(To see my rankings from previous years, click here: 2018, 2019, 2020)
2021 has been a great year for reading. I read about 107 books when you factor in audiobooks I listened to. Now I have come to my favorite post of the year! The top 10 best books I read this year. These are books that either had the most impact on me, were the most fun to read, or the ideas in the book are still with me and have really helped me grow as a follower of Jesus. I started with 25 books as contenders for the top 10 and I had to narrow. It was extremely difficult because I read a lot of really great books this year. This year is actually much different than years before in that less than half of my top 10 are specifically Christian books. I read more broadly this year.
Honorable Mentions
Before the top 10, here are four honorable mentions.
J Curve: Dying and Rising with Jesus in Everyday Life – Paul Miller
I was excited to read this book as Paul Miller wrote “A Praying Life” which is one of my favorite books. This book is about dying to self. It takes the death and resurrection of Jesus and places that over the Christian life of dying to self and shows how Christians must die to themselves and when that happens, God will give something new in place of it as a resurrection, shaped like a J. My one complaint for this book is that it is about 100 pages too long. It just keeps taking the J Curve idea and putting it over different scenarios, which was good. But it became way too repetitive over time.
America’s Religious History – Thomas Kidd
This is an overview of American history looking specifically at how religion has shaped the land over our nation’s past and into the present. I found it to be a very interesting survey. You end up seeing a lot of things in history that you never knew. You get the real story on what the faith of the founding father’s generation was. You see what the struggle of faith and the issue of slavery was. You see how we got the current state in America of cultural Christianity as well as the merging of faith and politics. This book will give you great understand of how our nation came to be as it is religiously.
Only a Prayer Meeting – Charles Spurgeon
The church I pastor has a prayer meeting. Most churches have discontinued it, especially after COVID. I have never really had a desire to do away with it, but I’ve been trying to think of how to make it more exciting. Most people don’t come, I think because they see it as boring. This book is a collection of sermons Spurgeon gave at his prayer meeting. And just reading them alone showed me that the biggest reason I didn’t feel that prayer meeting was that great was that I didn’t have a vision for doing it well. I was doing just enough to get by. Spurgeon didn’t do that. He put a lot into his sermons for it. And they prayed a lot at the meeting. And so more than anything, this book gave me a heart to do prayer meeting better.
Talking Back to Purity Culture – Rachel Joy Welcher
I grew up in the 90s and 2000s. I came into the church around 2008 which was on the end of the purity movement. While I applaud the church trying to figure out how to handle rampant sexuality in our culture, the purity movement missed the mark and Welcher is trying to point that out in this book. Though it is not much of a movement anymore, it is very much still prevalent in people’s minds and has shaped the way people think. Purity was presented more as, “If you remain a virgin until you’re married, sex will be great.” But story after story of people shows that is not actually the case. People still struggle in marriage if they waited until marriage. Welcher argues rather that the goal of purity should be loving God, not getting rewarded with good sex in marriage. Kinda like how Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matt 5:8)
The Top 10
#10 The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home – Denise Kiernan
I started a new tradition this year. My wife and I love to travel and do a big vacation every year. This year, we went to Asheville, NC and we saw the Biltmore Estate. So I decided to start every year getting and reading a book that can help me understand where I have travelled. So I got this book and read it. It tells the story of the Biltmore Estate and the love story of George and Edith Vanderbilt. It was really helpful in fleshing out all the things I saw at the Biltmore. It also helped touring the estate be more than just a historical tour. It made me be able to imagine the sort of things that happened there.
#9 The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s – Andy Greene
I became a fan of “The Office” really late to the game. I tried watching it when I was in high school and didn’t understand it. Then I got a job in an office and the show made complete sense to me and it’s one of my favorite shows. This book tells the story of how the show was made all the way from casting until after the show finished. So many stories about the show were crazy. Did you know that Jim and Pam’s wedding almost featured a scene of Roy riding in on a white horse to try to stop the wedding?! I will say, this book is probably easier to read by listening to it on audio than reading it. It’s mostly composed of interview quotes from the cast and creators. But it will open up the show even more for you.
