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

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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 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

Top Books of 2018

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 92 books this year, a new record for me! So here are my top (recommended) books of 2018,  in no particular order but split it into fiction and nonfiction. There are a lot because, I read a lot!

Non- Fiction

• Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. by Brené Brown
• The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King
• Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy
• Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
• Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win World War II
  by Liza Mundy
  Legacy: What the All Blacks Can Teach Us About the Business of Life by James Kerr
• Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
• Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson,  Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler
• Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime by Ron Stallworth
• The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
• I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara

Fiction

• An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
• Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
• A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
• Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut
• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• Circe by Madeline Miller
• A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
• Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Honorable Mention

• First in Line: Presidents, Vice Presidents, and the Pursuit of Power by Kate Andersen Brower
• When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel H. Pink
• Fascism: A Warning by Madeleine K. Albright
• Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive & Creative Self by Manoush Zomorodi
• Find Your Why: A Practical Guide to Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team by Simon Sinek,  David Mead, Peter Docker

Older List: 2015, 2016, 2017

Top Films of 2017

2017 was a good year for films, some really great movies came out. I saw around 50 films this year, and only had a few left on my want to see list. So here they are, my top films of 2017 (No order, but #1 is Bold)

Get Out

Baby Driver  

Dunkirk

The Big Sick

Phantom Thread

Blade Runner 2049

Logan Lucky

The Post

Wind River

Lady Bird  

Thor: Ragnarok

Darkest Hour  

Star Wars:The Last Jedi

 

Honorable Mentions

The Disaster Artist, Three Billboards, Call Me By Your Name, The Meyerowitz Stories, Stronger, Okja, Score, The Florida Project, Molly’s Game, Columbus, Goodtime

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

Top Books of 2017

It’s time for my top lists of the year, I’m breaking from tradition this year sadly. I’ll only be doing Books and Film. I wasn’t able to invest the time and money 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 63 books this year! So here are my top (recommended) books of 2016,  in no particular order but split it into fiction and nonfiction.

Fiction

• City of Thieves – David Benioff
• The Martian – Andy Weir
• Dark Matter – Blake Crouch
• The Scarlet Pimpernel – Baroness Emma
• Norse Mythology – Neil Gaiman
• The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead

Non-Fiction

• Hidden Figures – Margot Lee Shetterly
• Thanks for the Feedback – Sheila Heen, Douglas Stone
• Grit – Angela Duckworth
• Hillbilly Elegy – JD Vance
• Eating the Dinosaur – Chuck Klosterman
• Mindset – Carol Dweck
• The Four Tendencies – Gretchen Rubin

Braving the Wilderness – Brené Brown

Older List: 2015, 2016

Top Albums of the last 10 years (2006-2016)

I’ve been keeping lists of my favorite new albums every year since 2006 (the 2006 list was lost on myspace blogs), so this being the 10th year that I’ve done this I wanted to make a top albums of the last 10 years. There are rules: 1) The album had to be on a previous list, so even if I heard a better album after if it wasn’t on the list I can’t use it 2) List them in a non specific order 3) 40 albums total

• The Maccabees – Given to the Wild
• Twenty One Pilots – Vessels
• The Tallest Man On Earth – There’s No Leaving Now
• Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell
• Damien Rice – My Favorite Faded Fantasy
• Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
• Cloud Cult – Light Chasers
• Daft Punk – Random Access Memories
• Bon Iver – Bon Iver
• Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
• Muse – Black Holes and Revelations
• Die Antwoord – Donker Mag
• Pharrell Williams – G I R L
• alt-J – This Is All Yours
• Senses Fail – Still Searching
• CHVRCHES – Every Open Eye
• Alabama Shakes – Boys & Girls
• Nero – Welcome Reality
• MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
• Monsters of Folk – Monsters Of Folk
• The Decemberists – The Hazards Of Love
• M. Ward – Hold Time
• Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
• Snow Patrol – A Hundred Million Suns
• The Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
• LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening
• Mutemath – Mutemath
• The Killers – Sam’s Town
• The Lumineers – The Lumineers
• The Avett Brothers – The Carpenter
• Bright Eyes – The People’s Key
• Conor Oberst – Conor Oberst
• Twenty One Pilots – Blurryface
• Damien Rice – 9
• Cloud Cult – Feel Good Ghosts
• Daft Punk – Tron: Legacy (OST)
• Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
• Muse – The Resistance
• Arctic Monkeys – AM
• Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz

Lists: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016

Top Films of the last 10 years (2006-2016)

I’ve been keeping lists of my favorite new films every year since 2006 (the 2006 list was lost on myspace blogs), so this being the 10th year I’ve done this I wanted to make a top films of the last 10 years. 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) 35 films total

• Boyhood
• The Social Network
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Act of Killing
• Drive
• Room
• Short Term 12
• Ex Machina
• The Look of Silence
• What We Do In the Shadows
• Nightcrawler
• Birdman
• Whiplash
• LEGO Movie
• Fruitvale Station
• The Master
• Beast of the Southern Wild
• The Muppets
• Inception
• Scott Pilgrim Vs The World
• Restrepo
• Blue Valentine
• The Hurt Locker
• District 9
• UP
• (500) Days of Summer
• The Fantastic Mr. Fox
• Up in the Air
• The Dark Knight
• In Bruges
• No Country for old men
• Hot Fuzz
• There Will Be Blood
• The Departed
• Sing Street

Lists: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016