Fifth Annual Book Review

“Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.” Psalms 25:4 ESV

The celebrations in my blog just keep coming. Today is my Fifth Annual Book Review post!!! It started in January 2020, when I wrote Technophobia, Apps, and Books, highlighting some of my favorite books. I had so much fun, it has now become an annual post and one of my favorites to write. It has grown to include a few podcasts and some shows that have made my life better as well.

Mid-year, I start the process of thinking about this post by opening my Goodreads app and looking back on some of the books I’ve read. I close my eyes and relive some of the sensations I felt when reading. It may be a book that caused me to think and change my perspective on life. It may be the delight I felt about a book that I couldn’t stop talking about it. It may be the smell of cardamon or saffron that filled my senses as I read an Indian cookbook. Or it may be a character that I rooted for who finally made sense of their troubled life. At this point, I make a mental note about which are my favorites thus far, and then I continue to read, finding more books to delight, inspire, and cause me to grow as a person.

In 2024, I read 91 books, one more than my initial goal. And it was a great year for reading. Looking back, I know I have referenced a lot of the books in my previous blogs, and most of them won’t even make my top five. And that’s when the difficulty begins: how do I choose the top five books? Do I base it on enjoyment or inspiration because those are two very different conclusions. Do I try to pick books across genres, because again that will result in different choices. And just maybe, I go with my gut, and pick ones that really speak to me, whatever the reasons.

Two of these books, after I finished, I declared aloud to my husband that they will be in my annual post. And although I finished these books early in the year, they remained on the list. The first is Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson. This book took all my opinions about criminals and our justice system and turned them upside down. Stevenson is a lawyer who works at freeing wrongly convicted felons. He takes cases where race and socio-economic background prejudiced law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, and juries. And even in cases where one is guilty, he reminds us “Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.” He challenged me by saying, “The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated and the condemned.” His book resonates with the mission of Jesus, to free the captive from a life of hopelessness. I wept at some of the cases he highlighted, sick to my stomach in others, and had blinders fall from eyes after I finished the book. I recently heard him speak on a podcast, Everything Happens with Kate Bowler. This podcast would be a great introduction to his book.

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants, by Robin Wall Kimmerer fell into my lap at the right time in the right place. I had just connected with more siblings on my biological father’s side, and it awakened my curiosity about my Native American heritage. My brother-in-law handed me the book while I was visiting my sister and her family in Nebraska. The book compelled me to keep opening its pages with Kimmerer’s beautiful writing and challenging suppositions. I took pictures of passages and sent them to my husband. And I wept after I closed the book, as if a journey had ended, forever changing my ideas about the earth and my place in it. She shares the concept of Honorable Harvest where “to take only what is given, to use it well, to be grateful for the gift, and to reciprocate the gift.” Although she is not a Christian, ideas like “leadership is rooted not in power and authority, but in service and wisdom” ring true. She also says “But the beauty of the partnership is not each plant does what it does in order to increase its own growth. But as it happens, when the individual flourish, so does the whole.” It’s a book I own and will reread.

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk is a book that has been referenced by so many people and recommended highly by two adult daughters of a dear friend. It is a hard book that often felt like I was treading through mud to get to hope. He highlights how trauma changes your brain, affects your body in the form of a myriad of auto-immune disorders, and how current models for treating trauma have fallen short. It confirmed so much of what I had been processing in the past few years: not only am I not responsible for my trauma but I can only do so much to mitigate the effects it has on me long term. But the book ended with some things I can hold onto. He says, “Trauma victims cannot recover until they become familiar with and befriend the sensations in their bodies.” He also emphasizes the importance of imagination, where he believes it is “absolutely critical to the quality of our lives—it is an essential launchpad for making our hopes come true.” So, I continue my journey of embodiment and cultivating my imagination for the purpose of healing and wholeness.

The next two books delighted me for different reasons. Ingrid Fetell Lee’s Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness sprinkled confetti, bubbles, and art installations into my purview.  She says, “We dream of a durable kind of happiness —sometimes we have to accept that joy moves through our lives in an unpredictable way.” I resonate with her when she talks about her apartment with “buttery yellow walls” that “felt like the sun was shining, even in the dead of winter.” This book added a welcome buffer amid hard books dealing with racial tensions sexual assault, and poverty. It also led me to deep dive on the concept of joy from the Christian perspective with my series of interviews and subsequent writings.

The last book I am going to highlight is one of the many great fiction books I read this year. Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal rose to the top because it captured my Midwest roots with both food, family, and legacy. I quickly devoured his other two books, Kitchens of the Midwest and The Lager Queen of Minnesota, hoping he is working on another one soon. His books are quirky, and a good combination of tragedy and hope. In Kitchens of the Midwest, I was instantly homesick when he wrote “After decades away from the Midwest, she’d forgotten that bewildering generosity was a common regional tic.”

Besides reading, you will often find me with ear buds in my ears listening to a variety of podcasts that cover spiritual growth, food, culture, nature, and news. I am going to share three podcasts that I found to be a source of encouragement for me.

The Bulletin from Christianity Today. The moderators discuss current events in context of the gospel. It is a balanced approach that brings me hope.

Everything Happens by Kate Bowler. Based on her own cancer diagnosis, Kate interviews others about the hard areas of life in the context of hope. This podcast is not one where you will hear life’s problems solved with a colorful bow and a quick cliché. Instead, you will hear truth that resonates in your soul.

Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a bit salty, but very funny. She interviews older women asking them about the secrets of life. My favorite parts are when Julia discusses the interviews with her eighty-year-old mom.

Finally, I want to share one television show that I absolutely loved this year. Padma Lakshmi’s Taste the Nation had me hooked from her second episode in Milwaukee. Her exploration of the immigrant experience through food is hopeful in a polarized world. I can’t wait till she releases season three. You will find her show on Hulu.

I love to see the little people in my life read. Some of them are always carrying a book with them, catching moments in car rides reading a few pages. Others, like my grandson, check out piles of books at the library, devouring them as fast as their parents can read them. Even the twin boys I love smile with delight when I open a book to read to them. I hope this passion for reading continues throughout their lives because it will open their world to ideas, places, cultures, and hope.

I say this to remind all of us that reading is important even as an adult. What younger children see me doing demonstrates to them what I value. If I truly value reading, they should see me reading.

Finally, I want to challenge you reader. How many books did you read last year? Maybe some of you read more than me, and maybe some have read none. There is no shame or judgment in your answer. My challenge is a simple one, just read one more book than you did last year! Let yourself get lost in words, images you create, and ideas that help you grow. And feel free to always share with me what you are reading, I’m forever adding new books to my TBR!