Lisa notes

Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.
—Jane Smiley

Sorry for two book posts in one week (my favorite 10 books of 2020 is here). But I didn’t want to miss giving you my December book recommendations. 

Below are 7 books I recommend from those I finished reading in December. See all my recommended books here.

Nonfiction

1. Always a Guest
Speaking of Faith Far from Home
by Barbara Brown Taylor

Barbara Taylor Brown gets to me. She puts things in ways that I didn’t think about, but immediately recognize. This book is a thoughtful compilation of some of her sermons.

[My book review here of Always a Guest]

2. Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man
by Emmanuel Acho

Have you seen his videos with the same name? Look on YouTube and watch one or two. They are excellent. So is this book.

3. Searching for Certainty
Finding God in the Disruptions of Life
by Shelly Miller

“In fear, we can miss the obvious—that your uncertainty is God’s opportunity to reveal his great love for you.” Unfortunately, Shelly died this fall in the prime of her life to a quick illness. I only knew Shelly through her blog through the years, but to those who knew her in person, her loss is especially heavy, and her words even more important. I’ll read this book again as part of my One Word 2021, Uncertainty.

4. How to Fight Racism
Courageous Christianity and the Journey Toward Racial Justice
by Jemar Tisby

Having just finished Jemar’s The Color of Compromise, I had to read his followup book for his practical suggestions on how to move towards racial equity. He writes from a Christian perspective (but you don’t have to be a believer to benefit from the book). It’s a helpful one.

5. The Worry Cure
Seven Steps to Stop Worry from Stopping You
by Robert L. Leahy

This book contains a lot of CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) steps to apply to many different types of worries. It’s one of the more helpful books I’ve read about worrying.

6. A Promised Land
by Barack Obama

This book is long, and it only covers President Obama’s first four years in office, but it’s so well-written and the stories are so engaging that it’s worth the length. I didn’t always get the nitty-gritty policy stuff, but I loved the stories about his family life and the behind-the-scenes White House stuff. 

7. Why Don’t They Get It?
Overcoming Bias In Others
by Brian D. McLaren

This short e-book is dense with information on multiples types of biases that we all fall prey to. I’m going to work back through it in 2021 to see which ones trip me up. Brian gives lots of examples from Jesus’s teachings to back up his material. The accompanying podcast series, Learning How to See, is also helpful. 

Reading Now

• Total Meditation
  Practices in Living the Awakened Life
  by Deepak Chopra
• Attention!
  The Power of Simple Decisions in a Distracted World
  by Rob Hatch
• The Lazy Genius Way
  Embrace What Matters, Ditch What Doesn’t, and Get Stuff Done
  by Kendra Adachi
• Charitable Writing
  Cultivating Virtue Through Our Words
  by Richard Hughes Gibson
• 40 Days of Grace
  by Paul David Tripp
• Such a Fun Age
  by Kiley Reid

What good book are YOU reading this month? Please share in the comments.

My books on Goodreads
More books I recommend

This is a hard task each year: deciding on my favorite books. But it’s also a fun task. Without intentionally looking back, I can forget about some of the great reads I was given in a year.

Here are 10 of my favorite books, followed by another 10 (which could as easily be followed by another 10, on and on).

1. Holy Envy
Finding God in the Faith of Others
by Barbara Brown Taylor

Taylor chronicles her journey of teaching a college course on different world religions and what can be gained from each, while remaining rooted in her own faith of Christianity.

2. I’ve Seen the End of You
A Neurosurgeon’s Look at Faith, Doubt, and the Things We Think We Know
by W. Lee Warren

Dr. Warren shares stories about his journey as a neurosurgeon and about the lives of his patients with brain cancer that inspire him to live better, do better, believe better.

[My review here of I’ve Seen the End of You]

3. Lies We Believe About God
by William Paul Young

Young helps destroy some of the things we think we know about God but that aren’t true.

4. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
by Lori Gottlieb

Gottlieb, a therapist, decides she needs a therapist after a breakup. She writes here about her own journey with therapy as well as things she learns from her patients.

5. Stamped from the Beginning
The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
by Ibram X. Kendi

Kendi teaches us lots of things we didn’t learn in history class about racism in the United States. This is an eye-opening book, well-researched and documented.

6. The Truth about Us
The Very Good News about How Very Bad We Are
by Brant Hansen

We’re not as good as we like to think we are. But God has us covered anyway. Hansen’s writing is personal, liberating, and inspiring.

[My review here of The Truth About Us]

7. The Worry Cure
Seven Steps to Stop Worry from Stopping You
by Robert L. Leahy

This is actually a helpful book about worrying. It’s broken down into seven practical steps and can be applied to many different types of worries.

8. Thinking, Fast and Slow
by Daniel Kahneman

Kahneman explains the two ways we think: System 1, the intuitive level, and System 2, the more logical level. This is fascinating information about our brain and our behavior.

9. Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man
by Emmanuel Acho

Acho answers the uncomfortable questions that white people often have about race issues, but are too embarrassed to ask. If you’ve seen his videos, you’ll feel like you’re talking to a friend in this book. 

10. Upstream
The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen
by Dan Heath

Heath explains why it’s better to prevent a problem before it happens than have to clean it up afterwards.

Bonus: 10 More Favorite Books

These ten books are also very good, too. I hated to leave them out. 

What book would you include in your top 10 list of 2020? Share in the comments.