Best of Books 2023

The year is coming to an end, which means it’s time to reflect on our favorite reads! On this episode, Russell Moore and producer Ashley Hales discuss the books that have stuck with them this year. Their conversation touches on the winners of Christianity Today’s 2023 Book Awards and the back catalogs of authors whose new releases are making a splash.

Genres mentioned span biography, memoir, fiction, and more. Moore and Hales discover broad themes and consider how their 2023 reading might inform their 2024 thinking.

For more insight into what Russell is reading throughout the year, subscribe to his newsletter here.

Russell’s Top Ten Books of 2023:

1. How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks
2. The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism by Tim Alberta
3. Watership Down: The Graphic Novel by Richard Adams, adapted and Illustrated by James Sturm and Joe Sutphin
4. All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir by Beth Moore
5. C.S. Lewis in America: Readings and Receptions, 1935-1947 by Mark A. Noll
6. Godless Crusade: Religion, Populism, and Right-Wing Identity Politics by Tobias Cremer
7. King: A Life by Jonathan Eig
8. How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family's Story of Hope and Survival in the American South by Esau McCaulley
9. Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from DaVinci to the Kardashians by Tara Isabella Burton
10. Lights a Lovely Mile: Collected Sermons of the Church Year by Eugene H. Peterson

Additional books mentioned in this episode include:

• Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture by Christopher Watkin (CT Book of the Year Award)
• The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
• Surprised by Joy by C. S. Lewis
• The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
• Strong and Weak: Embracing a Life of Love, Risk and True Flourishing by Andy Crouch
• Bobos In Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There by David Brooks
• Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World by Tara Isabella Burton
• Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West by Andrew Wilson
• The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams by Lester J. Capon
• The Three-Body Problem Series by Cixin Liu

Episodes of The Russell Moore Show featuring authors discussed in this episode include:

• “Tim Alberta on the White Evangelical Crisis”
• “Christianity’s Being Co-opted with Tobias Cremer”
• “Developing a Biblical Framework with Christopher Watkin”

• “Esau McCaulley Makes Grace Plausible”
• “Losing Our Religion: David Brooks on the Allure of Tribalism”
• “Andy Crouch’s Cure for a Tech-Obsessed World”
• “Beth Moore Didn’t Expect Us to Be Us”
• “Beth Moore and Russell Moore in Conversation” & “Listener Questions for Russell Moore and Beth Moore”

Ashley Hales is the producer of The Russell Moore Show, founder of Willowbrae Institute, and an author. Find out more at aahales.com.

Do you have a question for Russell Moore? Send it to questions@russellmoore.com.

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“The Russell Moore Show” is a production of Christianity Today
Executive Producers: Erik Petrik, Russell Moore, and Mike Cosper
Host: Russell Moore
Producer: Ashley Hales
Associate Producers: Abby Perry and McKenzie Hill
Director of Operations for CT Media: Matt Stevens
Audio engineering by Dan Phelps
Video producer: Abby Egan
Theme Song: “Dusty Delta Day” by Lennon Hutton