Reading is one of the things that serves multiple purposes in my life. It helps to make sure that I am growing as a person, as a leader, and as a preacher. It sparks my creativity. It makes me happy.
But 2020 was a year!
With the stress of the pandemic, a civil rights crisis, and an economic crisis, I found it difficult to read what I normally would. Instead, I consumed lots of more passive media – television and podcasts. A diet of comfort food media for me. (I rewatched all of Scrubs. Twice.)
That said, there was some great books on my pile this year, for a grand total of 29 books. In addition, there were some devotional books that aren’t on this list.
For 2021, am I back to my lead-metric goal of reading 30 minutes a day – successful 100% of the days so far 😉
(Read my 2019 Reading List here.)
Biography
- Isaac’s Storm, Erik Larson
- Fantastic account of the Great Galveston Hurricane.
- Midnight Rising, Tony Horwitz (John Brown)
- Eliza Hamilton, Tilar Mazzeo
- A good addition to Ron Chernow’s account, rounding out the story by seeing it from Eliza’s perspective.
- Rebel Cinderella, Adam Hochschild (Rose Pastor Stokes)
- Never had heard of Rose Pastor Stokes before, a fascinating story.
- His Truth is Marching On, Jon Meachum (John Lewis)
- So many parallels to today. Definitely on the re-read pile.
Leadership
- Talking to Strangers, Malcolm Gladwell
- Plantation Jesus, Skot Welch, Rick Wilson
- On the re-read pile – used it in a small group study as well.
- How to Lead When You Don’t Know Where You are Going, Susan Beaumont
Spirituality & Self-care
- The Road Back to You, Ian Cron, Suzanne Stabile
- Definitely going on the read again pile
- Inspired, Rachel Held Evans
- Unearthing You, Marlon Hall
- It’s Okay to Laugh, Nora McIerny
Fiction
- Thrawn: Treason, Timothy Zahn
- I love the Thrawn story and am super excited about the possibility of a TV series based on it.
Theology
- Fire By Night, Melissa Florer-Bixler
- Faith in the Face of Empire, Mitri Raheb
- Preaching in Hitler’s Shadow, Dean Stroud
- Sermons from Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. Powerful.
Culture and Society
- White Rage, Carol Anderson
- Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson
- The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander
- Eye-opening. Alexander’s research and voice are also featured on the Netflix documentary 13th.
History
- Holy War: The Crusades & Their Impact, Karen Armstrong
- Jerusalem: The Biography, Simon Sebag Montefiore
- Flowers in the Gutter, KR Gaddy
- Marketed as a young adult book, this is a fantastic history about a resistance movement in WWII Germany I knew nothing about
- The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson
- On the re-read pile
Graphic Novels
- The Boys, vol 4 & 5
- Second Coming
- Firefly: Sting
- Watchmen
- They Called Us Enemy
- Great account by George Takei of the internment / concentration camps in the US during WWII.
First up in 2021 and already underway is A Promised Land, President Barak Obama’s new memoir.
