What were your favorite books, music, and movies this year? Here are mine.
Favorite Books
Much of my reading year was dedicated to research-related books for my own next writing project (to be published by Zondervan Reflective in 2026). Still, I managed to read 42 books this year, most of which I enjoyed. Below are my favorite reads of the year, divided between 2024-released new books and books that came out in other years (but which I read in 2024):
10 FAVORITE BOOKS RELEASED IN 2024
Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation
Christine Rosen, The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World
Brad Wilcox, Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization
John Hendrix, The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien
Whitney K. Pipkin, We Shall All Be Changed: How Facing Death with Loved Ones Transforms Us
Byung-Chul Han, The Crisis of Narration
Sean DeMars, Rebel to Your Will: A Story of Abuse, Father Hunger and Gospel Hope
Ashley Lande, The Thing That Would Make Everything Okay Forever: Transcendence, Psychedelics, and Jesus Christ
Garrett Soucy, Between the Joints & the Marrow
Jay Kim, Listen, Listen, Speak: Hearing God and Being Heard in a Noisy World
10 FAVORITE BOOKS I READ (BUT WERE NOT RELEASED) IN 2024
Herman Bavinck, The Wonderful Works of God
Byung-Chul Han, Vita Contemplativa: In Praise of Inactivity
A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World
Wallace Stegner, Crossing to Safety
Antón Barba-Kay, A Web of Our Own Making
Christopher Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory
Garrett M. Graff, The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11
D.A. Carson, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God
Wallace Stegner, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West
A. Roger Ekirch, At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past
15 Favorite Albums
For TGC I have a fuller recap of the year’s best Christian music, but below is a list of my favorite albums overall—as well as my five favorite EPs—released in 2024. You can also listen to a playlist of some of my favorite songs of 2024.
Vampire Weekend, Only God Was Above Us
Skye Peterson, All the Difference
Amanda Bergman, Your Hand Checking on My Fever
The Corner Room, Remember and Proclaim, Vol. 2: Scripture Songs for Little Ones
Antoine Bradford, Like Flowers in the Sun
Ellie Holcomb, All of My Days
Forrest Frank, Child of God
Tobe Nwigwe, Hood Hymns
Nick Smith, Help My Unbelief
Andrew Bird and Madison Cunningham, Cunningham Bird
Pokey LaFarge, Rhumba Country
PJ Morton, Cape Town to Cairo
Psallos, A Sure Hope: Hymns of Romans
Jimmy Clifton, I Love You All the More
Kacey Musgraves, Deeper Well
5 Favorite EPs
Jess Ray, MATIN 1: Rest, MATIN 2: Love, MATIN 3: Turn
Bon Iver, SABLE,
Jon Guerra, American Gospel
CityAlight, Rise My Soul (Live)
Caroline Cobb, Close to Home
20 Favorite Movies
I saw 65 movies in 2024, a year that didn’t really produce a “masterpiece” movie (in my opinion), but which gave us a lot of great ones. Here are some of my favorites (for descriptions on many of these, read my “best movies” article at The Gospel Coalition).
Blitz
Sing Sing
Dune: Part Two
Juror #2
A Real Pain
Here
A Complete Unknown
Nickel Boys
Flow
Perfect Days
The Taste of Things
A Quiet Place: Day One
Blink
Thelma
Gladiator II
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
The Wild Robot
Twisters
The Outrun
His Three Daughters
Read my “best movies” article at The Gospel Coalition. As always, use discernment in what you choose to watch and listen to. Some movies and albums listed above contain objectionable content.