The Year in Books, Part 3: Nonfiction

And here it is: my favourite nonfiction books from last year's reading. They come in no particular order (and with limited commentary):

1. Humble Roots by Hannah Anderson
2. The End for Which God Created the World by Jonathan Edwards: This one took more work to get through, but was worth it.
3. The Vanishing Conscience; At the Throne of Grace: A Book of Prayers; and The Gospel According to Jesus by John MacArthur
4. God Took Me by the Hand; True Community; Growing Your Faith; 31 Days Towards Trusting God; and Trusting God by Jerry Bridges: I will never not love a Jerry Bridges book.
5. Philippians by James Montgomery Boice: It's a very long commentary given that Philippians is a very short book.
6. A Camaraderie of Confidence and Contending for Our All by John Piper: I really love The Swans Are Not Silent series.
7. Counseling the Hard Cases by Stuart Scott and Heath Lambert
8. The Whole Christ by Sinclair Ferguson: At some point, I need to read it again. I think there's so much in there, and one reading won't pull it all out.
9. 8 Women of Faith by Michael A.G. Haykin: I'd like to read more about a lot of these women. It included Sarah Edwards (wife of Jonathan Edwards) because I'm pretty sure there's a law that she has to be in any book about women of faith.
10. None Like Him by Jen Wilkin
11. Faithful Women and their Extraordinary God by Noel Piper: Mostly different from the women of book #9, but of course it includes Sarah Edwards.
12. Gospel Treason by Brad Bigney
13. Brand Luther by Andrew Pettegree: The good and bad of Martin Luther.
14. Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners by John Bunyan
15. The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh by Kathryn Aalto: Part biography, part geography
16. Taking God at His Word by Kevin DeYoung: I'd read pretty much anything by Kevin DeYoung.
17. Jim Elliot: One Great Purpose; John Flynn: Into the Never Never; and Elizabeth Fry: Angel of Newgate by Janet and Geoff Benge: I enjoy the Christian Heroes Then and Now series.
18. Amillennialism and the Age to Come by Matt Waymeyer
19. On Writing Well by William Zinsser
20. Word-Filled Women's Ministry by Gloria Gurman and Kathleen B. Nielson
21. Goodbye Christopher Robin by Ann Thwaite
22. Fighting Satan by Joel Beeke

I know that the list leans to towards theology and Christian books. There are 2 reasons for that: First, a lot of my reading leans in that direction. Second, while I read have read several secular nonfiction books, many of them weren't as good. They tended to take a very self-centered view of life and left me feeling like they came so close to the truth, but didn't quite make it.

There are also a dozen biographies in that list. I love biographies.

I don't think I'm going to try Tim Challies' 2018 reading challenge. I've looked over it, and it looks good, but not really what I want. I have a friend putting together a 52-book reading challenge that I might try (I haven't seen it yet), but mostly I want to just read. I'd like to read more history this year (either straight history, historical fiction, or biographies), as well as focusing on reading the books that have been sitting on my shelves just waiting to be read.