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Showing posts with label Reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reviews. Show all posts
Twenty-two books is alot.
Maybe not by some people’s standards, but it’s a good amount of reading for me four months into the year. It also is alot when someone tries to write about twenty-two books all in one post, as I’m doing today.
I intended to write monthly book roundups in 2026, but I should have known better during the school year. Instead of subjecting you to multiple posts of book reviews, I tried to write mini book reviews here. Three or four sentences max. I tried anyway.
Mini Reviews
The Pilgrim’s Regress: Guarding Against Backsliding and Apostasy In The Christian Life by Mark Jones - 5 stars - Jones gently and humbly presents reasons why people may backslide, with very practical advice about how to keep advancing forward in our Christian walk to draw closer to Jesus. I found myself so encouraged to read my Bible more faithfully, work on my prayer life, and turn to the Lord with every failing knowing no one can snatch me out of His hand. Highly recommend if you have been in a spiritually “dry” season and need some encouragement to get back on track.
Broken Bread by Tilly Dillehay - 5 stars - There are so many ways that Christians can fall into sinful “ditches” surrounding food, and Dillehay breaks them down into four categories: Asceticism, Gluttony, Snobbery, and Apathy. I so appreciated her biblical and common-sense encouragement to avoid these attitudes surrounding the table. I didn’t fully agree with her chapter on wine, but it would take some more thinking for me to express what exactly pushed my buttons there. Aside from that, this book was “chef’s kiss”.
How To Read A Book: Advice For Christian Readers by Andrew Naselli - 5 stars - This book gives encouragement for Christians to develop as readers. I most appreciated his breakdown of different ways of reading books - from surveying, macro reading, and micro reading. It was very interesting as a lifelong reader who mostly macro and micro reads to consider that surveying a book can be just as legitimate a way to read.
Leadership and Emotional Sabotage by Joe Rigney - 4 stars - Rigney gives advice to leaders and the pitfalls they may fall into when they try to please everyone or avoid offense at any cost. Valuable advice here, especially for men and pastors since this book is geared more toward them.
Prey by Michael Crichton - 4 stars - When our main character has a chance to visit one of the factories for a product his wife is developing, he jumps on it - only to find that a nano-robot swarm has escaped the factory and is wreaking havoc in the Nevada desert. This story kept me interested from beginning to end. The ending left me feeling conflicted, but I’d still recommend it. Content Notes: Some cussing, some violent or gruesome descriptions, evolutionary explanations throughout.
Timeline by Michael Crichton - 4 stars - A very unique time travel story where the characters go back to the Middle Ages - slower for a Crichton novel, but once I was into it I couldn’t put it down! Content Notes: Some cursing, one character survives by seducing men, violence.
Matched by Allie Condi - 3 stars - This book reminded me of everything I don’t like about the YA genre; too much angst. Content Notes: This book was pretty clean! I can’t recall anything objectionable.
Pretty In Punxsutawney by Laurie Boyle Crompton - 4 stars - A funny YA in which the main character finds herself reliving the same first day of high school over and over (as in the movie Groundhog Day). Really creative and fun, and made me want to re-watch all the 80s teen movies (which I typically don’t even like). Content Notes: At one point a boy surprises the main character with an unwanted kiss, and grabs her behind.
Live Your Truth And Other Lies by Alisha Childers - 4 stars - I agreed with everything in this book, and think alot of the messages are much needed for Christian women; I found it more of an entry-level book for developing a Christian worldview, so not as helpful for me personally at this point in my life.
Authorized: The Use and Misuse of The King James Bible by Mark Ward - 5 stars - Great book addressing the King-James-only perspective of Bible translations! Very informative, high view of the Bible, and I found it inspiring.
Bad Therapy: Why The Kids Aren’t Growing Up by Abigail Shirer - 4.5 stars - This was a re-listen for me. Shirer explores iatrogenic harm that can come from unnecessary therapy, and how that may be hurting our kids. Just as good as the first time.
Good And Angry by David Powlison - 5 stars - This is the best book I’ve ever read on overcoming unrighteousness anger from a Christian perspective! Highly recommend it for anyone who has ever lost their temper or stuffed angry feelings down.
Vacation Friends by Christy Barritt - 4 stars - A suspense/mystery book in which the main character is traveling with her fiancé, who she plans to breakup with, but then someone is murdered. The main action is interspersed with an alternate storyline with a seemingly unrelated character. It was fun to see how the two tied together in the end! Content Notes:Violence, infidelity and fornication are part of the plot.
