Welcome to the seventh annual edition of So What Faith’s 5 Star Books of the Year! This list is comprised of books rated 5 or 5+ on a scale of 1 to 5.
To be eligible the book must have been published in 2025 and I must have read and rated it this year.
This year, just 14.4% of all books rated received a rating of 5 or 5+ to earn this honor (in prior years the percentage has ranged from 15% to 17%).
- Ryan P. Burge. The American Religious Landscape: Facts, Trends, and the Future.
- Diana Butler Bass. A Beautiful Year: 52 Meditations on Faith, Wisdom, and Perseverance.
- Brené Brown. Strong Ground: The Lessons of Daring Leadership, the Tenacity of Paradox, and the Wisdom of the Human Spirit.
- Adam Chandler. 99% Perspiration: A New Working History of the American Way of Life.
- Sister Monica Clare. A Change of Habit: Leaving Behind My Husband, Career, and Everything I Owned to Become a Nun.
- Paul Elie. The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s.
- Dan Heath. Reset: How to Change What’s Not Working.
- Elaine Pagels. Miracles and Wonders: The Historical Mystery of Jesus.
- Bridget Read. Little Bosses Everywhere: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America.
- Hanna Reichel. For Such a Time as This: An Emergency Devotional.
- Christian Smith. Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith in America.
- Katherine Stewart. Money, Lies and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy.
- Isaac Samuel Villegas. Migrant God: A Christian Vision for Immigrant Justice.
Past Years
Be sure to check out prior lists
Best of the Best
Stay tuned! So What Faith’s 16th annual list of the year’s top ten books will be published on December 17.