Bob’s Year in Books

What did you read this year?

Go to previous year

2025

Year in Books

70,687

pages read

252

books read

Bob

Jesus Loves the Little Children, All the Children of the World by Tara Hackney

Shortest Book

pages

Longest Book

1,200

pages

Average book length in 2025

280

pages

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Most Shelved

3,226,821

people also shelved

Accountability, Healing, and Trust by Kimberly Hope Belcher

Least Shelved

people also shelved

Bob’s average rating for 2025

4.2

Swing Low, volume 2 by Walter R. Strickland II

Highest Rated on Goodreads

it was amazing

5.00 average

Bob’s first review of the year

really liked it

Summary: A biography of “Mad” Anthony Wayne centered on his successful campaign to defeat Native tribes in the Northwest Territory.

For three years I lived one block from the Anthony Wayne Trail (part of US 24) in Toledo, Ohio. I knew little more than that it was the fastest way to downtown Toledo from our apartment, and that Anthony Wayne had fought against Native tribes in that part of northwest Ohio, and that Fort Wayne, southwest on US 24, was ...more

BOB’S 2025 BOOKS

it was amazing

Brother Cadfael's Penance by Ellis Peters

Mothers, Children, and the Body Politic by Nadya Williams

it was amazing

The Gospel of Jesus Green by Neil J Whitehouse

Defiant Hope, Active Love by Jeffrey F. Keuss

Untangling Critical Race Theory by Ed Uszynski

An Essay on Christian Philosophy by Jacques Maritain

Jesus, Contradicted by Michael R. Licona

Lieberman's Choice by Stuart M. Kaminsky

Hebrews (Commentaries for Christian Formation by Amy Peeler

it was amazing

The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami

Conceived by the Holy Spirit by Rhyne R. Putman

it was amazing

The Pursuit of Safety by Jeremy Lundgren

Hunger for Righteousness by Phoebe Farag Mikhail

The Log College by Archibald A. Alexander

Vivid Rhetoric and Visual Persuasion by Meghan Henning

Anchor of My Soul by Editors at Paraclete Press

it was amazing

And There Was Light by Jacques Lusseyran

Crowned with Glory and Honor by Michael A. Wilkinson

Triune Relationality by Sherene Nicholas Khouri

Leading Well in Times of Disruption by Joseph W. Handley Jr.

Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson

it was amazing

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

Communicating for Life by Quentin J. Schultze

Scripture in Doctrinal Dispute by Frances M. Young

it was amazing

Jesus Changes Everything by Stanley Hauerwas

Paul the Storyteller by Christoph Heilig

Religious Freedom in a Secular Age by Michael F. Bird

it was amazing

Finding God Along the Way by Christine Marie Eberle

John of History, Baptist of Faith by James F. McGrath

Citizenship Without Illusions by David T. Koyzis

How to Get Along with Anyone by John Eliot

it was amazing

Recovering from Purity Culture by Camden Morgante

The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus by James Crossley

John Henry Newman by Ida Friederike Görres

Tucker's Last Stand by William F. Buckley Jr.

it was amazing

Imitating Christ by Luke Timothy Johnson

Judea under Greek and Roman Rule by Desilva

The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

Writing and Rewriting the Gospels by James W. Barker

Until the Last One’s Found by Curt Parton

A Prophet in the Darkness by Wesley Vander Lugt

it was amazing

Reading the Margins by Michael J. Gilmour

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

Bob’s last review of the year

really liked it

Summary: An argument for Classical Christian Education based on its aim to produce virtuous, morally self-regulating citizens.

Louis Markos has written several books arguing the value of the Greek classical tradition for Christians while engaging that tradition critically. Therefore, it makes sense that Markos would defend the idea of classical Christian education, which he ably does in this book. Foundational to his argument, as he argues in the Summary: An argument for Classical Christian Education based on its aim to produce virtuous, morally self-regulating citizens.

