The State of the Art: Movies 2021

2021 is such a weird mishmash of a year in all facets of society, movies included. Are we in the mood for Weighty, Important Topics? Breezy comedies? Heartfelt emotional stories? Classics? Should we support theaters? Stay home and stream everything? It's likely the environment I saw these movies in had an effect on how they struck me. For instance, my #1 of the year was seen in a theater in which we were told to keep our masks on the entire time, with no concessions allowed, and nobody seated anywhere near us. Would the same movie have elicited such a strong response if I were stretched out on the couch at home? Who knows?

However things would have shaken out, it's a good thing we saw Encounter the way we did, because it is pure atmosphere. This tense thriller about a veteran who essentially kidnaps his children from his ex-wife, and sets out on a cross-country road trip in order to protect them from alien invasion was so suspenseful, I was clenched in fight-or-flight anticipation for the entire running time. I didn't unclench until the end credits rolled. There are so many clichés that this movie could have relied on, and smartly avoided. Riz Ahmed gives a terrific performance, and you're never quite sure how much his character can be trusted. 

Let's get to the the full ranking of 2021 movies:

Encounter (A-)
Encanto (A-)
Belfast (B+)
Pig (B+)
Black Widow (B+)
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (B+)
Being the Ricardos (B)
Dune (B)
In the Heights (B)
To All the Boys (Always and Forever) (B)
Nightbooks (B)
The Mitchells vs. the Machines (B)
West Side Story (B-)
Cruella (B-)
Reminiscence (C+)
Godzilla vs. Kong (C)

I also got to a fair amount of pre-2021 movies from a wide range of genres:

The Final Girls (2015) (B+)

The Painter and the Thief (2020) (B+)

Crooked House (2017) (B+)

My Octopus Teacher (2020) (B+)

Enola Holmes (2020) (B)

Emma (2020) (B)

Phantom Thread (2017) (B-)

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) (B-)

Tenet (2020) (B-)

Step Up (2006) (B-)

Strictly Ballroom (1992) (C+)

Black Christmas (2019) (C+)

How She Move (2007) (C-)

The State of the Art: Television 2021

I often like to look for a theme in the entertainment I enjoyed over the course of a year; I can sometimes summarize the year's mood by the books, games, movies, and shows that attracted me. When it comes to 2021 television, though, I'm all over the damn map. Wacky comedies, horrific explorations of modern religion, supernatural drama, documentaries about every topic under the sun, period romance... You name it, I watched it. But even if I'm not able to find a unifying theme for the year, picking a favorite show is easy.

The Other Two is genius. I started Season 1 (2019) based on some random internet recommendation, and though I usually don't binge shows, I couldn't stop myself from plowing through, and then immediately went running for Season 2 (2021). The stories of siblings Brooke and Cary trying to make lives of their own while the other members of their family become instantly famous is at turns completely absurd, absurdly realistic, and even emotionally moving at times. No matter the storyline, though, it's always freaking hilarious. It also demonstrates that although representation is getting better overall, it can be crystal clear when a gay character is being written by a gay writer, and this show is much better for that. I don't know what effect the pandemic will have on the show's future, but I'm pinning all my hopes on a Season 3.

There were other excellent shows this year, too, from a strong sophomore season of A Black Lady Sketch Show to the stylish and engrossing Only Murders in the Building to the horrific Midnight Mass, which has a lot to say about how people can twist religion to suit their own needs. Some of the Marvel shows would have gotten higher grades, if they hadn't completely fumbled their final episodes. And of course, the old standby shows are still providing plenty of fun. Let's get to the list!

The Other Two (Season 2) (A)

Only Murders in the Building (Season 1) (A-)

A Black Lady Sketch Show (Season 2) (A-) 

Midnight Mass (A-)
Explained (Season 3) (A-)

Carmen Sandiego (Season 4) (B+)

Never Have I Ever (Season 2) (B+)
Close Enough (Season 2) (B+)

What If...? (Season 1) (B+)
WandaVision (Season 1) (B+)

What We Do in the Shadows  (Season 3) (B+)

The Irregulars (Season 1) (B+)

Great British Baking Show (GBBO Season 12, GBBS Season 9) (B)

Bob's Burgers (Season 11) (B)

Hawkeye (Season 1) (B+)

Superstore (Season 6) (B) 

History of Swear Words (B)

Loki (Season 1) (2021) (B-)

Saturday Morning All Star Hits! (Season 1) (C+)

The Falcon and the Winter Solider (Season 1) (C)

