Of The Making Of Many Books, There Is No End: My 2025 Chronicle of Books

One of my first memories as a little girl was getting my very first library card.  I didn't have to prove I could read, but just that I could scribble my name. I practiced for weeks.  I couldn't wait.  The library was a wonder to me.  All those books for the taking.  And reading. And reading again.  Mom limited how many books I could check out. And often hid them from me at home. My foremost rebellion as a child was reading with a flashlight under the covers.

You're going to ruin your eyes!  Mom warned me over and over.  I thought it was worth the risk. 

The library is still a remarkable, splendid and moveable feast to me. 

One of my favorite books of 2025 was Theo of Golden, a self-published paperback novel that literally took the publishing world by surprise this year.  It was written by near-70 year old first-time novelist Allen Levi who lives by himself in rural Georgia. He never even intended for it to be published.  That would have been a shame.  Even as I write this post, the Nashville library alone owns 42 copies of the physical book with 334 people on the wait list.  There are 123 copies of the e-book with an astonishing 771 people on the wait list. And that is just Nashville. It ranks at the top of my list this year.  A gem of a story.

Of the making of many books, there is no end, the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 12. 12.  I am grateful to God for the creativity of those who are faithful to their calling. 

I did not read as many books this year, but I discovered new authors and savored their words. My new favorite novelist is Niall Williams, an amazing Irish writer.

Here's my 2025 list with a few annotations from my favorites: 

Even After Everything: The Spiritual Practice of Knowing the Risks and Loving Anyway by Stephanie Duncan Smith (2024)

Table for Two by Amor Towles (2024)

Why Everything That Doesn’t Matter, Matters So Much: The Way of Love in a World of Hurt by Andi Ashworth and Charlie Peacock (2024) No one gets to adulthood without a past....be on the lookout for redemption. It comes in waves.....In essence, I was training for a work I could not yet see or know.

A Shepherd Looks At Psalm 23 by Phillip Keller (1970)

The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis (1954)  He had not yet learned that if you do one good deed your reward usually is to be set to do another and harder and better one.  

The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness by Timothy Keller (2012)

Fumbling: A Pilgrimage Tale of Love, Grief and Spiritual Renewal on the Camino de Santiago by Kerry Egan (2004)

Foster by Claire Keegan (2010)

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi (2023)  ...for helping people see themselves for who they really are.

Stories of the Saints: Bold and Inspiring Tales of Adventure, Grace, and Courage by Carey Wallace (2020)

Time of the Child by Niall Williams (2024)  But storytellers skip the everyday, mistaking the ordinary for the dull, seizing on the sensational and leaving out the habitual that is in fact the fabric of life.

The Reading Life by C. S. Lewis (2019)   As we read we find ourselves sharing their burden;  when we have finished, we return to our own life, not relaxed but fortified.  [Fellowship of the Ring]

The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa (2017)

Bel Canto: The Annotated Edition by Ann Patchett (2001, 2024)

Tinkers by Paul Harding (2009)

The Hospitality of Need by Kevan Chandler and Tommy Shelton (2025)  It's not just people saying yes to my need, but me saying yes to their participation.       

As It Is In Heaven by Niall Williams (1999) When something of great size moves into the heart, it dislodges all else.

Four Letters of Love by Niall Williams (1997)

You Have A Calling:  Finding Your Vocation in the True, Good and Beautiful by Karen Swallow Prior (2025)   What if your calling isn’t what you get paid to do?  What if it is?  What if your calling isn’t something you feel passionate about every day – or even most days?.... What if a calling isn’t just about what you do but how you do it? What if it isn’t just about doing a certain thing but also about being a certain way?

Little Shrew by Akiko Miyakoshi (2024)

An Axe For The Frozen Sea by Ben Palpant (2025)

October, October by Katya Balen (2020)

The Teacher of Nomad Land  by Daniel Nayeri (2025)  And because He has freely given these things I do not deserve, then I can freely share with you......Did God give you to us, or did He give us to you?.....Only love lets us forgive the inconvenience of other people. 

 Marce Catlett: The Force of a Story by Wendell Berry (2025)

Living in the Present with John Prine by Tom Piazza (2025)  John’s show wasn’t good because his vocal intonation was perfect, or his guitar technique was perfect, or his guitar was perfectly in tune, or because he was making no mistakes…Quite the contrary!  But it didn’t matter.  Because his ability to deliver the rest of it – the emotional part – was so in the stratosphere that none of that mattered. 