After That, The Dark by Andrew Klavan - 3.5 stars - The fifth book in the Cameron Winter series, and one of the best ones so far. Winter unravels an “unsolvable” mystery with a dark tech company at the center. I am enjoying seeing the main character finally overcome some of his demons! Content Notes: This series is not clean, which make them hard to recommend, but I keep reading because I am invested in the characters at this point. Curse words, violence and gruesome deaths, the main character sleeps with his girlfriend in this book (closed door), some descriptions of what goes on in a seedy strip club.
Julius Ceasar by William Shakespeare - 4.5 stars - How does one review Shakespeare? Read it with my kids, interesting, sad. Half star only taken off because it’s my second-favorite Shakespeare that I’ve read (I’ve only read two so far). Content notes: Violence, omens, everyone dies in the end.
Anne Of Avonlea by L. M. Montgomery - 5 stars - A re-read with my kids. We all love Anne! I think there are some great lessons about life and finding a spouse in this book, so it was timely for my teens, especially.
Squanto, Friend Of The Pilgrims by Clyde Bulla - 4 stars - Read this to my little girls. Great summary of Squanto’s life, and they seemed pretty invested in the story!
The Future Of Everything by William Boekestein - 4 stars - A great summary of different aspects of eschatology that all Christians agree on - the author tipped his hand as more of an amillenial, but I thought he remained pretty neutral while pointing us to the things all Christians can look forward to when Christ returns!
The Chaos Grid by Lyndsey Lewellen - 4.5 stars - A very unique setup for a dystopian fantasy novel. I did think some of the world building was a little fantastical for what is supposed to be set in a future version of our world - if you can suspend your unbelief though, it is quite an interesting story! It only took me until 4/5 of the way through the book to recognize the Jonah analogy. Content Notes: Drug use by villains in the story, one villain threatens to do unlawful things to the main character.
Hearts Overboard by Becky Dean - 4.5 stars - Funny and sweet romance - I think this is classified as YA because the characters are seniors in high school, but a more manageable level of angst made it enjoyable. Content Notes: The female characters note the male character’s “tight end” - hardy-har-har. I feel this would be in poor taste if comments went the other way, so I don’t love when female authors do this.
How To Plot A Payback by Melissa Ferguson - 4.5 stars - A cute romantic comedy on the set of a sitcom. The pacing was just right, and the characters were interesting, with not-too-serious stakes.
The Cinderella Plot by Pepper Basham - 4.5 stars - This was a really sweet YA about a girl who decides she needs a transformation the last year of high school - but then everything starts to go wrong with the people she cares about the most. The messaging was a little redundant through the book, but the plot was good and kept me interested to the end!
Favorite Fiction So Far This Year: Pretty In Punxsutawney, The Chaos Grid, Timeline
Favorite Nonfiction So Far This Year: The Pilgrim’s Regress, Broken Bread, Authorized
What are your favorite books so far this year?
I had a hard time getting into a groove with fiction this year - my fiction reading was mostly overshadowed by my unsuccessful attempt to finish Anna Karenina before January 1st. Anna Karenina is so good, it’s just so long. I occasionally found myself binge-reading a lighter fiction book on the side, and that’s how I read all of these. Cheers for good fiction to get a person out of a Tolstoy-induced reading slump!
Yes, the photo does not match the books actually mentioned in this post. I’m sorry.
The Vanishing At Castle Moreau by Jamie Jo Wright
This was my first book by this author, and wow! If you want a creepy mystery that will keep you on your toes, look no further. Cleo, mysteriously on the run at the beginning of the book, is hired by a millionaire to help his grandmother with her hoarding - in a castle, no less. However, creepy noises around the castle and sightings of a ghostly lady make this more than a decluttering project. What exactly is going on in the castle? The pacing of this book was just right, and everything comes out okay in the end. I recommend it.
Blue Shoes And Happiness & The Good Husband Of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith
These are the next two books in the No. Ladies’ Detective Agency series, which is an ongoing reading project for me. The events in these two specific books don’t matter too much - all the books in this series are similar to me in that the characters charmingly tackle not-too-serious mysteries, with all their foibles and quirks and bits of wisdom thrown in. These are my nighttime comfort reads, and I’m sure I’ll be reading more in 2026.
Ecochondriacs by Douglas Wilson
I got this Kindle book for free in November, and started reading it on a whim, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. A climate scientists accidentally reads an email thread from her superiors which reveals man-made climate change as a massive scam. A hit is put on her once her bosses realize what happened, and she must go on the run with her Christian neighbor. Through the book she is forced to rethink everything she believes. Wilson’s voice in this novel is really unique among fiction books, as he writes as an omniscient narrator with a good dose of humor thrown in. He also writes Christian characters in a non-cheesy way, and I really appreciate that.
