, Promises, and a Really Long Bike Ride
I have never read a book that juxtaposed humor, succinct storytelling, and emotional commentary the way Sean Dietrich did in this book. Wow. As a writer, I am in awe at how Dietrich wastes no words—how he gets away with only partial solutions to the tension of each chapter. His similes prove perfect time and time again, and he trusts the reader to connect some of the dots. This comes from a confidence baptized in humility. Dietrich is a master of the final sentence. He makes a poignant statement with each essay but almost indirectly so. He handles the discussion of trauma and pain as deftly as he does his humor and uses both to make broader statements about the human condition. Dietrich’s characterization of his wife balances tenderness and critique with a beautiful grace. In short, this book makes you wish you could sit on a covered porch with Dietrich and trade stories over a constant supply of cold lemonades.
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars
We The Fallen People
The Founders and the Future of Democracy
I can’t imagine the undertaking inherent in the research, culling, writing, and editing of this book. Robert Tracy McKenzie leverages hundreds of citations and an incredible contextualization of the first 50 years of our republic’s history to explain the tension between democracy and populism. He deftly juxtaposes three moments in American history (the 1780’s, 1824-1836, and our most recent decade) to reveal the cultural, spiritual, and political dynamics of each. In so doing, he makes dusty corners of United States history come alive by overlaying two opposed worldviews from our past atop the milieu of the cable TV and social media newsfeeds of our present. McKenzie thoroughly proves that not only have we Americans not learned from our chagrin-worthy history but also that we’ve already repeated it.
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars
Not In It to Win It
Why Choosing Sides Sidelines the Church
Andy Stanley’s book is incredible: profound but uncomplicated, challenging but welcome, subversive but attractive, disruptive but beautiful, needed but unpopular, historic but incredibly relevant, poignant but hopeful, Scriptural but unreligious. This isn’t just a book about the dangers of partisanship in a nation addicted to binary thinking. It’s a beneficial filter for viewing both our Bible and the world around us. In a Christianity mired in culture wars, this book inspires readers to be the difference they want to see in the world, even if they must go alone. The passionately performed audio version will ready you to run toward hell with a bucket of water. I pre-ordered this book the day it was announced and absorbed it immediately when it went live, because I craved the gift of a language to describe what I’ve felt in my soul for years. In fact, I was blown away by how many of the assertions of this book mirrored what I had written in my next book’s manuscript—the first draft of which I had finished two weeks before Andy’s book was released. I’ve purchased more than a dozen copies of this book to give to friends, and I’ve read it twice this year (some chapters as many as four times).
Amazon rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
The Religion of American Greatness
What’s Wrong With Christian Nationalism
If you can get past the academic style of this book, you’ll find an intriguing critique of one of the two leading political movements in America right now. (Author, Paul D. Miller, is currently writing the second book in this series, critiquing the opposing movement of progressive identity politics.) Miller makes the case that the current political right is no longer conservative, and he does so as a religious and political conservative with impressive bonafides. He sufficiently proves that nationalism isn’t just different than patriotism but is actually opposed to representative government and the creed of the great American experiment. Miller thoroughly debunks the notion of America (or any nation) being a “new Israel” and gives the context most evangelicals won’t around verses quoted to support the American empire.
Amazon rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars
I Guess I Haven’t Learned That Yet
Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working
In an interview the week this book hit four major bestsellers lists, Shauna Niequist noted that she wrote 200,000 words and with the help of her publisher’s editors carved it down to the 50,000± that comprise this book. She found the best 25% of what she wrote because these essays carry so much beauty and humility. I was inspired and challenged by her grace in regard to the controversy that accelerated so much of the life change documented in this book. As a writer, I luxuriated in her prose. As a curious forty-something on a similar journey, I felt a kinship with her explorations. I’m not a foodie or a fan of New York City; but you don’t have to be to immerse yourself in her storytelling. Her non-congruent lists wowed me; her selective vulnerability intrigued me. I couldn’t put this book down, listening to the audio version in just two days.
