In 2022 I read soooo many good books. It’s hard narrowing them down to the top 4 every year but the criteria I used to determine what my top 4 were is this, what practically helped me get better in 2022.
Whether it was helping me follow Jesus better for my spiritual journey, helping me become a better leader on my leadership journey, or helping me become a better teammate for Allison. This is my lens as I decide what my top 4 are. I do read books other than those categories for fun as I love aviation, history, biographies, theology, sports, and more. But here are my top 4 not in any particular from 2022 that I recommend you check out!
- Hero On A Mission
Hero on a mission by Donald Miller is super practical. That’s the thing I’ve loved about Donald’s books for years, they always make it easy to implement. This book helps you determine what is most important to you in life. What drives you? What makes you get out of bed in the morning? It teaches you a practical way to create a vision for your life and then set goals for yourself. The best part is, there is a code in the book where you can download practical worksheets to help you become a hero on a mission who lives every day with purpose.
2. Winners Travel
Dr. Clay Lowder lives in South Carolina super close to where I am from! He uses southern draw and metaphors to help get his points across which are very relatable to me being from the south. Clay helps us look at life from a holistic approach from the spiritual, physical, and family aspects. Clay believes that winners in life are really good in these areas and they don’t stay the same, they improve hence “winners travel.” This book will teach you how to follow Jesus better, how to be a better husband or wife, and give you parenting tips, dieting tips, and financial advice. Just a really good book that’s easy to comprehend about how to win at life. Oh, and Clay is a HUGE Clemson fan and he references the Tigers a lot. Notice the colors of the book 🙂
3. Crazy Faith
How big is your faith? Do you have maybe faith? Wavy faith? Steady faith? Get ready to increase your faith! Micheal Todd does an amazing job at helping you see God bigger than you do right now. He uses creative storytelling about his life and characters in the bible to help us see God in new ways. This book is a faith stretcher! I have it on my list of top 4 because I was reading this by a swimming pool in the heat of the summer and in the chapter that’s focused on sharing your life story with others God spoke to me about my writing. He gave me a clear next step and it was so unexpected. This book is a must-read if you feel you have placed God in a small box in your life.
4. Flamin’ Hot
This book is a biography of Richard Montanez and how he started working as a janitor at Frito Lay. Richard takes you step by step from his start at the company all the way through to his rise to an executive. When I read this I saw it more as a leadership book than I did a biography. If you look at it through the lens of leadership you’ll find some hidden gold in there! For example, Richard said that when he was a janitor he was always trying to get close to the managers so he could ask them questions about leading. He also said that he always wanted people to know when they saw something he worked on because it was excellent. I highly recommend you order this book and get a pen ready to take notes and laugh a lot along the way!
Bonus:
My good friend Josh bought me this book and I have to say that it was an eye-opener for me. This book helps you see C.S Lewis in a different way than you have. It gives you a view into his faith and how he formed his beliefs. This book is deep and it will cause you to reflect on how big God is. I read things in this book that I hadn’t considered about God before. If I had to give this book a one-word description I would say wonder. It helped me tap into my curiosity about God and allow myself to wonder how majestic He is. How graceful He is and how loving He is. I recommend reading this slowly with reflection and not hurrying through it. You will be inspired by it for sure!
Bryant Westbrook 