Some of these are new releases, some are classics, some are Christian books, some aren’t, but here’s my list of favorite reads this year.
1. Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart by Nicholas Carr
This was a new release and the first book I read this year, and it still sits atop my list of favorites for 2025. In it, Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows, offers a history of communication technology. And he shows how the assumption that more communication/connection/information would lead to more unity has proven to be precisely backwards.
It’s not a Christian book, and you’ll have to wade through some particularly obnoxious political takes here and there, but this is a useful read for anyone who wants to think more deeply about how we got to where we are as a culture and the part technology has played in the present downgrade.
2. Divine Providence: A Classic Work for Modern Readers by Stephen Charnock
Charnock is one of my favorite Puritans, and this updated version made the language a bit easier to follow. I read this one devotionally over the course of a year. It’s a wonderful meditation on God’s sovereign care for His people. It will strengthen your faith and stir your heart to trust Him more.
3. The Whole Christ by Sinclair Ferguson
This one has been sitting on my shelf for years, mostly because the subtitle, Legalism, Antinomianism, & Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters, makes it sound extremely boring.
But as I was teaching a class on the basics of the Christian faith this Fall, I wanted to sharpen my thinking on the place of the Law in the Christian life, and I was told this was a good one to read on that subject. Ferguson did not disappoint.
It is a little dense in parts, but it was a delightful read that really refreshed my appreciation and wonder at God’s grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ, even as it helped more deeply root my understanding of the function of God’s Law for New Covenant believers.
4. Little Women Louisa May Alcott
I mostly read non-fiction during my morning routine and breaks. But bedtime is for fiction. Most nights for the past 14 years, I’ve read aloud to my wife each night before we go to bed. It’s just become part of our nighttime routine. And, for the couple of years, we’ve been on a classics kick.
We read several great works this year, including heavy-hitters like Crime & Punishment (which took up most of the year). It took some persuading on my wife’s part, but she finally got me to read Little Women. And, guys? This book is a classic for a reason. It’s such a precious celebration of the highs and lows of raising godly children, and the precious treasure that family is. So, fellas, don’t be scared off by the title. It’s girlie, but not that girlie.
5. Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity by Paul Kingsnorth
The only reason this one doesn’t sit in a higher position on this list is that I’m not quite finished with the book. It may end up displacing Superbloom in my best “books for luddites” category. It’s been a fascinating read. I love books that cause me to look at the world from a new perspective, and Against the Machine does just that.
Similar in theme to Superbloom, Kingsnorth turns a critical eye to culture and technology. But for a topic that easily devolves into partisan politics, he comes from a perspective that is hard to pigeonhole into the usual categories of left and right.
He is an Orthodox Christian, former environmentalist, and Wendell-Berry-esque curmudgeon. In the book, Kingsnorth shows how so many of the forces at work today destroying our world, values, and meaning are really just the appendages of a larger worldview which he terms “the Machine.”
What I most enjoy about this book, however, is that Against the Machine does something most modern critiques of our techno-culture shy away from—he suggests we actually do something about it by rejecting the Machine’s strings-attached promise of total freedom and instead embracing our limits.
