2024 Books in Review

A record setting audiobook year

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In 2024, I finished 42 books and read 9,845 pages. For the first time ever the majority of those were audiobooks. Thanks to delivering for Amazon, I have a lot of time where I’m physically busy but my mind and ears are free. Hoopla and my local library provided me with 31 audiobooks this year! Below is the list of all the books I finished along with a few thoughts on the ones I found deserving of extra thoughts.

Physical Books

• Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
  - I started the year off reading through the Psalms (truth be told I didn’t make it all the way through) and I took Bonhoeffer’s short book as a guide with me. It was good, insightful, and short - only 88 pages.

• The Wood Between the Worlds: A Poetic Theology of the Cross by Brian Zahnd
  - This was my favorite book I read in 2024 and I’ll be revisiting it this Lenten season. The Cross of Christ is the crux of the biblical story and many have tried to summarize what happened on the cross in neat and tidy ways referred to as atonement theories. Those theories have their place, but taken individually they fall short. While neither Zahnd nor I would suggest that he covers it all, this book is beautiful and looks at the cross¹ as a kaleidoscope where each angle shows us something different about the God most clearly seen in Jesus Christ.

• Gracism: The Art of Inclusion by David A. Anderson

• What if Jesus Was Serious About Heaven?: A Visual Guide to Experiencing God’s Kingdom among Us by Skye Jethani
  - Easy read, poignant.

• Embodying Integration: A Fresh Look at Christianity in the Therapy Room by Megan Anna Neff and Mark R. McMinn

• The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton
  - This one was my favorite fiction book. This is Turton’s third novel and all three have taken on different flavors. This one took a bit to get going but ended up being incredible. It was Moana meets the Matrix meets Westworld meets Agatha Christie.

• Disarming Leviathan: Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor by Caleb Campbell
  - Another great book. Caleb was kind enough to join me for a conversation that, if you missed, can be found here.

• The Dry by Jane Harper

• Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami
  - This was my third Murakami book and he has the masterful ability to make the dull and mundane drip with intrigue and mystery. He uses this ability to make the outrageous and bizarre seem commonplace and natural. All of it combines for one of the more unique reading experiences I’ve had.

• Forces of Nature by Jane Harper

• The Widening of God’s Mercy: Sexuality within the Biblical Story by Christopher B. Hay and Richard B. Hays
  - I did enjoy this book and found it challenging and encouraging. It was billed as Richard B. Hays (writing with his son) changing his mind on same-sex relationships. This was/is a big deal as Hays was one of the leading scholars backing the traditional view of sexuality. While I am sensitive and sympathetic to the arguments made in the book, they were not really anything new. Neither Hays gave arguments on why the biblical understanding of marriage should be expanded to include same-sex couples, only that God’s mercy should cause us to move past the biblical definition. Readers will have to decide if that’s enough for them.

Audiobooks

• Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

• Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life by Tish Harrison Warren

• Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God: The Scandalous Truth of the Very Good News by Brian Zahnd

• A Farewell to Mars: An Evangelical Pastor’s Journey Toward the Biblical Gospel of Peace by Brian Zahnd

• Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder by T.A. Willberg

• Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

• Mystic River by Dennis Lehane

• The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say about Human Origins by Peter Enns

• Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible’s View of Women by Sarah Bessey

• Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters by Carmen Joy Imes

• The Big Four by Agatha Christie

• Inspired Imperfection: How the Bible’s Problems Enhance Its Divine Authority by Greg Boyd
  - A great read and exploration of the Bible and the concepts of inspiration and inerrancy

• Immeasurable: Reflections on the Soul of Ministry in the Age of Church, Inc by Skye Jethani

• Gospel Allegiance: What Faith in Jesus Misses for Salvation in Christ by Matthew W. Bates
  - I wrote a bit about this one here

• The Surprising Genius of Jesus: What the Gospels Reveal about the Greatest Teacher by Peter J. Williams
  - A very accessible, short read. In this book Williams’ unpacks the genuis of Jesus by revealing the many layers in the story of the Lost Son in Luke 15.

• Jesus and the Abolitionists: How Anarchist Christianity Empowers the People by Terry Stokes

• Jesus Undefeated: Condemning the False Doctrine of Eternal Torment by Keith Giles
  - If you’re still holding to a view of hell that believes God will allow unbelievers to be tortured forever in a fiery hell, do yourself a favor and read this book.

• Exiles: The Church in the Shadow of Empire by Preston Sprinkle

• Stoner by John Williams
  - Not a book about smoking weed.

• The Lost World of the Flood: Mythology, Theology, and the Deluge Debate by Temper Longman III and John H. Walton

• Centering Jesus: How the Lamb of God Transforms Our Communities, Ethics, and Spiritual Lives by Derek Vreeland
  - A beautiful call to resist the American urge to center ourselves and instead to center the Lamb who has conquered the world.

• Necessary Christianity: What Jesus Shows We Must Be and Do by Claude R. Alexander Jr.

• A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

• A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

• All Systems Red by Martha Wells

• Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

• Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

• Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

• System Collapse by Martha Wells

• The Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann
  - This will influence much of what I’ll be writing about this year.

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I’d love to hear what you read and enjoyed this year. Let me know in the comments or email me. And I’m very obviously open for some audiobook recommendations!

1. By the cross, Zahnd refers to the entire Easter story - death and resurrection