Masters of the Universe: Revelation (Season 1) (C)

I also had time to catch up on plenty of pre-2021 TV, and am using it to catch up on popular shows that I never got to when they were actually airing. Some have withstood the test of time, while others... Well, let's get to the list:

The Other Two (Season 1) (2019) (A)

Man Seeking Woman (Seasons 1-3) (2015-2017) (A-)

Explained (Seasons 1-2) (2018-2019) (A-)
DuckTales (Seasons 1-2) (2017-2019) (B+)

Bridgerton (Season 1) (2020) (B+)
Close Enough (Season 1) (2020) (B+)

The Muppet Show (Seasons 1-3) (1976-1979) (B+)

The Owl House (Season 1) (2020) (B+)

Seinfeld (Seasons 1-4) (1980-1993) (B)

The Legend of Korra (Seasons 1-4) (2012-2014) (B-)

Castlevania (Season 3) (2020) (C+)

The State of the Art: Books 2021

The first thing I always look at when I get to my end-of-year reading list is how many books are on it. I have to confess, when there are less than whatever nebulous number I consider to be "acceptable", I feel like I've failed, as if I'm not living up to some potential that's being secretly measured somewhere. With that in mind, I didn't do too badly this year! Especially considering that the book I'm currently reading is 1349 pages long, and I'm not even halfway through yet.

I also always look over the books I've read over the past year to see if I can spot a theme. In 2019, it was "Anywhere But Here". In 2020, it was "Dealing with Loss". And in 2021, it seems apparent that the theme of the books that resonated with me this year is "What We Owe to Each Other". A lot of these books delve into how society treats women, people of differing socioeconomic status, and people of color. Some treat the subject seriously, while others are fairly flippant, but the underlying message is clear: Life is better when you can understand and empathize with people outside of your bubble. That said, let's get to the ranking!

The Custom of the Country - Edith Wharton (1913) (A+) 

Magpie Murders - Anthony Horowitz (2017) (A)

Piranesi - Susanna Clarke (2020) (A-)

The Psychology of Time Travel - Kate Mascarenhas (2018) (A-)

Look Alive Out There - Sloane Crosley (2018) (A-)

The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1899) (A-)

The Housekeeper and the Professor - Yoko Ogawa (2003/2009) (B+) 

There There - Tommy Orange (2018) (B+)
The Once and Future Witches - Alex E. Harrow (2020) (B+)
My Best Friend's Exorcism - Grady Hendrix (2016) (B+)
She Memes Well - Quinta Brunson (2021) (B+)

Sugar and Spite - Gail D. Villanueva (2021) (B+)

An Instance of the Fingerpost - Iain Pears (1998) (B)

You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism - Amber Ruffin, Lacey Lamar (2021) (B)

Spontaneous - Aaron Starmer (2016) (B)

Bad Feminist - Roxane Gay (2014) (B) 

Hench - Natalie Zina Walschots (2020) (B)

Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark - Cassandra Peterson (2021) (B)

The Man in the Brown Suit - Agatha Christie (1924) (B)

The Decagon House Murders - Yukito Ayatsuji (1987) (B-)
Countdown City - Ben  H. Winters (2013) (B-)

Fierce Kingdom - Gin Phillips (2017) (B-)

A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression - Jane Ziegelman & Andrew Coe (2016) (C+)

Black Chalk - Christopher J. Yates (2013) (C)

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - Suzanne Collins (2020) (C)

Her Body and Other Parties - Carmen Maria Machado (2017) (C-)

The State of the Art: Games 2021

2021 was a year unlike any other. If 2019 was the last of the Before Times, and 2020 was pure isolation, 2021 was a strange hybrid of trying to reincorporate into society, while still being cautious and safe. Social rules are still being updated on a daily basis. If it had any effect on the games I gravitated towards this year, maybe it's that having to make moral decisions and weigh risk on a daily basis means that I chose games that required logical thinking and creative solutions. In short, puzzle games took center stage.

If my favorite game of the year has to be pulled from those released in 2021, the weighty melancholy and emotional exploration in Life is Strange: True Colors would carry the day. But like I said, rules are constantly being updated, and if I truly want to showcase the game I loved this most this year, I have to pick one that was released in 2018.

Lamplight City takes place in 19th century America, but a parallel one, in which a lot of steampunk elements are present in everyday life. It's a classic point-and-click adventure style game, in which you play as Miles Fordham, a recovering alcoholic who wants to make good. When his partner is killed on a routine burglary call, he vows to find the killer, even as the voice of his dead partner haunts him (and serves as omniscient narrator). The graphical style is much like earlier games like Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, but with updated gameplay, like branching storylines based on your deductions and decisions. It was a thoroughly engrossing story, with terrific voice acting.

