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Thursday 15 December 2016

Some of my favourite 2016 Reads: Part 2 - Non-fiction

It’s a time for 2016 favourite reads from some of the ACW gang. I shared my fiction ones two weeks ago and now share my non-fiction.

I read more non-fiction. Hey, I’m a “learner” in every strengths profile I’ve completed so reading and/or studying non-fiction works fills my learning bucket. Oh, it’s probably also why I’m happy to be preached to when reading fiction (so long as it gels with the story) The ratio of non-fiction to fiction is roughly 60:40. Fiction has actually grown in the last couple of years through judging and the large number of novellas that are now available.

Enough of the pre-amble let’s get to the list and in no particular order. However, in saying that two books have had a significant impact on me and I’ll lead with those.

The Forgotten Way (Ted Dekker) – Ted and I are of a similar age and interestingly we’ve both been on a journey these past few years going deeper with the Lord. I believe most of us get to a point in our faith walk where we ask the question: “Is this all there is?” only to conclude it’s not and we want more. More of God. More of Jesus. More of the Holy Spirit.

The Forgotten Way is a series of 21 devotions where Ted explores his journey on discovering the “more.” I’ve now read it 7 times plus shared it with about ten people so think it’s pretty significant.


The Broken Way (Ann Voskamp) – I read most things Ann writes. I just love Ann’s heart for Jesus. Ann’s humility, her understanding of the Word and her wholehearted devotion to Jesus is such a good example for all of us. The Broken Way is a call to bring all of ourselves to Jesus, yes, even our brokenness, our stuff, whatever that may be. He came to bind the brokenhearted, which we all are. We are all broken. Sin does that. In bringing all of ourselves to Jesus we establish true intimacy with Him enabling us to discover who He made us to be.


I’ll be brief on the rest otherwise we’ll be here till January with this post. My reviews are linked and a couple of them I’ve already featured during the year.

Awe (Paul Tripp) – we’re created for awe but too often we set our dials towards things of the world rather than to the One who created us. Excellent. Excellent.


Moving Mountains (John Eldredge) – I too read everything John writes. This one is on prayer. I’ve read a lot of books on prayer. I enjoy praying and appreciate learning what others think about it. This is very practical and will get you praying more and help develop greater intimacy with Jesus. And that’s what I look for in a good book on prayer.




Who I am in Christ (Neil T. Anderson) – there are a lot of books out there on “identity in Christ”, “who I am” and so forth. This is a 36 “chapter” devotional style book that looks at identity from 3 angles: “Our Acceptance in Christ, our security in Christ and Our Significance in Christ.”

Really good stuff. I’ve read it a couple of times now and will dive in again soon I expect.

Two other quick mentions, both of which I’ve featured here on ACW:



If you’re a non-fiction reader I’d love to know of any that particularly grabbed you this past year.

Wishing all of my ACW friends an especially blessed Christmas and New Year. And here’s to a great year of reading in 2017!

Grace and peace,




Ian Acheson is an author and strategy consultant based in Northern Sydney. Ian's first novel of speculative fiction, Angelguard, is available in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. Angelguard was the recipient of the 2013 Selah Award for Best Speculative Fiction. You can find more about Angelguard at Ian's website, on his author Facebook page and Twitter

2 comments:

  1. Thanks, Ian, for this helpful list. I am about halfway through 'The Story of With', but other things have intervened, so I need to go back and really immerse myself in it, I think. The Ted Dekker one sounds particularly interesting too though, so will watch for that one.

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    1. Hi Jo-Anne, I thought you might be interested in this post. I'm keen to hear what you think of "The Story of With" once you've finished it.

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