It’s been a quiet few months at Schaeffer’s Ghost thanks to some chaos IRL (mostly not mine, thankfully). This will continue for a bit longer, and then Lord willing we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled reviewing. But in the spirit of Christmas past, I wanted to offer a list of the best of 2024, As in the past, these are the best books I read. Not the best books anyone could have read, or the best books that were published. Just the best books I read. So take this list for what it is.
History
Longitude by Dava Sobel. Latitude is easy; longitude took forever and a lot of outside-the-box thinking. This excellent narrative walks us through that process in a way that is engaging and accessible.
Strange Rites by Tara Burton. If longitude is hard, religion is harder. And yet we still have to have it, so what does that mean in a world that has kicked traditional religion to the curb? This book walks through some of the modern developments to that end.
Theology
New Reformation by Shai Linne. This book was so good that I assigned it to an event that we host for pastors in the region. I cannot recommend this enough.
Books and the Parchments by F.F. Bruce. How did we get the Bible? Bruce walks us through some historical developments in a way that is readable even by us laymen.
Fiction
Quick and the Dead by Louis L’Amour. Only loosely related to the 90s movie, this short little novel is about the settling of the West and the balance between violence and decency that made American expansion possible.
Coming of Conan the Cimmerian by Robert Howard. And speaking of violence, this collection of short stories brings together Howard’s introduction to everyone’s favorite barbarian.
Politics
Conservatism: Invitation to a Tradition by Roger Scruton. Scruton is always excellent, and this little introduction to conservatism is a good place to start exploring the movement.
Republic and Laws by Cicero. It’s probably telling that the best book I read this year in politics this year is fragments of a work that’s over two thousand years old. Fortunately, I think most of the living authors I read would agree with my analysis.
Biography
Where the Light Fell by Philip Yancey. Simply superb.
My Life and Hard Times by James Thurber. A fun little overview of Thurber’s upbringing in suburban Ohio–best paired with the Essays of E.B. White.