Top Films of 2022

2022 was a good year for films…though it was also the year of “your movie is too long”. I saw 57 films this year. Here they are, my top films of 2022 (No order, but #1 is Bold)

Top Gun Maverick
Everything Everywhere All At Once
RRR
Tar
The Fabelmans
After Yang
The Northman
The Banshee of Inisherin
Emergency
Decision to Leave

Honorable Mentions

All Quiet on the Western Front, Aftersun, The Woman King, Knives Out: Glass Onion, Apollo 10 ½, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, NOPE, Hustle, Belle, Kimi, Marcel the Shell, Three Thousand Years of Longing, Women Talking

Previous lists: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021

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Top Books of 2022

It’s time for my top lists of the year. I’ll only be doing Books and Films again this year, it’s where I spend the majority of my entertainment time (games are work). I wasn’t able to invest the time needed to make a Concerts (Obviously) or Albums list, that’s not saying I didn’t listen to new music and see shows, just I didn’t invest the time I feel is needed to make a list.

We will start this year with books, this one is a little different in that the books didn’t have to come out this year, BUT they had to be a new read to me (or a reread of something I may not have grasped when younger). I read/listened to 126 books this year, a new record for me! So here are my top (recommended) books of 2022,  in no particular order but split it into fiction and nonfiction, Bolded are my TOP 3. There are a lot because, I read a lot!

Non Fiction 

• The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
• How to Raise an Antiracist
• Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States
• Raising Critical Thinkers: A Parent’s Guide to Growing Wise Kids in the Digital Age
• Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention- and How to Think Deeply Again
• And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle
• Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster
• An African American and Latinx History of the United States
• Dinners with Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships
• Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks
• Five Days: The Fiery Reckoning of an American City
• A Black Women’s History of the United States
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• Humankind: A Hopeful History
• How to Stand Up to a Dictator
• The Backyard Adventurer

Fiction

• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
• Empire’s End (Star Wars: Aftermath, #3)
• Dune Messiah (Dune, #2)
• The Cartographers
• Project Hail Mary
• Little Women
• Pachinko
• Upgrade

Older List: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021

Top Films of 2021

2021 was a good year for films…though it was also the year of “your movie is too long”. I saw 74 films this year. Here they are, my top films of 2021 (No order, but #1 is Bold)

Inside
Dune
CODA
Licorice Pizza
Little Fish
Drive My Car
Don’t Look Up
Old Henry
The Lost Daughter
C’mon C’mon
King Richard
The Power of the Dog
A Quiet Place Part II

Honorable Mentions

The Last Duel, Last Night in Soho, Mass, The Suicide Squad, The Mitchells vs the Machines, Belfast, The Harder They Fall, Raya and the Last Dragon, West Side Story, The Green Knight, Nightmare Alley, Encanto, The French Dispatch

Previous lists: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

Top Books of 2021

It’s time for my top lists of the year. I’ll only be doing Books and Films again this year, it’s where I spend the majority of my entertainment time (games are work). I wasn’t able to invest the time needed to make a Concerts (Obviously) or Albums list, that’s not saying I didn’t listen to new music and see shows, just I didn’t invest the time I feel is needed to make a list.

We will start this year with books, this one is a little different in that the books didn’t have to come out this year, BUT they had to be a new read to me (or a reread of something I may not have grasped when younger). I read/listened to 105 books this year, a new record for me! So here are my top (recommended) books of 2020,  in no particular order but split it into fiction and nonfiction, Bolded are my TOP 3. There are a lot because, I read a lot!

Non Fiction 

• The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration
• Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
• Everyone Communicates, Few Connect: What the Most Effective People Do Differently
• Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google, Facebook, and the World
• Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding
• Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know
• Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
• We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy
• Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency
• The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music
• The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
• Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
• Twelve Years a Slave
• Peril
• Will

Fiction

• Cloud Cuckoo Land
• The House in the Cerulean Sea
• The Lincoln Highway
• Project Hail Mary

Honorable Mentions

• The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move (Non Fiction)
• Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention (Non Fiction)
• John Quincy Adams (Non Fiction)
• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
• Turtles All the Way Down
• The Queen’s Gambit
• The Song of Achilles
• The Vanishing Half
• Concrete Rose
• Zone One

Older List: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

Top Films of 2020

2020 was a meh year for films…it was meh year for everything. I saw 59 films this year. Here they are, my top films of 2020 (No order, but #1 is Bold)

Judas and the Black Messiah
Tenet
Promising Young Woman
Mosul
Minari
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Mank
One Night in Miami
The Forty Year Old Version
Another Round
Emma
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Soul

Honorable Mentions

Onward, Martin Eden, Never Rarely Sometimes Always. Sound of Metal. Small Axe: Mangrove, Wolfwalkers, The Half of It, The Nest, Bad Education, Nomadland

Previous lists: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019

Top Books of 2020

It’s time for my top lists of the year. I’ll only be doing Books and Films again this year, it’s where I spend the majority of my entertainment time (games are work). I wasn’t able to invest the time needed to make a Concerts (Obviously) or Albums list, that’s not saying I didn’t listen to new music and see shows, just I didn’t invest the time I feel is needed to make a list.

