Best Books of 2025
2025 was a great year for reading! I read a lot of good books this year, and even better, I read a lot of GREAT books. In fact, that all made writing this list rather difficult. The simple fact is the top 6 books in this list might all have been a number 1 in a different year. I have 7 honorable mentions that just missed out on a top 10 spot, and another 8 that in another year would have been a top 10, but this year didn’t even get an honorable mention! I can only hope that 2026 will bring so many gems! With that then, and with no further ado, my top 10-ish reads of 2025! (As always, I didn’t include books I’ve read before. This year marked my 24th reading of the Count of Monte Cristo.)
#1. Christ in the Rubble Munther Isaac
This book gets top billing because it was the most important book that I read this year. I have long been impressed with Isaac’s prophetic voice and as the violence against Gaza continued unabated throughout much of this year, Isaac continued to speak truth and plead for peace. I firmly believe that when the story of this year is all told, the world’s complicity in this genocide will stand in the record against us. Isaac helps us to begin to make sense of what is happening in Gaza and what a biblical, faithful path forward might look like.
#2. My Friends Fredrik Backman
This was hands down the best book I read this year and now one of my top 10 favorite books of all time. When I finished it, I didn’t even want to start another book knowing there was no way anything else could measure up. Backman has a gift for making his readers fall in love with broken characters. I believe the word for this is redemption. While his writing is somewhat formulaic (I read four of his books this year and could see a pattern), My Friends is so beautiful in its simplicity I was willing to overlook the few elements he overplayed. Since finishing this I have bought two more copies simply because I cannot pass it by in the bookstore. Even holding it brings back so many memories. I laughed, I cried, and this will be a book I will either read again and again or perhaps never again because the first reading was so perfect.
#3. Memorial Days Geraldine Brooks
Brooks has been a favorite author of mine for a while now, in fact her Horse was my top book of 2022. This one hit differently as it is a memoir she wrote after the sudden death of her husband. It is a rare gift to be able to see into the life of a favorite author, and Brooks invites us all the way in, into her shock, her grief, and the beautiful path to recovery that she still journeys every day. We do not know how to grieve well as a society, and Brooks encourages her readers by example to give it a go. She is a gifted writer and the beauty of her words as well as her life well lived made this one hard to put down.
#4. Paul and the Resurrection of Israel Jason Staples
This was my number 1 read in biblical studies/theology this year. Staples is a uniquely gifted scholar who helped me think through not only the place of Israel in salvation but also the fullness of what salvation through Jesus Christ entails. So comprehensive is his writing that he helped me answer questions I have had for years, even if they were not directly connected to his main thesis. This one is a long read and I was lucky to have a conversation partner throughout. I will be chewing on this one for a long time!
#5. Wild Dark Shore Charlotte McConaghy
I truly cannot believe that this book is #5, it missed being #1 by a hair! In fact, the entire time I was reading it, I was thinking, “this is the best book I have read in a long time!” McConaghy is a master storyteller and while I have loved all three of her novels so far, this one takes the cake (though I have only read this one once and I have lost count of how many times I have read Migrations). Suspense, drama, loveable characters, hateable characters, everything you could hope for in a superbly written book.
6. Bastille Day Greg Garrett
This was the first book I read this year and at the time I thought, “This is probably going to be the best book I read all year.” It very nearly was. Some of my favorite characters of this year’s reading came from this book and their brokenness, willingness to move forward, and love for one another will remain with me for a longtime. I guess this book could be called a love story, but it is so much more than that. The whole way through I found myself really, really wanting the guy to get the girl and have a happy ending. A PTSD trigger-warning is needed for this one.
#7. The Lost and the Found Kevin Fagan
In a world where the first 6 books were number 1, this would be number 2. The true story of a reporter and the homelessness epidemic in our country and specifically in San Francisco. While this is a story about homelessness, it is really a story about three people, the author and two homeless individuals he meets and befriends. Humanity shines through and receives five gold stars in this one; it is a triumph even in the midst of tragedy. If I left it with the fearful sense that the problem is just too big, I also walked away inspired to choose kindness every chance I get.
#8. James Percival Everett
This one is as good as everyone says it is. It shows racism for all its foolishness and slavery for the crime against humanity that it is. I was never a huge Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn fan, but it is an engaging adventure story.
#9 The Power of Habit Charles Duhigg
This may be the first “self-improvement” type book that I have ever read in its entirety so the fact that it made my top 10 list is saying a lot. The stories are engaging, the science is fascinating, and the algorithms are terrifying. This book has a great chance to have lasting impact on the way that I do things, and I believe the same would be true for anyone who reads it and puts its lessons into practice.
#10 Lamb of the Free Andrew Rillera
A long, dense, comprehensive look at the Levitical sacrificial system and its implications on Jesus’ death. If John Mark Comer is to be believed than this book is the death blow to penal substitutionary atonement. I’m not sure I would go that far, that is to say I wasn’t fully convinced but this one gave me a lot to chew on and I’m sure will remain an important part of the conversation for years to come.
Honorary Mentions: In no particular order:
John Brown W.E.B. Du Bois
Once there were Wolves Charlotte McConaghy
Plundered David W. Swanson
107 Days Kamala Harris
When Breath Becomes Air Paul Kalanithi
Manana Justo Gonzalez
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry Rachel Joyce