My Best Books of 2023
This year I found making a top-10 list to be even more difficult than previous years. Other than a clear #1, the other ranks felt somewhat arbitrary. How do you compare a book of one genre to another??? And yet, as the old saying goes, a top-10 list isn’t a top-10 list unless it has numbers 1-10 so, without further ado, here are my clearly ranked, numerically ordered, obviously correct, chiseled in stone, forever and always, top ten books I read in 2023. (As with previous years, I only include books that I read for the first time this year…which is really a dumb thing to do…who makes these rules???)
#1 Hope in the Wilderness - Noel Forlini Burt
I typically don’t read spiritual autobiographies which makes the fact that I loved this one so much all the more remarkable. Forlini Burt is a fantastic writer and her willingness to bare her soul as she recounts her own wandering and offers encouragement to fellow travelers is a blessing that I have treasured throughout this year. Funny and sorrowful, joyous and tragic, I read this one twice this year and will return to it again and again.
#2 A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman
Best novel I read this year. I have decided that the criteria for a GREAT book is that it is both enjoyable while you read it AND it stays with you after finishing it. Too often I read through a novel thinking, “meh” and it’s only at the end that I am able to say, “Oooh ok, I see what you were doing!” It’s the rare book that is fun start to finish but this one accomplished that for me. Fun and quirky while at the same time dealing with heavy, real-life stuff. No, I have not seen the movie. No, I will not watch the movie. No, it’s not the same.
#3 Pastoral Identity - Douglas Webster
This was the most influential book I read this year. Brought together several strands that I had already been thinking through and helped give language to them. The idea of every member ministry is so important, and I hope and pray that this book with have a lasting impact on the way that I do pastoral ministry.
#4 Following Jesus in a Warming World - Kyle Meyaard-Schaap
Here’s where the numbering system starts to get really difficult. This one gets the nod over #5 because I read this one twice this year. I have become very passionate about creation care in the last few years since reading Stewards of Eden by Sandra Richter (my #1 book for 2021) and this one did not disappoint. A good balance of soul-crushing statistics and hopeful, practical suggestions. Personal anecdotes and national and international realities. The simple reality is we are killing God’s creation, the question is, what are we going to do about it?
#5 Mudbound - Hillary Jordan
This one really could have been as high as #2 on my list this year (stupid numbering system!) I chose to put Ove above this one as best novel because the horrific racism throughout while making this an important read also made it a painful one. The style of writing each chapter from a different character’s perspective is more overused and tired than Star Wars movies/shows/spinoffs/t-shirts/merchandising/etc. and yet this book did it better than any other I’ve read. The way each character reveals only what they know, and the narrative progresses only as you piece together the different strands was brilliant and made for an excellent read!
#6 Everything Sad is Untrue - Daniel Nayeri
This book should really be in its own category. In fact if I was just going to recommend one book for everyone to read this year, it would probably be this one. We just have absolutely no idea what others around us go through; what their experiences have been. This book truly opened my eyes to the refugee/immigrant experience in ways that I could not have imagined. Ten out of five stars.
#7 Winter Garden - Kristin Hannah
This is the second Hannah book I have read and thoroughly enjoyed both. This one could have been higher on the list if it had been 100 pages shorter. It was a very slow read at times and took awhile to build. I find it fascinating that one writer can write about such mundane interactions for hundreds of pages and then “bam!” hit the reader with a gut-punch of emotional heartbreak almost out of the blue. That sounds like a negative review but I really enjoyed this book.
#8 Rethinking the Atonement - David Moffitt
This was my #1 thought-provoker for the year. I’m not sure that I was totally convinced by all the nuances of his argument but I do find myself tracking with his major moves. Really helped me think through how to articulate all that Jesus has done for us and is doing still. I read this one a chapter at a time with a friend and then discussed. There are few books that would have worked better for that kind of interaction.
#9 In My Brother’s Image - Eugene Pogany
I didn’t read a lot of history this year, but this one would have topped the list even in a year of lots of historical reading. To use an over-used phrase, it is a non-fiction book that reads like a novel. Written by the son of one of the two protagonists, it traces the stories of two brothers who had very different experiences of the Holocaust and thus very different lives afterwards.
#10 Fear of the Other - William Willimon
Sometimes it’s good to read a book that before you even read you can say, “I already know that I am going to mostly agree with this and I think I even know where I will disagree.” My number one piece of advice for Evangelicals is to read majority-world Christian writers. Number two, is read liberal Christian writers. It’s important sometimes for us to get out of our comfort zone and realize just how much brothers and sisters across the spectrum have to offer us. This one is really more pamphlet size but packs a mighty punch in just a few pages.
Honorable Mentions (In no particular order)
Tell Her Story - Nijay Gupta
The Tsarina’s Daughter - Ellen Alpsten
This Tender Land - William Kent Krueger
Bound for Canaan - Fergus Bodewich
The Widow of the South - Robert Hicks