We will start this year with books, this one is a little different in that the books didn’t have to come out this year, BUT they had to be a new read to me (or a reread of something I may not have grasped when younger). I read/listened to 118 books this year, a new record for me! So here are my top (recommended) books of 2020,  in no particular order but split it into fiction and nonfiction, Bolded are my TOP 3. There are a lot because, I read a lot!

Non Fiction 

• Know My Name
• Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
• Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
• Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen
• Leadership: In Turbulent Times
• A Promised Land
• Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America
• How to Be an Antiracist
• Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t

Fiction

• The Water Dancer
• The Hate U Give 
• American Dirt
• The End of October
• Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre
• The Giver of Stars
• Crocodile on the Sandbank 
• Shakespeare for Squirrels
• Ready Player Two 
• Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
• The Maltese Falcon

Honorable Mentions

• Dear Edward (Fiction)
• The Dutch House (Fiction)
• Big Lies in a Small Town (Fiction)
• You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters
• Why We’re Polarized
• Be the Bridge: Pursuing God’s Heart for Racial Reconciliation
• The End of Policing
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Older List: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019

Top Films of the “Decade” (10-19)

Well everyone else was making top lists of the Decade, so here is mine. There are rules: 1) The film had to be on a previous list, so even if I saw a better film after if it wasn’t on the list I can’t use it 2) List them in a non specific order 3) 23 films total

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Boyhood (2014)
The Social Network (2010)
The Act of Killing (2012)
The Look of Silence (2014)
Drive (2011)
Short Term 12 (2013)
Ex Machina (2014)
What We Do In the Shadows (2014)
Nightcrawler (2014)
Birdman (2014)
Whiplash (2014)
Fruitvale Station (2013)
The Master (2012)
Beast of the Southern Wild (2012)
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (2010)
The Death of Stalin (2018)
Parasite (2019)
Sing Street (2016)
Get Out (2017)
Dunkirk (2017)
Into the Spider Verse (2018)
Restrepo (2010)

2010: 3, 2011: 1, 2012: 3, 2013: 2, 2014: 7, 2015: 1, 2016: 1, 2017: 2, 2018: 2, 2019: 1

 

Top Films of 2019

2019 was a solid year for films. I saw 75 films this year, and only had a few left on my want to see list. So here they are, my top films of 2019 (No order, but #1 is Bold)

Parasite
Fighting with my Family
Knives Out
John Wick 3
1917
The Nightingale
Non Fiction
Marriage Story
The King
Jojo Rabbit
Booksmart
Little Women
Pain & Glory

Honorable Mentions

High Flying Bird, Transit, Joker, Uncut Gems, Two Pope’s, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Luce, The Farewell, The Peanut Butter Falcon, Sword of Trust, Wild Rose, Us

Previous lists: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018

Top Books of 2019

It’s time for my top lists of the year. I’ll only be doing Books and Films again this year, it’s where I spend the majority of my entertainment time (games are work). I wasn’t able to invest the time needed to make a Concerts or Albums list, that’s not saying I didn’t listen to new music and see shows, just I didn’t invest the time I feel is needed to make a list.

We will start this year with books, this one is a little different in that the books didn’t have to come out this year, BUT they had to be a new read to me (or a reread of something I may not have grasped when younger). I read/listened to 93 books this year, a new record for me! So here are my top (recommended) books of 2019,  in no particular order but split it into fiction and nonfiction. There are a lot because, I read a lot!

Non- Fiction

• Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
• Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know
• The Coddling of the American Mind
• Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
• Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
• Becoming
• Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
• Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History
• The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump
• The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland
• The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You
• Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators

Fiction

• Where the Crawdads Sing
• Cutting for Stone
• The Grapes of Wrath
• Recursion
• Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful
• The Immortalists
• Daisy Jones & The Six
• People of the Book
• Treasure Island
• A Tale of Two Cities

Honorable Mention

• The Women Who Flew for Hitler: The True Story of Hitler’s Valkyries
• East of Eden
• Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
• Amity and Prosperity: A Story of Energy in Two American Towns
• Hamilton: The Revolution
• My Friend Anna
• Code Name: Lise. The True Story of the Woman Who Became WWII’s Most Highly Decorated Spy
• Unthinkable: What the World’s Most Extraordinary Brains Can Teach Us About Our Own
• Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language
• The Modern Girl’s Guide to Travel

Older List: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018

 

Top Films of 2018

2018 was a solid year for films. I saw 56 films this year, and only had a few left on my want to see list. So here they are, my top films of 2018 (No order, but #1 is Bold)

Into the Spider Verse

A Quiet Place

First Man

Roma  

Paddington 2

Green Book  

Isle of Dogs  

Annihilation  

Sorry to Bother You  

Deadpool 2  

The Death of Stalin

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

The Favourite  

Honorable Mentions

Vice, A Star is Born, Black Panther, Eighth Grade, Widows, You Were Never Really Here, First Reformed, Crazy Rich Asians, Love, Simon, Mission Impossible: Fallout, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, BlackKKlansman

Previous lists: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017