Amazon rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
Fortune
How Race Broke My Family and the World and How to Repair It All
Lisa Sharon Harper’s book wrecked me. It took me weeks to finish it. I had to set its heartbreaking details aside before gaining courage again to hear the stories of her family’s four centuries on North America, first as slaves and then as the victims of violent racism, dehumanizing white supremacy, and agents of change. I cannot imagine the amount of research and curation this manuscript required nor the amount of therapy it took to write these stories from a healthy place. Harper’s storytelling proves haunting and engrossing, passionate and beautiful, sad and hopeful. I didn’t expect the ending and was blown away by the power of Jesus’ love that her closing chapter demonstrates. I’m grateful to have had my heartbroken by this incredible manuscript. As I read news headlines and see white supremacy in my social media feeds, I wish more people would invite their hearts to be broken from voices with different stories and pasts than their own.
Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars
The Men We Need
God’s Purpose for the Manly Man, the Avid Indoorsmen, or Any Man Willing to Show Up
I’ve read all of Brant Hanson’s books. This, his latest offering, continues to demonstrate his refreshing lack of any influencer ambition, partisan agenda, spiritual manipulation, and stylized façade. His self-deprecating humor and pragmatic approach to Scripture lead to a relaxed approach to loaded cultural topics. This book’s unorthodox perspective on healthy masculinity allows it to suggest courageous remedies for lives not lived to their fullest. He confronts the tendency in culture to present only binary options (for everything including healthy masculinity) and offers a diversity of ways to express our divine and unique wiring. Hanson does all of this without pitting the sexes against each other. He dares readers to greatness—but not the badass, self-sufficient, or leadership-book definition of greatness.
Amazon rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
How to Be Married (to Melissa)
A Hilarious Guide to a Happier, One-of-a-Kind Marriage
I’ve found that the most engaging marriage books aren’t authored by the “experts” with shows, conferences, and study guides for sale. Dustin Nickerson’s book proves this. I don’t know if the value of this book is so much advice as it is commiseration. I felt seen while reading this book—especially the last chapter. I enjoyed the didactic pragmatism of “figure out what works for you” as much as the humor, and I laughed out loud several times during the audiobook presentation. I pre-ordered this book months in advance and looked forward to its launch date, yet it still surpassed my expectations. I bought both print and audio versions of this book and gifted signed copies to family members. I liked it that much.
Amazon rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Celebrities for Jesus
How Personas, Platforms, and Profits Are Hurting the Church
Like this book’s author, Katelyn Beaty, I wrestle with the requirement to engage with the Christian Industrial Complex™ to market my books. Beaty explains well the tension between that necessity and her desire not to be a celebrity. Like many American Christians, I’m tempted to follow and amplify voices that aren’t part of my daily life or personal circle. I mainlined Beaty’s book in about a 26-hour period after my pre-order downloaded because her journalistic approach and personal reflections gave words to sentiments I’ve been carrying for the past several years. She addresses this book not to the celebrities and avatars she profiles but to those of us—herself included—who’ve contributed to them being celebrities in the first place. This book pairs well with Ben Kirby’s PreachersNSneakers and Kate Bowler’s The Preacher’s Wife. As an author, I was most drawn to her content on Christian publishing; but there’s insight for all of us whose spiritual communities, social media feeds, and favorite public voices have been touched by The American Dream. After reading this book, I bought the print version to put on display in my office and listened to more than a half dozen of Beaty’s interviews on various podcasts in support of this seminal critique of American Christianity.
Amazon rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
The Truth Detector
An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide for Getting People to Reveal the Truth
Jack Schafer’s latest book isn’t meant to help you discern between lies and the truth. Instead, it’s a guide for getting people to reveal information you want—even information they don’t want to tell you. His real-world examples from retail, corporate, parenting, law enforcement, and counterintelligence encounters left my jaw on the floor. Schafer also spends multiple pages teaching readers (particularly extroverts like me) how to resist these tactics in the real world. I don’t know if my mind works fast enough to implement all of Schafer’s elicitation gambit, but I don’t doubt that it works. The psychology underpinning Schafer’s techniques aligns with what I’ve read in pop psychology books, experienced in professional counseling, and found to be true in my daily life.
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars
Rookie Mistakes
A Grown-Up’s Field Guide to Getting Your Act Together
I hope Kelly Bandas keeps writing books. Her stories somehow tumble out effortlessly like she’s telling them to you while holding a mug of hot cocoa as you both look into your fire pit. At the same time, her turns of phrase reveal a writer’s scalpel. One of my favorite aspects of these essays is her collection of fantastic closing sentences. Each one seems to amalgamate a callback, a pithy principle, and a succinct simplicity that inspired me as a writer and enveloped me as a reader.
