> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.lettersfromtheabbey.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # 25 books that mattered to me in 2025 - URL: https://www.lettersfromtheabbey.com/25-books-that-mattered-to-me-in-2025/ - Published: 2026-04-07T22:18:32.000Z - Updated: 2026-04-08T00:31:04.000Z - Author: Peter White A memory just came to me. My brother Jason and I are probably early elementary age. It's summertime and one of Mom's weekly routines with us is a trip to the local library. Charles Page Library in Sand Springs already felt like a [museum](https://www.sandspringsok.gov/178/Sand-Springs-Museum?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) then. Heavy marble covered the steps and walls. Even the slightest whisper echoed and echoed. We'd each walk away with a huge stack of books that we'd bring back the next week, all finished. It was one of Mom's summer traditions. I think she'd like the library at the Abbey. Now, it's a frequent thing that a visitor to the [Abbey of the Heights](https://www.thesabbathlife.com/personal-retreats?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) makes their way through the front of the house to the library in the back, and their eyes just go wide, and with varied volumes of, "Oh!" That's a favorite thing. There can be such a wonder being in front of a full bookshelf and have no agenda and no pressing time limit. This is the sixth time I've compiled a list of my favorite books I read in the year. I've tried something a little different this year. I picked out three that were, to me, the most fun to read. I thought I would pull together those that had a common thread. I find that I often chase a thread through several books looking for what I can make of it. As I often tell the visitors in front of our bookshelves, there's likely something here with your name on it, that's especially for you. There's also likely something that's not for you, and you don't need to touch it. May you find the one that has your name on it. ## **My favorite book I read** [***Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9781324074809?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Padraig O Tuama** This was a delightful surprise of a Christmas gift last year. I then took it on summer vacation and devoured pretty much all of it in the week. I was expecting 50 original poems. But it wasn’t that it all. He picked 50 of his favorite poems and then wrote an essay about what he found so meaningful in each one. It’s a masterclass in seeing with words and loving poetry. It’s a treasure. I also learned it's a [podcast series](https://onbeing.org/series/poetry-unbound/?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com). ## **My other favorite book I read** [***The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9780375760563?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Robert Farrar Capon** My sister put this on my radar, and when I read the blurb, I thought, “How have I never heard of this?” A cookbook by a priest? I kept telling people it felt like Wendell Berry via Julia Child. And then I kept finding myself in conversation with people who were like, “Yeah, I’ve made every recipe in that book!” We did the “Contemplation of an Onion” for one of our cohorts, and it went over even better than I could have hoped. ## **My other, other favorite book I read** [***Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9780593472682?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Joe Posnanski** Okay, one more. My first paying job came when I was in the 4th grade, delivering newspapers three days a week. I spent every penny on baseball cards and a Sporting News subscription, where I pored over the weekly statistics. Later, in the space between college and seminary, I wrote a baseball blog about the Seattle Mariners. One variation of it still exists out there in cyberspace. A good third of the stories in this book have happened during my fandom, and each one brought a smile to my face. Baseball is delightful. ## My favorite books for the contemplative journey [***The Lord Is My Courage: Stepping Through the Shadows of Fear Toward the Voice of Love***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9780310124160?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by K.J. Ramsey** [***The Emmanuel Promise: Discovering the Security of a Life Held by God***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9781540903662?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Summer Joy Gross** [***Embracing the Body: Finding God in Our Flesh and Bone***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9780830835935?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Tara Owens** [***A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9781394235070?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Parker Palmer** [***Landscapes of the Soul: How the Science and Spirituality of Attachment Can*** ](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9798400505546?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com)[***Move You Into a Confident Faith, Courage, and Connection***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9798400505546?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Cyd and Geoff Holsclaw** [***Boundaries for Your Soul: How to Turn Your Overwhelming Thoughts and Feelings Into Your Greatest Allies***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9781400201617?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Alison Cook and Kimberly Miller** [***Try Softer: A Fresh Approach to Move Us Out of Anxiety, Stress, and Survival Mode—And Into a Life of Connection and Joy***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9781496439659?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Aundi Kolber** If you spent any time with me this past year, chances are our conversation included the ideas from these that simmered like a tasty stew in my mind—how things like embodiment, attachment theory, internal family systems, and our emotional vocabulary all inform our experience with God. They give us eyes to see how we choose to love God and neighbor. Tara Owens' book is now in our School of Spiritual Direction curriculum. Summer Gross came and led an event with us here at the Abbey of the Heights. Palmer's image of the soul as a "shy animal" that needs silence and solitude to make itself known has become a favorite picture. If you experience any kind of small group through [The Sabbath Life](https://www.thesabbathlife.com/?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com), you'll become familiar with Palmer's [Circle of Trust Touchstones](https://couragerenewal.org/library/courage-renewal-touchstones/?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com). ## **My favorite books about healing** [***Healing What’s Within: Coming Home to Yourself—And to God—When You're Wounded, Weary, and Wandering***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9781496483140?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Chuck DeGroat** [***Unwanted: How Sexual Brokenness Reveals Our Way to Healing***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9781631466724?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com)**by Jay Stringer** [***Holy Hurt: Understanding Spiritual Trauma and the Process of Healing***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9781587436598?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Hillary McBride** These could have easily fit into the above category, but I realized they each had a slightly different angle in common. DeGroat's book is excellent for ministry leaders—and those who work closely with them—for being intentional about what's going on inside with one's heart. Stringer's book came recommended by a ministry colleague who told me he'd been slowly reading it with a church men's group and how transforming it was. McBride's book is the best I've found so far about naming spiritual trauma, spiritual abuse, and spiritual bypassing and finding healthy next steps. ## **My favorite books about what’s happening in the world and what we can do** [***How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9780525511854?