Looking for book ideas? Check out our 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 reading lists!
Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools: An Invitation to the Wonder and Mystery of Prayer. Author and Pastor Tyler Staton (of Bridgetown Church in Portland) lays out a persuasive call for the church broadly, and the believer personally, to return to the prayer practices of the early church and Jesus. Incredible read: "Prayer is a journey that starts in need and ends in relationship." My full review is here.
Cutting for Stone (Libby, Ethiopia). This has been on my reading list since it's publication in 2009. Listening to it over the course of 20 hours completely pulled me back into Ethiopia where we lived for over 2 years--it also made me wish I'd read it while I lived there. The author creates a world so immersive that it inhabits your thoughts to the point that you find yourself pausing unexpectedly during the day to consider Shivah's plights or Genet's betrayal. Verghese's ability here brought echoes of Mafouz's mastery in creating an entire world across generations in the Cairo trilogy. The unique aspect of this novel is the way in which the the author can present fascinating surgical details in a manner the average lay person can at least pretend to understand--all the while weaving a tale with multiple layers of betrayal, intrigue and redemption.
The Life Impossible (Spain). In the vein of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Matt Haig's latest tale is magical realist amble into the intersection of mathematics, environmentalism, science, philosophy, extraterrestrial life, loss, and grief--and the fact that it all takes place in Ibiza makes this story shine. While Haig's third novel doesn't rise to the level of his Midnight Library, it still stood out as a guilty pleasure of a read--one that doesn't demand too much of the reader (most chapters are only a page or two) while delivering beautiful writing at the same time. My full review is here.
Right-Hand Shore. Reading Tilghman's writing is effortless--which means he's both incredibly talented and works hard at it. His 2012 tale (one of 4 in a series I found out later) of a family's doomed (cursed?) farm on the Eastern shore stretches across generations from the Civil War and through to reconstruction. My full review is here.
How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Story Ever Told (Libby). This book's power comes from humorist author Harrison Scott Key's fearlessness in revealing the most raw, intimate emotions surrounding his wife's infidelity. My full review is here.
May the Wolf Die (Libby, Italy). Named one of the New York Times "best crime novels of 2024"--this debut novel from scientist/researcher/author Elizabeth Heidler nails all the gritty Naples details down to the trash strewn highways that contrast with the breathtaking coastal waters. Her experience living in Naples for 3 years more than a decade ago—working as a research analyst at the US Navy base in Capodichino—shines through with her careful eye for all things Bella Napoli. Having lived there for three years myself-I can attest she gets it right. One disclaimer: We should have read this instead of listening--the narrator's Scottish? accent trying to do dialogue in Italian was VERY distracting.
Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco (Libby). Currently listening. I accidentally got the abridged version (~3 hours) instead of the unabridged (~22 hours) which ended up being a good call as this book was just okay for me--not being super into business and deal-making--I shouldn't have been surprised. It's well written and the details and conversation reflect the incredible work put in by the authors.
A Death in Brazil (Brazil). Published in 2004, in the second year of Lula’s long-fought-for-presidency, “A Death in Brazil” delves in the background of Brazil’s first popularly elected president Fernando Collor de Mello and the murder of his campaign treasurer/criminally corrupt money launderer Paulo Cesar Cavalcanti de Farias (known as “PC")--that’s the obvious death in Brazil. In telling the story of Fernando and PC’s rise he contrasts it with current President Lula’s populist ascension and ambitiously lays it all across a selected violent history of Brazil–that’s the broader metaphorical death in Brazil. My full review is here.
Reasons to Stay Alive. I’ve enjoyed reading Matt Haig’s novels over the last several years and when I saw that he had written a very raw memoir of sorts I was eager to read it. That it turned out to also be a “how to be a friend to someone suffering from depression” guide made it an especially powerful and necessary read.
Necessary in the sense that chances are all of us will know someone battling with depression–Haig labels these people as “depressives.” Ideally, the reader closes the book with a heightened sense of empathy but also an expanded menu of tools to help be a better listener and a more thoughtful (and more diminutive speaker/responder). My full review is here.
Our Missing Hearts. Celeste Ng (author of Little Fires Everywhere) has penned a beautiful and thought provoking dystopian (?) story about a United States where blind allegiance to country has stamped out any criticism or dissent--no matter how constructive. "The Pact" is published and encapsulates this ethos to the extent where children are taken (aka the missing hearts) from any families not deemed appropriately loyal to the Pact. Far-fetched perhaps but no longer something unimaginable.
