Birds have wings; humans have books. One of the great delights of my job is having the time to read books, the privilege of being sent plenty to review, and the budget to buy others.

I generally read in four different parts of the day. In the early morning, when my daughter is awake and I wish I didn’t have to be, I read history. In my devotional times, I read biblical commentaries or (occasionally) theology. In the evenings, as I am about to fall asleep, I read fiction. Everything else - books on culture, pastoral ministry, leadership, money, church history, or anything I am researching for a writing project or conference - is read during the working day, often in afternoons when my metabolism dips. Horses for courses, I guess.

Here are five recommendations from each category.

History and Biography Frederic Morton, A Nervous Splendour: Vienna 1888/1889. Dominic Sandbrook said this was one of the books that most influenced his writing, and I can see why: a haunting and beautifully narrated tale of a traumatic year in Viennese history, which also contains the seeds of much twentieth century history. And what an ending. David Grann, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder. An utterly gripping true story about an eighteenth century shipwreck, that richly deserves all the plaudits it has received. The best sort of adventure yarn. Ian Leslie, John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs. It is hard to say anything new about The Beatles, but this is such a clever way of doing it, exploring the relationship between the two protagonists through the lyrics of the songs they wrote together. Neil Price, The Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings. The Vikings are so much stranger to us than we think, and that makes them unsettling, even frightening. The best account of them I have read yet, which goes beyond the battles and the boats to the way they imagined the world. Helen Castor, The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV. A story in which you know the ending, and which has previously been told by plenty of writers including Shakespeare, has no business being this narratively tense, psychologically interesting and historically absorbing. Brilliant.

Bible and Theology Christopher Ash, Psalms: A Christ-Centred Commentary. Admittedly I haven’t read the fourth volume yet, but the first three are so good that I’m happy to call it as one of the outstanding books of the year. My wife and I have both disappeared into it in our devotions for weeks at a time - a wonderful gift to the church. Michael Morales, Numbers. A two volume deep dive on one of Scripture’s most difficult and misunderstood books. The format does not always help, but there are abundant insights here on passages that have always been a mystery to me, from the structure of the Israelite camp to the prophecies of Balaam and the puzzling last few chapters. Magisterial. Danielle Treweek, Single Ever After. A really impressive piece of work, as I explained here. Tim Keller, What Is Wrong With the World? It is not easy to write a compelling, heartwarming, devotional book on sin. It is even harder after you have died. The fact that Tim Keller has done both is testimony to his remarkable preaching ministry, and to the skill with which his wife Kathy has presented it. Patrick Schreiner, The Transfiguration of Christ. The best sort of doctrinal study: biblically illuminating, devotionally satisfying, theologically compelling and stylistically readable. The best book I’ve read on the transfiguration, and better than most books on other things as well.

Culture and Ideas Ed Yong, An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us. You wouldn’t think that a book about how animals perceive the world would be captivating, but this really is. I’ve thought about it and quoted it numerous times since I finished. An eye-opener. Tom McTague, Between the Waves: The Hidden History of a Very British Revolution, 1945-2016. This is basically a long history of Brexit, from the end of the Second World War to today, but it sheds a remarkable amount of light on many aspects of contemporary Britain, and makes a very convincing case that Brexit was near-inevitable for decades before it happened. A great read. Matt Smethurst, Tim Keller on the Christian Life. The secret sauce here is the choice of topics. Each of the book’s eight chapters takes a theme on which Keller regularly wrote and preached during his ministry, and synthesises his teaching into a theologically coherent and pastorally instructive whole. Musa al-Gharbi, We Have Never Been Woke. Book of the Year. A fresh, incisive, iconoclastic and well-written take on the rise of symbolic capitalists and the illusion of wokeness. You can read my longer review here. Alan Noble, On Getting Out of Bed. A short, rich, honest, moving and yet hope-filled book about living with depression and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, by a man who seems incapable of writing a boring book about anything.

Fiction Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost. This murder mystery (or is it?), told by four unreliable narrators and set in mid seventeenth century Oxford, is up there with the very best novels I have ever read. Gripping, twisty, and utterly ingenious. Celeste Ng, Little Fires Everywhere. I finally got around to this and can completely see what all the fuss is about. Such believable characters, and a plot that manages to be both surprising and inevitable at the same time. Liane Moriarty, Big Little Lies. Another book that everyone was reading a few years ago and I only just have. For an exciting book, the characters and themes are great; for a book with interesting themes, it’s wonderfully exciting. Seicho Matsumoto, Tokyo Express. This train-based detective story in post-war Japan was first published in 1958, and the world it evokes is both fascinating and intriguing, but it was recently retranslated and published as a Penguin Classic. Short, tense and really satisfying. Stephen King, 11.22.63. A man goes back in time to stop the JFK assassination, but life intervenes in all kinds of ways. Massive, taut and absorbing. My first experience of Stephen King, and hopefully not the last.