Embedded Files
Top 5 of the Year
Demon Copperhead
By: Barbara Kingsolver
In the best novel I’ve read all year, Kingsolver adapts the story of David Copperfield to illustrate the shadow side of Appalachia. The reader follows Damon, the narrator (and a hilarious one), as he seeks to survive his home, the foster system, the opioid epidemic, and his town as they all threaten to swallow him alive. While it is an incredible novel, prepare to be sad.
Read my full reflection on Demon Copperhead here.
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction
By: Gabor Maté
Gabor Maté offers decades of wisdom from his clinic on Skid Row, treating patients who suffer from severe addiction. Maté balances narrative and science as he seeks to both humanize his patients and to help the reader understand the temporary chemical and existential relief that drugs can provide to make the moment livable. Maté has helped make the deeply perplexing reality of addiction slightly more understandable.
Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction
By: David Sheff
Sheff’s memoir offers his personal reflections over the years that his son, his “beautiful boy,” is dominated by severe drug addiction. The rollercoaster of rehab and relapse, the suspicion bred by stealing, and the chronic worry plaguing a father who loves his child—together, these make this one of the most heart-wrenching books I’ve read this year.
The Anxious Generation: How The Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
By: Jonathan Haidt
Haidt offers (from what I’ve read) the definitive case on the unintended consequences of adolescent use of digital media. Everyone knows that this topic is a dead horse, well-beaten. But somehow he frames the conversation in a unique and nuanced way that makes it accessible and gives readers a clear and reasonable path forward. This is the second year in a row that Haidt’s work has made the top of my list. At this rate, I think that most of his future books will do likewise.
How to Talk about Jesus (Without Being That Guy): Personal Evangelism in a Skeptical World
By: Sam Chan
Merge your Universes, Coffee-Dinner-Gospel, and Lean into Disagreement. These are just a few of the takeaways I’ve had from this practical guide and paradigm-shifting book. Coming from a tradition that didn’t prioritize evangelism, this book helped me capture a vision for how evangelism doesn't need to run against the grain of how relationships work. I wish I had bought this ten years ago and this will be one of the first books I’d buy for a new (or veteran) Christian.
Honorable Mentions & Recommendations
Honorable Mentions & Recommendations
Tress of the Emerald Sea
By: Brandon Sanderson
Silly, whimsical, adventurous, and fun. Tress is one of my new favorite characters. Make this your next family road trip audiobook.
Skyward #1: Skyward
By: Brandon Sanderson
“Spin” seeks to achieve success as a fighter pilot, hoping to redeem her father’s tainted legacy as well as uncover what might have actually happened to him. While the series has not been as satisfying, this first novel is an excellent stand-alone young adult book.
Exodus Old and New: A Biblical Theology of Redemption
By: L. Michael Morales
If you feel like the Bible, especially the Old Testament, is boring, read this. Morales gives a captivating biblical-theological overview of the Redemption theme in Scripture.
Bavinck: A Critical Biography
By: James Eglinton
I’m no expert in biographies, but this was surprisingly fun to read. Eglington’s a great writer and this Dutch theologian was fascinating to follow. Thanks for this book, Mike.
Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide
By: Rupert Holmes
Dark academia and the murder mystery merge into a comedic novel which follows three protagonists at the prestigious school of murder, McMasters, and their attempts to execute their complex (and quite ethical) assassinations.
Susan Ryeland #3: Marble Hall Murders
By: Anthony Horowitz
The final Susan Ryeland mystery novel and a very satisfying conclusion to Horowitz’s trilogy. Any murder mystery lovers will find this series, and this ending, to be well worth their time.
Patriot: A Memoir
By: Alexei Navalny
The prison letters and reflections of a political martyr as he seeks to expose the lies, corruption, and evil of the government who controls the Russia he dearly loves. The book serves as a reminder that some things are worth dying for, suffering vindicates a message, and that lies and corruption can devastate a people.
Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall
By: Nina Willner
This brilliant memoir traces three generations of a family’s story as they come under Russian occupation in East Germany and its members seek to make a life on either side of the Berlin Wall.
The Last Kilo: Willy Falcon and the Cocaine Empire That Seduced America
By: T.J. English
A fascinating inside take on the rise and fall of Los Muchachos: the Cuban, anti-Castro cocaine cartel that was started by two teenagers in Florida, expanded into an international operation, and then fell apart piece by piece.
