My Top Ten Books in 2022

 note: Each year, I do a review of my reading and post ten books as recommendations. The blog series on suffering will resume next week.

In 2022, I read 58 books totaling 22,781 pages, 62 pages for each day of the year. The shortest book I read, a gift book about tea, was 88 pages. The longest book was the King James Version at 1,590 pages. The average length was 392 pages. Each of these books I rate and review on my Goodreads page, and my average rating this year was 3.6 stars. Here (in addition to the Bible) are my top ten books of 2022 in no particular order (with the obvious caveat I do not agree with everything in any book, including the ones I recommend here):

1. With Christ in the School of Prayer by Andrew Murray     Not a long book, this was my third or fourth time reading this one. Each time it gets better. I read it to my men's prayer group chapter by chapter. The basic premise is one short chapter on prayer for each day of a month. If you haven't read Murray you are in for a treat. He is warmly convicting and encouraging at the same time. 

2. Preaching and Preachers by Martyn Lloyd-Jones     This is the best book I've ever disagreed with so vigorously and so often. But although those disagreements were many and sharp it still deserves every bit of the five stars I've given it. Prior to picking this up, I knew MLJ. I had read his biography. I had read thousands of pages of his writing. But this book is unique to all of that. It is at once professional (in the sense of a man who was a master of his craft) and personal (revealing more of his own opinions/perspectives/history than anything else by him I've read). It was also spiritual and deeply practical.

Each of these latter two caused the disagreements. He is, as he says, most dogmatic in this

book, and more than a little dogmatically wrong. His Calvinism drives some of this, especially his wretched chapter savaging invitations. His style drives some of it. His schedule and church size and preaching opportunities drives some of it. But setting those rather substantial bones to the side, the sheer amount of thoughtful help in here is grand. Preparing to preach, preparing the message, the relationship between the preacher and the crowd, delivering the message, preaching the same sermon again, these and many other worthy subjects draw his typically thoughtful attention. I'm a note-taker when it comes to books. I feel like I could have highlighted and starred most of the book.

Sometimes, classics are classics because everybody thinks they should like them. Other times, classics are classics because they contain timeless and timelessly worded thoughts. This book is most certainly in the latter category.

What a good, good book.

3. Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker     I wish I would have read this book 20 years ago. I think it would have added years to my life, years I probably have lost. Seriously. Walker's book is simply phenomenal at convincing you of how important sleep is, and why prioritizing it should be a high priority, so to speak. One body system at a time, he examines what happens to it when we don't sleep. It's like one of those don't drink and drive lectures where they stage a car crash for you. You can't look away. You are mesmerized and horrified by the damage you have done to yourself in your ignorance.

Walker's work isn't perfect, by a long stretch. He majors on what happens when we don't sleep well, and doesn't discuss nearly as much how to sleep better. I also found his constant allusions to evolution and the insistence that certain things in our body happen because of it more than a little annoying. He was so dogmatic about things he couldn't possibly know in that arena. But setting those aside, what he includes is the very definition of eye-opening. It's a life-changing book.

I'm not a doctor; I don't give medical advice. But, boy, do I wish every person I love would read this book.

4. The Word of Exhortation by Thomas Strouse     If I can discover one new author a year that sets my heart on fire I count it a great blessing. With Strouse, I have. This is the first of his books I have read. It is simply outstanding. The Word of Exhortation is a painstaking dissection of Hebrews, verse by verse, line by line, phrase by phrase. Nothing is ignored. Nothing is left out.

I came to this work after already spending two years studying Hebrews in preparation for a lengthy sermon series. In these two years of study I have read numbers of other works. The only settled thing about those other works is they all disagreed with each other, and none of them showed me the flow of thought from verse to verse. That flow of thought is the indispensable foundation of expository preaching, and rather hard to accomplish in a highly technical book like Hebrews. But this is precisely what Strouse does. Yes, he references the Greek entirely too often, on every line practically. No, he doesn't give much, if any, application. No, he also doesn't seem to know how to turn a memorable phrase, one that jumps off the page at you. But what he does he does better than anyone I have ever seen - here's the text, here's what the writer is saying because this is what the writer was thinking.

As a bonus, I'm an independent Baptist and this is an indepedent Baptist book. In fact, I suspect it will rub those who are not the wrong way. ('Bout time the shoe is on the other foot, but I digress.) It was a pleasure and a relief to read a book I didn't have to parse for bad ecclesiology or bibliology.

Be warned: it isn't for the faint of heart. It takes dedicated attention to read, and will bore most people to tears. But if you want to really understand Hebrews I have not found a better work and suspect I won't. I also suspect my already well-thumbed copy will be close to tattered by the time I am done preaching the series I am prepping for.

My compliments, Dr. Strouse. My deep compliments.

5. The Tabernacle, Priesthood, and Offerings by Isaac Haldeman     In preparation for a

sermon series, I have read about a half dozen books on the Old Testament types of Christ. Of them all, this is the best. It is thorough, thoughtful, doctrinal, and warming. At the same time, Haldeman avoid the all too common sin in this genre of typifying everything, of straining to produce content where there is no biblical warrant for it. His reasoning is compelling, but he is careful to assert that in some places it is only opinion and should not be too much set by. I appreciate that humility very much, especially after reading so much spiritualizing dogmatism.

Haldeman thus avoids the errors found so often in this sort of work, and includes the best of all the blessings of this sort of work. If you want to see Christ shadowed in the Old Testament, read him. You'll be glad you did.

