The Best
The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life, Freedom and Justice
by Anthony Ray Hinton—This is my annual drop-whatever-you’re-doing-because-it’s-not-as-important-as-reading-this-book
selection. Mr. Hinton, a man who will become your friend and your hero as you’re
drawn into his story, was falsely convicted of murder and sent to death row for
30 years (take that in—30 years) until he was proven innocent. Rarely do
I go into a book believing one thing and have my mind completely changed by the
end. This is that book. There are so many messages here we need to hear, but
the most significant might be about the sustaining power of God. Even in a tiny
cell in solitary confinement, a stone’s throw away from an electric chair, no
one is alone.
And Its Companion
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by
Bryan Stevenson—Released in 2014 and recently made into a movie, this
book tells the story of Walter McMillian, a man whom Stevenson helped free from
prison after six years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit. Scattered in
between the pages of McMillian’s story are other horrific accounts of people
Stevenson has defended: impoverished women on death row, charged with capital
murder after delivering stillborn babies that they were too poor to have in a
hospital; children as young as 13 sentenced to life in prison (or death in
prison as Stevenson calls it); the seriously mentally ill who have been left to
die in prisons without medical treatment. In partnership with Hinton’s book (he
was also represented by Bryan Stevenson), my eyes are newly opened to judicial
injustice and death-row practices in our country.
Runners Up
Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday
Life by Tish Harrison Warren—This book has been on my list for a while. If
it’s on yours, take it off and start reading. It’s short and sweet but oh-so
profound. Warren goes through the seemingly mundane events in her
day—everything from brushing her teeth to returning emails to drinking tea—and
illuminates the sacred in all of it. I have never thought of brushing my teeth
as even remotely worshipful, but Warren has opened my eyes. This little book is
a gem.
Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others
Collapse by Timothy P. Carney—I saw a review of this in Christianity
Today and knew it was my kind of book. Filled with research and statistics
and real-life stories, it’s another piece in my puzzle to determine how Donald
Trump was elected our 45th President. Of all the reading I’ve done,
this may have provided the most satisfying answer. Carney argues that civil
society—the things we join and belong to, like churches, Bible studies, PTAs,
Little League teams, the neighborhood pool, even labor unions—is what makes us
fully human. These things provide support and a sense of purpose, and without a
role in civil society, people become alienated, untethered, and hopeless. The more
engaged people are with the community around them, the less likely they are to
fall victim to diseases of despair and polarizing national political propaganda.
Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Frederick
Buechner—I delighted in starting my mornings with Buechner, one of my
all-time favorite writers. For me, Buechner is best read in paragraphs, not
pages, so daily entries from his books were just right. The man used words like
no one else, and his writing offered helpful insight into how life speaks to us
about who we are.
The Best Book I Didn’t Finish
Falling Free: Rescued from the Life I Always Wanted by
Shannan Martin—This is a beautiful book. Martin has a story of radical faith to
tell, and she tells it with words that impress, inspire, amuse, and cut
straight to your heart. But I couldn’t finish her beautiful book. There are a
handful of books (anything by Shane Claiborne, for example) that prey upon my
convicting heart and leave me feeling guilty and discontent. I’m all for a book
that challenges, but not one that makes me critical of everything around me.
Most of you will not have that experience, and I heartily recommend Falling
Free to you.
Good But Not Great
Everybody Always: Becoming Love in a World of Setbacks
and Difficult People by Bob Goff—not as good as Love Does but worth
it for the story told in the last few chapters. This man blows me away and
doesn’t leave me with that guilty feeling of Falling Free. He leaves me
happy.
Feeding the Mouth that Bites You: A Complete Guide to
Parenting Adolescents and Launching Them Into the World by Kenneth Wilgus—I’ve
always liked to think of my parenting job with the end goal in mind: raising
functional adults who follow Jesus with everything they’ve got. There wasn’t a
lot of new ground in this book, but it was good encouragement to keep going,
hold fast to structure, and keep my eyes on the long view. Parenting isn’t
always fun in the moment, but the work we do now will pay off.
Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s
Will by Kevin DeYoung—This is a book about making decisions—not so much “how”
to make them, but a kick in the pants to, well, “just do something.” We can
overspiritualize our decisions and stagnate while waiting for an answer from
God, when sometimes, we just need to move forward into what seems like the next
right step. A decent little book, especially for young adults.
