My One Hundred Books List

“Want to do a hundred book challenge with me next year?” said one of my friends in late 2021. I couldn’t refuse a goal like that, so throughout the year I was reading and listening to books every chance I got. My friend dropped out, but I did make it to a hundred. Most of them were normal length books (I read a few children’s books and gift books when I saw I was falling behind schedule).

Here’s the list, with short summaries and my favorite books in boldface. (No links, I was too lazy for that.) A caveat: I don’t recommend all the titles on this list— some of the authors have worldviews and ideas I strongly disagree with. Others were just plain boring— I had to force my way through them, just so I could write them down on my list. I’m so glad it’s 2023 now, and if I’m not enjoying what I’m reading, I can just put the book aside without finishing it.

1. The Case for Heaven by Lee Strobel. Evidence for the afterlife presented by a modern Christian apologist.
2. Broken Faith by Mitch Weiss. Follows the cult-like Word of Faith church in the southern US.
3. Nomad by Ayann Hirsi Ali. A Somali woman adjusts to life in America.
4. Winning the War for Your Mind by Craig Groeschel. Change your thinking and change your life kind of book.
5. Ready, Set, Grow! by various authors. A kids’ book on gardening.
6. Becoming Mama by Yvrose Telfort Ismael. A Haitian-American woman returns to Haiti and adopts children orphaned by Haiti’s 2010 earthquake.
7. Mama’s Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes. A fictional Norwegian immigrant mother manages her children and household expenses with care.
8. The One-Minute Money Mentor for Women by Deborah Smith Pegues. Quick tips on finances from a Christian perspective.
9. A Serve Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken. Years ago, when a friend raved about this heartbreaking memoir of love and faith, I didn’t think it sounded that great. Now after a reading a copy that I found in a thrift store, I’ve changed my mind. Edith, if you ever read this, you were right.
10. Brush Cat by Jack McEnany. A book about logging. The first and I hope the last book I ever read on the subject.
11. I’d Rather Be Reading by Anne Bogel. Somehow it seemed appropriate.
12. Joy at Work by Marie Kondo. The famous “Marie Kondo” method gets sneered at. But when I started my new position at work and was swamped by papers and tasks, these organizing principles saved my bacon.
13. Taken at Birth by Jane Blasio. True story of a baby-selling operation in northern Georgia, from the 1940s to 1960s.
14. Mothers and Daughters by author unknown. A gift book that’s perfect for Mother’s Day.
15. That’s So Weird! Bible Facts by various authors. Actually, I don’t think there were too many surprises for me in this one.
16. The Pianist from Syria by Aeham Ahmad. A good memoir about the war in Syria.
17. Finding Jesus in Israel by Buck Storm. When I read this, I was thinking about maybe going on a Holy Lands tour. That didn’t happen, but I’m glad I read this book.
18. Emotional Agility by Susan David. I find most self-help books boring, but this author’s focus on breaking old thinking patterns resonated with me.
19. London Under by Peter Ackroyd. A history of subterranean London. One takeaway: London was built upon clay, New York was built on granite, and that’s one of the reasons why New York has a lot more skyscrapers.
20. Yoko Paper Cranes by Rosemary Wells. A children’s book I read to catch up.
21. Angelina and the Princess by Katharine Holabird. Same reason.
22. Anne Frank— a youth edition I screened for the church library.
23. Where is the Pirate’s Treasure? Another book I screened for the church library.
24. Resurrection Witness— another YA book for church library.
25. The Red Bandanna by Tom Rinaldi. Youth edition for the church library. A true story about one of the heroes of 9/11.
26. The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield. Butterfield is well-known in Christian circles for having left the LGBTQ+ movement as she wrote about in the book “The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor’s Journey into Christian Faith”. But I liked this book about hospitality and her mature Christian faith in the second half of her life better than I did her first book.
27. Afghanistan, Enchantment of the World by author unknown. A youth book about Afghanistan. Again, I read it for the church library, but since I know Afghans, it was an interesting book.
28. Unmasked by Andy Ngo. Antifa is real. Whether it’s actually a serious threat is a question for someone else.
29. Money, Greed, and God The Christian Case for Free Enterprise by Jay W. Richards. I must have been on a political kick.
30. If We Survive by Andrew Klavan. A church youth group goes to South America and gets caught up in a revolution. YA novel. Great fun!