6. The Long Gray Line by Rick Atkinson     Atkinson is one of my favorite modern historians. This work does nothing to detract from that, indeed, it only adds to it. Originally written in the late 80s, it primarily tracks the West Point class of 1966. That class lost more men in combat deaths than any other West Point class ever.

Simply put, this is brilliant writing. Maybe not technically, though it has no obvious flaws in that department. But in human interest, in the arc of life, this is the best kind of history and biography. Atkinson shows us the ferment of the 60s, the culture of West Point, the growth of a soldier, growing up, Vietnam, drugs, the oh-so-personal conflicting struggles for honor, the decline of the Army in the 70s, leadership (good and bad), wound care (physical and emotional), the story of the Wall, and the rise of the Army in the 80s.

Some books are published, and drop like a stone in a lake, leaving no trace. Some books catch fire, and burn out in a few years. Some books become classics, continuing to speak to succeeding generations for decades. This is one of the latter.

Read it. It will help you understand America.

7. Blitzed by Norman Ohler     I've read, I'm guessing, a thousand history books. Maybe two

thousand. Every once a while I come across one that sets much of the previous stuff I've read on its head, or at least puts an entirely new light on it. This is one of those rare books. Though not without its flaws - chiefly a tendency to over-estimate the importance of Wermacht and Luftwaffe drug use - it nevertheless shows you well-known events in a whole different way.

This is especially true in direct reference to Hitler. I've read all the reputable biographies of him. Though one or two of the more recent ones examine his medical history/condition in some detail, none of them mention anything like what Ohler does. Essentially, Ohler makes a compelling case that Hitler became a functioning addict in the last years of his life, that much of his erratic behaviour can be attributed to this, and that the collapse of his health at the end was due to an exceedingly high over use of animal steroids, and heroin equivalents. And it is a compelling case. Ohler delves deep into Hitler's doctor, and the records that doctor kept.

If you love history, like I do, this book will be catnip. You will devour it. Just a fascinating work.

8. The Age of Napoleon by Will Durant     I have come to the end. Finished all eleven volumes. Wow, what a life's work... This particular volume was classic Durant - detailed, well-written, increasingly liberal. Where else are you going to find scores of pages on the Romantic poets right alongside discussions of Danish politics? Of course, I've read biographies of Napoleon, but never such a wide ranging history that sets his actions so beautifully within his own time and place. Over ten thousand pages of Durant, give or take, I found him always careful with the facts, relatively accurate in his analysis, interesting (most of the time) to read, and as he aged increasingly tolerant of immorality and liberalism.

For better or worse, that is my takeaway. Well, that, and a boatload of information and context that will help me better understand why and how history shapes and influences our own time. I probably will never read such a long series again. I'm going to miss it.

9. Keswick's Authentic Voice by Herbert Stevenson     Herbert Stevenson's work is a

compilation of about 65 sermons representative of the best of Keswick. It spans the period from the birth of Keswick in the 19th century up until the middle 1950s. While there are some men we would expect to see (Evan Hopkins, Andrew Murray, etc.) there are also many others since lost to history. The book is loosely divided up similar to the daily emphasis at Keswick. Each chapter is relatively short, though the book as a whole is not coming in at nearly 450 pages.

At this point, I've read dozens of books on sanctification. In the process, you see the good, the bad, and the ugly. When I first encountered the Keswick movement it set my heart on fire. I've progressed enough to see some major flaws in it, and I wrote about that in my book, Freed From Sin. Having said that, apparently Keswick can still set my heart on fire, flaws and all. Numerous times in the course of this book it did just that. Keswick is outstanding at confronting us with our sin, and at pointing to Christ and the Spirit as the available solution. The pages of this book contain many good chapters, and several absolutely beautiful chapters, the kind that stay with you long after the book goes back up on the shelf.

Of course, the problems are still present. There is still the (unscriptural) push for a crisis experience. There is still the troubling call for passivity, and the confusion of a faith that believes/acts on God's Word with a faith that somehow magically makes your sanctification arrive. I also saw more clearly than before a troubling lack of contextual teaching. In other words, numerous men simply took a text and dove right into their point without showing us any flow of thought, or anchoring their application contextually. That is a major weakness I had not noticed before, and one worth mentioning.

In short, this book is exactly what it sets out to be - Keswick's authentic voice, warts and all. I will never send someone to the writers and preachers of Keswick unwarned, but properly prepared there is an enormous amount of good here. An enormous amount. Keswick forces us to examine ourselves, and then thrusts us into our identification with Christ to solve it. Keswick calls for holiness, and points us to the same Christ who saved us from sin in the first place. As such, it does us a wonderful favor.

Protected by my wider study and more balanced view, Keswick has been a deep blessing to me. To those wandering souls who find their way to it may it be as deep of a blessing to you as it has been to me.

10. The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn     This is my third Alcorn book. He's so good he has managed to get past my "he's still alive and not an independent Baptist" barriers. He is a must read for me at this point. He could have, and perhaps should write a theology of giving. This isn't that. It is a testimony of giving that teaches us along the way. His life shouts in this book, shouts loud and full and strong, and it is a beautiful thing. And while this book does not attempt to cover all of the objections to aspects of giving, and is occasionally unbalanced toward giving, it is a rather helpful book. It will make you think. It will warm your heart. It will bring conviction.

You cannot help but respect the man who wrote it, and that respect drives your attitude toward the author while you read. It deeply increases the impact of what would otherwise be just an above average little book.