Tag Archives: reading

Top 10 Nonfiction of 2024

I read a record number of books in 2024, but only about 30% were nonfiction, which makes for an easier list (and no honorable mentions this year).

You can also check out my top 10 fiction and my reading stats.

  1. The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University by Kevin Roose – Hands down my favorite book of the year, another one that has been on my list for over a decade. A flaming liberal went undercover at Liberty University and it’s not a complete flaying of conservative Christianity. Shots fired for sure, but it’s much more nuanced.
  2. Caste: The Origins of our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson – My quick review described this as “the most phenomenal book making sense of race I’ve ever read.” It’s long and it’s depressing, but it’s engaging and eye-opening.
  3. How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told by Harrison Scott Key – A brutally funny memoir about a guy who should have divorced his cheating wife but didn’t.
  4. Them: Why We Hate Each Other—and How to Heal by Ben Sasse – This book was pitched as a bipartian political healing book, but it’s not. It’s more about our place in the world and how we relate, with an emphasis on the loss of community and the harm of our devices (related? yeah, probably!). I didn’t always agree with the author (a former Republican Senator), but I appreciated his arguments.
  5. Faith Unleavened: The Wilderness Between Trayvon Martin & George Floyd by Tamice Spencer-Helms – I called this the “powerful memoir I needed” at the time, but honestly, I read it almost a year ago and I barely remember any of it. It makes the top five based on what I think I remember, but that’s not very encouraging is it?
  6. We Need to Talk by Celeste Headlee – This was an audiobook that I remember thinking I needed to read in print so I could underline and take more away from it. If you’ve ever been in an awkward conversation, this book could diagnose why. Too bad I don’t remember enough to actually be helpful.
  7. Sigh, Gone: A Misfit’s Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In by Phuc Tran – I don’t know if this memoir lived up to the hype, but it read like a great coming-of-age story.
  8. Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez – If The Unlikely Disciple above didn’t flay conservative Christianity, this work does. It’s just a nonstop diatribe of the patriarchy baked into American Christianity.
  9. Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History by Kurt Anderson – This is probably longer than it needed to be, but it’s still a fascinating history of the fake in America from Puritan hypocrites to Disneyland.
  10. A Misplaced Massacre: Struggling over the Memory of Sand Creek by Ari Kelman – I’m not sure if the story of how the Sand Creek Massacre site become a National Historic Site will be as engaging for anyone else, but I enjoyed it. I visited the site a few years ago, and wanted to go a little deeper on the history so I picked up this tome, knowing I’d never get around to reading it. Well, I did. Fascinating how hard it is to reconclie our history.

Reading Trends

Memoirs dominated this list last year. I was on a memoir kick last year, so that’s no surprise. Though I thought it would spill over more to this year. I think I just wasn’t finding as many engaging memoirs. A few good ones, including the top spot, but it just wasn’t the same dominant trend.

More Reading

If you want to read more, check out my booklet 137 Books in One Year: How to Fall in Love With Reading Again.

And how about previous top non-fiction lists: 2023, 2022202120202019201820172016201520142013, and 2012.

Top 10 Fiction of 2024

I read a lot in 2024, which makes coming up with the 10 best even harder. Seriously, I had 33 five-star fiction reads.

You can also check out my top 10 nonfiction and my reading stats.

Some of those may have been five stars in the excitement of the moment, and a few were re-reads, but still, it makes it hard to put together a list. With the backstop of honorable mentions, I’m pretty confident about my top 10 list, but not at all confident about the order. Rather than agonize over each place, I’m going to go read a book.

So here’s my top 10 fiction for 2024:

  1. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver – She’s still got it. I haven’t read Kingsolver in a while, but this one shows why she’s so good.
  2. Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman – This series is so stupid. It’s like reading a role playing game. But it’s just dumb enough to be fun. The audiobook is amazing—probably makes it work. (I’m reading the physical version of the third book now, and I think it only works because I still have the audiobook voices in my head.)
  3. Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell – Her Simon Snow series and all the comics are a nice diversion, but give us more character-driven Rainbow Rowell! This is basically a romance novel, and I loved it. Which spawned exploring that genre and actually adding it to my book tracking genre dropdown.
  4. Suburban Dicks by Fabian Nicieza – A super pregnant former serial killer tracker turned minivan mom teams up with a disgraced journalist to solve a decades old suburban mystery. Laugh out loud funny.
  5. The Future by Naomi Alderman – A real thinker of an apocalytpic story with plenty of action, focused on billionaire social media tycoons preparing for the end of the world.
  6. Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton – A too-many-clones space caper that was both exciting and funny.
  7. The Shore of Women by Pamela Sargent – A 1980s sci-fi classic that’s been on my to-read list for years and I finally got to it. Glad I did. Super interesting far-future scenario where women live in a techno paradise while men are thrown out to live as savages in the wild. Reading it in the context of today’s alpha bros is a bit unsettling.
  8. Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice – Pair it with the first in the series, Moon of the Crusted Snow, for a great post-apocalytpic read.
  9. Liberty’s Daughter by Naomi Kritzer – Really engage near-future sci-fi world with a pragmatic teen heroine solving problems.
  10. Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese – A star hockey player comes out of a Canadian residential school. The descriptions are hauntingly beautiful. I read this one in a single day.
Continue reading Top 10 Fiction of 2024

2024 Reading List

Whew, ready? I read 224 books in 2024. Yes, that’s the most I’ve ever read in one year. And yes, it’s ridiculous. So?

You can also check out my previous reading lists: 2023202220212020201920182017201620152014201320122011201020092008200720062005200420032002, and 2001.

You can also check out my top 10 fiction, top 10 nonfiction, and my reading stats.

If you want to read more, check out my booklet 137 Books in One Year: How to Fall in Love With Reading Again.

Continue reading 2024 Reading List

2023 Reading Stats

I’ve shared my total reading numbers for 2023—184 total—and my favorite fiction and nonfiction books. Now let’s talk stats.

Raw Numbers

184 is certainly a ridiculous number. It’s my second highest ever.

Not bragging: But as much as I talk up the number (I even put it in the title of my own book), let’s be honest—that’s just clickbait. The number doesn’t matter. Don’t bother comparing. I know some people who love books but only manage a few a year. I know someone else who regularly tops 300 per year. So don’t get hung up on the numbers. Get hung up on the books.

Continue reading 2023 Reading Stats

Top 10 Nonfiction of 2023

I read 184 books in 2023 and here are my favorite nonfiction reads.

I normally don’t read a lot of nonfiction (only 18% of my reading in 2022), so this is usually a shorter list. But I went on a memoir spree and found a ton of good ones—with nonfiction hitting 43% of my reading!

So this year we get a top 10 list:

  1. This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us by Cole Arthur Riley – I listened to the audiobook and was initially put off by the author’s monotone, but once I got into the groove it was really compelling. Extremely well written, to the point that I want to read it again in print so I can underline the morsels.
  2. Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More With Less by Jim Vandehei, Mike Allen, Roy Schwartz – The best book on writing I’ve read in years. I keep buying copies for my contributors.
  3. Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs.-Christians Debate by Justin Lee – The best book I’ve read on the gay debate in the church.
  4. Rapture Practice: My One-Way Ticket to Salvation by Aaron Hartzler – This growing up in a Christian subculture memoir hit way too close to home.
  5. Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality by Sarah McBride – This one made me cry.
  6. Love Thy Neighbor: A Muslim Doctor’s Struggle for Home in Rural America by Ayaz Virji with Alan Eisenstock – Really incredible story.
  7. A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney – The story of his son dying, which is just awful, but it’s poignant and honest in that “well, fuck” kind of way.
  8. I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times by Monica Guzmán – We need more of this if our democracy is going to survive.
  9. Team of Vipers: My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White House by Cliff Sims – As much as I dislike Trump, I’m not a fan of the tell-all books gushing with juicy details. But the Smart Brevity guys referenced this one, so I checked it out, and the style was super engaging.
  10. When They Call You A Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele – I put this one off for a while, but glad I finally got to it.

Honoroable Mentions

And a few more worth mentioning:

  • Birding While Indian by Thomas C. Gannon – Really enjoyed this mix of Indian politics and birding, which clued me into the gamification of birding, something I found intriguing (who knew I’d enjoy keeping lists?!).
  • Testimony: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Failed a Generation by Jon Ward – I read several deconstruction memoirs and this one was perhaps the most interesting.
  • Love Leadership: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World by John Hope Bryant – Business books are often awful, but this one really engaged.

Note on Trends

I noted last year that I read a couple LGBTQ+ memoirs and enjoyed them and would probably do more this year. I did. A lot. Three of those made it to my top 10, and I read a bunch more. The Christian ones were the most intriguing, which led to a related field of deconstruction memoirs. By the end of the year I stumbled into birding memoirs, and that pushed me to spend Christmas money on binoculars and start exploring birding.

More Reading

If you want to read more, check out my booklet 137 Books in One Year: How to Fall in Love With Reading Again.

And how about previous top non-fiction lists: 2022202120202019201820172016201520142013, and 2012.

You can also see this year’s top 10 fiction and reading stats for the year.

Top 10 Fiction of 2023

I read 184 books in 2023, and here are my favorite fiction reads:

  1. Where Peace is Lost by Valerie Valdes – Really fun and unique world building that just sucked me in. Very enjoyable.
  2. Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade by Delilah S. Dawson – The best Star Wars book I’ve read, following a a broken Jedi who flips to the dark side after the fall of the Republic.
  3. Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah – A really brutal and fascinating story that reminded me of the 1980s movie Running Man about death row turned sports entertainment.
  4. Apocalypse Yesterday by Brock Adams – The best post-apocalypse story I’ve read in a while.
  5. The God of Endings by Jacqueline Holland – Perhaps the most unique and engaging vampire story I’ve read in a while.
  6. Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas – A vampire romance that avoids all the tropes of Twilight.
  7. Secret Identity by Alex Segura – Really fun mystery set in the world of comic book creation.
  8. A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker – Freakishly prescient, this pandemic story would have hit differently a few years ago.
  9. How to Stop Time by Matt Haig – One of those fascinating stories with an intriguing premise and then you just have to see how it plays out.
  10. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion – An unexpected romance in my top 10? It works so well because of the rock solid voice of the probably autistic main character. I’m a sucker for a good voice.

Honorable Mentions

I read a lot of good books, so here are a few more to mention:

  • The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei – A space mystery that was really kind of simple, but I enjoyed it.
  • Pieces of Blue by Holly Goldberg Sloan – I’ve really enjoyed her middle grade stuff and her first adult novel just as good.
  • Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck – I really have a hard time reading classics, so I was surprised how much I enjoyed this one.
  • Wanderers by Chuck Wendig – A complex, intertwined story about a weird issue (shades of Stephen King) that just pulled me in.
  • 2034: A Novel of the Next World War by Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis – Near-future story of was between the U.S. and China that’s frighteningly real.

More Reading

If you want to read more, check out my booklet 137 Books in One Year: How to Fall in Love With Reading Again.

And how about previous top 10 fiction lists: 2022202120202019201820172016201520142013, and 2012.

You can also see this year’s top 10 nonfiction and reading stats for the year.

2023 Reading List

I read 184 books in 2023. I think it’s safe to say my COVID reading slump is officially over.

You can also check out my previous reading lists: 202220212020201920182017201620152014201320122011201020092008200720062005200420032002, and 2001.

If you want to read more, check out my booklet 137 Books in One Year: How to Fall in Love With Reading Again.

You can also see my top 10 fiction, top 10 nonfiction, and reading stats for the year.

Continue reading 2023 Reading List

Quitting a Book is OK

I repeat this mantra often, and it’s especially true when I’ve been in a reading slump. I just saw it summarized nicely by Angela Whited, the community sales coordinator and storyteller at Red Balloon Bookshop:

Whited also revealed another secret about reading more books: If a book is boring, she’ll quit.

I’ve always struggled with that idea. Quitting a book feels like defeat. I started it. Why not finish it?

But those books are a grind and the process feels arduous and less enjoyable.

Whited said that’s OK.

“You can quit in the middle if you don’t like it,” she said. “You only will live so long. You would never read all the books you want to read. And so this is how we read so many books at the bookstore. We don’t finish the ones we’re not loving. You’ve got your to-be-read pile. Are you ever going to get through it? I’m not going to get through mine. It’s OK if you don’t love it. That book is for somebody else.”

-Myron Medcalf, “My quest to read more books led me to ‘reading therapist’ in St. Paul,” Sept. 9, 2023, Star Tribune

Reading Like Mad in 2023

I’m on some kind of wild reading binge in 2023. Last year, I read 87 books the entire year. This year? 87 books as of yesterday.

Reading a lot of books is no big surprise for me.

But this is quite the start to a year of reading.

So what happened? Why am I so into books this year? And how am I possibly making it happen? I’ve written a whole book on this topic, but I can share a few thoughts about what’s different this year.

Continue reading Reading Like Mad in 2023