BLOG PODS #44 - Make 2026 a Year of Books - Some Inspiration to get you Started

INTRODUCTION:

Regular readers of the blog will know that I’m a voracious reader. It is one of my life’s great pleasures, as well as being the only guarantee of continued learning - something I’m completely committed to.

So, just like last year, I thought I’d kick off 2026 (happy New Year, by the way! 🥂) with a review of my reading from last year - in the hope that you might be triggered to read one or more of them yourself and improve your practice further.

Unlike last, though, my reading was interrupted by family events, culminating in my lovely Mum passing away at the end of September. In order to help me weather the storm of all this, I deviated from my normal diet of work-related stuff, into something much more mixed.

This had two results:

- I read far fewer books than I normally would (around 30 instead of 50 ish)

- Many more of them were fiction; read for their distraction value and to help me relax and recover.

I won’t list everything I read, but include here only those related to helping troubled kids to recover and allied subjects (and one or two others) - after all, that’s why you’re here!

📘 Books read in 2025:

Here’s the list, along with my opinion in brief of each one and a star-rating (as posted on Instagram). I ‘read’ both in Audible and in print.

Feel free to nip on to the end if you don’t want to read all this - you can always keep it for later… 😉

FIRST 10:

1. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens - (print) my annual holiday read. Absolutely delicious! Nothing like the telly versions. Finished 01/1/25 5⭐️

I read this for its powerful message of self-reflection as well as the scrumptious prose. The longer I work with troubled kids the more convinced I am of my own ignorance and the associated need to strive to do and to be better.

2. Skandar & The Unicorn Thief (audio) by A.F. Steadman. Recommended by my 10 year old niece. Potteresque & surprisingly enjoyable - a ripping good yarn - Finished 04/1/25 3⭐️

- As child care professionals, I think it serves us well to take the occasional foray into the literary world of the kids we serve. While many of them (most?) won’t be big readers, spending time here can only help keep us oriented; the great imagination and unpredictability of Skandar’s world is a good foil against the creeping cynicism that so easily threatens.

3. Mary Magdalene Revealed: The First Apostle, Her Feminist Gospel & The Christianity We Haven’t Tried Yet. (audio) Mm, esoteric, confused & generally unhelpful in any meaningfully spiritual sense; at least to me. Good brain fodder, though, and a useful challenge to the dominance of men in historical theological writing (not least the Bible itself!). Finished 09/1/25 - 2⭐️

4. The Exchange (print) by John Grisham. An enjoyable & compelling read; a worthy sequel-of-sorts to The Firm - finished 15/1/25 3⭐️

5. On Kindness (print) by Adam Phillips & Barbara Taylor. An interesting, informative & challenging history of a virtue in decline. Important! 4⭐️ - finished 18/1/25 4⭐️

- Time and again, when thinking about our work and when training with colleagues, I come back to the centrality and power of kindness. It is perhaps the the pinnacle of what we do to help troubled kids: lean in, empathise and be kind.

- I’ve long had in my mind to write something of book length on Kindness - maybe something to push forward with this year?…

6. THE DEVELOPING MIND (3rd Edtn.) How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are (audio & print) by Daniel Siegel - very possibly the best book ever written; certainly the best I’ve read. A proper swim in the deep end. The third edition of this genius work is a tour de force. Finished 07/3/25 5⭐️

- Another gestating plan I have in the offing is a masterclass for those wanting to accelerate their learning. This book will be one of the texts we examine on the course.

7. ADHD - A Hunter in a Farmer’s World (audio) by Thomas Hartman. A fascinating & useful hypothesis. Well worth a read - finished 11/3/25 3⭐️ His substack of the same name is well worth a look if ADHD is an area of interest.

8. Fathomless Riches or How I Went From Pop to Pulpit (audio) by Richard Coles. Enjoyed this a lot - it challenges the usual prescribed routes to Christian conversion but is dripping with grace and self-reflection. A cracker! Finished 20/3/25 4⭐️

9. Nothing Is True and Everything is Possible: Adventures in Modern Russia (audio) by Peter Pomerantsev. A fascinating story by story account of life in Putin’s post soviet Russia. Scary and dark, as you’d expect, but insightful nonetheless. Finished 01/4/35 3⭐️

10. The Price of Life: In Search of What We’re Worth & Who Decides by Jenny Kleeman (audio) Absolutely un-put-down-able! Engrossing, shocking & compelling - all at once! Finished 05/4/25 4⭐️

- In our working world, the organising ideas in this book are important. Lives are not usually and overtly ‘valued’ - this would be to open up the ‘valuer’ to acerbic criticism, and rightly so. But where and how we choose to target resources says a lot about what and, much more importantly who, we (as a society) really value…

SECOND 10:

11. One Shot by Lee Childs (print) - a classic Jack Reacher tale; better than the film! - finished 18/4/25 3⭐️ (I went on to read another 14 Reacher novels this year - they’ve become a real safe port in a storm for a troubled mind - love ‘em!)

- Having long waxed lyrical about the importance of self-care, I’ve learned new lessons this year (more on this in a future post). Suffice to say that allowing my ‘Tigger mind’ to roam the benign plains of fiction-taking time out from child trauma, abuse, etc.-has been chief among them. Simple but true.

