The 2021 Good List of Great Books

Rather than listing every book I read this year like I have in the past (like 2019, 2020 pt. 1, and 2020 pt. 2), this year I'm including only my 9 favorites. You can follow me on Goodreads though and see the rest. ;) (My 2021 app obsession)

I love the intimacy of book recommendations. I believe you can see a lot of who someone is and what they desire and how they're changing through the books they read. I'd love to hear any book recommenadtions of yours or to talk about any of these below!

Happy reading!

Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God by Noel Piper

This was the first book I read this year, and it set a powerful foundation of remembering God's faithfulness in the coming months. This book is divided into five chapters, each providing a brief overview of an individual woman's life in Christian history (mostly missionaries): Sarah Edwards, Lilias Trotter, Gladys Aylward, Esther Ahn Kim, and Helen Roseveare.

The author does a great job of making these mini-biographies readable and interesting, and at the end of each chapter, she included a brief commentary of how that woman taught Piper through her example of faithfulness in the mundane, weakness, humility, suffering, and loss. The testimonies of insane answered prayer and examples of God's hand in the seemingly mundane parts of life were so encouraging.

Secure in the Everlasting Arms by Elisabeth Elliot

Elisabeth Elliot is my hero and the mentor I haven't met. I've read and listened to so much of what she's written that I've learned the key themes she tended to focus on. While I don't necessarily agree 100% with her view of women's roles, I do admire her cut-to-the-chase style of teaching and her genuine devotion to the Lord even amidst her own suffering.

This book is similar to her other books, such as Keep a Quiet Heart (one of my favorites!). It's a collection of mini-essays (typically 1-3 pages long) in 7 sections: His Everlasting Arms; Do the Next Thing; Daily Faith; Finding Contentment; Joy and Sorrow; Marriage, Courtship, and Singleness; and Missionary Stories. I like reading one or two essays in the morning as a devotional. I especially love how she often takes lesser-known verses or stories in Scripture and illuminates the beautiful truths they hold for us today.

Devotedly, : The Personal Letters and Love Story of Jim and Elisabeth Elliot by Valerie Elliot Shepard

Elisabeth Elliot is probably most well-known as being the widow of Jim Elliot, the missionary who died by the hand of those he was serving. (Elisabeth later returned to that people group and saw their salvation and developed deep relationships with them.) This book, written by their daughter Valerie, tells their love story.

Spanning 1948-1953, each section highlights a year of their budding relationship and romance, giving a glimpse into their lives through excerpts from their letters to each other, diary entries, and photographs. I saw another side to Elisabeth Elliot in her sassiness and frustration in some of Jim's lack of clarity, which was fun. This book was another source of encouragement for me in seeing God's hand in the details that I hadn't heard before in the Elliots' story.

Walking Through Fire: A Memoir of Loss and Redemption by Vaneetha Rendall Risner

Another biography/memoir, this time by the author of one of my all-time favorite books, The Scars That Have Shaped Me. That book impacted me so much in a season of suffering a few years ago and I have bought over a dozen copies for others, so reading Walking Through Fire added an entirely new layer of context to my favorite book.

In this memoir, Risner tells more of the story on events she alludes to in her book on suffering. Risner has walked through polio as a child and post-polio as an adult, a spouse's unfaithfulness, divorce, miscarriage and the death of an infant, and more. Knowing more specifics of the honest emotion and struggles she walked through gave me an even deeper appreciation for her words on walking with God through the trials of life.

Longing for Motherhood: Holding on to Hope in the Midst of Childlessness by Chelsea Patterson Sobolik

I actually bought this book a few years ago at a conference because I thought the cover was pretty, and maybe the book would be applicable someday. It sat on my bookshelf until earlier this year when hopelessness began to tempt me to despair of unfulfilled dreams of marriage and motherhood.

The author weaves her story of infertility into a greater testimony of God's faithfulness in our grief and lack. The book offers a lot of practical and Biblical counsel and encouragement for the women walking through infertility, miscarriage, and childlessness due to unwanted singleness. You should read this book if you are one of those women and you should read this book if you know and want to love one of those women (pro tip: statistically, you do know one of those women).

Now That I'm Called: A Guide for Women Discerning a Call to Ministry by Kristen Padilla

Another "dream deferred" I've wrestled with is a calling to full-time ministry as a woman in more conservative spheres. I would currently align with a more "generous complementarianism," but this book isn't necessarily about that. It honestly was one of the most encouraging books I've ever read. I felt like I was getting coffee with a mentor, a woman who also burns for women to walk in the gifts God has entrusted to them by His Spirit, and who desires to walk in Biblical faithfulness. If you are a woman who senses a calling to vocational ministry but have questions of what means or can look like (or you know someone who does), I highly recommend this book.

Is Christmas Unbelievable?: Four Questions Everyone Should Ask About The World's Most Famous Story by Rebecca McLaughlin

I love Rebecca McLaughlin. She is intelligent and highly educated, yet isn't "stuffy" or difficult to read. She writes on the apologetics of the Christian faith in a way that I can understand, which hasn't been my experience with other books on apologetics in the past. They've just intimidated me.

This book is an easy, quick read (only 59 pages!). There's a good mix of pop culture analogies (if you're a fan of Doctor Who or Harry Potter, you'll appreciate this) and scholarly research. She provides a brief overview of the answers to the following questions related to the story of Christmas as we see in the Bible: Was Jesus even a real person? Can we take the Gospels seriously? How can you believe in a virgin birth? Why does it matter? Highly recommend this book. I'm excited to read more by her in the coming year.

Hinds' Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard

My mom used to read the children's version of this story to my sisters and me when we were kids, so this was a very nostalgic read. Referencing Habakkuk 3:19, Hinds Feet is a beautiful allegory on suffering and the life of a Christian, and how God transforms us as we walk with Him. (For example, the protagonist's name is Much-Afraid at the beginning of the story and later is renamed Grace and Glory at the end.) It is a more classic story with a slightly older writing style and vocabulary, but the truths are timeless and encouraging.

The Word of the Lord: Seeing Jesus in the Prophets by Nancy Guthrie

This was an incredible Bible study on the Old Testament prophetic books. We did this in Monday Night Bible study this summer as something different from our go-to Jen Wilkin study. There are 10 weeks in this book, and each week (aside from the intro week) includes personal Bible study questions for that week's book, a teaching chapter (essentially Nancy Guthrie's commentary -- and she's a great teacher), and a discussion guide for group study.

Though I used this with a group, it would be great for individual study as well. It's only an overview of nine of the prophetic books (Jonah, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah, Habakkuk, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekial, and Malachi), but I finished this study with a much more solid foundation of what these books are actually about and how they also point to Jesus.