The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing
By: Lara Love Hardin
A well-written memoir that traces a mother’s drug addiction, time in prison, path of recovery, and journey beyond the shadow of the criminal justice system.
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
By: Bryan Stevenson
This heartbreaking book traces Stevenson’s involvement with the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) as he seeks to rescue death row inmates from harsh sentences, wrongful convictions, and the murky ethical waters of the death sentence.
Poverty, by America
By: Matthew Desmond
Why is there still poverty in 21st century America? This analysis was a fascinating take, if a one-sided one, on the reasons that poverty stays the status-quo: because we actually prefer it that way.
An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
By: Kay Redfield Jamison
Mental illness makes little sense from the outside. Jamison gives a glimpse of what manic-depressive illness (bipolar), in all its madness and beauty, is like from the inside.
The World's Largest Man
By: Harrison Scott Key
Another hilarious memoir by Harrison Scott Key as he reflects on growing up in the American South.
Pride and Prejudice
By: Jane Austen
It’s hard to see why some classics are considered such. Not Pride and Prejudice. Austen’s novel is comedic, dramatic, with a plot that kept me reading later and later each night.
Ordinary Grace
By: William Kent Krueger
A young boy recounts the strange summer when his small town experienced multiple deaths, each surrounded with tragic and suspicious circumstances. A combination of bildungsroman and murder mystery, this novel is a beautiful reflection on loss, uncertainty, and how people are shaped by both.
In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership
By: Henri J.M. Nouwen
The humble and contemplative Nouwen always makes me want to be more like Jesus. His reflections on Christian ministry in this short book are no exception.
Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness
By: Eugene H. Peterson
Using the Jonah story as a framing device, Peterson pushes against the role of program director that pastors often play in consumeristic Christianity, offering, instead, the vision of spiritual director as the true role for the pastoral vocation in a local parish.
The Freedom of a Christian, 1520: The Annotated Luther Study Edition
By: Timothy J. Wengert, Martin Luther
Why is faith in Christ what saves a Christian? This very short pamphlet was one my favorite theology readings all year. If you are a Christian, this is worth having on your shelf.
On the Christian Life: A New Translation
By: John Calvin
Also known as the “Golden Booklet of the Christian Life” at the end of the Institutes, Calvin offers guidance on the Christian life, particularly related to suffering. Thank you Sam for this great gift—I’m looking forward to the new Institutes translation when it comes out.
The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
By: Jonathan Haidt
What makes people happy? Haidt combines ancient wisdom and social science to give a simple, and insightful, model.
The Great Mental Models Volume 1: General Thinking Concepts The Great Mental Models #1
By: Rhiannon Beaubien, Shane Parrish
This book will only appeal to certain people. But I am one of them and you know if you are too.
Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
By: Cal Newport
1. Do Fewer Things 2. Work at a Natural Pace 3. Obsess Over Quality. These simple rules are ones I was grateful to learn and would love to implement more in my life.
4000 Weeks
By: Oliver Burkeman
There is never enough time to do enough. So stop trying and embrace your finitude. While I think Burkeman’s optimistic atheism is fairly misguided, his overall premise is exceptional. I’d recommend it to you wholeheartedly.
Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson
A well-paced and very clever fantasy series with memorable and endearing characters. I would highly recommend these to anyone who enjoys fantasy, magical systems, and well-constructed plots.
The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson (Books I-III)
Also a clever, but very slow-paced high fantasy series. If you are okay with A, B, C, D, E, and F plots with interludes—or if you have a long commute and a few audible credits you need to stretch out—then this series is for you. Although it is a high investment, I'm glad I've started (thank you Maddie and Aidan).
Thank you for reading my second annual book report. I hope it inspires you in your own reading and reflection this next year.
Best,
Michael Fennema
Total: 72 Books; 26,752 pages
Fiction: 24 (33%) / Nonfiction: 48 (67%)
Personal: 56 (78%) / School: 16 (22%)
New Reads: 68 (94%) / Re-reads: 4 (6%)
Print: 34 (47%) / Kindle: 8 (11%) / Audio: 30 (42%)
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