Stewards of Eden: What Scripture Says About The Environment and Why It Matters by Sandra Richter (2020)

Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley (2015)

My Dear Hemlock by Tilly Dillehay (2024)

The Happiness Files:  Insights on Work and Life by Arthur C. Brooks (2021-2024)

The True Gift by Patricia MacLachlan (2009)

 Letters From Father Christmas 1920-1943 by J. R. R Tolkien (1976)

My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers (1935)

An Incremental Life by Luci Shaw (2025)  Never give up on the grace of God.

Just Like That by Gary D. Schmidt (2021)   Bless us in the unexpected.....She’s not going to have a new start, thought Meryl Lee. There is no new start.  There’s only what’s next.

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Day By Day by Peter Scazzero (2008)

Bread of Life: Savoring the All-Satisfying Goodness of Jesus Through The Art of Bread Making by Abigail Dodds (2021)  She knows the two most important things:  she is in need of help, and He is able to give it........Knowing there is a purpose behind the pressing down and rolling out can change our experience of the pain.....We need the Word. We need the people of the Word.

Humans Of New York by Brandon Stanton (2013)

History of the Rain by Niall Williams (2014)

The Bible  Never underestimate the power of God's Word.  Of all the books I read every year, the Bible continues to change the course of my life.  From my own reading, I post a daily scripture verse in my blog www.worddujour.blogspot.com  Don't go into the day hungry for God's Word. 

 

But Just Right

My mom was a professional violinist, and it always seemed, furiously practicing. Her fingers continually drummed even silently, practicing her repertoire, pieces she already knew and those she was engraving in her heart. She only ever read the Chicago Daily News, devouring it like the gospel itself, delivered on our driveway every afternoon.

Dad was a quintessential research scientist, crazy bushy eyebrows and all.  Even when he was home, well, he was not really there.  To him, reading was a waste of time. Why read when you could be inventing something?

My grandmother lived out my childhood with me.  She occupied a small first floor bedroom, busily keeping house for our family of six, including my two oblivious parents.

Every night, she pulled herself up the stairs with her arthritic knees to put me to bed with the story of the three bears.  It may have been the only story she knew by heart.  No book.  No pictures. Just the words. Just her raspy alto voice. Just the story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She didn’t talk about Goldilocks with beautiful long blond ringlets.  But she narrated the story of a little girl with unruly hair who wandered into a house looking for a place where she would fit in, a bowl just the right size, a comfy chair in a quiet room, being tucked gently into bed, no matter the chaos in the rest of the house. The story became a liturgy of memorized words and measured breaths. She sat sidesaddle on the edge of the bed, her soft warm leg leaning against mine.

I never knew whether the story was describing her life or mine.

I was not the curly-haired violin prodigy my mother wanted me to be, possessing legendary talent that compelled people to rise to their feet.  When I was old enough to read myself, I hid library books with a flashlight under my bed. Mom threatened to take them away.  “You’re going to ruin your eyes.”  “You could be practicing!” I was not just wasting time, but wasting my life. 

My three brothers pursued their own paths of giftedness, as one interest led yet to another. The house was a mess.  Mom commandeered the living room, her music piled high in stacks on the back of the piano and cups of cold forgotten coffee scattered everywhere like clues to a mystery.  My dad secluded himself in his laboratory at work, rarely realizing when it was time to go home. 

Dad thought in numbers and formulas.  All that mattered to Mom was notes.  For me, it was words. Dad loved his laboratory. Mom dreamed of Carnegie Hall.  I couldn’t wait to go to the library.  Three lives.  Three languages.

My grandmother saw our family's story being worked out page by page, and chapters unfolding season by season. And she understood me standing bewildered in the midst of it. The bears’ lives seemed so normal.  Quaker oatmeal in morning bowls.  A company of chairs in a book-lined living room. Soft beds with comforters.  And oh, how about a daily walk together in the woods?

Is that how other people lived?

I was never afraid of those ferocious bears.  Instead, they were a comfort to me, appearing in a story told faithfully every night. And always with a happy ending. Because in my heart, the little girl got to stay.