Books I Learned From
Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by
Matthew Walker—Fascinating book written by a sleep scientist on a topic dear to
my heart. At certain points it was too technical and sciency, but the sleep
tips were helpful. Sobering—pardon the pun—information about how driving
sleep-deprived compares to driving drunk. If you’re interested in the topic of
sleep, this is a good one to skim.
Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World by
Maryanne Wolf—Wolf provided a good scientific foundation for what I already
believe: We read print text differently than digital text, and a mix of both is
good for our brains. But for Pete’s sake, don’t give up print. This book
offered especially good insight for educating future generations of learners. I
hope teachers and administrators are reading this, even though it may be too
technical for casual readers.
The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to
Self-Discovery by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile—I may have been the
last Christian woman in America to read this 2016 book, which has become the
Enneagram textbook for followers of Christ. I was surprised by how clever the
writing was and how fun it was to read. It’s not comprehensive, but it gives
enough flavor of each of nine personality types to be able to peg your friends
and family (and, with more work, yourself) and offers insight into why people
are the way they are.
Mirror for the Soul: A Christian Guide to the Enneagram
by Alice Fryling—A good partner to The Road Back to You, this book focuses
a bit more on how the Enneagram can be a tool for transformation. It gave me
the push I needed to not just lament my number and what it reveals, but to move
forward with spiritual growth in mind.
Controversial but Interesting
Irresistible: Reclaiming the New that Jesus Unleashed for
the World by Andy Stanley
This one drew a lot of attention, positive and negative.
Stanley was widely quoted as saying that Christians should “unhitch” their
faith from the Old Testament law. This book explains what he means by that. I
actually didn’t find that much to disagree with as he discussed the reason for
the law and how its purpose was complete when Christ came. I do think he
chooses dramatic language (fighting words?) to rouse attention to his points,
and the “unhitch” concept is one of them. Another is his idea to physically
unbind the Old Testament from the New and rename them The Hebrew Scriptures and
the Christian Bible. It’s true that this could eliminate a lot of the problems
that skeptics have with the Bible. Most of those issues appear in the Old Testament.
But Jesus frequently quoted the Old Testament and never once suggested that His
followers should “unhitch.” This was a very thought-provoking book, and I was
deeply affected by Stanley’s teaching on Jesus’s command to love God by loving
the people around us. He drives that message home as well as anyone. But his
tone was not my favorite (Did he really have to bring up Lorena Bobbitt?), and
his fighting words left me unsettled.
Fiction
a. Entertainment Fiction
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate—I’m picky
about my fiction, but this one was a complete winner. Flashing between
present-day and the late 1930s, the book has well-developed characters whom I
actually cared about. I also appreciate that I didn’t have to deal with a bunch
of garbage language. I read it in a few days. Time well spent.
b. Educational Fiction (i.e., books my kids read in A.P.
Lit)
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky—This
824-page book explains why my fiction category is so sparse this year. After
talking about reading great Russian literature for a dozen years, I finally
committed to this one, and it took me all summer. It’s a book our seniors read,
and it was profoundly meaningful to both my son and my daughter. (After reading
it myself, my hunch is that this had more to do with their wise, engaging Lit
teacher than the book itself.) There’s a reason why we all know Dostoevsky’s
name. He is brilliant in places, and he causes us to think about things of
utmost importance. But there are at least a few subplots that don’t seem to go
anywhere, and the dialogue is lengthy and dramatic. Maybe it’s a cultural
thing, but I found myself worn out by the sheer emotion of it all. Are Russians
really this dramatic? I do feel smarter for having read it, and I can easily
cross Crime and Punishment off my bucket reading list.
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka—Surely I had
read this little book before, but like most people, all I remembered was someone
turning into a bug. There’s actually a lot more to it than that. What that “lot
more” is? That’s subjective. Addison and I saw it as a commentary on family,
and on how you can feel the most isolated with the people who you’re supposed
to be closest to. Very short and oh-so thought-provoking, this would be a great
one for a family discussion.
My 2020 list is growing, topped by Seculosity by
David Zahl, Surprised by Paradox by Jen Pollock Michel, and How to Think
by Alan Jacobs. If you read a great book this year, let me know about it!
