The following are the top ten best books I’ve read this decade–in alphabetical order by the author’s last name because agonizing over a precise order would take all the fun out of remembering these books. I have read a lot of books–many of them good or even great–over the past ten years. The criteria that put these particular books over the top was that they transformed my way of understanding of the world (or my way of being in the world) in a significant and lasting way:
- Our Grandchildren Redesigned: Life in the Bioengineered Society of the Near Future by Michael Bess (2015)
- The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt (2013)
- Free Time: The Forgotten American Dream by Benjamin Hunnicutt (2014)
- How to Be an Anti-racist by Ibram Kendi (2019)
- Secret Body: Erotic and Esoteric Currents in the History of Religions by Jeffrey Kripal (2017)
- The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism Is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically by Peter Singer (2015)
- A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution by Jennifer Doudna (2017)
- Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. by Brené Brown (2018)
- Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker (2018)
- The Hidden Life of Trees: The Illustrated Edition by Peter Wohlleben (2018)
Bonus: Although my reading habits currently trend heavily toward non-fiction, three novels I would give a shout out to from the past decade are:
There There by Tommy Orange
The Nix by Nathan Hill
Mislaid by Nell Zink
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The Rev. Dr. Carl Gregg is a certified spiritual director, a D.Min. graduate of San Francisco Theological Seminary, and the minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick, Maryland. Follow him on Facebook (facebook.com/carlgregg) and Twitter (@carlgregg).
Learn more about Unitarian Universalism: http://www.uua.org/beliefs/principles
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