The Books I Read in 2025

This year, I read a grand total of 23 total books. That’s nearly half the number of books that I read in 2024.

I love reading for many reasons, but I sensed this year that maybe one of those reasons is to distract my racing mind with new information. Thanks to a few of the books on this list and lessons God taught me along the way, my mind wasn’t racing as much—I read eight books in January; I read six in the last six months.

Here are some notes on most of them. As always, most were enjoyable, some were not. I saved my comments on my favorite four until the end.

Fiction

The Wild Robot (Peter Brown)
This was a wonderful story that we enjoyed reading as a family. Unfortunately, the film adaptation didn’t just change things, it changed what it was I liked about the book. I’m interested to know what people who saw the movie first thought of the book.

Summer of the Monkeys (Wilson Rawls)
By the author of Where the Red Fern Grows. This book was wonderful. It was a laugh-out-loud, tear-jerking Oklahoma story that feels like it takes place in the same world as Where the Red Fern Grows. Wilson Rawls only ever published two books, and both were wonderful. (And I can’t figure why this story has never been turned into a movie. This would make a perfect family film.)

The Dragon and the Stone (Kathryn Butler)
We bought Justus this series last year for Christmas. It’s a Christian-themed children’s fantasy story that is being compared to The Chronicles of Narnia. It was…fine. In my opinion, it was too comparable to Narnia. There were too many direct parallels. Justus enjoyed it well enough.

The River (Peter Heller)
I’d had this on my library list for the longest because of such positive reviews like “A fiery tour de force… I could not put this book down. It truly was terrifying and unutterably beautiful” (Alison Borden, The Denver Post).

I hated it.

An interesting premise, but an uninteresting story. Unfortunately, it was interesting enough to feel like you have to know how it finishes, but it just didn’t deliver. (Interestingly, I read another book called The River last year that I also did not care for. Maybe I’m just not a fan of rivers.)

Newberry Medal Literature

I have an interest to read through all the Newberry Medal winners, but there are somewhere around 100 books on that list, so I’m not calling it a goal yet.

The Bronze Bow (Elizabeth George Speare)
Elizabeth George Speare was a writing force. A two-time Newberry Medal winner, along with a third honorable mention (The Sign of the Beaver). The Bronze Bow was a beautiful book about forgiveness set in Jesus’ time period.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond (Elizabeth George Speare)
This was her first Newberry Medal book. The story was very good even when the ending was completely predictable. If I had to rank the three Speare books I’ve read, I’d say my favorite was Sign of the Beaver, this was second, and The Bronze Bow was third. All of them, however, are well worth your time.

The One and Only Ivan (Katherine Applegate)
This was enjoyable enough, but it didn’t stick with me. And the movie adaptation was meh.

Wrinkle In Time (Madeleine L’Engle)
I’ve known about this book for as long as I can remember. It’s an award-winning, classic science fiction book. I was excited to finally read it, and…

I don’t get it. I don’t understand why this book is so popular and even why it won the Newberry Medal. It’s also considered Christian-y, but goodness, what was in there was out so peripheral and out of context that it made no real difference to the story.. If you take Christ out of Narnia, and you don’t have Narnia. If you take Christ out of Wrinkle in Time, you have the exact same story. I just don’t get it. (The recent film was completely panned by critics and fans alike. Maybe I’ll actually like the movie because of how much they changed it?)

Non-Fiction

The Bible (ESV)
This year at UBI, our student interns had to read through the whole Bible in six months, and I joined them. This wasn’t some fancy plan or special Bible. It was reading straight through Genesis to Revelation with a few psalms and proverbs added each day.

The Seven Laws of the Learner (Bruce Wilkinson)
This was essentially a re-read for me. It’s a Christian book geared toward being a better teacher in any context. It is, however, a very long book. It’s not meant to read straight through, which is how I did it. Still, this book (or a book like it) should be required reading for any teacher.

Expositional Preaching (David R. Helm)
This was a re-read. I assign this book each year in one of my preaching classes, and it’d been a few years since I read along with my students. This short book accessibly presents what expositional preaching is, why it should be our default sermon style, and how to go about it. Highly recommended for all teachers of the Bible.

