5 Favorite Books I Read in 2025

Merry Christmas!

I read a bunch of great books this year, and I always love reading about the best books that others have read, so I figured I’d briefly share five of my favorites that I read this year. Not all of these were released in 2025, but I have a to-be-read list long enough that I’m routinely behind on reading new releases.

Anyway, here are five of my favorite reads from 2025 and a few words about why for each.

1. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Is this my favorite fiction book ever? Maybe!

A couple of years ago I bookmarked the list of Pulitzer Prize winners for fiction in my web browser, and each of the last couple of years I’ve tried to read at least a few of the award-winners. I’m so glad I read this one early this year.

Why do I love this book? I think it’s because of how it feels like Catcher in the Rye if you actually loved and wanted to hug the main character rather than punch him in the face. Demon has so many similarities with Holden—Kingsolver even alludes to this in the book!—but I just found myself pulling for this kid in a way I never did with Holden.

Kingsolver does such an amazing job of capturing the simultaneous wisdom and folly that intermingle in the mind and actions of a teenage boy.

I almost never re-read fiction, but I could go back to this book in 2026 without any hesitation.

“Live long enough, and all things you ever loved can turn around to scorch you blind. The wonder is that you could start life with nothing, end with nothing, and lose so much in between.”

2. Everything Is Never Enough by Bobby Jamieson

No doubt my favorite nonfiction book of the year. Ecclesiastes is my favorite book of the Bible, and I’m always looking for new ways to unpack it. Bobby Jamieson proved to be one of the best guides through the winding wisdom of Qoheleth I’ve had in some time.

My friend Trevin summarized it well when he gave this book his top honor of the year:

Like its biblical counterpart Ecclesiastes, Jamieson’s book is something of an enigma, but the kind that stirs up curiosity and wonder rather than confusion. Jamieson offers us memorable pictures, well-crafted sentences, and thoughtful questions so that we see life on earth as a gift and look to our Creator for redemption and restoration.

Indeed. This book was insightful, well-written, and is one of my favorite books on Ecclesiastes. Pick it up for yourself!

“Be present to the present’s presents. Present your full self fully to what the present presents you, and you will receive its full helping of enjoyment. Enjoyment depends on the ability—even the discipline—to be fully attentive to the goodness on offer.”

3. Against the Machine by Paul Kingsnorth

I had never read Paul Kingsnorth before picking up his latest release this fall, and I think I will need to remedy that in 2026.

Against the Machine is not as plainly an anti-technology book as its title may make it sound—but it is at least partially an anti-technology book. What Kingsnorth is after is helping us see how the life of modernity (technologically, economically, and otherwise) we’ve been sold is preying on us and ultimately not out for anything but its own malignant expansion.

Smart Christians have levied fair criticisms against this book, but I think read wisely and with a firm grip on some solutions that may be better than those suggested by the author, the questions and concerns raised in Against the Machine are worth consideration. And he’s just such a great writer.

“You just know that something is wrong. Everybody tells you that you feel this because you are infected with something called ‘nostalgia’, or that you picked up a dose of ‘Luddism’ or ‘Romanticism’ at a party or in a doctor’s waiting room. Basically, there is something wrong with you. You don’t understand Progress, which is always and everywhere a Good Thing.”

4. Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

What a lovely book.

At The Gospel Coalition annual meeting earlier this year, I had the pleasure of sitting at the same table as Allen Levi for a writers’ gathering during the conference, and I believe I told him that Theo of Golden was sitting atop my stack of books to read next.

It’s a good thing I hadn’t read Theo before meeting Allen because if I had I may have attempted to embrace him and sob in his shoulder.

If you’re looking for some feel-good fiction that will inspire you and sorta break your heart all at the same time, read this.

“Nothing is what it’s supposed to be if love is not at the core.”

5. Mark Twain by Ron Chernow

I bought this book back in May just a day or two after it released, I think, and it probably took me until about October to finish. Chernow is one of the best living biographers, and has been one of my favorite authors for some time.

This is maybe just the second of Chernow’s books that I have read with my eyes, as I have read most of his works via Audible in the past when I used to commute to Nashville multiple days per week. His works tend to be quite long—this one is 1200 pages—but I think his pacing is solid. There were only a couple of stretches of this work that felt a bit slow to me, and I am so happy with how much more I know about this American icon.

For most people, I’d only feel comfortable recommending this one as an Audible read for long drives or commutes, but if you’re an avid reader you would do fine with this one!

“Preoccupied with the notion that only the dead dare speak the truth, he thought our need to make a living turned us all into cowards.”

I hope you read some great books this year! If you have a top five or any recommendations at all, feel free to share them in the comments below.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!