Best of 2025: Top 10 Books of the Year

Books don’t just inform us—they form us.

In this episode of Shifting Culture Podcast, Joshua Johnson is joined by Lore Ferguson Wilbert and Byron Borger for a wide-ranging conversation about the best books of 2025—and why reading still matters in an anxious, distracted, and increasingly mechanized world.

This isn’t a hype-driven countdown or a trend list. It’s a thoughtful reflection on the books that stayed with us—novels that slowed us down, memoirs that honored doubt and grief, theology that pushed back against empire, and stories that helped us ask a deeper question:

What does it mean to be human right now?

We talk about:

The best fiction and nonfiction books of 2025

How novels shape empathy and attention

Faith, doubt, grief, and storytelling

Reading as spiritual formation

Resisting productivity culture and Christian nationalism

Why stories of love form us differently than stories of power

If you’re looking for book recommendations that go deeper than algorithms—and conversations about faith, culture, and meaning that are honest and hopeful—this episode is for you.

Lore’s List:

10. The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer

9. The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

8. Heating and Cooling by Beth Ann Fennelly

7. Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

6. Nervous Systems by Sara Billups

5. Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

4. Monsters by Claire Dederer

3. The Names by Florence Knapp

2. Circle of Hope by Eliza Griswold

1. The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
Byron’s List:

10. Becoming God’s Family by Carmen Imes

9. The Core of the Christian Faith by Michael Goheen

8. You Can Trust a God with Scars by Jared Ayers

7. Liturgies for Resisting Empire by Kat Armas

6. The Violent Take it by Force by Matthew Taylor

5. Bear Witness by Ross Halperin

4. Rags of Light by Brian Walsh

3. Good Soil by Jeff Chu

2. The Last Supper by Paul Elie

1. World of Wonders by Jeff Crosby
Joshua’s List:

10. Making Time by Maria Bowler

9. We Tell Ourselves Stories by Alissa Wilkinson

8. Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

7. Spellbound by Molly Worthen

6. The Anti-Greed Gospel by Malcolm Foley

5. The Teacher of Nomad Land by Daniel Nayeri

4. Twelve Churches by Fergus Butler-Gallie

3. The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

2. Christ in the Rubble by Munther Isaac

1. A Beautiful Year by Diana Butler Bass

📚 Books of the Year 2025
🎧 Faith, culture, theology, and storytelling
📖 Reading as resistance, formation, and hope

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