Mere Christianity (C.S. Lewis)
I did it. I finally read Mere Christianity. I have started this book a number of times, but I need quiet and focus to really take in Lewis’ thoughts. Having read it now, I do get it. These were such great thoughts.

Becoming C.S. Lewis (Harry Lee Poe)
Part one of three, this was a very interesting look into the life of the prolific man C.S. Lewis. His story is interesting, but the author’s writing and arrangement was often distracting. (I think I ruined myself years ago when the first big biography I read was a Pulitzer Prize winner. It set a really high bar.)

Things Become Other Things (Craig Mod)
A biography of sorts, Things Become Other Things is by an author I have followed online for years. I love his writing, but our common interests rarely intersect. This book was a biographical mix of his childhood and his current life in Japan as an expat. It was written in the form of a letter to his best friend who died after high school. Honestly, I didn’t love it, but I enjoy his writing and enjoy when our common interests do intersect.

My Tech-Wise Life (Amy Crouch)
This was not the book I was looking for. Amy’s father, Andy Crouch, wrote the fantastic The Tech-Wise Family which is a must-read. This book was written by his now-adult daughter. I read it because I was looking for some insights from someone raised in a family with such clear technology values. There was some of that, but because it was written for high school and college-age students, it just didn’t connect. (Andy’s book The Life We’re Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World is on my list for this year.)

Ultra-Processed People (Chris van Tulleken)
This is a book that you know exactly what you’re going to get, and yet you’re equally shocked and terrified when you get it. It just opens more of the truth of how terrible all our food is today. All the ways we have allow big business to destroy us is just unreal.

Sugarproof (Michael I. Goran)
Even for ultra health-conscience parents, blood sugar seems to be an often-overlooked piece of the journey. This book didn’t help me with information I was specifically looking for, but there were many good reminders and practical tips.

Most Influential

Out of the 23 books I read in 2025, four really stuck with me. These are books that I talked about the most. These are the books which struck a cord that still reverberates in my life.

Breath (James Nestor)
This book I bestow the “Best Surprise Book of the Year.” I stumbled upon it while at the library and finished it in only three days. Reading about the immense and intricate power of breath was yet another testament to the amazing bodies God has given us, and the extent and effects of incorrect breathing was also a wake-up call. Highly recommended.

The Relaxation Response (Herbert Benson)
Somewhat related, but a book which actually came to me before Breath. Originally published in 1975, I found this book when seeking to learn more about the parasympathetic nervous system. The book is straightforward, and the method of the “Relaxation Response” is actually fully covered in the first few pages (the rest of the book covers the journey and insights of the author).

The information in this book brought an immediate—and entirely unexpected—physical change to my health. More than that (and strangely enough), this entirely non-religious book taught me how to pray in a way I’ve never known before and led me on an important understanding of communication with God. Don’t read it and expect to find the same lesson for yourself, but God led me through important lessons regarding my spiritual formation this year, and this book was an essential step in that journey. I will also remember this book as the first book recommended to me by A.I.

The Anxious Generation (Jonathan Haight)
This book has been a long time coming, but I’m so glad it’s here. Nearly twenty years into the smartphone’s release into the world, we now have solid data showing us how detrimental it has been to young people. This single book motivated Australia to become the first nation to ban social media for kids 16 and under, and it’s helped bring back cell-phone-free schools around the world. Read it. Share it. And don’t fool yourself into thinking this applies only to young people. I wish our churches would introduce cell phone bans during worship gatherings.

12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (Tony Reinke)
Speaking of cell phones and spirituality, this was a very good book. It was not only full of important insights, it’s also a very well written book. Please, dear church, let’s wake up to these truths and not be 10 years behind culture with these things like we normally are.

Here goes 2026

As I begin 2026, I have a goal to control the amount of input into my brain. Mostly I’m thinking about what comes in via glowing screens, but I’m also thinking I’d like to be a little bit more choosy with the books I read. We’ll see.

If you made it through any must-read books this year, please send me a message about it. I’d love to know!

—Brandon