The Crowd On My Bookshelf in 2024

In the middle of our granddaughter's soccer game last weekend, my son-in-law inquired about my favorite book in 2024.  I had no idea.  Even after perusing my list later that day, I still didn't have a definitive answer.  I loved the story in this one.  The characters were incredible in that tale.  I never knew the backstory behind that historic event. This narrative really made me think. And those other books, oh, I will definitely read again. (And some of them I already have).  I read history, theology, some great novels, and lots of children's books.  And the Bible, which holds us all together, more than we can know.

Here is my list for 2024.  Hope you enjoyed some of these as well.  Of making many books there is no end... Ecclesiastes 12.12.

Alongside my list of titles, for years I have archived notes or quotations from most of the books I read.  I have included just a few nuggets from this year at the end of my booklist.

1.     The Sound of Life’s Unspeakable Beauty by Martin Schleske (2020)
2.     Shadows on the Rock  by Willa Cather (1931)
3.     Waymaker:  Finding the Way to the Life You’ve Always Dreamed Of   by Ann Voskamp         (2022)
4.    The Many Assassinations of Samir, The Seller of Dreams by Daniel Nayeri (2023)
5.    The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis (1953)
6.    The Eyes & The Impossible by Dave Eggers (2023)
7.    Lifting the Veil:  Imagination and the Kingdom of God by Malcolm Guite (2021)
8.    Life After Power:  Seven Presidents and their Search for Purpose Beyond the White House by Jared Cohen (2024)
9.     The Reading Life: The Joy of Seeing New Worlds Through Others’ Eyes by C. S. Lewis (2019)
10.    My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer by Christian Wiman (2013)
11.    The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA by Liza Mundy (2023)
12.    If You Want to Write  by Brenda Ueland (1938)
13.    I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger (2024)
14.    Walking on Water:  Reflections on Faith and Art  by Madeleine L’Engle (1980)
15.    Outlive:  The Science and Art of Longevity  by Peter Attia, MD (2023)
16.    The Watchmaker’s Daughter by Larry Loftis (2023)
17.    The Writing Life by Annie Dillard (1989)
18.    Rules for a Knight: The Last Letter of Sir Thomas Lemuel Hawke by Ethan Hawke (2010)
19.    Blue Ice and Other Stories from the Rink by Frank Ewert (2009)
20.    Practicing the Way:  Be with Jesus, Become like Him, Do as He did by John Mark Comer (2024)
21.    The Women by Kristin Hannah (2024)
22.    Being Mortal by Atul Gawande (2014)
23.    The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez (2024)
24.    Another Day: Sabbath Poems, 2013-2023 by Wendell Berry (2024)
25.    The Elephant of Belfast by S. Kirk Walsh (2021)
26.    Beneath the Swirling Sky by Carolyn Leiloglou (2023)
27.    The Hotel Balzaar by Kate DiCamillo (2024)
28.    A Long Road on a Short Day by Gary D. Schmidt and Elizabeth Stickney (2020)
29.    Blessed Are The Peacemakers: Christ’s Teachings about Love, Compassion and Forgiveness by Wendell Berry (2005)
30.    On Wings of Love:  Stories From Mission Aviation Fellowship by Lee Roddy (1981)
31.    The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History by Sharon McMahon (2024)
32.    Reclaiming Quiet: Cultivating A Life Of Holy Attention by Sarah Clarkson (2024)
33.    Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White (1952)
34.    The Bible

 

The Sound of Life's Unspeakable Beauty by Martin Schleske (2020) Allow yourself to be led. Turn your troubles into prayer requests and let them come to rest before God.

Practicing the Way:  Be with Jesus, Become like Him, Do as He did by John Mark Comer (2024) Don’t fight against your season;  work with it.

Everyone is preaching a "gospel." The question is not "Are you preaching the gospel?" It's "What gospel are you preaching?"

The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez (2024)  It’s a cemetery for stories, the woman replies.  Con su permiso, how does one bury a story?  If a story is never told, where does it go?

My Bright Abyss by Christian Wiman (2013)  All too often the task to which we are called is simply to show a kindness to the irritating person in the cubicle next to us.  

There is nothing more difficult to outgrow than anxieties that have become useful to us.