Amazon rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars
Bomb Shelter
Love, Time, and Other Explosives
Mary Laura Philpott’s book was good for my heart and maybe even my soul. She captured the world inside her and the world around her; then she shared it with only the right amount of detail. She celebrated the beauty of our frail humanity like few books I’ve read, and she did it with masterful storytelling. Just beautiful. For all of the craziness that swirls in our newsfeeds and the lives attached to them, these connected essays are part of the antidote. The audiobook makes for a great soundtrack while watching a sunset or sitting on your back deck with a sweating glass in your hand.
Amazon rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
What If Jesus Was Serious About the Church?
This book continues Skye Jethani’s uncanny ability to challenge assumptions that have been unbiblically baked into American evangelicalism. This book, like the previous books in this fantastic series, uses Scripture to prove thoroughly how the Bible has been abused and misapplied. I revisited many lines I highlighted and dog-eared multiple chapters to try to burn their truths into my memory. Don’t let the short chapters fool you into thinking Jethani isn’t making robust arguments for subversive pathways to a healthier church. His skill at succinct arguments is a greater asset to this book than even the doodles that make it approachable.
Amazon rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
The Deeply Formed Life
Five Transformative Values to Root Us in the Way of Jesus
Rich Villodas’ experience in multiple faith traditions gives his advice a more well-rounded humility and maybe, for some, more credence. His self-deprecating stories only add to that. The juxtaposition of these specific five topics intrigued me, as I don’t know that they’d be the five I would’ve chosen; but it all makes sense as the book progresses. If you read a lot of books about emotional health, there won’t be much new content here for you. Candidly, I’m more inspired and challenged by Villodas’ Instagram posts than I was by this book; but the reminders and his personal applications reinforced truths I’ve learned elsewhere.
Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars
How To Find Yourself
Why Looking Inward Is Not the Answer
Brian Rosner has written a very approachable book on the philosophy of identity. He diagnoses our current western culture well and proves the thesis of the subtitle. Where this book falls short is fleshing out the promise of its title. It gives two short chapters in service to that and fills them with answers you’d expect in a church-basement Sunday school class. I don’t think Rosner is necessarily wrong in his conclusions—just insufficient at supporting them, at least as well as he did the assertions that comprise most of the book. In fact, the week I finished this book proved Rosner’s closing thesis very much true in my life; and I wished he’d have addressed more space to what practical implementation could look like.
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars
Analog Church
Why We Need Real People, Places, and Things in the Digital Age
Jay Y. Kim’s book affirms choices the elders of my church have been making over the past year—to bring more embodiment, more communal moments, and less sensory overload to our gatherings. Kim promotes a both-and solution rather than an either-or one, which not only is important to note in our binary-driven culture but also has been my lived experience. Kim uses relatable, self-deprecating anecdotes from his life to reinforce his contentions; and his robust ministry experience adds more credence to his assertions.
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars
Breaking the Social Media Prism
How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing
In this short book (if you don’t read the 100 pages of appendix, bibliography, and notes), data scientist Chris Bail offers a compelling counter-narrative to what majority culture assumes about polarization and its proliferation on social media. His quantitative and qualitative research suggests a reality that resonated with my experience online. I would pay a monthly subscription for a Facebook that incorporated his recommended solutions in the last 3 pages. (That version of Facebook would put Twitter out of business almost as fast as Elon Musk is trying to do.) Bail’s discussion of our human pursuit of manicured identities and tribal acceptance applies both to those who use social media and those who proudly don’t.
Amazon rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars
Humble Pi
When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World
The tales in Matt Parker’s book might make your eyes bulge and maybe your jaw drop. Perhaps even a, “What!?” At least, those were some of my reactions. A couple of times, his anecdotes coaxed audible laughter out of me. The explanations sometimes went over my head, but that’s to be expected more than twenty years removed from my last math class. Even if the statistical breakdowns cast visions of a chalkboard in A Beautiful Mind or Hidden Figures, the underlying concepts prove attainable. Parker’s insatiable curiosity and dry humor lead to entertainment in places you wouldn’t expect.
