2024 Favorite Books
My top 10 reads of 2024
According to my GoodReads, I’ve read 59 books this year, with 2 very close to finishing in the next day or so before this posts. I won’t rank them, so I’m listing them in reverse order of when I read them, starting with those I finished most recently.
This list includes books I’ve actually read and completed. They’ve left a mark on me, and I’ve found myself referring to them throughout the year or thinking about them from time to time. They made an impact.
Some are early manuscripts, and not available just yet. I loved them enough to recommend preordering so you have them as soon as they’re released. They’ll be marked with an asterisk.
I should also tell you we read quite a few of these in our Book Club this year, and will likely read some of the others in 2025. If you’d like to join us, you can do that here.
How about you? Any books you’ve read I should add to my TBR list for 2025? Let me know in the comments! (You need to be a subscriber to leave a comment.)
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Top 10 Books
Make Sense of Your Story: Why Engaging Your Past with Kindness Changes Everything* by Adam Young
I’ve been wanting to learn more about story work for a few years now, and have been hunting down resources. Enter Adam Young, who is a master in his craft. It’s been a privilege to learn from him this year as part of a story group, and to say it has been life-changing would be an understatement.
Adam was kind enough to send me an early copy, and I’m learning so much.
This book offers insights, principles, and practices for learning to do your own story work, and to sit with someone else as they share parts of their story. Let me be clear: this is not about what happened at Target the other night. Story work is processing deep trauma and the shame we carry in a way that brings greater freedom. It’s not for the faint of heart.
Our THROUGH Cohort will be incorporating what I’ve been learning, as well as the concepts of Confessional Communities from Curt Thompson, MD (bonus: read The Soul of Desire by Thompson). Adam will be joining us for our 2025 Summit.
Landscapes of the Soul: How the Science and Spirituality of Attachment Can Move You into Confident Faith, Courage, and Connection* by Geoff & Cyd Holsclaw
If you’ve been around for a minute, you know I’m a fan of Geoff and Cyd Holsclaw. Their work on Attachment Theory has been incredibly helpful to me, and I appreciate their “landscape” approach, which uses the language of Jungle, Desert, War Zone, and Pasture to describe our attachment styles.
It may not be for everyone, and some who are already familiar with the language of secure, insecure, anxious, avoidant, ambivalent and the like find it confusing or strange. Here’s what I wrote as an endorsement:
Geoff and Cyd offer accessible language to those of us who often feel lost in clinical terminology. Not only do they clearly illustrate the landscapes of attachment as a tool for observation and awareness, they offer practical pathways forward and through our past relational experiences toward healing and wholeness. This is a gospel of hope and of being home where we belong.
You can listen to my conversation with the Holsclaws on the podcast.
Truth and Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice by Judith Herman
Written by one of the most influential psychologists and trauma experts, this provides a “deeply researched and compassionately told” vision of restorative justice for trauma survivors.
It was incredible to read the collected stories of those who have endured unspeakable harms, and the collective desires not for retribution or revenge, but for a community to face the truth and acknowledge that harm was done.
Recovering from Purity Culture: Dismantle the Myths, Reject Shame-Based Sexuality, and Move Forward in Your Faith by Dr. Camden Morgante
I grew up in Purity Culture. And whether you did or not, Camden does a beautiful job presenting her five myths of purity culture, helping individuals to deconstruct where those myths came from, and reconstruct a new sexual ethic.
What I appreciate is that though she writes with a conservative, “biblical” ethic, she in no way prescribes it for the reader. Instead, she offers a framework for how to reclaim agency and choose for yourself.
You can also listen to my conversation with Camden on the podcast.
Healing What’s Within: Coming Home to Yourself—and to God—When You’re Wounded, Weary, and Wandering by Chuck DeGroat
In the latest from Chuck, he shares part of his own experience with spiritual abuse. Then, he moves into the work. It’s not the story of what happened, but of the work that continues 30 years later.
Chuck offers insights from his decades as both pastor and therapist. Attachment styles, nervous system regulation, attunement, and compassionate curiosity are what you’ll find from this trusted guide.
By examining three questions from Eden, he invites us to take a look not just at our pain and disconnection, but what lies beneath. It’s an invitation to reconnection.
Listen to my conversation with Chuck on the podcast.
The Understory: An Invitation to Rootedness and Resilience from the Forest Floor by Lore Wilbert
I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful book. Lore offers a glimpse of life in what we often consider long dead and decaying. By examining the forest floor, she guides us on a slow and sauntering journey to take notice of what we often miss.
Present, rooted, at peace, in place. Growing. Alive. When darkness and difficulty surround us, what does it look or feel like to be alive in its midst?
She takes a view of both macro and micro. If you’re looking for a fresh look at faith, deconstruction, and the possibility of new life, take a slow stroll through The Understory.
Listen to my conversation with Lore on the podcast.
I Shouldn’t Feel This Way: Name What’s Hard, Tame Your Guilt, and Transform Self-Sabotage into Brave Action by Dr. Alison Cook
From the start, this book names a courageous statement we're too often afraid or ashamed to admit. By identifying it and repeating it, we're given permission to acknowledge it, enter a liminal space and bravely take steps to radically accept it.