The Many Assassinations of Samir, The Seller of Dreams by Daniel Nayeri (2023)   The lesson is that prayer is not for the moon to stop for us.  It is for us to stop and consider the work of heaven.

I ask Samir what we will do.  He says, "God will think of something."

The Hotel Balzaar by Kate DiCamillo (2024)  “There are days,” said the countess as she put on a hat that featured a yellow bird, “when the soul can be rescued from despair by the right hat.  Although some days, of course the soul seems beyond rescue, and then there is nothing to do except to be patient and wait for the light to return, with or without a hat upon your head.”
     This, thought Marta, is one of those days.

Life After Power:  Seven Presidents and their Search for Purpose Beyond the White House by Jared Cohen (2024)  [John Quincy Adams]  …in a much lower office found a much higher calling.

And he’s shown that defeat is not the end of the road – it can be the beginning of a new path.

[Jimmy Carter]  “My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I can, whenever I can, for as long as I can.”

[George W. Bush]   The next morning [after getting back to their ranch after 13 years as governor and president] Bush woke up early, as usual, and he asked Laura who was going to make the coffee.  “You are,” she told him.

 

 

Starting with a Squiggly Line

When our growing family took road trips -- back in the olden days before movies, devices, phones, and other convenient distractions-- shoe-horned into our car, our four girls used to play a little game.  I would draw a dot or angle or squiggly line on a small pad of paper, identical for each of them, despite their range of ages.  They would each draw something starting from that initial doodle.  It was amazing how they all saw it differently.  One would sketch a house, another an English garden, a circus tent with an elephant, a baseball game.  And then they would beg to play it over and over.

Every layer of creativity starts with a squiggly line.

In his monumental The Work of Art:  How Something Comes From Nothing (2024), author Adam Moss starts his book with a squiggly line sketched by architect Frank O. Gehry and how from that he envisioned and designed the extraordinary Guggenheim Museum in Bilboa, Spain.

Gehry's initial doodle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What unfolded from that squiggle:  The completed museum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moss interviewed writers, painters, sculptors, artists of all genres, about how they bring about their work from a proverbial squiggly line, a few scribbled words on the back of an envelope, an idea on a subway, the shaping of notes, words and circumstances, the failures and accidents that didn't prove to be mistakes at all.  

The common line through this immense diversity of artists of all kinds is reflected in the title of Moss's book:  the work of art.  Bringing something from nothing requires working at it.

Masterpieces don't just happen.  The people listed in this book are talented, no doubt, but their work didn't just appear fully detailed and shaded in full-color.  They grabbed hold of a tiny little idea and worked with it, many layers over many years.  Took one shape and added something totally irrelevant to it.  Threw away a lot along the way.   Even pulling the discarded out of the wastebasket, dumpster-diving for what was initially overlooked and dismissed.  

They practiced over and over again, worked long hours and sometimes years, until it held together.

Creatives -- and all of us are creatives in one sense or another -- serve the work.  And as Christ-followers, we love serving God and His kingdom through what we do.

What made iconic chef Julia Child so creative was something as simple as, "What if I added cheese to that recipe?" Or oops, a little too much onion.  And it makes me wonder how many of us in this world never bother to pursue that crazy idea of ours.   The missed opportunities, the ignored encounters, and half-sketched thoughts are stuffed in a drawer for later.  The greatest deceit of all is that "what I do doesn't matter anyway." 

Very few writers begin their novels with a full arc already in place, but develop the characters and narrative as it goes along.  In a recent interview, novelist Leif Enger spoke about his recent 2024 book I Cheerfully Refuse.  He started with a simple scene of a house painter eating a cheese sandwich in a warm library.  The story built on itself from there.

Enger paid attention to the squiggly line that appeared seemingly from nowhere. 

The late Alice Munro felt like she was surrounded by squiggly lines -- stories in the making all around her.  "I never have a problem with finding material.  I wait for it to turn up, and it always turns up.  It's dealing with the material I'm inundated with that poses the problem."

What squiggly line has God granted to us today?  What are we doing with it?  We may never realize the masterpiece of goodness that emerges.  But sometimes we do.

A Feast of Books 2023

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

O     Of making many books there is no end...  Ecclesiastes 12. 12 

        And we are glad.

