Episode 377: Best of 2025: Top Ten Books of the Year
In this episode, I am joined by Lori 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
7. Great Circle
4. Monsters
3. The Names
2. Circle of Hope
Byron’s List:
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
3. Good Soil
Joshua’s List:
10. Making Time
7. Spellbound
