Better late than never. In 2020 I read five, 5-star books and eighteen 4-star books, which doesn’t mean much to you, but a lot to me. You can find the whole list here.

My book of the year was Life Under Compulsion by Anthony Esolen. My missionary teammate loaned it to me and even let me mark it up, else I wouldn’t have read it at all. Esolen writes with punch, making sure to hit the bad guys (pop culture, feminism) and applaud the good guys (children, stay-at-home moms etc.).

My surprise book of the year was The Seven Laws of Teaching by John Gregory. I first heard about it when Doug Wilson said all the teachers read it at his classical Christian school. It was published in 1886. You can buy it for $.99 on Kindle. It’s good for pastors too.

The worst book I read in 2020 was a biography on Herman Bavinck. It was about 300 pages too long. I didn’t find a quotable line in a book on a quotable man.

Honorable mention include Calvin and Commerce, a book on Reformed economics, Fortunes of Africa, a huge paperback on African history, Mathematics: Is God Silent?, more of a philosophy book than one on math, Same-sex Mirage, a sassy book on marriage and William Carey, perhaps the best missionary biography ever written.