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars
The Cost of Control
Why We Crave It, the Anxiety It Gives Us, and the Real Power God Promises
Sharon Hodde Miller included some topics I hadn’t considered to fall under “control issues,” and she diagnosed multiple sources of frustration in my autonomy-worshipping life. Most of the book services the title instead of a solution, but that’s because Miller is thorough in diagnosing the pervasiveness of our grasp for control. Her call to embrace agency instead of control doesn’t take long to explain, and I hope I can remember that filter difference at future junctures of my life where I usually reach for manipulating circumstances in my favor.
Amazon rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
How to Heal Our Racial Divide
What the Bible Says, and the First Christians Knew, About Racial Reconciliation
I generally need a palate cleanser book or two to read after absorbing one about racial reconciliation. The topic comes with heavy ramifications, especially for those wanting to change realities in the culture around us. In contrast to that tendency, I finished reading Derwin Gray’s book with hope and inspiration. He didn’t pen a woke manifesto or a conservative defense. These chapters don’t play to partisanship or divisiveness. A winsome man in a mixed marriage leading a multicultural church just walks through Scripture, showing the heart of Jesus to demonstrate his creativity through diversity and unity through a shared mission. He made passages of the Bible come alive with cultural details I’d never previously read or heard.
Amazon rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
Scared to Life
Tales of a Good God Who Reveals His Heart When Ours is Racing
It might sound weird, but I listened to my own book this year. Several times, I found myself reading chapters of the print copies I later gave away. I’ve purchased scores more copies of this book than any other book I’ve ever owned—because I believe that much in its message. I spent more on producing and marketing this book than I’ve spent purchasing any vehicle that’s had my name on the title because I want more people to experience what I have in my encounters with Jesus. I also read this book again and again because its stories provide proof of the thesis of the book I finished writing this year about how to rebuild your faith after you’ve experienced spiritual trauma and abuse.
Amazon rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Untrustworthy
The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community
Bonnie Kristian’s book explored aspects of the distrust of experts that I didn’t anticipate, and her solutions landed squarely on my heart. She gave me a filter to view my part of the problem as well as a challenging assignment as part of the counterintuitive solution. Both her diagnosis and her antidote resonated with my lived experience. Though it’s not explored deeply in the book, I was left feeling that the example of Jesus exemplifies Kristian’s remedies.
Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars
When Faith Fails
Finding God in the Shadow of Doubt
I bought this book after one of my good friends confided in me that he’s losing his faith—still attending church and leading in it but not connecting to God anymore. I was looking for compelling arguments for faith in Jesus beyond orthodoxy’s standard replies. While Dominic Done’s journey to an intimate faith resonated with my personal experience, I’m not sure the suggestions of this book would be sufficient for the skeptical reader to give Jesus a first or second try. They might. I just don’t know. They worked for Done; but if I were you, I’d read this book before gifting it to a friend struggling with doubt.
Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars
From Lost to Found
Giving Up What You Think You Want for What Will Set You Free
Nicole Zasowski penned not a guidebook but instead a reflective memoir on the first six years of her marriage. While I’ve never struggled with the pain of miscarriage (having never even tried to get my wife pregnant) or needed to uproot my life for my spouse’s career, I did relate to Zasowski’s central struggle of managed identity. In this book, you may or may not find helpful advice for enduring loss, failure, or hardship; but you will find commiseration for when “the struggle is real.” An anecdote from her first big speaking gig hit home for me, my ministry, and the legacy I’m trying to leave.
Amazon rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
The Astronaut’s Wife
How Launching My Husband Into Space Changed the Way I Live on Earth
I have a sneaking suspicion that as an adrenaline-junkie dude, I was not the intended audience of Stacey Morgan’s memoir. (She’s one of the national representatives for a mothering community.) Much of the didactic qualities of these vignettes are aimed at stressed mommas, but her ability to explain her embodied experience in big moments drew and kept my attention. Morgan’s manuscript holds the crispness inherent in great editing. Her candor and attention to detail make up for the lack of her extemporaneous humor and hilarious personality I’ve heard on podcast interviews. Even if you’re not interested in space travel like I am, you’ll enjoy her anecdotes from life as a military spouse and astronaut’s partner. As a professional graphic designer, I love the cover art of this book.