Louis Markos has written several books arguing the value of the Greek classical tradition for Christians while engaging that tradition critically. Therefore, it makes sense that Markos would defend the idea of classical Christian education, which he ably does in this book. Foundational to his argument, as he argues in the Introduction, is understanding what it means to be human. He understands humans as created with basic dignity but also as fallen, needing rules, limits, and discipline. Specifically, humans are rational, emotional, and volitional creatures. Our choices shape our feelings. A human fully alive is one whose virtues, affections, and desires have been formed and ordered.

Markos then argues that the nature of education must arise for our understanding of human nature. Specifically, what books and activities foster virtue? Firstly, he argues for a liberal rather than vocational education, liberal in the sense of liberating the mind to reason well and make virtue-shaped moral choices. Secondly, this is best accomplished through the canon of great books going back to the Greek tradition. He argues both that these book address universal human concerns and also that these works formed the shared values of the Western world. Thirdly, he argues for reading books rather than distillations of these books in textbooks or course packs.

Fourthly, he makes a case for reading history rather than a curriculum of social studies to understand the past that has shaped us. Fifthly, he likewise emphasizes humanities over social sciences, due to the latter’s methodological naturalism that mutes the imago dei in human beings. Sixthly, amidst moral relativism, classical education emphasizes the transcendentals of Goodness, Truth, and Beauty as objective realities. Finally, classical education emphasizes virtues of character rather than mutable values.

Then, in the second part of the book, Markos dialogues with influential educators through history. He includes chapters on Plato, Augustine, Rousseau, Dewey, C.S. Lewis, Dorothy Sayers and Charlotte Mason, and Mortimer Adler, E. D. Hirsch, and Neil Postman. He offers both positive and critical assessments of each. He especially highlights Lewis’s Abolition of Man as well as Dorothy L. Sayers, The Lost Tools of Learning. The latter was popularized by Douglas Wilson, a pioneer in the Christian Classical Education movement. He does believe Rousseau’s utopianism and Dewey’s progressiveness weakened much of contemporary education, as well-intended as were their efforts.

In concluding, he summarizes his argument as one critical for the American experiment at its 250th year. He writes, “If we are to continue, however, we must revive an understanding of the Greco-Roman, Judeo-Christian traditions that gave birth to that experiment and that continue to draw hopeful travelers here from all over the world. If we do not pass the torch to the next generation, then the glorious flame of liberty, which immigrants to Ellis Island saw as they docked in New York Harbor, will slowly, I fear, go out.”

On one hand, Markos makes an important argument that education needs to reflect an understanding of human nature. Certainly, the tradition he upholds deeply explores the human condition, the formation of virtues, and the ordering of society. Markos advocacy of books and history seems a much needed corrective to bland and ideologically driven social sciences. In addition, his recognition particularly of the Black contribution to this tradition, touched on in the text and bibliography and highlighted in a concluding review, is important.

I think Markos makes a valid point of immigrants (if we allow them in!) learning the intellectual tradition that has shaped our country. But, just as other cultures have illumined my reading of scripture, including American Indigenous Peoples (not discussed) as well as Latino, Asian, and African cultures, Might these enrich rather than dilute our Western cultural tradition? This possibility does not seem to be considered. I’d also love to see more evidence of classical education as a multi-ethnic movement.

Two figures mentioned in Markos’ text, Douglas Wilson and Pete Hegseth, might contribute to a perception associating Markos with a conservative culture war. He cites a book of Hegseth’s, noting its “polemical” character. but making an argument worth considering concerning American education. Likewise, he mentions Douglas Wilson at various points, duly crediting him with his contribution to classical education. However, he is silent regarding other critiques of Wilson.

I think the perception is not fair to Markos’ larger purpose. Classical education is a larger movement, both in its Christian and secular expressions, than Wilson or Hegseth. Markos offers a critique of American education, its assumptions and methodologies that needs to be weighed. He puts forth an alternative that is gaining traction. Finally, I find myself sympathetic to this proposal. I have spent my adult life backfilling the deficits in my own education by reading many of the Great Books mentioned here, as well as great works of other cultures.

_______________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review. ...more

What did you read this year?