Top Books of 2024 and TBR for 2025
My fiction reads took a significant upswing in 2024, most likely due to having finished seminary and needing a mental break. I read some great books in 2024, and I’d like to share them with you.
Top 10 Fiction Books
You’ll notice that fantasy wins again! I did read several books from other genres, but they simply didn’t make the top ten cut.
Fantasy continues to keep my heart—there is something about reading a world created from a writer’s imagination and placing yourself in their story. It’s magical, whimsical, dangerous, and thrilling. I dislike reading for escapism; I read to travel to worlds unknown, to experience people and places unlike my own, and to be challenged as a person and as a reader. And yes, to be entertained.
I like books that edge on the darkness. This is where you can really see the characters for who they are. It is the struggle in the darkness that allows them to be changed and shaped by the story. This is the hope of every story—that the ending will be different from the beginning. There is a journey to becoming a different, better person than how they began.
Do you know what I find most compelling about fiction? It’s the relationships. The dialogue. Who one person is when conversing or engaging with another person. How people shape us and challenge us. Through others, we are changed. We can rarely (never?) change ourselves without some stimulus pushing us forward.
Stories show us the way forward when we are most at the end of our capacity for hope.
This is redemption.
As a follower of Jesus, I don’t require myself (or others) to read ‘Christian’ books. In fact, non-Christian authors are often far more blunt about the darkness and difficulties of life, and I find this refreshing. It’s real. It’s hard.
There is redemption and life in every good and beautiful thing that meets us in the darkness, whether it boldly claims the name of Jesus or not. Jesus is not confined to the places where people name him. Good books reflect the character of God as he steps into the world to engage with humanity; I believe that God’s goodness and creativity lie within every artist and writer who seeks to find a way out of the messy struggle of life.
Top 10 Non-Fiction Books
Of course, I didn’t stop reading non-fiction. I just read way less. Still, I read some real gems. As with fiction, I’m trying to branch out, and I was more successful in loving a variety of topics in non-fiction than I was with fiction.
Each book has shaped me in some way. If I say that fiction challenges and shapes us as readers, non-fiction is equal to the task.
I read books on:
Biblical gender equality—the hermeneutical, exegetical, and theological debate on whether women should be allowed to preach/teach in church or not. I guess they won me over since I’m regularly preaching in my church and have been for a couple of years.
Indigenous theology—what a lovely, grounded, earthy experience. I love our Indigenous brothers and sisters for their deep connection and respect to creation and the Creator, as well as to one another.
Speaking of creation, Elizabeth Johnson’s Creation and the Cross was just what I needed to read about the hope of the cross for all creation. She pulls apart the medieval understanding of Anselm’s substitutionary atonement and reapplies the cross to the healing of the entire world, not simply the individual’s salvation from hell.
Speaking of hell, I loved Curt Parton’s pastoral exploration of Christian universalism in Until the Last One’s Found. It’s a book written for the layperson who is wondering about the biblical and theological basis for universalism, and he hits it out of the park. It is simple, clear, and absolutely convincing.
Rachel Held Evans’ Inspired is a rather timeless piece on the authority and inspiration of Scripture. She, too, writes for the layperson and does so in a lyrical, powerful way that captures one’s imagination. It is a beautiful weaving together of the narrative of Scripture, wrapped up in God’s love for his creation and people.
Devotionally, I spent time with Paul’s letters, meditated on the Sabbath and made some life changes as a result, and spent Advent working through an ARC (advanced reader copy) of a Lenten journey through Exodus, pondering the mystery and wonder of God’s redemption for the lonely and oppressed minorities.
It was a wonderful year for reading, learning, and growing through what I was reading! One thing of which I’ve been convinced—every book changes its reader, even just a little bit. This makes me more intentional about my reading choices; I want to grow in character and faith through what I read.
Fiction TBR for 2025
Fantasy tops the list again! There are SO many great fantasy books and series that I want to read, and these just scratch the surface. The fantasy genre has been a bit difficult to navigate these days, especially for readers who prefer to steer away from explicit sexual scenes and profane language. I want to give these books a try, though I’m fully aware that I may need to drop them at any point if I feel too uncomfortable with their content.
Non-Fiction TBR for 2025
If I’m going to be changed by what I read, I hope I become more emotionally intelligent, more grounded, and more connected to others and God. I’m always curious about the Bible, so I hope to understand more about how to read it well. I need to better understand emotions and suffering, and so I hope to learn from those who are experts in the field. I also love learning about theology from women and minority groups… I realize only two of these books represent these populations, but don’t you worry, I have a much larger stack to read than this implies!
Let the reading begin!
