Favorite Reads in 2021

Every year I try to read a healthy mixture of books: fiction, history, Christian living, and Christian Theology. While all of us should read books that are challenging and stretch our minds to new heights, I think it is almost equally important to read books for no other reason than they are very enjoyable. 

Here are my top ten books I read in 2021:

10. Dune – Frank Herbert

I hardly ever read sci-fi so this was largely out of my comfort zone. After reading some good reviews of the Dune film, I thought I would go all in and read the book before seeing the movie. Herbert creates a very detailed world rife with factions struggling to gain an edge in a touchy interplanetary political game of intrigue. From a world building perspective, the creative imagination is something to appreciate. The dialogue and general prose, however, left a lot to be desired, and I felt that the story revolved too much around the central pseudo-religious movement (the Bene Gesserit). Still, plenty of fun for the imagination.

9. Mere Christianity – C. S. Lewis

I remember reading Mere Christianity several years ago and not thinking too much of it. Lewis holds to an adamantine libertine free will, has an inordinate fascination with evolution, and always seems a bit off when delving into deeper theological issues such as the atonement or hell. But while his flaws are not unsubstantial, his heights are utterly staggering and they remain the reason why I will continually return to him year after year. Mere Christianity is a primer for those asking questions about faith, peering at the religion through unique vantage points and presenting it in a most palatable form to skeptics. Additionally, the first section “Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning in the Universe” is just about as perfect as it gets.

8. The Flying Inn – G. K. Chesterton

C. S. Lewis’s hero G. K. Chesterton is another one of my favorite authors, and this rollicking fiction is not for the Chestertonian neophyte (another words, don't stark reading GKC with this one!). Chesterton combines all of his detestations: non poetic-elitism, authoritarian teetotalism, superman philosophy, globalist conspiracy, and fate worship—into one super nemesis, Lord Ivywood. Irish Captain Dalroy, the hero, is a warrior poet who has a mind for revolt. The poems fly throughout as he and Englishman Humphry Pump, through a loophole in the legislation, dash across the British countryside lugging a keg of rum and a wheel of cheese to those oppressed by the new prohibitionist laws. Like his author, Dalroy is uncompromising and entirely devoted his ideals. A fun, absurd book that is quite relevant to modern discourse.

7. The Road to Serfdom – F. A. Hayek

Hayek is the original Austrian school economist, who wrote this classic work following the end of World War II. He argues the nationalization and central planning of the economy, which was becoming mainstream in his day, is a regressive strategy that will lead back to the serfdom of the Middle Ages. He discusses the dangerous road of collectivism both to ethics and human flourishing. It is brilliantly argued and merits another reading from me. “It may well be true that our generation talks and thinks too much of democracy and too little of the values which it serves...Democracy is essentially a means, a utilitarian device for safeguarding internal peace and individual freedom.”

6. The Distinctives of Baptist Covenant Theology – Pascal Denault

I did some work this year trying to understand Baptist covenant theology. And while I remain dispensational in many respects, this was a very good work highlighting the differences between a one covenant under two administrations model (padeobaptist) and the two-covenant model (baptist). Denault shows rightly that since there is no longer a mixed community in the New Covenant of believers and unbelievers, if baptism is to be a sign of the new covenant, it cannot be for unbelieving members. 

5. The Mauritius Command – Patrick O’Brian

In 2022 I continued my favorite historical fiction series: the Maturin-Aubrey series: meandering sea yarns with elaborate writing, rich dialogue, and thumping action when it comes. One of my favorites that I have read thus far was The Mauritius Command in which Captain Jack is made Commodore of a small fleet commissioned to seize the Mauritius Island from the French. Jack is always best against great odds and with his back against the wall, which without giving too much away, happens in this book. O’Brian delves into the dangers of ambition in the character of Captain Clonfert which has left me reflecting on it long after I finished the book.

4. Revival and Revivalism – Iain Murray 

Iain Murray has written much about evangelical figures and evangelical history and this book highlights the differences between genuine revival, where God blesses the preaching of His Word, and “revivalism” which Murray argues is based on innovations developed around the turn of the 19th century, controversial at the time though perhaps less so now. The anxious bench and other “salesman techniques” (ie: “If you do not receive Christ this moment, you are lost forever!”) have been used to pressure people into believing in Jesus Christ—which has resulted in many a false convert and proved damaging to evangelicalism over time. With that central debate notwithstanding, this book recounts some incredible stories of revival history and left me aching for a genuine work of God in our day today.

3. The Sovereignty of God – A. W. Pink

For some time I neglected the doctrine of the sovereignty of God out of fear that looking at it too deeply would create in a me a passive and deterministic outlook. Who knows how much peace and joy I had missed out on by doing so! Every doctrine of God is for our benefit and peace, and with all the uncertainty in our times it provides immeasurable rest to know that the Lord is the one who reigns over all the earth. He is working all things according to His counsel and will. Scripture permeates this book and Pink has earned my respect—even in areas where I might quibble with him.

2. Six Frigates – Ian Toll

Ian Toll tells the story of the founding of the United States Navy which culminates in the creation of six frigates—specially designed to be faster than any ship of the line (therefore able to run from the heavy battleships) but heavier than the standard frigate (and therefore able to win in a duel). The naval actions are brilliantly recorded with a real story teller’s flair. Heart pounding chases, savage broadsides, egocentric captains, in depth politics--this book has it all.

1. The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self – Carl Trueman

This is an important book to understand how we arrived at our current cultural moment. Trueman starts by seeking to understand how the phrase “I am a woman trapped in a man’s body” has come to make perfect sense in the West. He charts a several hundred year history of philosophical thought that reveals these recent absurdities to be not random aberrations but rather the natural, logical development of philosophy, poetry, and psychology over the last 300 years. While Trueman cannot help but be academic, he summarizes his key points easily enough, and with a little work from the reader this book will prove beneficial to understanding the assumptions of the modern self, which will in turn be invaluable to those seeking to bring the light of truth to those bound to this horrible god of the untethered self. “The task of the Christian is not to whine about the moment in which he or she lives but to understand its problems and respond appropriately to them.”