Ep. 377 Best of 2025: Top 10 Books of the Year

In this episode, I am joined by Lore Wilbert and Byron Borger for a roundtable countdown of our top ten books of 2025. Moving from number ten to number one, we reflect on the novels, memoirs, theology, and cultural criticism that most shaped our reading year. Along the way, the conversation opens into deeper questions about faith and doubt, grief and hope, community and isolation, and what it means to stay human in an anxious, mechanized world. Rather than chasing trends, this episode lingers with books that slowed us down, challenged empire, and pointed toward love, imagination, and faithful presence. This is a conversation about reading as formation and why the stories we choose matter more than ever.

Go to Hearts and Minds Books to order any of these books and let Byron know you heard about them from Shifting Culture.

Lore’s List:

10. The Serviceberry

9. The Signature of All Things

8. Heating and Cooling

7. Great Circle

6. Nervous Systems

5. Wild Dark Shore

4. Monsters

3. The Names

2. Circle of Hope

1. The Correspondent

Byron’s List:

10. Becoming God’s Family

9. The Core of the Christian Faith

8. You Can Trust a God with Scars

7. Liturgies for Resisting Empire

6. The Violent Take it by Force

5. Bear Witness

4. Rags of Light

3. Good Soil

2. The Last Supper

1. World of Wonders

Joshua’s List:

10. Making Time

9. We Tell Ourselves Stories

8. Wild Dark Shore

7. Spellbound

6. The Anti-Greed Gospel

5. The Teacher of Nomad Land

4. Twelve Churches

3. The Correspondent

2. Christ in the Rubble

1. A Beautiful Year

Connect with Joshua: [e-mail]

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