It’s that time again! Here are my picks for my personal “best reads of 2024.” Most of the books were published either in 2023 or 2024 and all were reviewed this year. I chose a “best overall” and then books in a number of categories, reflecting what I read–seventeen books out of the over two hundred I reviewed so far in 2024 (including one I just finish and haven’t yet reviewed).
Best of the Year
The Covenant of Water, Abraham Verghese. New York: The Grove Press, 2023. Verghese is a magnificent writer, the story is beautifully told, spanning several generations in colonial and post-Colonial India. I wrote, “To read Verghese is to read a consummate story weaver who has thought deeply about the human condition in its frailty and fallibility, in the powerful bonds upon which our lives and loves depend, and in the hopes and holy aspirations that represent the best in human striving.” Review
Best Non-fiction
The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory, Tim Alberta. New York: HarperCollins, 2023. Tim Alberta spent a couple of years traveling the country to figure out why so many evangelicals aligned themselves with the politics of the right. Probably the best exploration of this topic I’ve read from an investigative reporter who is also a person of faith. Review
Best Science Book of the Year
Pillars of Creation, Richard Panek. Little, Brown (ISBN: 9780316570695) 2024. I just finished reading this and was amazed at the discoveries that have emerged in the few short years that the James Webb Telescope has been online that are changing our understanding of the cosmos. Review forthcoming.
Best Memoir/Biography
An Unfinished Love Story, Doris Kearns Goodwin. Simon & Schuster (ISBN: 9781982108663) 2024. Doris Kearns Goodwin writes a fascinating memoir of going through her husband’s papers from the 60’s when he was a speech writer and advisor for Kennedy and Johnson. It is fascinating to read about his part in some of the speeches and policies of those two administrations as well as the somewhat different perspective of Doris Kearns Goodwin, whose first book was on Johnson. Review
Best History
Challenger, Adam Higginbotham. Avid Reader Press (ISBN: 9781982176617) 2024. Adam Higginbotham combines research into the Challenger with profiles of the crew. My son and I agree on the major lesson underlying this narrative: “Listen to your engineers.” Review
Best Fiction
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse, Charlie Mackesy. HarperOne (ISBN: 9781529105100), 2019. This one is actually hard to classify. It is a short and charming hand written and illustrated story that explores the things that matter most in life, particularly unconditional love. Review
Best Historical Fiction
The Women, Kristin Hannah. St Martin’s Press (ISBN: 9781250178633), 2024. I’m not sure why Kristin Hannah doesn’t receive the critical acclaim that some other writers have received. She writes compelling plots with strong characters, in this case chronicling the under told story of combat nurses in the Vietnam war Review
Best Mystery
The Grey Wolf (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Number 19), Louise Penny. Minotaur Books (ISBN: 9781250328144) 2024. Louise Penny took a year off and came back with a page-turning plot with a “trust no one” theme. And guess what? The plot includes the story of two wolves, the grey and the black. Guess what the title of Penny’s next book is. Yep. The Black Wolf, releasing fall of 2025. Review
Best Poetry
Contemporary Catholic Poetry: An Anthology, Edited by April Lindner and Ryan Wilson. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9781640606463), 2024. An anthology of works from 23 poets including Dana Gioia that is a great introduction to a variety of contemporary poets–a great way to discover ones you like! Review
Best Children’s
Saint Valentine the Kindhearted, Ned Bustard (text and illustrations). Downers Grove: IVP Kids, 2024. Ned Bustard tells and illustrates the story of Saint Valentine for children upholding the virtue of kindness, something we need in our coarse and cruel world. The woodcut illustrations are exquisite! Review
Best Graphic Work
By Fire: The Jakob Hutter Story (Heroes of the Radical Reformation, Number 2), Jason Landsel, Richard Mommsen, Sankha Bannerjee. Plough Publishing House (ISBN: 9781636081434), 2025. Hutter was a leader of the Radical Reformation and a martyr for his faith. This graphic biography tells the story of his life and the ideas for which he died with an economy of words by using graphics to complement dialogue and narrative. Review
Best Devotional
Diary of an Old Soul, George MacDonald, with introduction and notes by Timothy Larsen. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514007686), 2024 (originally published in 1880). In 1880, George MacDonald wrote an extended poem with 365 seven line verses, one for each day with blank pages opposite the verses. Timothy Larsen introduces and lightly annotates a new edition of the work, a pocket sized volume ideal for devotional reflection. Review
Best Formational Resource
Moms at the Well, Tara Edelschick and Kathy Tuan-Maclean. IVP Bible Studies (ISBN: 781514006788), 2024. Being a mom is hard. The two moms who wrote this knew this not only from their own experience but through a survey of 700 moms. Out of this, they developed a seven week Bible study experience looking at seven moms in scripture, including personal study, group discussion and videos accessible via QR codes in the book. Review
Best Christian Life Book
Chastity and the Soul: You Are Holy Ground, Ronald Rolheiser. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9781640609471) 2024. “Chastity” is one of those cringe words. Fr. Rolheiser argues for an understanding of chastity that extends far beyond our sexuality that treats our whole lives as holy ground. Review
Best Christianity and Culture Book
Word Made Fresh, Abram Van Engen, foreword by Shane McCrae. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (ISBN: 9780802883605) 2024. This book is a great doorway to the world of poetry for those who don’t read poetry but might be open to try reading some. Van Engen helps us find poets we like and to understand how words and form are used by poets to convey meaning. I can’t think of a single book that has been more helpful to me in reading poetry. Review
Best Theology Book
Bonhoeffer for the Church, Matthew D. Kirkpatrick. Fortress Press (ISBN: 9781506497822) 2024. Matthew D. Kirkpatrick distills Bonhoeffer’s theology of the church from his writings, underscoring the centrality of Christ for the life of the church. For anyone concerned about what it means to be the church, this is a text marvelously rich in insight. Review
Best Apologetic Work
On the Resurrection, Volume 1: Evidences, Gary R. Habermas. B & H Academic (ISBN: 9781087778600), 2024. This is volume 1 of a four part work and considers the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus using a minimal historical facts approach, making a strong case for the historicity of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. At 1072 pages, Habermas is exhaustively thorough, yet highly readable! Review
This hardly exhausts the great books I read in 2024. Check with me tomorrow and I might have a different list. In fact, before the year is out, I will have one more list, my “most read reviews” list which is kind of a “people’s choice” award–at least what my readers found of greatest interest. Hopefully, you;ll find something here worthwhile for your own reading and for gift-giving.