From where Reggie and I sit, here’s our annual ranking of The BEST BOOKS of 2011. (photography by Bill Dahl 2011).
As I have said before, I read approximately 100 books a year. 2011 was an exception for several reasons:
- I read some MONSTER volumes re: U.S. history – inhabited with microscopic print. Digesting these behemoths takes time.
- I have experienced an unanticipated, disruptive, enduring health issue.
(In any event..I read dozens and dozens of books in 2011 – I follow a very strict discipline NOT to review books I don’t care for) The result of this annual process was the following ranking (1= BEST) by Category:
I. Faith & Culture Category – Non Fiction
- Naked Spirituality – A Life With God in 12 Simple Words by Brian McLaren – HarperOne New York, NY
2. You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church and Rethinking Faith: – by David Kinnaman – BakerBooks Grand Rapids, MI
3. Practice Resurrection – a conversation on growing up in Christ – by Eugene Peterson (a 2010 publication I didn’t get to until 2011) – Eerdmans Publishing Grand Rapids, Cambridge, U.K.
4. God Without Religion – by Andrew Farley – BakerBooks Grand Rapids, MI
5. Love Wins – by Rob Bell – HarperOne
6. The Sword of the Lord – The Roots of Fundamentalism in an American Family by Andrew Himes – CreateSpace
7. Healing The Heart of Democracy by Parker J. Palmer – Jossey-Bass
8. The Cause Within You – by Matthew Barnett and George Barna – Tyndale/Barna
9. Stumbling Toward Heaven – On Cancer, Crashes and Questions by Mike Hamel – CreateSpace
10. The New Evangelicals – by Marcia Pally – Eerdmans Publishing
II. Fiction
- Matterhorn – by Karl Marlantes – Grove Press New York, NY
2. The Ambition – by Lee Strobel – Zondervan
III. Public Policy/Socio-Cultural Commentary/Investigative Reporting
- Reckless Endangerment – How Outsized Ambition, Greed, And Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon by Gretchen Morgenson & Joshua Rosner – Times Books
2. The Evolving Self – A Psychology for the Third Millenium by Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi – Harper Perrenial
3. Boomerang – Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis – W.W. Norton & Company
4. That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back by Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum – Farrar, Straus and Giroux
5. The Social Animal by David Brooks – Random House
Bill Dahl’s – THE Best Books of 2011
- Naked Spirituality – A Life With God in 12 Simple Words by Brian McLaren…simply THE BEST BOOK of 2011. A treasure.
2. The Evolving Self – A Psychology for the Third Millenium by Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi – I have a personal discipline – For every 5 books I read, one of those books MUST be at least five years old. This one was published in 1993. READ IT TODAY.
- You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church and Rethinking Faith: – by David Kinnaman
4. Reckless Endangerment – How Outsized Ambition, Greed, And Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon by Gretchen Morgenson & Joshua Rosner
5. Practice Resurrection – a conversation on growing up in Christ – by Eugene Peterson (a 2010 publication I didn’t get to until 2011)
6. God Without Religion – by Andrew Farley
7. Love Wins – by Rob Bell
8. That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back by Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum.
9. The Social Animal by David Brooks
10. Matterhorn – by Karl Marlantes
Honorable Mention in my Top 10 for 2011 — just because it’s so darn good….
CLASSICS – Enduring Contributions to American Literature – Read in 2011. Please consider at least one of the following for your reading in 2012:
In 2012, I hope you will make an intentional choice to read some of the titles I have identified in my Best of 2011 and a “classic” – as identified above. Please keep me posted on what your insights and recommendations.
Blessings to you and yours in 2012.
Based on your recommendation, I’ve added “Bearing the Cross” to my “to read” list. Easily one of the most important books I was assigned in seminary was “A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.” (http://amzn.to/sRx9jD). Your recommendation looks like an important supplement.
If you are interested, here’s my list of the top ten book I read in 2011: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/carlgregg/2011/12/top-10-best-books-read-in-2011/.
May the Joy of Advent be yours this day,
Carl