Amazon rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars
Making Numbers Count
The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers
Chip Heath and Karla Starr’s book gives great advice to anyone in communication—especially marketers, teachers, journalists, and authors. I should’ve taken notes or need to reread the book to implement their advice more regularly. Even if you don’t use the advice in this book, the anecdotes and examples they use are engaging and sometimes wild to ponder. So, if you’re a data or trivia nerd, you might like this book simply for its entertainment value.
Amazon rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Soul Care to Save Your Life
How Radical Honesty Leads to Real Healing
It takes courage to admit to the world not only that you’ve had an extramarital affair but also the specific brokenness that led to that moral failure. But I don’t think that’s the most radical confession of this book. The everyday honesty Manda Carpenter details is the harder example to follow for me. At the same time, some of these chapters seemed filled with Instagram-esque quotes and some humble bragging. As a self-employed dude with a daughter in college, I’m able to incorporate most of the suggestions of this book; but I’m not sure how many moms of littles—particularly those with limited incomes—could implement some of these recommendations. And the writing seems to indicate that demographic as her target audience.
Amazon rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars
The Life We’re Looking For
Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World
Andy Crouch’s latest book isn’t so much a how-to book as much as it is an appeal to our instincts and a confrontation of our momentum. You won’t find bullet points or a list of steps toward a solution. Instead, Crouch beautifully meanders through philosophical, anthropological, and spiritual reflections on some core realities of our humanity. He leaves out the didactic but makes the lessons easy to harvest. I hope I won’t soon forget to ask the questions of technology that he posits and to be as wary of technological magic and modern superpowers in my daily life.
Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Shrinking the Integrity Gap
Between What Leaders Preach and Live
I appreciate voices that avoid binary options and that avoid framing the world as red vs blue. Jeff & Terra Mattson abstained from those cultural tendencies in this book. At the same time, they didn’t make integrity nuanced or relative, either. They simply acknowledged that we’re all on a continuum of integrity, all tempted to live below the standard of our best selves. With that pragmatism, they offer advice for managing the temptations in our hearts rather than managing our façades. They framed accountability as a resource to becoming our best selves—a version where our internal and external realities are congruent. I quoted my favorite line from their book in the first draft of the book manuscript I just wrote: “Faith is what faith does.”
Amazon rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars
It’s Not Your Turn
What to Do While You’re Waiting for Your Breakthrough
I bought this book solely on the premise of the title, as I was struggling to see others succeed in a specific endeavor where I’ve not yet sniffed success. While I found good reminders through Heather Thompson Day’s framing anecdotes, I was annoyed regularly throughout this book by the author’s exasperation. Can you believe she had to wait two whole months for a career watershed moment after graduation? Isn’t it just unfathomable that she didn’t publish a book until she was in her twenties and didn’t get a big book deal until her early thirties? If this book were an Instagram post, it’d be a video that started with, “You guys!? It was SO HARD.” Thankfully, that annoyance was balanced by content from which most readers will benefit by implementing into our mindset.
Amazon rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
Undistracted
Capture Your Purpose. Rediscover Your Joy
This isn’t Bob Goff’s best work, despite the practice inherent in his previous multiple New York Times bestsellers. It feels like the editing process wasn’t as thorough as that of his past works. That said, it holds almost as many wild tales as his other books, and I highlighted multiple strong lines and dog-eared impactful pages. Those profound statements are why most readers have gushed in their reviews. Bob did write one of the most impactful sentences I read this year, but it arrived in my email inbox on my birthday. Bob’s books and my personal interactions with him have significantly influenced the trajectory of my life, and I will continue to buy every book he puts out for adults. But the copies I’ll buy as gifts will continue to be his first ones.
Amazon rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
Now What?
How to Move Forward When We’re Divided (About Basically Everything)
I wonder how big the market is for Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers’ latest book. Everyone can benefit from reading it. I did. But those who by purchasing this book self-select as wanting to be part of the solution are already doing a lot of what readers are called to do in the book. The podcast co-hosts didn’t write a call to unity or sameness. In fact, they discuss knowing when to be a voice of dissent. Instead, they call us to our shared humanity and the dignity of every human being [except, in their opinion, the unborn]. My biggest takeaway will be the chapter on how to reframe our approach to church and other nonprofit participation, but I also appreciated the chapter on international empathy.