#8 Death By Meeting – Patrick Lencioni
In my opinion, my weakest area as a pastor is leadership. This year, I wanted to start learning how to lead meetings better so I reached out to a friend that I know who is something of a leadership guru and he pointed me to this book. It is one of the first books I read this year and it has stuck with me all year. The book essentially teaches you about the different types of meetings and it does so through comparing it to the different types of tv programs you watch. There’s the daily 20-30 minute news broadcast, the weekly hour drama, the monthly 2 hour movie, etc. It just took the principle and gave it to me in such a way that I still remember. It also teaches the basics of what to do in a meeting. I have felt a lot more confident leading meetings since.
#7 The Prodigal God – Timothy Keller
I read this book in college and was bored by it. But it’s more because I didn’t read it closely than that it was bad. I read it again this year because I was preaching the Parable of the Prodigal Son on Father’s Day. This book is a major exposition of the parable and shows how gracious Jesus is to the younger brother but how unreceptive to mercy the older brother is. It just so beautifully paints the Gospel and it’s a pretty simple read. I think it’s the best Keller book I’ve read.
#6 The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 – Garrett Graff
This year was the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and a friend of mine pointed out this book to me. It is an incredible retelling of that day. It’s over 500 pages and most of the book covers only that day in 2001. It is mostly composed of interviews from survivors. I recommend listening to it on audio, because the audio book includes actual audio from news reports, speeches from President Bush, flight recordings, etc.
#5 Family Discipleship – Matt Chandler and Adam Griffin
This book is super practical. It encourages parents to be the spiritual leaders of their kids. But the great part about this book is how it so practically gives you ways to do that. It encourages parents to disciple their kids through time, moments, and milestones. And then it gives a lot of charts you can take and use for yourself in your own family. My son isn’t quite the age yet to start practicing these, but in the next few years, I plan to very heavily utilize this book with my family.
#4 Skywalker: A Family at War – Kristin Baver
This book combined two of my favorite things: Star Wars and History. I found this book at Target and was immediately captivated by it. It tells the story of the Star Wars saga like it is a real story in history. It tells the story of the Skywalker family like it’s a historical dynasty. It includes all 9 episodes of Star Wars and various other parts from Star Wars Canon. (Rebels, Clone Wars, novels, etc) It was a super fun book to read and to see one of my favorite fictional stories from a fresh telling.
#3 Deep Discipleship – JT English
My biggest heart for my church is that they grow really deep in their faith that they might become more like Jesus. I see my primary job as a pastor to spiritually form my congregation and see them reach maturity in Christ. This book puts forth a method of theologically training your church. The example JT English uses is through a training institute they have at hi church. I am thinking through the method itself of how I can do something similar at my church. I want to figure out how to take my people deep into theology. When their heads are correctly informed, it will affect what they love, and they will grow. The ideas in this book have me deeply thinking now and praying for 2022.
#2 Hillbilly Elegy – JD Vance
I grew up in Western Kentucky. It’s not technically hillbilly country since the hills of Kentucky are in the eastern part. But after reading this book, I find that our cultures are the same. I didn’t grow up in the poverty that JD Vance did, but very similar cultures. I’ve heard some people in my hometown read this book and not like it because of the political tones of it. The politics of it didn’t phase me much. But I couldn’t believe how much this book made me understand the culture I grew up in. It’s pretty crazy that that was my take away from the book since most of this book is pretty depressing as Vance recounts the details of his dysfunctional family. But I came to understand the world my childhood existed in so much from reading this book.
#1 The Power of Christian Contentment – Andrew Davis
One of the biggest sins I struggle with at the current moment is grumbling and complaining. The fact is, those sins are the result of discontentment. Discontentment is not trusting the sovereignty of God over my life. Everything that happens to me, big and small, is within His good plan for my life. So I can be content to trust Him and worship. This book so beautifully hammers that truth home. I haven’t yet beat my battle with discontentment. But this book gave me a lot of tools to battle that sin. I’m hopeful that this time next year, I will be in a better place with it.
That’s my top 10 for 2021! It’s been such a great year for reading! I’m taking the month of December a bit slower in reading so that my mind can rest until I pick it back up in January. I’m aiming to read over 100 books next year.
I’ll see you when I rank my top 10 books of 2022. I’d say I can’t wait to write that post, but the post is nothing without the reading journey to get there.
The Shepherd's Lane 