My Top Books of 2024

In the realm of reading, this last year was very much like previous years* for me.

It turns out that I even completed the exact same number of books (64) as I had in 2023. I continued to mine similar quarries and read in the same veins–authors, genres, subjects. I actually re-read about a dozen books from previous years, some for the fifth time!

All the same, I never felt like I was spinning my wheels in a rut. The “more of the same” is simply just more of the same blessing. It felt like forward progress. I’m still regaining some of the ground I had lost from more productive pre-pandemic years gone by and maintaining what I had attained through my restorative sabbatical. My reading goals have been more modest and right-sized so I feel good about what I’ve accomplished.

In 2024, I was exposed to some pretty terrific books!

More to the Story by Jennifer M. Kvamme

This book was the happiest surprise of 2024. As I said in my incandescent review, “I have been searching for a book like More to the Story for a very long time. As a Christian pastor, I want the young people I care for to have really good answers to the difficult questions they are all asking about sexuality these days. And to be really good answers for today’s teens, they have to be realistic, biblical, confident, joyful, hopeful, comprehensive, concise, and readable. That’s a tall order!

How pleasant it was for me to discover that one of my EFCA friends had written such a book.”

Jennifer’s book is well-deserving of the various accolades it has received, including the award of merit from Christianity Today. It is simply excellent and just what the church needs in our day.

The Holy Spirit: An Introduction by Fred Sanders

Fred Sanders’ latest book is the one I most needed in 2024. He introduced me to Someone I already know intimately but often don’t understand. It is chock-ful of “aha” paragraphs. As you might expect from his previous work, Fred hasn’t just written a book about One Person of the Trinity but the entire Trinity in relation to the Third Person of the Trinity. The appendix with “27 Rules for Thinking Well About the Holy Spirit” distills the whole book and is worth the proverbial price of it. 

Sanders’ writing is robust, rich, deep, and erudite and yet, at the same time, concise, clear, and even playful. It’s the not most hardest theological book I read in 2024, but the best. I will be re-reading The Holy Spirit: An Introduction again very soon.

The Mythmakers by John Hendrix

Most people (not just Christians) have heard of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien because of the tremendous reach of The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings. But many people do not know that these two Oxford-scholars-turned-popular-authors were close friends or how their fellowship spurred on the creation and publication of their fantastical stories.

In The Mythmakers, New York Times bestselling, award-winning creator John Hendrix has beautifully crafted a unique way of spreading the story of their collaborative friendship. I knew the outline of the story and had even gotten to visit some of the key locations where it all happened during our sabbatical in 2023 (The Kilns, Addison’s Walk, The Eagle and Child), but I still learned a lot, especially how all of the different parts were connected, and I thoroughly enjoyed how Hendrix wove his tale with both words and images. There is nothing quite like it.

I really enjoyed listening to Hendrix talk about the book at The Habit Podcast and The Wade Center Podcast.

Depression: Finding Christ in the Darkness by Ed Welch

Ed Welch has the gift of saying just the thing (and everything!) you need to hear in just a few well-chosen words. 

Ed’s book speaks light in a way that someone experiencing the stubborn darkness can actually hear. Depressed people often can’t read more than a few words at a time. These thirty-one short readings are apples of gold in settings of silver for those who are under the heavy weight of depression (Proverbs 25:11).

Depression: Finding Christ in the Darkness is a good book to read if you love people who live with depression, even if you don’t experience it yourself. Ed knows how to talk about it without mixing in shame while at the same time illuminating a new path that sinner/sufferer/saints are called to walk.

Parenting Without Panic In an LGBT Affirming World by Rachel Gilson

Here is another extremely timely book. When I recommended it in The Family Table, our weekly newsletter for parents at Lanse Free Church, I said, “Every Christian parent with young children should read this book right away. Parenting Without Panic in an LGBT-Affirming World should be required reading for raising a little kid in today’s culture. Given her own story, Rachel Gilson is a perfect person to write it. Her earlier memoir Born Again This Way was one of my top books of 2020, and I’m very glad that she’s now giving out this practical, well-written, insightful, realistic, and biblically balanced advice. I wish it was written earlier! I especially appreciate how Gilson counters all the big fears we all feel. These fears are not baseless, but they should not define or drive us. Read this, soak in the principles, prepare your kids, and fear not!”

It turns out that I read several books on this and related subjects this year in addition to Kvamme and Gilson which were really good. Purposeful Sexuality by Ed Shaw explains what sex is actually for in a few concise and pages. In the same series, Andrew Bunt’s Finding Your Best Identity, helpfully explores the question of who or what gets to define who you are. In Does the Bible Affirm Same-Sex Relationships?, Rebecca McLaughlin responds to the ten strongest arguments from those who claim the Bible affirms (or doesn't teach about) same-sex romantic/sexual relationships. Written by a woman herself who experiences persistent same-sex attraction. McLaughlin is a treasure, well-read, and an excellent communicator. In 2024, I also read her No Greater Love which covers the concept of biblical friendship.

I am very grateful for the blessing of having so many great books in my life. 

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* This is my eleventh time sharing a list like this! (I didn't get one out in 2019.)

As I’ve said for over a decade [2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023], this list is not necessarily the best books that were published that particular year or the most enjoyable either. I intend it to be a list of the fairly new Christian nonfiction books I read:

- that had the most personal impact on me, my thinking, my heart.
- that I was the most consistently enthusiastic about.
- that I kept coming back to again and again.
- that I couldn't help recommending to others (and recommend without reservations and significant caveats).