The Perfect Rom-Com by Melissa Ferguson
This book was a fluffy read for me at the tail-end of the year. Bryony has written a book that she hope will save the immigration center her Grandmother founded, but she can’t get a publisher to pick it up…until Jack, a literary agent, says he’ll take her book on if she will ghost-write for another one of his authors. Bryony finds herself writing best-selling books for this other author, while her book languishes. This was just a fun read, especially for anyone who is interested in the publishing industry. I think Ferguson included some of her own publishing experiences and insights in these pages. I will say that the book felt a little wordy or wandering in places, and I do wonder if the immigration aspect was prompted by recent political issues (if so - annoying). But overall it was cute.
That’s it for my 2025 books - I will be sharing a stats post soon, along with my reading hopes for 2026!
Let me clarify that these are not all the history books I read in 2025, but these are the ones I read in the last quarter of the year. Keep an eye out for a reading analysis post soon to get the bigger picture of what I read, but for now, here are a few historical books I enjoyed!
Once again, disclaimer that the books in the photo do not match the books in this post! It would take me too long to request the books from the library and take the pictures again, so please just tolerate my mismatched photos.
Everest, Inc. by Will Cockrell
I have an ongoing interest in the topic of mountain climbing, even though I have never even climbed a 14-er myself. I especially am fascinated by the conditions when climbing Mount Everest - how the early mountain climbers accomplished that incredible challenge, and how the experience seems to have been cheapened or tainted in more recent years.
This book was an overview of the history of climbing Everest, but taken from a sympathetic perspective to those who still feel called by the mountain today. I thought the author struck a really nice balance in presenting the problems with the industry today, but also honoring the accomplishments of those who have climbed the mountain. I tend to lean toward the view that it seems like any Joe-schmo with enough money can climb the mountain these days and that cheapens the accomplishment, but this book challenged some of my biases (though it also confirmed others).
Christian History 101 by Sinclair Ferguson
When I ordered this book I expected to receive a massive tome - imagine my surprise when I realized it was just over a hundred pages! This is an excellent and accessible overview of church history through the centuries, and I really appreciated the length. This year was more difficult than I would have liked, and as a result I didn’t read as much history as I would have liked - it was nice to get some history reading in through this very approachable book.
Meet Martin Luther by Anthony Selvaggio
Our family celebrates Reformation Day, so October was a great month to pick up this little biography of Martin Luther. I’ve attempted a massive biography before and was never able to finish it in this busy season - this one was a perfect length. I was so glad I read it when we watched the Luther movie in October, because I understood all the events the movie alludes to! Highly recommend for a balanced overview of Luther’s life, including his strengths and weaknesses.
The Freedom Of The Christian by Martin Luther
I picked up this book in October as well, the first book I’ve read actually written by Martin Luther himself. The length of this book was perfect if you are intimidated, but it still packed a punch. It was interesting to read some of the thought processes that led to the Reformation from Luther himself, and I found various parts not just academically interesting but personally encouraging.
The Year 1000 by Robert Lacey
I finished this one up during the last week of the year after taking a long break in reading it. This book goes through the months of the year and tells how people living in medieval times would have been living through the different seasons. I found it very engaging and interesting. This was a recommendation for my son’s high school history curriculum next year, and while I mostly think it would be a great read, I would have him skip the “November” section, which had to do with the relationships between men and women. Other than that, I very much enjoyed it and would recommend it as an approachable book about the social history of the Middle Ages!
Next up: the fiction books I read to finish out the 2025 reading year!
You may notice that the books in these photos are not actually the books I’m sharing in this post. A few weeks ago I took photos of the books I still needed to write about, but I ended up combining them into different posts than the photos. If I wait until I can regather all the books from the library and re-take the photos, these posts will never get published, so please just view the books in the photos as previews for what is to come, and not necessarily for the particular post!
At the start of 2025, I created some reading goals and categories. I am going to revisit that post soon, but one category I did not include was reading about fashion and clothing. Maybe I thought it felt too frivolous for Substack at the time, but one of my unspoken goals was to read books to help me rethink how I shop for and wear my clothes. I’m sharing two of those books in this post.
One category I did not include, and indeed would probably never include, in my reading goals is to read books about philosophy. It’s just not my jam. But that’s what I accidentally did end up reading a couple times this year. So there are two books that dip into philosophy below as well.
