This past year, I read 78 books. Exactly half were fiction and non-fiction. Some were outstanding. Some were not. Below are my favorites and all ones I would recommend. Disclaimer: I read a lot of hot-of-the-press secular fiction, and cannot remember which of them had language, etc. as many (all?) of them involved adult topics.

Life-Changing Book

The book that changed my life was The Blue Parakeet by Scot McKnight. My older sister recommended the book to me in the summer of 2021, but she warned me it could change my life. It did. I would describe it as putting words and solid arguments behind what I have been questioning and feeling for a few years now. I would also say that it affected how I read the Bible this year.

Other Highly Recommended Non-Fiction

The Making of Biblical Womanhood (Beth Allison Barr)

Recovering From Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (Aimee Byrd)

The God of the Garden (Andrew Peterson)

Deeper (Dane Ortlund)

The Compassion of Jesus (C.H. Spurgeon)

Find Your People (Jennie Allen)

You’re Only Human (Kelly Kapic)

Love, Henri (Henri Nouwen)

A Grief Observed (C.S. Lewis)––re-read

Lament for a Son (Nicholas Wolterstorff)

Finding Chika (Mitch Album)

Stir (Jessica Fechtor)

Everything Sad Is Untrue (Daniel Nayeri)

Where the Light Fell (Philip Yancey)

Courage, Dear Heart (Rebecca Reynolds)

A Curious Faith (Lore Ferguson Wilbert)

Gifts of Grace (Jared C. Wilson)

The Soul of Desire (Curt Thompson)

Fiction Worth Reading

Whose Waves These Are (Amanda Dykes)

Once Upon a Wardrobe (Patti Callahan)

To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)

Eden Mine (S.M. Hulse)

The Tobacco Wives (Adele Myers)

Black Cake (Charmaine Wilkerson)

The Good Left Undone (Adriana Trigani)

Becoming Mrs. Lewis (Patti Callahan)

The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post (Allison Pataki)

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy (Jamie Ford)

Where the Wandering Ends (Yvette Manessis Corporon)

Count the Nights by Stars (Michelle Shocklee)