2024 was the first year in nearly a decade that I did not post one book review. While that saddens me, and I’m sure is disappointing for you as well, it is my hope for this 2024 book recap to provide you with some books to consider in the new year as you consult other reviews and recommendations from friends, family, colleagues, and sites like Goodreads.com. At the end of this recap, I will call out my top MUST READS of 2024. These are the few standouts of the year that I couldn’t put down and can’t stop talking about.

When I sit down to write these recaps every year, I gather up all the books (that I have access to), organize them by general theme, and then take photos of the stack. I always find it interesting to physically see all the content I consumed within the year while also recognizing common topics of interest or certain types of books I gravitated towards. In 2024, I focused heavily on health-related content (I’m a big MAHA supporter) as well as on homeschooling and topics related to the culture my children are growing up in (which is unsurprising seeing as the bulk of my time is now spent homeschooling five children and managing their extra-curriculars).

Moreover, I was determined this year to return to my average 2+ non-fiction books read each month and I’m pleased to say that I hit that goal by completing 30 non-fiction books in 2024! This number does not include any bible studies I participated in nor any fiction books I read (or what I call, my “pleasure reads”).*

So in no specific order or rank, here are the non-fiction books I read in 2024 (organized by common topic/theme):

Homeschool/Education

1. The Four Hour School Day: How You and Your Kids Can Thrive in the Homeschool Life by Durenda Wilson
2. The Unhurried Homeschooler: A Simple, Mercifully Short Book on Homeschooling by Durenda Wilson
3. The Core: Teaching Your Child the Foundations of Classical Education by Leigh A. Bortins
4. Classical Christian Education Made Approachable by Leigh A. Bortins
5. Hope For Your Homeschool: Stay Strong, Stay the Course, and Finish with Joy by September McCarthy
6. You’re Teaching My Child What? A Physician Exposes the Lies About Sex Ed and How They Harm Your Child by Miriam Grossman, MD

Parenting/Motherhood

1. Keeping Your Kids On God’s Side: 40 Conversations to Help Them Build a Lasting Faith by Natasha Crain
2. Honest Prayers for Mama Bears by Hillary Morgan Ferrer with Julie Loos
3. The 5 Love Languages of Teenagers by Gary Chapman
4. M is For Mama: A Rebellion Against Mediocre Motherhood by Abbie Halberstadt

Faith/Misc

1. The Overcomers: God’s Vision For You to Thrive in an Age of Anxiety and Outrage by Matt Chandler
2. Don’t Look Back: Getting Unstuck and Moving Forward with Passion and Purpose by Christine Caine
3. The Gift of Limitations: Finding Beauty in Your Boundaries by Sara Hagerty
4. Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age by Rosaria Butterfield
5. What God Has to Say About Our Bodies: How the Gospel is Good News for Our Physical Selves by Sam Allberry
6. Right Where You Belong: How to Identify and Fully Occupy Your God-Given Space by Heather MacFadyen
7. The Life Giving Home: Creating a Place of Belonging and Becoming by Sally and Sarah Clarkson
8. Flourish: How the Love of Christ Frees Us From Self-Focus by Lydia Brownback (not pictured)
9. The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom (not pictured)

Health/Wellness/Diet

1. Vax-Unvax: Let the Science Speak by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
2. Small Farm Republic: Why Conservatives Must Embrace Local Agriculture, Reject Climate Alarmism, and Lead an Environmental Revival by John Klar
3. Feeding You Lies: How to Unravel the Food Industry’s Playbook and Reclaim Your Health by Vani Hari
4. The Fatburn Fix: Boost Energy, End Hunger, and Lose Weight by Using Body Fat for Fuel by Catherine Shanahan, MD
5. Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn’t Food by Chris Van Tulleken
6. Cancer Free With Food: A Step-by-Step Plan With 100+ Recipes to Fight Disease, Nourish Your Body and Restore Your Health by Liana Werner-Gray
7. The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor by Mark Schatzker
8. Beautiful Freedom: How the Bible Shapes Your View of Appearance, Food, and Fitness by Stacy Reaoch
9. Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health by Casey Means MD (not pictured)

Culture/Gen Z

1. Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up by Abigail Shirer
2. The End of the Alphabet: How Gen Z Can Save America by Isabel Brown

I read SOOOOOO MANY fantastic books in 2024. Alas, I must choose…

Honorable Mention

1. The Life Giving Home: Creating a Place of Belonging and Becoming by Sally and Sarah Clarkson
2. The Four Hour School Day: How You and Your Kids Can Thrive in the Homeschool Life by Durenda Wilson
3. The Overcomers: God’s Vision For You to Thrive in an Age of Anxiety and Outrage by Matt Chandler
4. Vax-Unvax: Let the Science Speak by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
5. The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor by Mark Schatzker
6. Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age by Rosaria Butterfield

Top 3

1. Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up by Abigail Shirer
2. Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health by Casey Means MD
3. You’re Teaching My Child What? A Physician Exposes the Lies About Sex Ed and How They Harm Your Child by Miriam Grossman, MD

BEST BOOK OF 2024

Feeding You Lies: How to Unravel the Food Industry’s Playbook and Reclaim Your Health by Vani Hari

I knew a few chapters in of Feeding You Lies by Vani Hari back in February that this book was going to be my number one read of the entire year…and that’s saying A LOT because I read many insightful and intriguing non-fiction books in 2024. This book will BLOW your mind and is the perfect “feeder” into the MAHA movement and most of the books I read this year in the health-related genre. In fact, I devoured Feeding You Lies within days and my appetite for more food and health-industry content (*cough* lies) was so strong that I ended up ordering several of the books cited as sources in Feeding You Lies. 
Additionally, Vani Hari is the author of a few cookbooks and the founder of the nutrition product line, Truvani. (No endorsements here! I just love her work so much! Perhaps you can tell how much I loved this book by the wear and tear in the photo lol)

I highly recommend Feeding You Lies if you’re looking for a place to start in your pursuit of total body health and wellness. It will help you digest the medical support found in books like Good Energy by Dr. Casey Means, any of Dr. Catherine Shanahan’s books (her book Deep Nutrition was my BEST READ OF 2022 – it is still a book I recommend and refer to often), any of the content published by Dr. Mark Hyman, and the environmental connection between food, physical health, and farming (see Joel Salatin and John Klar of the book, Small Farm Republic).

*In case you were wondering, some of my pleasure reads in 2024 included Britney Spear’s memoir, The Woman in Me, a few Nicholas Sparks’ books, The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed by Maureen Callahan (UH-MAZING!!!), amongst several others. For Bible studies, I completed the BSF study of the book of John, Jen Wilkin’s Abide (book and online video lessons), and began Tara Leigh Cobble’s Bible Recap study, commentary, and workbook (I use these resources to guide, teach, and study alongside my children every morning).