How To Dress Your Best by Ellie Jean Royden
This book was great for helping me to analyze my personal style from a different angle. Royden has created her own systems for developing personal style, the most original of which is her “style roots” system. I really resonated with this method of thinking about style, and it has helped me understand the common themes I am drawn to in my clothes.
I also really appreciated her way of explaining “dressing for your body type”. She has broken down body lines by width, length, and curviness, and her advice has given me a new understanding of why I like certain silhouettes on myself and dislike others. Her approach is very body-positive in that she doesn’t want you to think of one body type as superior of another (this is disconnected from weight). Overall, I found it very helpful.
Note: There is one sort-of nude picture in the middle of the book - all critical areas are covered, but I was careful when reading that page around my kids.
Overdressed by Elizabeth Cline
I listened to this book over the summer, and what stands out to me as I reflect on it now is the historical information about how fabrics were produced in the past vs. now. The author explores how clothing has become more and more disposable. She focuses on the impact to the environment and the conditions for factory workers in developing countries. A great book to make you think about the clothes you buy.
Shop Class As Soul Craft by Matthew Crawford
This is one of those books that is impossible to absorb upon the first reading - I feel like I need to read it again even to explain it well. This is a philosophy of work, particularly the trades and the value of working with your hands in some way. My takeaways from this book are that the trades have been branded as being for the people that are not “smart enough” for college, but in reality require a ton of intelligence, creative-thinking, and problem-solving skills - and are often more intellectually satisfying than many of the desk jobs that require a college degree.
One of the chapters stands out in my memory because it made me think about how as everything has become more computerized, we have lost a tangible, physical connection to our belongings. People no longer understand how to fix basic machinery, as they once did, and indeed it is sometimes impossible for an average person to fix their own appliances because we have computerized too many things. It has made the world more disposable in our minds.
Those two things are just a sampling, there was so much in this book. I need my own copy the next time I read it so I can annotate and highlight to my heart’s content.
The Kingdom Of Cain: Finding God In The Literature Of Darkness by Andrew Klavan
I was interested in reading this book because I have picked up some of Klavan’s fiction books and enjoyed them, and I’ve also put down some of his fiction books because of overly graphic content. In this book, he talks about being a writer of crime stories and his philosophy behind doing that as someone who considers himself a Christian (as an aside, I can never figure out whether he is Catholic or not). I was expecting a little more literary analysis in this book - instead it’s a lot more about analyzing movies inspired by real-life murders, and the trail of evil philosophies behind them. He discusses several real life murders as a jumping off point for some of his philosophical and moral points, weaving his own conversion story into the book.
While there was a lot I agreed with, there were many points that I disagreed with. He at times veers toward a touch of sacrilege, and he comes off somewhat cavalier toward certain serious sins (getting involved with dark subjects to research books, for example). There were also theological points he made that I don’t think are biblical. This review would get far too convoluted if I tried to address every point that I took issue with. I’ll just give one example – Klavan suggests that death did not come into the world as a result of sin. He speculates that perhaps Adam and Eve would have died anyway, but that may be death wouldn’t have been such a terrible thing if not for their knowledge of good and evil that came as a result of the Fall. This is not in line with what Scripture teaches. Of course Klavan takes one of the very verses I would cite and abandons the plain meaning of the text, interpreting it in a way as to support his own thinking on the subject. I generally urge caution with Christian writers who treat Scripture that way.
When Klavan shares about his journey from being an atheist to coming to faith in God, that is where his writing really shines. Some passages were really beautiful. So whether I agreed or disagreed with various parts, this book was at times inspiring and gave me plenty to think about.
Content Notes: Several murders are described in all their depravity, though Klavan tries to be delicate in explaining certain details.
Every Believer Confident by Mark Farnham
This book is a “philosophy” of evangelism in a way, but at the core it is a very practical book about how to engage unbelievers in spiritual conversations. Notice I didn’t say “how to present the gospel” - the author does cover that, but he doesn’t believe in beating people over the head with the gospel whether they like it or not. Farnham promotes having real conversations with people about what they believe, in order to fully understand them, and then includes how to naturally move the conversation toward the truth of the gospel. I love his emphasis on gentleness and also on clarity. He explains how to be clear about the gospel and warns against phrases or techniques that will leave the listener feeling ambushed, or leaving the truth of Scripture muddied. I learned alot from this book that I hope to be brave enough to put what I learned into practice. I will be having all my kids read this at some point in high school. I highly recommend it as a bridge between learning about apologetics and actually practicing it!
I have two more book posts to share in the queue, so stay tuned!