31. Neuro Fitness by Ranul Jandial. A neurosurgeon writes about the brain. Brain science seems to shift awfully quickly, so I tried to read it with a grain of salt.
32. The Truth and Beauty: How the Lives and Works of England’s Greatest Poets Point the Way to a Deeper Understanding of the Words of Jesus by Andrew Klavan. A good book, but with my skimpy knowledge of poetry, some of this went over my head.
33. The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone. Before there was cybercrime and cybersecurity, there were the codebreakers who helped win World War II.  Elizabeth Smith  was one of them.
34. The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story by Hyeonseo Lee. Read this when you’re tempted to think you’ve had a hard life.
35. Don’t Follow Your Heart by Jon Bloom. Solid advice.
36. Surprised by Oxford by Carolyn Weber. A skeptic comes to faith at Oxford University.
37. Everyone’s a Theologian by R.C. Sproul. Christian Doctrine 101.
38. Excellent Daughters by Katherine Zoepf. A female Western journalist gives her perspective on young women’s lives in the Arab World.
39. The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. “The gates of Hell are locked from the inside.”
40. The Oregon Trail by Rinker Buck. In the twenty-first century, two brothers follow the Oregon Trail in a covered wagon, becoming the first people to do so in more than a century. I love Oregon Trail history, so I enjoyed this book.
41. A Stitch of Time by Lauren Marks. A young woman recovers from a serious brain injury.
42. A Beginner’s Guide to America by Roya Hakakian. A Iranian-American tells her story of immigrating to the United States. So-so.
43. The Autobiography of Ben Franklin. Probably the oldest book on this list.
44. Suffering is Never for Nothing by Elisabeth Elliot. No fluff here.
45. The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self by Carl Truman. Hands down, this was the best book I read all year. It was also the longest— four hundred and eighty-nine pages. If you have the time—READ IT! (If you don’t have the time, see book 47)
46. Serve the People by Jen Lin-Liu. A Chinese-American woman returns to her grandparents’ homeland and learns to cook authentic Chinese food. A fun read.
47. Strange New World by Carl Truman. The same history in a shorter, more accessible book.
48. The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World by Jacqueline Novogratz. The author exchanged a banking career for fighting globel poverty.
49. The Shoemaker and His Daughter by Conor O’Clery. The author traces his wife’s family saga in Communist Russia.
50. Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? by Richard Maybury. Basic econmics for kids and grown-ups.
51. Kidnapped in Haiti by Katrina Lee. The number #1 bestseller in books at Good’s Store in 2022.
52. Ladybug Girl. Another kids’ book
53. The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida. A narrative written by a Japanese boy with autism, written to help others understand how he sees the world.
54. Flat Broke With Two Goats by Jennifer McGaha. A cash-strapped family moves into a broken-down cabin and decides to raise milk goats. The crude goat humor gets tiresome.
55. The Rise of the New Puritans by Noah Rothman. The author compares the fervency of today’s Woke crowd to yesterday’s New England Puritans. The cynical humor gets tiresome.
56. Bear in the Backseat by Kim DeLozier. The author was a park ranger for decades in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Takeaway: when the signs say not to feed the bears— you REALLY REALLY should obey.
57. The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Hadit. A evolutionary perspective how our concepts of right and wrong formed.
58. The New Kid On the Block by Jack Prelutsky. Silly poetry for all ages.
59. The Myth of the Repressed Memory by Dr. Elizabeth Loftus. This was a dark read, but the author, a scientist who studies memory, has an important message for our therapy-seeking, trauma-preoccupied culture.
60. Remembering Shaghai by Isabel Sun Chao. A memoir of growing up in a wealthy family before the Cultural Revolution.
61. Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. Long before COVID, a doctor fought a widespread disease that threatened millions— malaria.
62. Why Believe? by Neil Shenvi. Compelling evidence for the truth of the Gospel. A new apologetics book published in 2022.
63. Unchained by Ryan Forbes and Wendell Metzler. An unlikely friendship forms between a police officer and a never-do-well who keeps getting arrested. A local story set in New Holland, PA.
64. Secondhand by Adam Minter. The global recycling industry might not sound like an interesting subject, but trust me, this book is good. It might also change your beliefs about ethics of wealthy countries donating secondhand goods to developing nations.
65. The God of the Garden by Andrew Peterson. I don’t remember much about this book, except it felt like the author was trying to make stories out of very little material.
