My Favorite Books of the Year: Part One

Close to half of the books that I read this year were rereads. Several of the rereads were my favorite books this year, so I thought I would write two lists: best books that I read for the first time and best rereads.

I'm pretty selective about what books to read, so I loved 75-85% of the books that I read. These are just the ones that I scanned on a list and immediately called these my favorites of the year. I'm thinking a new standard for best books is the books that you read again.

These are books that I read for the first time.

Fiction

  • Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson. I like to read juvenile fiction and young adult fiction when I go on vacation. I read this while we were in Williamsburg, VA for vacation. It's wonderful. Everything about it is great.
  • The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. This is a really fun, but bizarre mystery. If you like quirky humor and mystery with a little absurdity thrown in, then this is great. This is another young adult novel.
Non-Fiction
  • In Harm's Way by Doug Stanton. I've heard about this book on the sinking of the USS Indianapolis for a while. When I finally got around to reading it, I loved it. The pacing and storytelling are amazing. The events are even more incredible. 
  • Singing in the Fire by Faith Cook. This is a collection of short biographies. I really like biographies. These teach, inspire, and entertain at the same time. I think of some of these people's lives regularly.


Christian Non-Fiction and Theology
  • The Joy of Preaching by by Phillips Brooks. This is an important book on preaching. I loved it. I see echoes of it and responses to it throughout other preaching books that I read.
  • A Hunger for God by John Piper. This is on fasting. It's so good. After fasting regularly for several years, this was the book I needed to help me see that fasting is much bigger than I realized. There is so much to be said about it. Piper never comes right out to wrap the topic up in a neat bow. I had a professor once comment that Piper was like a basket weaver making something that doesn't make sense until the end. This is like that and well worth it.

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