Leaf by Niggle. A good friend gave me a copy of this J.R.R. Tolkien short story that is ostensibly about an artist and his painting of a tree but which of course is about much more. Tolkien wrote it as he struggled with his own anxiety over whether he'd be able to ever finish the Silmarillion. In Leaf, the main character xxx realizes (eventually)
Nathan Coulter (Audible). The first novel from Wendell Berry's Port Williams series. I regret not having read anything from Berry's considerable compendium until this year. I recall virtually rolling my eyes years ago when my mother raved about his Memory of Old Jack--it sounded like a lethargic and boring premise. Then earlier this year I was watching a sermon from pastor Tyler Staton on the Beatitudes where he talked about Berry's incredible life in an illustration on being 'pure in heart.' This got me hooked and led me to the first in the series of 9 books about Berry's imagined town across many generations. This first novel is a richly detailed and contemplative story about one family and a father's relationship with his son and the land they work.
Elizabeth Ritchie and the Kingdom of Whatnots. A young girl gets called into another world in a plot to assassinate an evil king--chaos ensues (My 12 year old daughter Betty's next book which she'll self-publish).
James. My full review is here. This is an incredibly imaginative retelling of Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" that boldly centers the narrative on the character of Jim. More than just a new perspective, it's a searing indictment of the institution of slavery and a powerful reminder of the terror of everyday life for enslaved people. Through Jim's narrative, the reader is forced to confront evil in all its iterations.
For an author as prolific as Percival Everett, "James" feels like a magnum opus of sorts—perhaps even a catharsis. If not a total cleansing of the soul, then at least an unburdening of the anger, outrage, and generational injustice that he would argue make up the Black experience in America. His acknowledgments section sums it up best, adapting a well-known Twain quote: "Heaven for the climate; hell for my long-awaited lunch with Mark Twain."
Rumors of Another World: What On Earth Are We Missing? (The full review is here) This is a weighty book and not one you can breeze through quickly but rather calls the reader towards a meditative examination of how society models and sells life today is the antithesis of the contemplative path God intended. The book seeks to answer three basic questions:
- What does the current world tell us about heaven?
- Why is the world so bad then?
- Where are the natural + supernatural intersections - and what’s their effect on our daily life?
The Covenant of Water (India). Spanning nearly a century (1900-1977), Covenant takes place in southwestern India in the Kerala region and focuses on a Malayali Christian family and a mysterious drowning affliction that affects someone in each generation. Of course, like all great novels it’s about much more than one challenge–its encompasses love, betrayal, and secrets–” this is the covenant of water: that they're all linked inescapably by their acts of commission and omission, and no one stands alone ... all is one. "My full review is here.
All the Light We Cannot See (France). "Who knew love could kill you?" the main character, a blind teenager named Marie-Laure, questions as the Nazi Paris invasion uproots her comfortable and predictable life in there. What unfolds is a story that seesaws between shocking and inspiring, horrifying and redemptive and which stands as a stark reminder of what a world at war looks like at the most visceral level. As I tore through this novel is 3 quick days, I lamented that I'd let it waste away for so long on our bookshelf.
A Place on Earth. Berry's writing is somehow comforting–that’s a strange thing to say about a novel--it's the rare book that is more observation than narrative. Ostensibly the novel is about a town during World War II. A town whose youth have gone to fight and who families go on living in the limbo that is war abroad. But the novel is actually about the land, the environment and seasons, the floods and droughts, the earth and woods–somehow Berry has written a story where the people are the scenery. My full review is here.
Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon (Brazil) Author Jorge Amado is one of the best known Brazilian writers so I thought it was high time that I read one of this novels. Gabriela is a story of a 1920's Bahian cacao town struggling against modernity whose entire arc is upended by a poor and beautiful young woman from the northeast. For a novel written in the 1950's, the storyline is surprisingly salacious at times as Gabriela proves to have an intoxicating effect on every man she encounters. Despite some racy scenes, the narrative remains in realm of literature teetering on magic realism and flirting with beach read status. For this reader, I likely won't revisit Amado but it was a good data point on Brazilian literature.
Hannah Coulter. Hannah Coulter, the penultimate novel in Wendell Berry's Port Williams series, offers a touching first-person account of its title character's life from her childhood to WWII’s aftermath to the turn of the century. So while it was published 45 years after his first novel Nathan Coulter (my review is here) from a narrative chronological aspect Hannah spans the life of Berry’s Port Williams corpus and reflects the maturity of an American literary master in ways his earliest novels might not. It’s a deep narrative, full of sorrow and triumph, heartache and love, pain and healing–stretching across the human experience while also recounting the decline of the American farming sector’s way of life. My full review is here.