12. The Life You Can Save by Peter Singer (audio) A philosophical deep-dive and data-informed exploration of giving; how individuals, organisations and charities can best direct their resources to maximum effect - finished 21/4/25 3⭐️

- Sometimes the best help we can offer is cash. Maybe not at work, but certainly when it comes to wider charitable engagement - see an example here. This book is a fascinating exploration of how to target our giving-large or small- to best effect.

13. God After Deconstruction by Thomas Jay Oord & Tripp Fuller (audio) A brilliant summary and persuasive polemic for open and relational theology. If you’re a Christian with questions about the Bible & faith, or a skeptic on religion, this is for you. Masterful! - finished 26/4/25 5⭐️

14. Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food… And Why Can’t We Stop? By Chris van Tulleken (audio) Enlightening, complicated & more than a little bit scary. Everyone should read this! Finished 28/5/25 4⭐️

- One work-related aspect of this book is the examination of links between financial poverty and poor quality food. Like Michael Marmot’s book, it blasts the ‘poor people make bad dietary choices’ argument right out of the water. Systemic injustices, and therefore future health prospects and life-chances, extend well beyond education, access to work and social mobility; they infect the very bodies of the kids we serve!

15. The Salt Path by Raynor Winn (audio) Autobiographical account of atypical homelessness. Nicely written, gentle & strangely inspiring; even though the author’s voice is irritating after a while, it made me want to pack up & walk… Finished 23/6/25 3⭐️

- This tale has suffered some turbulence in terms of its veracity this year. But for me, it acted as a literary metaphor for ‘walking through troubled times’, something me and my family were experiencing during Mum’s decline. In that respect it served me well.

16. Not in God’s Name by Jonathan Sacks (audio) - stalled - bored 0⭐️

17. NAVIGATING AUTISM: 9 Mindsets for Helping Kids on the Spectrum by Temple Grandin (audio & print) An absolute stonker, this one! It started me on a deep dive into reading on autism that I still haven’t fully surfaced from; so much to learn… Finished 08/20/25 4⭐️

- Anyone working with, connected to or caring for troubled kids will get real value from this. Amid the rising prominence of neurodiversity and the associated cries of ‘over-diagnosis’ this book equips the reader to better understand and respond to the autistic child.

18. CURED: The Remarkable Science of how People Recover from Chronic Illness by Dr Jeff Rediger - (audio) An incredibly enlightening and encouraging book - a rare fusion of science, spirituality and hope. Loved it! Finished 29/10/25 5⭐️

- A useful reminder of the power of mindfulness, meditation and self-care (among lots of other things!) in our efforts to stay well in an increasingly toxic culture.

19. Middleland: Dispatches from the Borders by Rory Stewart - (print) still reading ⭐️

20. The Autistic Brain by Temple Grandin - still reading ⭐️

Not all work

For me—and likely for many others—reading offers both comfort and discovery. I read not only to expand my understanding, gather knowledge and challenge what I think I know with fresh perspectives, but also to step away from reality for a while. I love getting lost in different worlds and slipping into the lives of others through their stories.

In a year during which my own story and that of my wider family has been difficult, books have functioned to help me un-plug, keep me grounded, get me out of my own head (and emotions!) and allow me to just be. The fictional life and stories of Jack Reacher have been a particular blessing - THANK YOU Lee Child!

Not all the books cited above are ‘work’ books, obviously. Some are faith-based, others are just fiction for fun or general interest because the cover caught my eye. I agonised briefly about whether to include these or not, but decided this was more about reading in general than it was about reading to be better practitioners; so there they are.

But my top 3 reads of 2025 - in capitals above - are (in no particular order):

1. The Developing Mind (3rd Edtn.) How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are (audio & print) by Daniel Siegel - an unparalleled work of neurological genius served up for the lay reader. Truly brilliant!

2. Navigating Autism: 9 Mindsets for Helping Kids on the Spectrum by Temple Grandin - I asked a couple of experts what to read on autism and they both suggested Temple Grandin; I was not disappointed. This book is gold dust for anyone who comes across autism in their work with troubled kids.

3. Cured: The Remarkable Science of how People Recover from Chronic Illness by Dr Jeff Rediger - this is a unique book, in that it manages to remain scientifically focused while lifting the eyes to see the wider picture. It’s embrace is big enough for mindfulness, nutrition, meditation and the broad swathe of human spirituality - all of which, Rediger asserts, impacts our health. A beaut!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Looking back over 2025, I’m grateful as always for the privileges I enjoy. Above all, I’m thankful for having been born to, raised by and taught how to live life well by my Mum, Faith Rosina Mary Matthew (27th January 1942 to 27th September 2025) - herself the most voracious reader I have ever known.

Thanks once again for indulging me in this little foray into my 2025 and the uniquely comforting role books have played for me this year. And thank you, as always, for your support in the last twelve months - for the blog and my work in general. THANKS to everyone who’s attended a course, read a book, watched a video or emailed with encouragement. My only wish is that what I write here-and thus what you guys read-will help make the lives of troubled kids better somehow.

So, I will keep reading and writing in the hope of encouraging us all to learn, expand our thinking and practice, and so serve troubled kids more effectively. And also in the hope of urging us to look after ourselves - to find and soak in the solace that is… reading.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! See you in the next one! 🥂

More Information

Last years reading list post - (link)

Follow this year’s reading on Instagram (link)

Join Audible, not sure where I’d be without it now! (link)

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