Rachel Whisman

The year is coming to a close, and here are my top five books from 2025. It is a blend of old, new, and different genres, with some of my favorite quotes from them. 

In addition, for the first time, I am doing a giveaway (insert bullhorn noise)! You can enter each drawing once, but you will only win one of the books. Simply put: five books and five winners. If you win, you will receive a book and my favorite pen to mark up the pages with. The giveaway will end Sunday, December 14th, at midnight. Only U.S. residents are allowed to enter. I will email the winners to notify them on Monday, December 15th. Click on the title to enter the giveaway.

Fine China is for Single Women Too by Lydia Brownback

A short book that closed my mouth and humbled my heart throughout. It is one I wished I had at the beginning of my 20s. Lydia begins with a strong foundation in explaining God’s sovereignty and how it is the basis for contentment in singleness. Then she presses into the realities single women experience and how to honor God with the singleness he has given you. 

“If we are constantly harping on what we want but do not have, we are declaring that God has not managed our affairs well, because with or without our longing, God wills us to be content in him.”

“So long as holiness can best be brought forth in us through singleness, then God will keep us single. If marriage will better accomplish that in us, then he will see to it that we get married.”

Heart Aflame for God by Matthew Bingham

Academia and pastoral care intersect throughout this book. Often heady at times, but grounded in the care and counsel of Puritans from the past. Matthew Bingham shares how the Puritans grew in their love for the Lord through the common graces that the Lord has given us: prayer, meditation, and scripture. He highlights how, when these are exercised together, they create a balanced approach and, by the Spirit’s working, cause our hearts to love God deeply and richly. Intermingled throughout are quotes from Puritans that convict, inspire, and warm your thoughts towards God. This book has been the most applicable book I have read this year, which has changed the way I approach “Spiritual formations.” 

“To keep the heart is not just saying no to sin but actively saying yes to God and the things of God.” 

“Keep the word and the word will keep you…It is the slipperiness of our hearts in reference to the Word that causes so many slips in our lives…We never lose our hearts till they have first lost the efficaciousness and powerful impressions of the Word.”

“When we talk to God in prayer, we come with an awareness that it is his word that initiates the conversation and makes it possible in the first place.” 

The Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson

I have never enjoyed an ending to a book series as much as this one, and yes, tears were included. Andrew Peterson has a way of building another world and taking you on an adventure where character development is seamless, conflicts compound, and tension rises as the search for the resolution seems grim. These books are a work of art and a perfect bedtime read, as the chapters are short and the story is enchanting. It captivated my imagination, and I hope it does the same for you.

The Art of Divine Contentment by Thomas Watson

Shots fired throughout. You will not leave this book unscathed. Discontentment lurks in every season of life we face. How do you face it? With grumblings, murmuring, ignorance, or anger? Puritan, Thomas Watson, bares all and leaves no rock unturned as he mines the riches of God from his word to expose and console our hearts. I think my pen ran out of ink halfway through due to the amount of heart-penetrating quotes. 

“God asks us to rejoice, and we hang up our lyres on the willows. He asks us to trust, and we cast ourselves down even to the point of despair. If satan can not keep us from mourning, he will be sure to put us to mourning when it is least in season. When God calls us in a special manner to be thankful for mercy and to put on our white robes, then satan will try to turn us mourning: instead of a garment of praise, he’d have us clothed with a spirit of heaviness. Then God loses the acknowledgement of a mercy, and we lose our comfort.”

“Be content if God dams up your outward comforts, so that the stream of your love may run faster another way.” 

“God steeps us in the briny water of affliction that He may wash away our spots. God’s people are His garden: the plowing of the ground kills the weeds, and the tilling of the earth breaks the hard clods. God plows us in affliction to kill the weeds of sin. He tills us to break the hard clods of unrepentance, making the heart fitter to receive the seeds of grace. And if this is so, why should we be so discontented? 

Consider the Lilies: Finding Perfect Peace in the Character of God by Jonny Ardavanis

Anxiety is rampant in our society. You probably know someone who struggles with it, or you do yourself. In this book, Jonny assesses anxiety with a holistic, Biblical approach. Isaiah 26:3-4 is the basis of the book, “You keep Him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you.” From there and other scripture, He fuels the reader’s hearts with the truth of God’s character so the reader can grow in their understanding of who God is and who they are because of it. Then he shows how God’s character confronts the anxiety one might struggle with and how God deals with us in it. Jonny counsels and cares well, and he did a phenomenal job with such a broad topic that was easy to read, thought-provoking, and left me encouraged to love God more and know how to help those who struggle with anxiety.

“If God is not sovereign, if he is not in control, then we have all the reason in the world to be anxious. If there is no divine plan for our adversity and affliction, then we have no hope in the midst of it- only madness and pain. Our confusion is compounded, our anxiety is accelerated, and our fear is fueled when we strip the anchoring doctrine of God’s sovereignty from our lives and fail to set our minds on its truth.”

“Faith is gazing at God.” 

“God’s omniscience frees us from trying to be God. It frees me to be a creature and let him be the creator. It allows me to walk in the unknown because my heavenly father already knows all things.” 

“Anxiety asks, ‘What if?’ God’s word says, ‘Your Father is in control.’”