When the Cranes Fly South. The book very well could have been called "Things Unspoken" given the main character's intense interior monologue of emotions, outcries and thoughts that he largely keeps locked up throughout the entire novel. The book’s unique narrative construction consists of alternating rambling first -person chapters of an old aging man’s thoughts and conversations, punctuated by shocking staccato entries in a journal kept by the various caretakers and family who look after the old man. The effect is striking. The 89 year-old old man–Bo–is awash in memories and emotions, and each day is often a struggle–these chapters are rich and then you turn the page are slapped with a dry, clinical sentence-long summary of Bo’s life that day. It’s powerful. It’s sad. It’s a purposeful choice that author makes. Review Pending. My full review is here.
A Moveable Feast (Paris). Hemingway's novel hit different this time around reading it at the midpoint of my life. Having walked the same Parisian streets and cafes. Having lived nearly a decade of my life overseas, I feel Hemingway's emotions and insecurities in a much more visceral way. Certainly of course, Hemingway's Paris no longer exists but it's beautiful to hear his young writer's voice developing itself as he describes, the city and its country and the expats that inhabit it. My full review is here.
Andy Catlett: Early Travels. My third Wendell Berry novel this year. This was a quick, light read covering the childhood experiences of a young 9-year old Andy Catlett as he spends time on his grandparent's farm and learns about his family's deep connection to the land. Every story I read from Berry's fictional "Port Williams membership" draws me deeper into the author's beautiful, introspective writing. His novels don't have driving narratives but instead the characters--the people--are the narrative.
Someone Like Us (Ethiopia) This novel is far less sweeping that his previous novels, it still builds out Mengestu's tapestry of the immigrant experience in America by focusing on an Ethiopian father and son's evolving relationship. Told against scenes shifting from Ethiopia to France to Chicago and times past and present, Mengestu doesn't shy away from difficult topics like mental health and substance abuse and the toll they take on memory and relationships. In an era where terms like "immigration" carry a charge weight, Someone Like Us adds important context and hopefully develops increased empathy in the reader on the myriad struggles faced by immigrants by everything from police stops to just not knowing how America works. Books like these are important in personalizing difficult topics and allowing the reader to grapple with a story in which there are no easy answers. My full review is here. Also see my review of his amazing third novel: All Our Names, a book that I call the Great African Novel. See his other beautiful novel: All the Things That Heaven Bears here--my review is here.
Street Girls: Hope on the Streets of Brazil. This is British author/journalist Matt Roper's first of four books highlighting the child-trafficking and child-prostitution problem in Brazil. Rather than an extensive review I typed out verbatim the contents of one letter from a street girl that Matt worked with through MeninaDanca. The book is also filled with letters from the girls--their heartbreaking tales--many pushed into prostitution by their families as pre-teens. My full review is here.
Before the Night Comes (Brazil) Currently reading author/journalist Matt Roper's 4th book chronicling his work with the young Brazilian pre-teens and teens caught up in sex trafficking all along the BR-116.
Meh
Caste: The Origin of our Discontent. The book is at itks most powerful in her research on how the Nazi party/government studied the caste system in the United States and sought to emulate it in its systemic subjugation and extermination of the Jewish population. Most shameful (for the United States) though is her keen observation that in post-WWII Germany you don’t find echoes and monuments and memorialization of Nazi heritage, i.e., you don’t have monuments to Rommel or colleges and highways named after Hitler. This distinction is a striking one and worth considering as relics still remain despite the recent shifting political winds. Ultimately, even an unconvinced reader must acknowledge the the troubled history and origins that Wilkerson lays out, and that while an outright caste system may no longer remain in the United States, vestiges of it echo still today across the spectrum of the black existence here from health challenges to the stories told to children on how to survive even today (for more on this read Coates’s “Letter to My Son). My full review is here. Duds
Fresh Water for Flowers. Was listening to this novel on Libby. But I think we gave up. Not our cup of fresh water tea.
You Shall Know Our Velocity. Do NOT recommend. It very mysteriously appeared on our bookshelf when I was organizing and I thought it must be some type of sign--it was not. This is early Eggers from 2002 about a pair of friends who set about on a haphazard journey around the world to give away $32,000. It's a catchy premise but doesn't deliver--the characters aren't particularly likeable and much of the action is mired in dense philosophical ponderings. Instead read some of his other excellent tomes: What is the What?, Hologram for the King, and The Circle. The first I read in 2011 and the latter two I read in 2014.
To Read List
The Showman: Inside the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky
Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good.
The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother
The Barn
There and Then.
People Like Us.
Embarrassing List of Books I've said I'm going to finish for several years:
Tribe of Mentors. Currently reading for the last four years. My full review will be here...one day
The Italians. Was reading but misplaced the book. If I find it I will finish it.
