My 10 Favorite Books of 2025

Hello my friends,

I’m reflecting on the year right now. I’m planning for 2026. One of the things I’ve found incredibly useful each December is creating a C.S. Lewis-style reading plan (I’ve done an uncomfortable amount of looking into C.S. Lewis’ actual reading life. It’s wild.) It’s basically a combination of fiction/non-fiction, old and new books, that I use as a compass throughout the year. It keeps me reading a lot, and reading well. Without a plan, I end up:

A. Not reading at all, or only of necessity, or

B. Reading lots of junk-food books that don’t help my thinking.

I’ve thought a bit this year about creating a community in this space that would like me to curate a similar reading plan for all of us: a balanced diet of classics/new, fiction/non-fiction, Christian and non-Christian. Why a reading group?

Well, it’s selfish tbh. Something my reading schedule is largely missing is mechanisms to help with comprehension, retention and application of my reading. Something I had in grad school was a community that forced me to reckon with the texts I was reading. I don’t have that, now. So the third danger I find myself in is:

C. I read a lot, but I don’t comprehend it, process it, retain it or apply it nearly as well as I could.

So, just reading one book a week (something I’ve done for the past three years since Tim Keller told me on Twitter this had been his habit) is great. But to take it to the next level, you really need a community for two things:

1. Frameworking: Research shows that having an “advance organizer” (a scholarly intro to a work) radically improves comprehension of materials. It gets us asking the right questions and keeps us from imposing the wrong categories into a work. Spending even 20 minutes with an expert can radically change our experience of reading a book.

2. Processing: Plenty of research shows that there is a level of 1. Comprehension, 2. Retention and 3. Application (or “social-emotional” learning) takes place in book club discussions that isn’t possible when reading alone. So having a brief one-hour conversation about whatever you’re reading is a huge aid to integrating the inner logic of a book into life. It forces you to reckon with it. Integrate it. Argue with it. Use it. Respond to others’ responses. In other words, it forces you to think. (Think: the Inklings)

I was thinking maybe a few of you would be interested in joining me on this curated reading journey in the future. We’d select one book a month, for now. It would be a paid subscription service (discounted if you’re already a paid subscriber), because I’d like to invite in some real-world scholars (and authors themselves!) to the conversation and compensate them ethically to create our intros and help foster our conversations.

Would you take 30 seconds to let me know, below?

PS - If you have a creative idea for naming this, hit me up!

All that out of the way, here are my top ten reads from 2025, in no particular order:

1. Why We Love Baseball

I’ve always wanted to be convinced to be a baseball guy. And I’ve always felt I needed one passionate, well-versed fan to help me. Joe Posnanski is that guy. He has that classic “ain’t America swell” kind of vibe in his voice and writing. He’s passionate and clever, and a great story-teller. This was a fantastic light read that gave me the lay of the land through baseball history.

2. The Meaning of Singleness

Dani Treweek’s scholarship on Christian postures toward singleness through the centuries is thorough, profound and convicting. She truly just changed my mind about some things through her important work of ancestry/retrieval. It’s not light reading. But it’s something we evangelicals need to reckon with, because we are way out of step with our church fathers/mothers on this score.

3. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

There is just so much to learn from this book. So much. It is incredibly prescient to our life and times today. The parallels are uncanny. I figured picking this up that it would be a slough, but worth it. In all of my 40 hours of listening I don’t think I tuned out once. I was riveted by it all. One of those books I thought, “Man I NEED some people to read this with me and talk about it!”

4. Wonder

There is truly little that brings me more pleasure than a well-written book for children or teenagers. This book about Augie Pullman’s first year in school - and all the drama and hilarity and friendship and firsts that comes with it - was funny, clever and heartwarming. But it’s also an exercise in compassion: from those who look different all the way to those who respond to those who look different. Truly a delight that I will re-read in the future, and hand to my kids this Christmas.

5. How to Stay Married

I have to say, this book lived up to the billing. It is the most insane love story I’ve ever heard, at least. The strength of the book is Harrison Scott Key’s shocking honesty and unbelievable gift for humor. Few books really make me laugh, and this one did. It also made me gasp. But more than all that, this book is like a splash of cold water in the face: “This could happen to you.” As I read, I felt both mad on Harrison Scott Key’s behalf and mad AT him. That’s part of the design. Reading it was like having the ghost of Christmas future address me and shake me awake: “Take care of your marriage now. Right now. Don’t wait.” So great.

6. King: A Life

This was one of the better biographies I’ve ever read. Eig is truly a master. This is not a fanboy account of MLK. It’s also not a dark expose’. Yet there are threads of both of those genres in this. Somehow reading this book gave me a new level of awe for who King was while at the same time being more explicit than any book I’ve read about King’s moral failures. But even those moral failures, Eig notes, were part of a complex web of unbelievable pressures, antagonistic forces and a psychologically complex figure who, I still felt after reading, looms larger than life. Amazing read.

7. The Mythmakers

John Hendrix’ graphic novel on the friendship between Lewis and Tolkien is beautiful, deep and engaging. There was a lot for me (as a Tolkien and Lewis STAN) to wrestle with, yet it was also taking high concept stuff and making it accessible to my 13 year old, who loved it and re-illustrated his favorite portions. It amazes me that one person can put something like this together. What a beautiful gift to us. A PERFECT Christmas gift.

8. Agent Running in the Field

This was my first introductory book to John Le Carre, after many recommendations over the years. It’s so different than anything I’ve read. It’s subtle, funny, idiosyncratic, and complex. A perfectly British book. I’m sure it’s not Le Carre’s finest, but the whole thing was whirring with fantastic characters and unusual twists. My favorite part was getting inside the mind of Le Carre’s main character and understanding the subtle art of politics and spycraft from an unassuming gentleman.

9. You Have a Calling

Karen Swallow Prior ‘s book came at a time this year when I was asking lots of big questions about calling and vocation. Karen’s book helped me, first of all, step back and calm down. Removing the anxiety and reminding me what God cares about was the beauty of this book. Lots of helpful wisdom that helps to navigate the dangers of conversations over calling, while also prompting us toward the right questions. And it’s just what I needed to think clearly about not only what God has ahead of me, but what He has before me, now.

10. Untangling Critical Race Theory

Undoubtedly the best thing I’ve read on this topic. Uszynski is a scholar with expertise in the field. He’s threading a fine line: he’s deeply critical of evangelical anti-intellectualism when it comes to CRT. He mourns over the ways white responses to the Civil Rights movement are being copied and pasted in the evangelical world in the way we respond to our black brothers and sisters over CRT. At the same time, he sees the flaws in CRT as a solution. Uszynski encourages us to be better, more compassionate listeners when CRT addresses real issues, while still affirming that the kingdom of God is what heals, not utopian visions. Fantastic book. We need more thoughtful/trained folks writing books on these topics, and less armchair sociologists.

PS - Did you read “The Light in Our Eyes” this year? As an author with a small platform, the #1 way I get the word out is through reader reviews. I read every one! Even a one sentence review is huge. If you read my book this year, would you take a minute to leave a review today? You can do that here.

Or, if you purchased from Amazon, you can leave a review here.