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Jason Stanley** [***On Freedom***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9780593728741?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Timothy Snyder** [***Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy*** ](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9781635578546?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com)**by Katherine Stewart** [***The Anti-Greed Gospel: Why the Love of Money Is the Root of Racism and How the Church Can Create a Way Forward***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9781587436307?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Malcom Foley** There’s a chapter in Stanley’s book about the controlling of other people's bodies that I’m still thinking about. I read Timothy Snyder’s brief treatise [*On Tyranny*](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9780804190114?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) in 2016\. While that feels like a series of short, punchy vignettes, *On Freedom* is more lengthy essays on five particular principles that form a robust vision of freedom—something more substantial than "don't tell me what I can't do." The chapter on "unpredictability" was what finally pushed me over the edge to delete my Facebook and Instagram accounts this year. I highly, highly recommend this book. Stewart has a previous book that was made into the documentary [*God & Country*](https://tubitv.com/movies/100024808/god-country?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com), featuring Kristen Kobes Du Mez and Jemar Tisby, all about Christian nationalism. That's worth watching. This book continues those themes, how religion is being exploited for big profit by one end of the political spectrum. My hometown of Tulsa appears half a dozen pages in, and that was a bummer to see. Riffing on a sermon of St. Basil, Foley has this fire quote: *"Basil calls us to think more creatively than neoliberal capitalism would like us to."* ## **My favorite fiction stories** [***Orbital***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9780802163622?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Samantha Harvey** [***James***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9780385550369?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Percival Everett** [***Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9780593466490?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Gabrielle Zevin** [***Stone Yard Devotional***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9798217047352?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Charlotte Wood** [***The Handmaid’s Tale***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9780385490818?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Margaret Atwood** Fiction is part of my before-bed routine. These are the ones I remember the most. *Orbital* is a beautiful reflection on the world, told from the perspective of various members of an international space station. If you can imagine the story of *Huckleberry Finn* from the perspective of Jim, that’s *James*. And it’s worthy of all the awards it’s won. *Stone Yard Devotional* is about a woman finding refuge in a rural Australian monastic community. *Tomorrow* is a story about friendship, entrepreneurship, and video games. I saw [Timothy Snyder](https://snyder.substack.com/p/casting-the-first-stone) call *The Handmaid’s Tale* a novel we need right now. It’s the totalitarian state story of *1984* told from a woman's perspective, and it feels prophetic in ways I really wish it didn’t. It makes a pretty chilling pairing with Katherine Stewart's book above. There’s a dissertation to be written (if it hasn’t already) about the use (and abuse) of the Bible in this story. ## **My favorite stories about people** [***King: A Life***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9781250335647?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Jonathan Eig** [***John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9781250869548?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Ian Leslie** The first of these is a comprehensive biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Eig doesn't shy away from the humanity of King (the marital infidelities, the frequent hospitalizations for exhaustion), but doesn't make it a gotcha expose, either. I've known the "big rocks" of King's story—Birmingham, Selma, the March on Washington, Memphis—but never the broad context for how they all fit together in the cohesive story of a life cut short at 39. The theme of this Beatles book is that the Lennon-McCartney catalogue came from their deep, intense friendship. In our world today, we have precious few stories of adult male friendship. ## **My favorite reread** [***Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of the Village of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened There***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9780060925178?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Philip Hallie** I dare call this the most important book I read. I was first exposed to this in a seminary class about Christian hospitality. Bonhoeffer gets a lot of attention as a modern saint of Christian political resistance, but he’s far from the only story that comes out of the horrors of World War II. This book is the story of Le Chambon, a humble French village that served as something like an “Underground Railroad” for German-Jewish refugees. It’s a story of an entire community led by a parish church and its pastor and his wife. It’s a story of beauty, hope, goodness, and taking care of one’s neighbors in the face of extraordinary evil. Definitely, the most inspiring thing you can read right now. ## **BONUS** **Book series I read with kids** [***The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9780062110428?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Maryrose Wood** [***The Mysterious Benedict Society***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9780316460965?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Trenton Lee Stewart** [***Percy Jackson and the Olympians***](https://bookshop.org/a/6923/9781368098045?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) **by Rick Riordan** Our kids turned 12 and 13 this year, and we still do bedtime stories. All together, we finished up the Incorrigible Children series and then moved on to the Benedict Society series, which has been pretty fun. Coen and I started reading together the Percy Jackson series, as he read the first one in his language arts class at school. Many of these books you can find on the shelves at the [Abbey of the Heights](https://www.thesabbathlife.com/personal-retreats?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) on your next visit. We hope to see you soon. Here's where you can see all these in a single, simple list, as well as previous lists: [Favorite Books I Read in 2025](https://bookshop.org/lists/favorite-books-we-read-in-2025?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) [Favorite Books I Read in 2024](https://bookshop.org/lists/favorite-books-we-read-in-2024?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) [Favorite Books I Read in 2023](https://bookshop.org/lists/favorite-books-we-read-in-2023?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) [Favorite Books I Read in 2022](https://bookshop.org/lists/favorite-books-we-read-in-2022?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) [Favorite Books I Read in 2021](https://bookshop.org/lists/favorite-books-we-read-in-2021?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) [Favorite Books I Read in 2020](https://bookshop.org/lists/favorite-books-we-read-in-2020?ref=lettersfromtheabbey.com) *All affiliate links go to Bookshop.org and support local independent bookstores.*