A belated welcome to 2026! I’ve spent the past few weeks steeped in ministry travel, reports, and book-club preparations. But today, I wanted to take a moment to highlight some of the best books I read in 2025.
In years past, I’ve chosen 5 favorites from each category—for 20 total titles! That’s just too many. This year, I’m settling on just 3 books per category for a total of 12. But boy are they doozies!
Top 3 Christian Reads
Easily the best book of 2025, Pieces of Purple by Michele Phoenix (2025) deals with being/raising third-culture kids
Heaven by Randy Alcorn (2004) is a modern classic, the most definitive work on Heaven since the Bible (hope that’s OK)
Randy Alcorn also dives into absorbing speculative fiction in Lord Foulgrin’s Letters (2000)—as engaging as Screwtape
Top 3 Nonfiction Reads
One of history’s greatest adventures, The Spirit of St. Louis (1953) tracks Charles Lindbergh’s Atlantic flight.
No book better chronicles the benefits of reading aloud to kids than Jim Trelease’s The Read-Aloud Handbook (2013).
If you liked Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon (2017) or The Wager (2023), then you’ll love The Lost City of Z (2005).
Top 3 Fiction Reads
My introduction to realistic fantasy was this killer novel, The Company by K.J. Parker (2008). I long to read more.
While I waiver in my appreciation for Cormac McCarthy, The Road (2006) has made me a fan again.
Short and bitter, Young Man in Vietnam (1968) by Charles Coe felt so much like a legit memoir, I thought I was there.
Top 3 Youth Reads
We can’t believe we’d never heard of Trenton Lee Stewart’s The Mysterious Benedict Society (2007) before! Superb.
Peggy Eddleman offers a fresh take on post-apocalyptic society in this inventive sci-fi novel, Sky Jumpers (2013)
Of all the older books we read this year, Emily’s Runaway Imagination by Beverly Cleary (1961) was an easy favorite.
God allowed me time to read and review 100 books in 2025, so that’s my goal again for 2026. Not sure what I’ll stumble across this year, but I look forward to the adventure—and to sharing it with you. Subscribe to follow!
©2026 E.T.