I realized the other day that it’s been months since I did a reading update. Since I have fifteen books I haven’t shared, my goal is to write reviews for four books a week until Christmas. If you are building a reading list for 2026, here is your chance to get some ideas!
I’m titling this one “Light Books With Deeper Themes” because if you read the first three, which are all light in tone, you will find themes of loneliness, friendship, anxiety, and hope.
The last one is not a light book, but each of these book posts will have a wrench thrown in. Just go with it.
Valencia and Valentine by Suzy Krause
I read a different book of Krause a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. This book has been waiting in my Kindle for quite a while now.
In Valencia and Valentine, we are introduced to two characters. One is a young woman, Valencia, who works in a call center, is very socially awkward, and is afraid of everything - basically a young woman who is afraid to live. The other is an old woman, Mrs. Valentine, who lives alone, but loves being around people and finds excuses to talk to others and ways to fill her days with small, meaningful things - an old woman who has learned how to live well.
I thought I knew where this story was going, but about a quarter of the way through I realized I had no idea. As we get further looks at Valencia’s existence we realize how dark and empty it truly is, and for most of the book she stays right there in that darkness. We also start to realize that all is not quite well with Mrs. Valentine.
Just as I started to feel rather uneasy about what was actually going to happen to these two characters, I glimpsed the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. The ending was completely unexpected, slightly tragic, but also happy and sweet. I don’t want to spoil it, so that’s all I’ll say. If you pick this one up, be prepared for the unexpected.
Content Notes: Some discussion of mental health disorders, some disturbing dreams/hallucinations.
Bottom Line: Sweet and sad and a little weird. Pick it up if you don’t mind a little tragedy with your uplifting fiction.
The Happy Life Of Isadora Bentley by Courtney Walsh
I read a Christmas book I did not enjoy by Walsh last year, but I decided to give her another chance and I’m so glad I did. Isadora Bentley reads an article she considers to be ridiculously with 31 ways to be happy. She decides to turn the article into a science experiment in order to debunk the article. Along the way she ends up finding new friends, connecting with a certain professor, and learning how to enjoy life. I thought this was a sweet, uplifting read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Content Notes: One of the things she tries is yoga, and as someone who has convictions against yoga I wasn’t a fan of that. No other notes that I can recall,
Bottom Line: Pick it up if you are in the need of something quirky and light.
The English Masterpiece by Katherine Reay
In the 1970s, Lily helps her boss, Diana, plan a new Picasso exhibit at an art museum, but she ruins the opening event by impulsively declaring one of the Picassos a fake. She is immediately put on leave, and is devastated. Not only has she potentially lost her dream job, but her family will suffer from the lost income. She has to find a way to find out what is really going on with that painting, and hopefully save her job and her boss’s reputation, and stay out of jail. But is everything as it seems with her boss? Where did that painting actually come from?
As someone who doesn’t know much about the art world, and also doesn’t like modern art at all, I was surprised how much I enjoyed this book. Reay did a great job explaining the basics of how museums acquire paintings, and there were interesting explanations about what makes art special as well. The underlying themes of this book are more about friendship, sisterhood, and the value of meaningful relationships. I also really enjoyed the 1970s setting, which I thought was painted well.
Content Notes: Vague references to sexual relationships, but I would consider this a clean book.
Bottom Line: Pick this one up if you like mysteries, museums, and are a tiny bit interested in art.
Midnight In Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham
I mentioned in the spring how I had become interested in the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, and this book is a very thorough history of it.
Higginbotham tells the story of what caused the disaster, the initial reaction to it, the efforts to contain the reactor, the effects on the surrounding countryside, and the devastating effects on the men who were sent to work in the danger zone. He also tells how it was finally contained, and some of the research that has been done in the Chernobyl area since the disaster. Despite writing about such a devastating event, I thought the author offered a balanced view of nuclear energy, including the concerns and the benefits.
I learned so much from this book - including that the scientists were initially worried that the reactor, if not contained, would burn down through the earth, perhaps never stopping until it reached the core. Can you imagine? I listened to this book on audio, which I think was the right way for me to read it, because it let me get the information I was interested in without getting too bogged down in the names and details.
Content Notes: Some cursing in various quotes, people die from cancer and related illnesses because of the radiation.
Bottom Line: If you don’t know much about Chernobyl, this is the book to learn about it.
These are books I finished in the early fall, but as I revisit them in writing this review post, I am remembering how much I enjoyed them all. The first three each struck a nice balance between being meaningful and easily readable. And the last one was just fascinating without having to try.
Have you read anything similar this year, with a light tone but deeper underlying themes?
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