#4 – Zero at the Bone by Christian Wiman

Christian Wiman usually ends up on these Best Reads of the year lists. He’s got a knack for expressing the hard-won, tentative faith that seems the only kind on offer in contemporary America. Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries against Despair collects a lot of his thinking about the subject of hope and faith in his usual oblique manner. Click on the title above to see my full review.

This is his longest book to date and the length doesn’t do him many favors. He’s sharper in shorter forms, as befits a poet. But some of this collection is so beautiful and piercing that it’s definitely worth the ride. And Wiman ends up at #4 on this year’s list.

Previously in this series:

#5 – The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

#6 – The Ninety-Third Name of God by Anya Krugovoy Silver

#7 – Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

#8 – The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

#9 – Larry McMurtry:A Life by Tracy Daugherty

#10 – Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson