I almost didn’t do awards this year. I ended up spending half of January traveling due to a death in the family, but that’s just an excuse. The truth is that while I read in lots of books this year, I only finished 26, and many of them didn’t really stand out to me. But you know what? That’s okay. I’m not going to mention here every book I read, just the ones that might actually be worth recommending to you. And at the end of this post, I do have one really worthy book that fully deserves the Book of the Year award, so all is not lost in this annual project of mine!
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Best in Health
Dirty Genes by Dr. Ben Lynch
Of all the health books I read this year, this one is the best written and most helpful for the most number of people. With that said, I think a lot of the advice is outdated, and some of the supplements promoted are helpful in the short-term but harmful in the long term (because they slow liver detox, for example — Dr. Garrett Smith calls this the Duration Paradox). But Dr. Ben Lynch is pretty influential when it comes to the genetic perspective on health struggles, so reading him means you will start to understand the lingo when people throw out acronyms like MTHFR or SNPs. It’ll introduce you to the inside baseball. Do I think he’s really discovered the “root cause of illness” though? No.
Other contenders: Good Fat Is Good for Girls, Good Fat is Good for Women: Menopause, The Indoctrinated Brain
Best in Fiction
Taliesin by Stephen Lawhead
This is the first of a series of books by Lawhead, who is my favorite living novelist. I can’t speak for his newer stuff (yet), but what I’ve read of his older stuff is so good. Taliesin did not disappoint! Combining the Atlantis mythology with the King Arthur tales? Yes, please! I was hoping to finish more of the series than I did, but the books are long and I had some things in my life that ended up stealing a lot of my time. I carry one in my purse everywhere I go, hoping I will finish it in time.
Other contenders: The Andromeda Strain, Merlin
Best in Leadership
Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
This book was extremely helpful. We live in a world where everyone tries to escape responsibility for everything. Even when people sound like they are taking responsibility, you start to doubt it when you think about it later and realize how they worded it. And I don’t know about you, but I have definitely struggled with the desire to blame someone or something else for a problem! This book shows what it looks like to really take ownership of a situation and why that is such a cultural gamechanger. I’m planning to assign it to my youngest next year.
Other contenders: Drive, The Art of War (yes, I read it again!), Choose Your Enemies Wisely, The Golden Key for Life and Leaders, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Best in Living Well
How to Be Free from Bitterness by Jim Wilson
I originally bought this book in order to better understand a couple people in my life who are extremely bitter (and possibly how to help or encourage them). However, it ended up having a chapter on child rearing called Saturation Love that is worth the price of the book all by itself. I wish every mother and father could read it; it’s so incredibly good. The chapter on bitterness was also excellent!
Note: I can only recommend this author with a caveat. I read another book of his (which is in the list below) and in that book it became evident that some of his theology is at a serious departure from mine.
Other contenders: Leisure, the Basis of Culture (of course!), Generation to Generation, In Tune with the World, How to Be Free, How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind
Best in Culture and History
Slaying Leviathan by Glenn Sunshine
I’m actually in my second reading of this book. The first time, I listened to an audio book, only to discover I am a poor listener sometimes. This time, I’m reading it the real way — with a pen in my hand and everything! It really is so good and helpful in understanding how government works and what Protestants (and other Christians, too, of course) have thought about the relationship of people and churches to governments along the way. I highly recommend it.
Other contenders: People of the Lie, Areopagitica, The Fourth Turning is Here
The 2025 Afterthoughts Book of the Year
Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up by Abigail Shrier
This book was excellent. It’s another one I read twice: once on my own and once aloud with my husband. I really think it’s a must-read because it helps you understand how things have gotten to be the way that they are — how so many people are raising their children to be such weak, fragile adults. It also gives you pause and helps you think through ways to avoid such mistakes. Even though a lot of what she talks about is going on in schools, it’s not like homeschoolers are exempt from such things.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
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