Best Books of 2024

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Of the 44 books I read in 2024, these are my top selections:

Best New Book (published in 2024):

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (Jonathan Haidt)

Haidt demonstrates that an electronic-based childhood, and hyper-supervised sports and minimal outdoor play, is destroying the natural maturation process. Children do not learn how to solve problems amongst themselves, nor develop creative play and awareness of surroundings. They are taught to fear the material world. The interior life, with filtered images and ubiquitous porn, becomes degraded and depressing. This book is a must read.

 

Best Older Books (published 2023 or earlier):

Ten Ways to Kill a Pastor (Christopher Ian Thoma)

Pastors are under constant attack. Irrational expectations, lies about him, criticism of his family, financial threats - these are the parish pastor’s daily bread. Behind it all is the devil. Thoma’s powerful little book is a window into the challenges facing a typical pastor and his family.

Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections (Mollie Hemingway)

This book is about the 2020 presidential election, but is of ongoing importance. Our elections are “rigged” in several senses: First, propaganda hides the truth from the voters. Second, corrupt vote harvesting and secret counting of ballots in just a few major cities can change the outcome of a national election. Third, judges refusing to enforce clear laws. Hemingway details the evidence behind the above, and much more.

Christ in His Saints (Patrick Henry Reardon)

A parishioner asked me recently why we don’t call the great figures of the Hebrew Bible “saints.” Fr. Reardon does! His book is filled with short sketches of the great cloud of witnesses from both testaments. Filled with spiritual and Scriptural insight, this book is highly suitable for devotional use.

 

Best Reread:

On the Apostolic Preaching (Irenaeus)

St. Irenaeus gives a window into how the second-century church understood the Christian message, and how they read the Scriptures. I’ve read this book three times. The first time, I didn’t understand its importance. I was underwhelmed by the simplicity. But the simplicity is its genius. Irenaeus sees the whole of the Hebrew Bible in a christocentric manner. For example, the blessing of Noah’s sons is fulfilled in the apostolic commission. The entrance of Joshua into the promised land demonstrates the power of the Name the successor to Moses shares with the Child born of Mary. Irenaeus’ theology of recapitulation, so beautifully detailed in Against Heresies, is given in shorter form here. If I were designing a seminary curriculum, this short little book would be essential reading in the first year.

 


Other Books Read in 2024:

  • The Brass Verdict (Michael Connelly)

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

  • Crossroads (Jonathan Franzen)

  • The Apocalypse of St. John: A Revelation of Love and Power (Lawrence Farley)

  • Revelation: A Liturgical Prophecy (Patrick Henry Reardon)

  • Scarecrow (Michael Connelly)

  • 1776 (David McCullough)

  • Nine Dragons (Michael Connelly)

  • Blue on Black (Michael Connelly)

  • Meditations for Every Wednesday and Friday in Lent, on a Prayer of S. Ephraem (S. C. Malan)

  • Luther’s Large Catechism with Study Questions (Paul T. McCain, ed.) - reread

  • Red Rabbit (Tom Clancy)

  • The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (Mark Manson)

  • Christ and Calamity: Grace and Gratitude in the Darkest Valley (Harold L. Senkbeil)

  • The Reversal (Michael Connelly)

  • On Pascha: With the Fragments of Melito and Other Material Related to the Quartodecimans (Melito of Sardis)

  • The Fifth Witness (Michael Connelly)

  • Call Sign Chaos (Jim Mattis)

  • The Infinite Game (Simon Sinek)

  • Suicide Run (Michael Connelly)

  • Angle of Investigation (Michael Connelly)

  • Mending a Fractured Church: How to Seek Unity with Integrity (Michael F. Bird, ed.)

  • American Marxism (Mark Levin)

  • Identity and Idolatry: The Image of God and Its Inversion (Richard Lints)

  • The Drop (Michael Connelly)

  • The Black Box (Michael Connelly)

  • Chasing the Dime (Michael Connelly)

  • The Gods of Guilt (Michael Connelly)

  • Morning after the Revolution: Dispatches from the Wrong Side of History (Nellie Bowles)

  • Switchblade (Michael Connelly)

  • The Burning Room (Michael Connelly)

  • The Crossing (Michael Connelly)

  • A Morbid Taste for Bones (Ellis Peters)

  • Love among the Chickens (P.G. Wodehouse)

  • N is for Nativity (Ruth E. Meyer)

  • The Wrong Side of Goodbye (Michael Connelly)

  • Uncle Fred in the Springtime (P.G. Wodehouse

  • The Silmarillion (J.R.R. Tolkien)

  • Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention—and How to Think Deeply Again (Johann Hari)

My current reading list is here.