Amazon rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
Landing Local Media
An Actionable Guide to Help Self-Published Authors Book Local Press
In this book, Jason Jones leverages his experience representing multiple New York Times bestselling authors to help all authors see their books as media producers do. The recommended exercises in these pages helped me clarify my message, my marketable value, and my unique voice. I bought this book to prepare me for conversations with the publicity firm I hired to represent my book. This book is the post-publishing equivalent of what Get to the Publishing Punchline is for the pre-publishing process.
Amazon rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars
So Good They Can’t Ignore You
Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love
Cal Newport wrote this book as a statement of his hypothesis before beginning his career. That explains the rigid, academic-style writing. For writing this book in only a few months, I’m impressed by the breadth of his cherry-picked examples. Some of those samples seem forced to fit his thesis, but his own career would be enough to prove his hypothesis. This book proved more affirmation than education for me, as Newport could’ve used the story of my career to prove that his framework works as much prescriptively as it does descriptively.
Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Good Boundaries and Goodbyes
Loving Others Without Losing the Best of Who You Are
After being deeply moved by Lysa TerKeurst’s last book, Forgiving What You Can’t Forget, I preordered this book as soon as I heard about it. Those high expectations may have led to my disappointment with its content. TerKeurst writes her books as a team, and this one seems to have suffered from too much deliberation, moderation, and carefulness. I found most of the included Scripture references to apply obliquely at best, seemingly tacked onto the chapters for Christian bookstore sales. The final chapter struggles to clearly debunk the verses it correctly notes are often weaponized in the church by abusers and enablers. Also, TerKeurst doesn’t even attempt to address male readers. If you need faith-aligned wisdom on this topic, buy Dr. Henry Cloud’s Necessary Endings instead.
Amazon rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
Resilient
Restoring Your Weary Soul in These Turbulent Times
John Eldridge explains in his latest book that this is a sequel to his Get Your Life Back. This book feels like Eldridge had to come up with something to fulfill a two-book contract. He bounces back and forth between Sunday school answers and mysticism, between relatable confession and odd selections from the Bible. His interjections for the audiobook didn’t add value for me; and he read the manuscript so slowly, I played the book at 1.25x speed to track with it—something I’ve only done once or twice in the past.
Amazon rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
Marriage Be Hard
12 Conversations to Keep You Laughing, Loving, and Learning with Your Partner
I don’t follow Kevin or Melissa Fredericks or their media company’s other personalities, nor do I listen to their podcast. Maybe if I did, I’d have enjoyed this book like those who made it a New York Times bestseller did. It lacked much humor outside of sexual innuendos and was filled with enough regurgitated Instagram advice to get its own blue check. My favorite idea from this book came in its final pages when Melissa turned the “If it’s not on social media, did it even happen?” joke into a wise suggestion: “If it’s not on social media, it’s more sacred.”
Amazon rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
Hungry Hearts
Essays on Courage, Desire, and Belonging
If you enjoy motivational speeches or poetry nights at your local coffee shop, you might like this book. I’m not into either of those cultural environments, but I read this book to intentionally absorb the stories of people of different gender, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, and religious beliefs than I hold. I wanted to absorb different expressions of humanity, even if uncomfortable. I wasn’t inspired by these stories. Instead, I was reminded how annoying self-importance is to readers. I found a redeeming value to these essays in that, as a writer, I was challenged to approach my work with more humility and less myopia.
Amazon rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Beautiful People Don’t Just Happen
How God Redeems Regret, Hurt, and Fear in the Making of Better Humans
I powered through this book, hoping it would lead to something that connected the dots of the disparate chapters. Instead, Scott Sauls just gave a “sweet by and by” pat on the head—basically: every life will suck, but heaven won’t. A handful of passages got close to the engaging and approachable humanity of the books near the top of this list but then retreated to earnest-but-bland homilies. Dane Ortlund’s Gentle & Lowly and Brant Hansen’s The Truth About Us address Christ’s heart for hurting, broken people in much more thorough and unique ways.
Amazon rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
The Amazon ratings shown were pulled at the time when I finished each respective book and wrote its review.
The blog posts shown below include my reviews of every book I’ve read each year from 2016 through 2021.
