Life is short. Read fast. The following books were the best ones I read all year from each of my reading categories.
Professional Development
Clueless in Academe: How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind by Gerald Graff
I teach through They Say, I Say, a writing text by the same author, and this book provides the background for how and why rhetoric works, in addition to why we’re teaching it all wrong in school.
Fiction
Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami
In this story, we follow an interesting, easy-going protagonist searching for answers while absorbing Murakami’s metacommentary on capitalism and consumerism.
Non-Fiction
The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life by Armand Nicholi
Freud and C.S. Lewis are a strange combination and at times, the comparisons are stretched a little thin, but they have far more in common than most realize and this book does an excellent job of articulating that.
Classic
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
After revisitng this text for the first time since high school, I was pretty surprised when I learned how much Milton’s Paradise Lost influenced the monster, a reference completely lost on my high school mind.
Faith
Eden and Afterward: A Mockinbird Guide to Genesis by William McDavid
This book examines compelling literary aspects of scripture and “traces the first notes of the songs of grace which plays throughout the entire bible,” according to the Goodreads review.
Parenting
Brain Rules for Baby by John Medina
This book allows you to understand your baby’s brain development all the way from pregnancy to age 5 to see what small changes you might make to help cultivate a creative, kind, and socially astute young person.
Biography
C.S. Lewis: A Life, Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet by Alister McGrath
This biography is a full picture of the man behind the fantastic stories and important philosophical contributions to the Christian faith.
Children
Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker Rees
A fun-filled jungle dance overwhelms Gerald, the clumsy Giraffe, until the surprise ending that not a single jungle animal ever saw coming.
Time Management
What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done by Matthew Perman
This book provides a healthy critique of most time management and goal setting techniques that have gained the most traction without bashing them and while introducing a healthy new approach to getting things done.
Props to you for having 2 books concerning C.S. Lewis on here! And I love “Giraffes Can’t Dance” as well! I read “The Question of God” for one of my classes this semester and was so fascinated by it; great read.
I agree! The Question of God was really interesting. Lewis and Freud have so much more in common than one would think and Freud was extremely conservative despite the way he is always portrayed regarding sex. What kind of class assigned that text?
My Speculative Mind class (it’s a general ed. at my college). We talked a lot about different worldviews and applied them to topics like marriage, abortion, euthanasia and homosexuality (to name a few).
How interesting! That sounds like a great class. I bet the conversations were mighty colorful!
Thanks for encouraging us to read more and pointing out some great books!
Always a pleasure! Thanks for checking out the blog!
So top book from last year ? Awesome stuff by the way !
If I had to choose one (this was so hard to do), I would probably say Eden and Afterward. No other book stayed with me quite as long as this one. It focused on the book of Genesis, but it caused me to look a littler differently at all of scripture. Thanks for reading! Let me know if you check out any of these books.
An eclectic selection, thank you for sharing. Thanks also for stopping by my blog. I appreciate it.
You are the second person to call my interests eclectic! Thanks for checking us out!
Thanks so much for stopping by The Expositrix, Jessica! (And sorry for the delayed response!) Read (and write!) on!