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Cole Feix
avatarCole Feix3 min read  

The Best Books of 2023

I always look forward to this podcast. The opportunity to think back through a year of books is humbling and encouraging. On one hand, we live among an embarrassment of riches. There is more wisdom at our fingertips than at any point in history. On the other, even what we can read in a year is a gift to steward, full of stories to ponder, wisdom to embody, and information to put into practice. The Bible remains the most important book I read each year, and we didn't mention a lot of the devotional and nourishing materials we use, although one of the most significant books of my year was Reformation Heritage Books' The Family Worship Bible Guide. It has been a tremendous boon to my spiritual life and I would recommend that everyone get a copy and use it in family worship.

This year on the podcast, we went for breadth over depth. On the whole, there's surely something here for everyone. These books span genres, years, and interests. It's my hope that one of these picks will mean as much to you as they have to me. Enjoy the podcast and this list of every book we mentioned in the episode. Happy reading in 2024!

Terry’s Top 5:

Dynasty - Tom Holland 

Finding Calcutta - Mary Poplin

Scalia - James Rosen 

The Matter with Things - Iain McGilchrist 

Business Not by the Book - David Green and Bill High

Cole's Top 5

Timothy Keller - Collin Hansen

Remaking the World - Andrew Wilson 

Dominion - Tom Holland 

The Pastor of Kilsyth - Islay Burns 

The Fellowship - Philip and Carol Zeleski

Best of History:

All the President’s Men - Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein

The Final Days - Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein

The Haldeman Diaries - H.R. Haldeman and Stephen Ambrose 

Richard Nixon: The Life - John Farrell

Nixon: An Oral History of His Presidency -  Gerald S. Strober and Deborah H. Strober

An Ordinary Man: The Surprising Life and Historic Presidency of Gerald R. Ford - Richard Norton Smith

King's Counsellor: Abdication and War: The Diaries of Sir Alan Lascelles - Sir Alan Lascelles, edited by Duff Hart-Davis

The Fringes of Power: 10 Downing Street Diaries, 1939-1955 - John Colville 

John Quincy Adams: Diaries Vol. 1 1779-1821 - John Quincy Adams, edited by David Waldstreicher

An Infinite Fountain of Light - George Marsden

Yale Works of Jonathan Edwards (see our podcast episodes on the Great Awakening, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3): 

  • Freedom of the Will, Vol 1

  • Religious Affections, Vol 2

  • The Great Awakening, Vol 4

Best of Biography 

Elon Musk - Walter Isaacson 

Going Infinite - Michael Lewis 

Scalia: Rise to Greatness: 1936-1986 - James Rosen

R. C. Sproul: A Life - Stephen Nichols 

Introduction to John Owen - Crawford Gribben 

Christian Resources and Theology: 

Lead - Paul Tripp 

You Are a Theologian - Jen Wilken and J. T. English 

Christian Beliefs: Twenty Basics Every Christian Should Know - Wayne Grudem 

Family Worship - Donald Whitney 

The Family Worship Bible Guide - edited by Joel Beeke 

Looking Forward to in 2024:

Conflict - Andrew Roberts and David Petraeus 

The World’s Greatest Book - Jerry Pattengale and Lawrence Schiffman

Roosevelt and Hopkins - Robert Sherwood

You’re Not Crazy - Sam Allberry and Ray Ortlund 

Creator - Peter Leithart

Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age - Rosaria Butterfield

Dr. Cole Feix is the founder and president of So We Speak and the Senior Pastor of Carlton Landing Community Church in Oklahoma.

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