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SJAT Note: Best of 2025 Book and Media List
From Estelle Siener for the Social Justice Action Team
Happy New Year! Once again this year members of the Social Justice Team have looked back on their 2025 reading to compile a list of our “Best of . . .” Books and Media. The contributions below have inspired us this year. Please let us know what you are reading and watching!
Fiction
(Chris) The Known World by Edward P. Jones, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel primarily about a black farmer and former slave in Virginia in the late antebellum period who must stay on the good side of the law. It took me to a very unfamiliar place.
(Estelle) One Day Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This by Omar El Akkad, journalist and writer. In this National Book Award winner, El Akkad specifically writes about the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza. But it’s a call to action for us to speak out against injustice everywhere.
(Bill) The Parable of the Talents by Octavia E Butler, published in 1998, offers a chilling vision of what could be when, in the face of racial injustice, economic division and climate change, the nation elects authoritarian, Christian Nationalists to lead the country back to greatness. Can there be redemption?
(Gary) Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriett Beecher Stowe. On rereading, this book remains remarkably relevant.
(Estelle) Playground by Richard Powers who again tackles big issues such as racial identity and the plight of our oceans with a strong cast of characters that grapple with technology.
(Chris) The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen tells the story of the end of the Viet Nam war from a Vietnamese perspective. The characters are richly drawn and the story is engaging. While I found it difficult in some ways, it was also very rewarding.
(Estelle) Orbital by Samantha Harvey, a short book. Ride along in the International Space Station with six scientists as they pursue their experiments in space while gazing and musing in awe at the amazing planet Earth out their window!
Nonfiction
(Dean Rebecca) Reforesting Faith: What Trees Teach Us About the Nature of God and His Love for Us by Matthew Sleeth. I recently was sent an email from the national office for Holy Hikes offering me a Christmas gift - I could choose one of four titles they were offering to Holy Hike facilitators. As a child, I loved climbing trees, and as the daughter of a physician, I was intrigued that it was written by a doctor. Influential in evangelical circles the author, Matthew Sleeth has spoken about the biblical call to be good stewards of creation to audiences across the globe, including at the Washington National Cathedral. One of the reviews of this book by a former president of the Sierra Club stated, "Matthew again connects us to the essential: God, the planet, the Sabbath, a tree. God’s breath that gave life to man is being shared daily by all that breathes, including trees. This reminder brings hope and enormous joy. Reforesting Faith is a must-read.”
(Dean Rebecca) Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church, by Kevin Sack. Just named one of the Top Ten books of 2025 by the New York Times. “Mother Emanuel” is a masterpiece in which Kevin Sack tells the story of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church in Charleston, S.C., “the most historic Black church in the South’s most historic city,” now best known as the site of an egregious act of barbarism: the killing of nine congregants on June 17, 2015, by a white supremacist. This former NY Times and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist explores Mother Emanuel AME Church's two-century history of racial justice, faith, and forgiveness, culminating in the 2015 tragic shooting and its aftermath.
(Dean Rebecca) Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization by Bill McKibben, acclaimed environmentalist. Although the fight for reduction in use of fossil fuels continues, he writes with hope in the increasing, indeed the spike in, affordable solar and wind powered energy.
(Chris) White Too Long by Robert P. Jones traces the legacies of white supremacy in the white Christian church. While the book has a slight emphasis on southern churches and the Southern Baptist Convention, the analysis goes well beyond that and includes examples from mainline and northern churches including the Episcopal Church. I found the book accessible and enlightening.
(Bob) The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy by Matthew Taylor: Taylor explores the New Apostolic Reformation from its inception in the work of a Fuller Seminary professor, to its immense networks of apostles and prophets, and its role in the January 6 riot. This vision of charismatic Christianity now animates millions, lured by Spirit-filled revival and visions of Christian supremacy.
(Bob) Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America by Nancy MacLean. Public Choice theory, devised by the Nobel Prize-winning political economist James M. Buchanan, has fundamental beliefs about fairness which differ radically from those that prevailed in the post-Depression era – notably in taxing high income people: 94% the max at the end of WWII vs. 37% currently. An important lesson in how American cultural values can change.
(Estelle) Turning to Birds: The Power of Beauty and Noticing by Lili Taylor. Yes, the actress Lili Taylor. A lovely book about her own step into the world of birding and how studying birds and just being in nature revives her soul.
Videos
(Estelle) Weathered by PBS Terra: an ongoing YouTube series of climate change started 5 years ago and updated regularly with the latest video posted one month ago.
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