66. The Money Answer Book by Dave Ramsey. Commonsense money management.
67. Emily by Emily Smucker. A teenage Mennonite girl in Oregon suffers from West Nile virus.
68. Overcoming Apathy by Uche Anizor. Biblical advice for the unmotivated.
69. The Pie Lady by Greta Isaac. Mennonite cooks share recipes and stories.
70. Daniel Shelly: Revolutionary War Conspirator of Shelley Island by Joanne E. Leas Liebert. Several hundred years ago, my Shelley ancestors came to the New World and settled in Lancaster. One of the Shelleys (a cousin of my forebears) was jailed during the Revolutionary War because he was accused of plotting treason— against the Patriots. (He denied the charge.)
71. Why Pro-Life? by Randy Alcorn. I read this as a nod to Roe v. Wade being overturned.
72. All the Single Ladies by Rebecca Traister. A feminist take on single women’s lives in America.
73. Polish Your Poise with Madame Chic by Jennifer L. Scott. Jennifer Scott to me is sort of a femininity and manners guru, like Marie Kondo is an organizing guru. Not everything Jennifer talks about applies to me, but I enjoy her books and YouTube videos.
74. How Right You Are, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse. I like British humor as much as I like bangers and mash.
75. What Christians Believe by C.S. Lewis. A short book contains excerpts from his longer works.
76. Fidget! by Heather Fishel. Contains a whole bunch ways to practice fidgeting. As though some of us need the help.
77. Fear Has a Name by Creston Mapes. A Christian mystery novel.
78. How Should I Live in this World? by R.C. Sproul. A Christian theologian gives practical applications for Christian living.
79. The Invisible Girls by Sarah Thebrage. After nearly dying of breast cancer at the age of twenty-seven, Sarah moved across the country to start over, where she met a struggling immigrant woman and her daughters. This memoir is beautifully written and a lovely reminder that God can use broken people.
80. The Rise of Christianity by Rodney Stork. A historical viewpoint of the rise of Christianity in brutal Ancient Rome.
81. Operation Pineapple Express by Lt. Col. Scott Man. As the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, members of the US military raced against the clock to get Afghan friends out of Kabul.
82. Mrs. Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn. A novel about a bored Queen Elizabeth deciding to go exploring on her own.
83. The Rent Collector by Camron Wright. I wanted to read a book about Cambodia before visiting late last year, and this was one the few books I found that wasn’t about the Khmer Rouge.
84. The Road from Home by David Kherdian. A non-fiction book about a young girl who survived the Armenian genecide in 1915.
85. Encouragement Changes Everything by John C. Maxwell. A short gift book.
86. What is the Bible? by Lester Bauman. A simple introduction to the Bible.
87. Whisper of Wings by Dorcas Hoover. A true story about a Mennonite missionary who nearly died in childbirth in Central America.
88. For the Love of Chocolate by various authors. A short book with cool facts about chocolate.
89. The Elephant in the Room by Ed Baker. This one wins the prize for the most boring. I think it was printed by a financial advisory firm to promote their services.
90. Life After the Wall by Jana Hensel. A child of East Germany remembers.
91. Good Mourning by Elizabeth Meyer. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to work in a funeral home for the rich and famous of NYC, this is the book for you.
92. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua. I read this book and then passed it on to my sister, Joanne, who homeschools her eight children. Their son reported, “Mom and Dad thought the book was great!”
93. Believing is Seeing by Michel Guillen. A physicist explores how science points to a Creator.
94. The Traveler by Daren Simkin. A fable written to tell us to enjoy the journey of life.
95. How to Win at Adulting by Helen Redding. Basic life skills for the “failure-to-launch” generation.
96. Nearing Ninety by Judith Viorst. A nonagenarian gives advice and makes jokes.
97. A Midwife’s Story by Penny Armstrong. One of the first licensed midwives in Lancaster County, PA, Penny delivered thousands of babies— including me.
98. Worldliness edited by C.J. Mahaney. Be in the world, but not of the world.
99. While Standing on One Foot by Nina Jaffe and Steve Zeitlyn. Eighteen riddle stories from Jewish tradition.
100. When Christmas Comes by Andrew Klavan. A fitting mystery novel for the end of the year.

I’m still reading and listening to books— just not quite as fast as I was last year.