       Looking through the list of books I read in 2023, I was so thankful that I kept a list to remind me of these savory, delicious readings.  Each one was nourishing in its own way.  I found myself grateful for the faithful writers who slaved over manuscripts, putting together words, like so many ingredients in a recipe not yet written down.  

       And on those pages, bound between covers, I was amazed at the real lives that are portrayed, even the imaginary ones.  They inform us about others.  They reveal so much stuff about ourselves.  As I finished reading so many of these books, I couldn't wait to tell someone else, "you have to read this."  This year in books was indeed a feast.

       I also noticed that my books this year were almost equally divided between fiction, memoir, spiritual, and nonfiction.  And how those categories infiltrated one within another, spiritual insights in a novel, extraordinary memoirs both stronger and stranger than fiction, and nonfiction with words for the wise and those who want to be.  I ended the year once again with the last chapter of Revelation.  Reading through the Bible each year changes me.

       But some of the treasure is not just found in my list of books, but in the notes that I take, jotting down pertinent quotes, passages, images, and truths that have been translated into what I can understand.  I have kept those notes in a file on my laptop since 2010.   Some quotes make their way into this nightlytea blog and into my other blog Daily Scriptures for Busy People www.worddujour.blogspot.com. 

       And hopefully into how I live.

H    Here's my list for 2023:

  

           You Are My Sunshine:  a Story of Love, Promises, and a Really Long Bike Ride by Sean Dietrich (2022)

2.      How It Went:  Thirteen More Stories of the Port William Membership by Wendell Berry (2022)

3.      Letters From Westerbork by Etty Hillesum (1982)

4.      Timothy Keller:  His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation by Collin Hansen (2023)

5.      Prayer:  Finding the Heart’s True Home by Richard J. Foster (1992)

6.      The Lives We Actually Have: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie (2023)

7.      The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis (1950)

8.      Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (2021)

9.      The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo (2003)

10    The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness by Timothy Keller (2012)

11     Confronting Christianity by Rebecca McLaughlin (2019)

12   Forgive:  How Can I and Why Should I?  by Timothy Keller (2022)

13   The Meaning of Marriage:  Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God by Timothy Keller with Kathy Keller (2011)

14.   Bird by Bird:  Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamont (1994)

15.   On Getting Out of Bed:  The Burden and Gift of Living by Alan Noble (2023)

16.   Stories of My Life by Katherine Paterson (2022)

17.   How To Human:  Three Ways To Share Life Beyond What Distracts, Divides, and Disconnects Us by Carlos Whittaker (2023)

18.   Louisiana’s Way Home by Kate DiCamillo (2018)

19.   The One and Only Ruby by Katherine Applegate (2023)

20.   In The Garden of The Righteous:  The Heroes Who Risked Their Lives to Save Jews During the Holocaust by Richard Hurowitz (2023)

21.   A Praying Life:  Connecting With God in a Distracting World by Paul E. Miller (2009)

22.   Spilling Ink:  A Young Writer’s Handbook by Anne Mazer and Ellen Potter (2010)

23.   Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri (2020)

24.   The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams by Daniel Nayeri (2023)

25.   Prayers of St. Paul by Rev. W. H. Griffith Thomas (1914)

26.   Elisabeth Elliot:  A Life by Lucy S. R. Austen (2023)

27.   Our Town by Thorton Wilder (1938)

28.   The Third Third of Life:  Preparing for Your Future by Walter C. Wright (2012)

29.   The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (1937)

30.   Run the World by Becky Wade (2016)

31.   The Puppets of Spelhorst by Kate DiCamillo (2023)

32.   Prayer 101:  Experiencing the Heart of God by Warren Wiersbe (2006)

33.   The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (2023)

34.   Undone:  A Modern Rendering of John Donne’s Devotions by Philip Yancey (2023)

35.   Mystery and Manners:  Occasional Prose by Flannery O’Connor (1957)

36.   Flee North: A Forgotten Hero and the Fight for Freedom in Slavery’s Borderland by Scott Shane (2023)

37.   How Far To The Promised Land:  One Black Family’s Story of Hope and Survival in the American South by Esau McCaulley (2023)

38.   The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog by Adam Gidwitz (2016)

39.   How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks (2023)

40.   The Bible