Dr. Cook provides us with incredibly practical tools to move through our guilt and discover brave steps forward. Through her profoundly simple "name, frame, brave" process, we're provided with an outline for how to deal with the many ways we guilt ourselves in the ways we treat ourselves and others.
By giving us permission to stop "shoulding" on ourselves, she provides us with hope for a lighter, brighter future. She offers a framework for a future filled with less expectations and obligations, and with the freedom to brave new choices instead of defaulting to our old habits of self-sabotage.
If you've ever found yourself stuck in loops of overthinking your guilt, shame, or anxiety, this book will help and guide you on your way to clarity, confidence, and freedom.
Listen to my conversation with Alison on the podcast.
How to Walk into a Room: The Art of Knowing When to Stay and When to Walk Away by Emily P. Freeman
If you’ve ever felt lost in your own life, unsure of what to do next, or considered a transition of any kind, this is the book for you.
Freeman offers a view of life as a series of rooms in our house, and practical tools to recognize where we are, and how to navigate those rooms and liminal hallways.
My favorite two words from the book? “For now.” Add those two words to any decision and the pressure is lifted. Try it out. Better yet, read the book.
As Long As You Need: Permission to Grieve by JS Park
Joon is a compassionate and gentle voice. It’s so needed in spaces of grief and loss, where we’re too often rushed through the process, as if grief ever really ends.
This book does share from his extensive and very real experience as a chaplain in a Level 1 Trauma Center, so be prepared for some really difficult and potentially triggering stories of patients he’s worked with. He makes no efforts to gloss over or bypass any of the pain, and chooses instead to face it head on.
His gift is in creating sacred space not only for his patients, but for us, the readers. We, too, become his patients as he holds our hands and guides us through the many ways grief shows up in our lives. Permission to grieve is offered in a sacred, liminal, and redemptive way, remembering stories as a way to honor what was lost.
Listen to my conversation with Joon on the podcast.
It’s Not You: Identifying and Healing from Narcissistic People by Dr. Ramani Durvasula
We have plenty of books that help us identify narcissistic behaviors, characteristics, and people. We have enough arguments about labeling, not diagnosing, and the like.
What I appreciate about this particular book by Dr. Ramani is that it’s written not for diagnosis, but for those of us who have survived or live in real relationship with narcissists and are looking for tools to deal, cope, and continue living. She offers tools on managing expectations, drawing healthy boundaries, and so much more.
Honorable Mentions
I’d love to list all the books I read this year, and for the sake of this list, I can’t. If you’re interested, you can always follow me on GoodReads to see what I’m reading. Here are a few others I’d love for you to check out:
Dinner For Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show by Bethany Joy Lenz
I listened to this on audiobook, and loved it. Lenz tells the story of her life as a young actor, costarring in the cult hit One Tree Hill as she also unwittingly found herself in an actual cult.
It’s a revealing look at how we “suddenly” find ourselves in places and situations unsure of how we got there. Follow her journey from Bible Study to full on compound under high-control authoritarians, the compassion and concern from costars and friends, to her eventual freedom from it all.
The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, from the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement by Sharon McMahon
I love Sharon Says So. If you don’t already, follow her on Instagram or here on Substack. This is a captivating, deeply researched, and gloriously told story of people who have long deserved their place in American history.
In a time and environment that can feel so dark, divided, and depressing, this book offers a glimmer of hope and humanity.
RIFT: A Memoir of Breaking Away from Christian Patriarchy by Cait West
A beautifully written memoir that helped me to see and experience a life under the high control of Christian Patriarchy.
Listen to my conversation with Cait about the book on the podcast.
Othered: Finding Belonging with the God Who Pursues the Hurt, Harmed, and Marginalized by Jenai Auman
In her first book, Jenai presents a history of the ways we have intentionally and unintentionally harmed those around us by holding a view that there is an “us” and “them.” In and out. Good and bad. Other.
Weaving in her own story and experience of spiritual abuse, Jenai takes on the religious systems that prefer dogma over dignity, and shows us another way forward.
Listen to my conversation with Jenai on the podcast.
Tell Me the Dream Again: Reflections on Family, Ethnicity, and the Sacred Work of Belonging by Tasha Jun
In case you didn’t know, I’m Korean. I carry so many stories about my culture and ethnicity that haven’t “fit” in the white, Christian, evangelical cultures and spaces I grew up in.
Tasha’s book was a breath of fresh air. An instant camaraderie. No need for code switching or over-explaining a custom or ethnic practice. She offers an expansive view of belonging, told from her own perspective.
This can only help you to grow in your own grace, empathy, and compassion. Highly recommend.
Strange Religion: How the First Christians Were Weird, Dangerous, and Compelling by Nijay Gupta
I’m a fan of Nijay and his work. He’s a scholar and theologian, and professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary. In this book, he presents several vignettes of just how weird, subversive, and countercultural the first Christians were.
When I hear church folks pine for doing things “the way they were,” I point them to this book and say, “like this?”
Check it out. And as a bonus, read his work on the first women in ministry in Tell Her Story.