Confession: I’m a book nerd. One of my favorite questions to ask people is what book are you reading? I keep a running list in Evernote of recommendations that people give me and every month or so I’ll go through the list and see if there is any books that stood out to me as interesting or any books that multiple people have suggested and then I’ll buy them even if I don’t plan on reading them right away.

Another way I curate books is by following a guy named @Alexand Books_ on Twitter who is constantly posting book recommendations and book reviews along with other interesting articles or advice on reading. He also sends out a newsletter every Sunday with book reviews, quotes and advice on reading, podcasts recommendations and other interesting info on reading. You can see his Twitter page and subscribe to his newsletter here.

There are some books that are just meant for certain seasons of our lives. That’s why I love buying books even if I don’t plan on reading them right away, but I have them and when the time is right I’ll remember it and pull it off the shelf.Or if I’m dealing with a particular situation or trying to solve a certain problem I’ll know that book is there to help. And sometimes someone will just recommend or I’ll stumble upon a book that I just start reading and it’s almost as if God sent that book to me for that moment (not as if, but He definitely does that :)

That’s why I titled this post my favorite books of 2022 and not the best books of 2022. These books were perfect for me in this last season of my life but may not be relevant to you at all. With that being said, here are my 10 favorite books of the past year!

1.Live No Lies by John Mark Comer

I read this book in January 2022 and I really enjoyed it. I thought it was insightful and helpful. I even recommend it to a few people. Then last month I decided to reread it and it was as if the words were coming off the page slapping me in the face. Comer challenges you and equips you to resist the lies of the devil in today’s modern world that rob us of our peace. We are faced with culture lies every single day that can wreck havoc on our emotional health and spiritual well-being. Lies about who God is, lies about who we are and lies about what life on earth is meant to be.

2. Impact Players by Liz Wisemen

This is one of the few books I’ve ever read that I shared with the team I was leading for multiple weeks. This is Wisemen’s follow up book to her NYT best seller Multipliers (which is phenomenal for leaders who are looking to multiply their leadership and grow other leaders.) This book unpacks who of those people on the staff that you’re leading can become impact players and not just contributors. We drilled this so much within our team that it became a badge of honor when someone would do something and another team member would compliment them by saying “you’re an impact player.” We bought a few copies of the book and kept them around the office and we even had a few people ceremoniously touch someone with the book on top of their head when they behaved in an impact player type of way. (Yep it was just as weird as it sounds.)

We all know when someone is making an impact, but this book unpacks what they are actually doing to become an impact player and how we can all do that in our roles. This is the book I’ve given out more than any other this past year.

3. Prayer: Experiencing Intimacy and Awe with God by Tim Keller

There are a million books on prayer and this is one of the best, if not the best one I’ve read. There are no new secrets to prayer that Keller reveals in this book, but instead he takes a deep dive into some of the thoughts and writings of some of the best men in history on prayer like Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Owen, and Edwards.

He understands that any new insights on prayer tend to go farther from, rather than closer to, biblical truth. So instead in this book he takes things that have been said before and writes them in a fresh way. There are tons of practical applications to apply to your prayer life today. And he includes tons of resources like books and articles on prayer as well as different models of prayer that have been used throughout church history.

4. Effortless: Make It Easier To Do What Matters Most by Greg Mckeown

This is McKeown’s follow up to his NYT best seller Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (a must read). Effortless is a guide to making the most important things you have to do (in both work and personal) also the easiest things you do. It’s a guide to clear out your head and heart to make room for what matters most. He pushes back against “hustle culture” and teaches you how you can actually do more, by doing less. He’s a great story teller so all of the stories he uses really drive the points home and make it real and practical.

5. The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

David McCoullugh is one of the best historian writers ever. He can turn ordinary events from history into powerful stories and life lessons we can use today. He’s written books on John Adams, 1776 (a book on the events around the start of the American Revolution), the building of the Panama Canal, Harry S. Truman and many more. But this one on the Wright Brothers is my favorite. He shares so many details about the life of the Wright Brothers as bike makers from Ohio and how they got into aviation and eventually changed aviation forever. I wrote a blog that you can read here on how they used imitation to create the one of the greatest innovations of our time. Many would say that the Wright Brothers have never really been acknowledged for their contribution to aviation history in two world wars.

6. Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott

This is another book that I found myself giving away a ton this year. This simple 4 step process to delegation is worth the book alone:

Leaf decisions: Make the decision. Act on it. Do not report it back to me.

Branch Decision: Make the decision. Act on it. Report the action you took.

Trunk Decision: Make the decision but report on the decision before you act.

Root Decision: Make the decision jointly with input from many people. These are decisions that is made poorly could impact the entire organization.

That’s just one part of the book. There is a ton of practical content on how to have tough conversations with your spouse, friends, pastors, boss, those you lead, etc. Scott explains things and puts language to these conversations in a systematic way that you can apply right away.

7. Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives and Winners Around the World by Daniel Gross and Tyler Cowan

Every leader wants to hire the best people. But not just people who can do a job, but people who can think outside of the box and move things forward. But often our surface level bias (things like gender, race, background, geography, college etc.) in interviewing and identifying talent prevents us from identifying those people when hiring. Talent does a deep dive into the outside of the box steps to take to hire the best people. These are two of my favorite suggestions from the book:

1. Ask people what tabs are open on your browser right now.

2. If a musician is practicing scales everyday to be the best, what are the “scales” that you’re practicing to be the best at what you do?

The authors also go into depth on how to keep good talent once you hire them. Highly recommend to learn how hiring is different today in 2022 than even a few years ago.

8. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein

This book may have helped me the most this past year personally. If you’re like me and just curious about a ton of different topics and areas and sometimes wonder what you’re actually good at and called to do this book is for you. Epstein starts the book with a striking difference between arguably the two greatest athletes in their perspective sports: Tiger Woods and Roger Federer. Tiger was ultra focused on golf since a young age. Roger played a variety of sports and didn’t get serious about tennis till later. Epstein emphasizes there is more than one route to becoming great at anything we do and sometimes having a broader range of knowledge to pull from can be helpful (See da Vinci below). Epstein makes the case for people who go wider rather than deeper.

9. Turn the Ship Around: A True Story of Turning Followers Into Leaders by David Marquet

David Marquet was an experienced Navy officer and was given the task of captain of the USS Santa Fe, a nuclear-powered submarine, that was a traditionally low performing ship.

He turned that ship around from one of the worst in the Navy into one of the best.

He did it by turning the Navy’s traditional model of Leader-Follower upside down on it’s head and moving to a Leader-Leader model that empowers team members by having the traditional leader give up control and empower the followers turning them into leaders in their own right.

One of the principles he explains in the book is to specify goals not methods with those you’re leading. This puts the power in the team members hands and you’ll be shocked how creative and ingenious people are when they’re not worried about following methods and protocols. Great book for how to lead in today’s world.

10. Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth by Richard Foster

I first read this book within a few years of becoming a Christian, but after rereading it last month it took on a whole new meaning to me. This book is 40 years old with timeless wisdom and insight. Foster gives us 12 different spiritual disciplines that he breaks down into 3 categories:

1. Inward Disciplines- meditation, prayer, fasting, and study which he says offers a chance for personal examination and change.

2. Outward Disciplines- simplicity, solitude, submission, and service which he says help prepare us to make the world a better place.

3. Corporate Disciplines- confession, worship, guidance, and celebration which he says bring us nearer to each another and to God.

He goes in depth not only why these disciplines are an important part of our spiritual lives, but also how we can implement them practically into our lives. It’s a great book to start the new year with if you’re looking to grow in your spiritual disciplines in 2023.

Honorable Mention Favorite Books of the Year:

Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor E. Frankl

Frankl tells the story of his time in a Nazi concentration camp and our unending quest as humans for meaning and purpose.

The Coaching Habit by Michael Stanier

Best guide I’ve read on how to lead like a coach and less like a manager. Includes practical questions and conversation tips for leaders to coach their people better.

Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things No One Told You About Being a Creative by Austin Kleon

Short read that covers these 10 things. Highly recommend no matter what field you work in.

Steal like an artist.

1. Don’t wait until you know who you are to get started.

2. Write the book you want to read.

3. Use your hands.

4. Side projects and hobbies are important.

5. The secret: Do good work and share it with people.

6. Geography is no longer our master.

7. Be nice. (The world is a small town.)

8. Be boring. (It’s the only way to get work done.)

9. Creativity is subtraction.

Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson

Isaacson is my favorite biographer. (If you haven’t read his book on Steve Jobs order it right now!)

Isaacson wrote da Vinci’s biography from thousands of pages from da Vinci’s personal journals. da Vinci was a fascinating guy who had many interest outside of painting like anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. Also, he would be a case study for the book Range that I mentioned earlier. He was a guy who ended up being a great painter but many say it’s because of his extraordinary knowledge across so many different fields.

Lights Out: Pride, Delusion and Fall of General Electric by Thomas Gryta

A how to guide on how to take one of the most powerful, lucrative, successful businesses in the world and drive it into the ground. Every leader should read this as a cautionary tale.

The Practice: Shipping Creative Work by Seth Godin

If you’ve ever suffered from imposter syndrome as a creative you need to read this book.

If you’ve ever engaged in any kind of creative practice this book will challenge you to believe in your work and share it with the world. Godin defines generosity as being brave enough to put your work out there believing it can help other people more than believing your own insecurity that it’s not good enough.

In full transparacy this book played a big part in pushing me to start blogging regularly and sharing my writing.

Comment below and tell me your favorite books from this past year!