Best Books of 2023

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Of the 40 books I read in 2023, these are my top selections:

Best New Book (published in 2023):

I didn’t complete any books published in the last year. However, I did write one, published in the spring of 2023: (Dis)Ordered: Lies about Human Nature and the Truth That Sets Us Free. You can get it directly from the publisher, Concordia Publishing House. You can also get it in paperback or Kindle from Amazon.

 

Best Older Books (published 2022 or earlier):

What It Means to Be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics (O. Carter Snead)

Snead’s work focuses on the deficiencies in American law with respect to protecting the weak and the vulnerable, particularly in seeing each human person as person. Too often the body is ignored, and those who are dependent upon others treated as lesser humans, even inhuman. I was particularly struck by his insight that we are all on a sliding scale of disability, beginning in complete dependence upon a parent, and eventually returning in old age to increasing dependence upon others.

On the Human Condition (St. Basil the Great)

This little collection of various types of writings gives a vivid picture of the Cappadocian mind as it pertains to the effects of the fall. The homily on anger is especially helpful.

 

Worst Book read in 2023:

The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism (Jemar Tisby)

I wanted to like this book. In a year where racism was revealed to be intensely active inside my own church body—and of the worst sort, painted in faux theology—it is vital to live and preach the dignity of each human person (see the summary of Snead’s book, above). Unfortunately, Tisby is highly selective in his history (he admits as much), yet sees racism everywhere. Those who fought against racism in previous generations were still, and invariably, racists themselves. There is in the end no earthly solution, nor heavenly. “Racism never goes away” is his continuous refrain; it adapts and becomes more difficult to detect. One is hard pressed to find forgiveness and hope in the book, only an eternal grievance.

 

Dishonorable Mention:

Authority Vested: A Story of Identity and Change in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (Mary Todd)

It is difficult to find emotionally detached history about the Missouri Synod. From the troubled inception of the LCMS (the expulsion of the first bishop, Martin Stephan, for moral failure; and the early conflicts over polity) to the struggle with higher criticism leading to Seminex, historical accounts tend toward hagiography or villainy. Todd’s underlying thesis is that the LCMS never truly examined the possibility of women’s ordination. Her evidence for this is that every time the issue was studied, the Synod rejected it. Todd’s unspoken presupposition is that until her view is accepted, the matter has not been fully examined.

 

Best Reread:

Technopoly (Neil Postman)

In the previous year I reread Postman’s classic Amusing Ourselves to Death. Like that work, Technopoly revealed the challenges Western culture was facing long before most realized it. His insights into how technology changes thinking and behavior are still entirely relevant. Our tools have distanced humans from each other. Thirty-two years after its writing, Technopoly is still a must-read.

 


Other Books Read in 2023:

  • God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas (Dietrich Bonhoeffer) - reread

  • A Biblical Response to Transgenderism (David Langewisch)

  • As Kingfishers Catch Fire (Gerard Manley Hopkins)

  • Los Angeles is Hideous: Poems About An Ugly City (Andrew Heaton)

  • How Satan Deceives People (Elder Cleopa)

  • Beren and Lúthien (J.R.R. Tolkien)

  • True Believer (Jack Carr)

  • City of Bones (Michael Connelly)

  • Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief (Jordan B. Peterson)

  • The Little Nugget (P.G. Wodehouse)

  • Speaking of Homosexuality: Discussing the Issues with Kindness and Clarity (Joe Dallas)

  • Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It (Chris Voss)

  • Lost Light (Michael Connelly)

  • God Is on the Cross: Reflections on Lent and Easter (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

  • The War on the West (Douglas Murray)

  • The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America (Victor Davis Hanson)

  • Void Moon (Michael Connelly)

  • The Eichman Trial (Deborah E. Lipstadt)

  • The Poet (Michael Connelly)

  • Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals (Oliver Burkeman)

  • Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment (Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, Cass R. Sunstein)

  • Savage Son (Jack Carr)

  • Without Remorse (Tom Clancy)

  • Wool (Hugh Howey)

  • Blood Work (Michael Connelly)

  • Martin Luther on Holy Baptism: Sermons to the People (1525-1539) (ed. Benjamin T.G. Mayes)

  • The Little Warrior (P.G. Wodehouse)

  • Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ (Daniel Goleman)

  • The Narrows (Michael Connelly)

  • Patriot Games (Tom Clancy)

  • The Closers (Michael Connelly)

  • The Lincoln Lawyer (Michael Connelly)

  • The Devil’s Hand (Jack Carr)

  • Echo Park (Michael Connelly)

  • Start with Why (Simon Simek)

My current reading list is here.