Also on the puzzle front, I've only just scratched the surface of Lost in Random, which appears to have been designed with me in mind, specifically. You play as a young girl on the trail of her missing sister, and the game incorporates story elements of powers based on randomness, like dice throws and card draws. I'm very much looking forward to playing more.

Though I explored plenty of new video games this year, when it came to tabletop, I stuck to the familiar. Dungeons & Dragons and the Arkham Horror card game remain stalwart favorites, with forays into the Pathfinder card game campaign as well.

For the rest of games I finished or am still playing (or at least tried out) during 2021, here's a list, in the order they made the biggest impact:

Mass Effect 2 (remastered)
Solasta
Procession to Calvary
Mass Effect 3 (remastered)
Mass Effect (remastered)
Fran Bow
The ABC Murders
Hercule Poirot's First Cases
Final Fantasy VII (remake)
Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
Assassin's Creed: Syndicate
Agent A: A Puzzle in Disguise
When the Past was Around
Newfound Courage
Whispers of a Machine
Avengers
Mother's Embrace
Baldur's Gate 3

The State of the Art: Movies 2020

These days, it's typical for the amount of television I consume to far outpace the number of movies I see. Getting out to the theater is (well, was) more of An Event than ever, and it was just easier to park myself on the couch. In 2020, though, they flipped. I still watched plenty of TV, but I saw way more movies than in other recent years. It's not hard to see why. COVID made at-home streaming the only way to see anything, and with a bunch of time freed up by not being able to go out and socialize, movies rushed in to fill the gap. 

That doesn't mean I got to see a lot of 2020 movies. Output was slim this year, so it was mostly older movies I was able to catch up with. Still, I did get to a handful of new releases, and picking a favorite was pretty easy. Palm Springs was a terrific new spin on the Groundhog Day trope. I didn't think it was possible to make yet another time loop story seem fresh, but thanks to hilarious performances from Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti, I was more than happy to watch them stagger through an uncomfortable wedding again and again and again. 

Here's the full ranking of 2020 movies:

Palm Springs (A)

Hamilton (A)
Soul (A-)
The Witches (B+)
To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You (B+)
Happiest Season (B)
Onward (B)
The Taste of Pho (B-)
The Willoughbys (C+)
Wonder Woman 1984 (C)

The internet was full of recommendations for things to watch during quarantine, and between those and the films that just caught my interest as a matter of course, my pre-2020 movie list was stacked:

Parasite (2019) (A)

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) (A)
Singin' in the Rain (1952) (A)
A Star is Born (2018) (A)
Little Women (2019) (A-)
Three Identical Strangers (2018) (B+)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) (B+)
Begin Again (2013) (B+)
Velvet Goldmine (1998) (B+)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) (B+)
Hello, Dolly! (1969) (B+)
Shazam! (2019) (B+)
Gypsy (1993) (B)
Toy Story 4 (2019) (B)
Dolemite is My Name (2019) (B)
Downton Abbey (2019) (B)
About Time (2013) (B)
Bathtubs Over Broadway (2018) (B)
Save the Last Dance (2001) (B)
The Five Heartbeats (1991) (B-)
Set it Up (2018) (B-)
Frozen 2 (2019) (B-)
The Harvey Girls (1946) (B-)
Klaus (2019) (B-)
I Lost My Body (2019) (B-)
Cause for Alarm! (1951) (C+)
The Invention of Lying (2009) (C+)
The Good Dinosaur (2015) (C+)
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) (C)
Yesterday (2019) (C)
F for Fake (1973) (C)
Honey (2003) (C)
Polly (1989) (C)
Carmen: A Hip Hopera (2001) (C-)
Raise Your Voice (2004) (D+)

The State of the Art: Television 2020

When it came to games and books this year, I willingly sank into deep, introspective, and outright sad material. But when the TV went on, it was time for some happy escape. The television shows I went for this year were funny or comforting or both. Well, except for BoJack Horseman. Nobody could accuse that of being cheery. The other good news is that I didn't watch anything that didn't turn out to be fairly satisfying; nothing would score below a B- on the 2020 TV list. Even in an overall good year of television, though, there's got to be a standout, and picking my favorite was simplicity itself.

I haven't yet watched the original What We Do in the Shadows movie, but started on the TV show, and immediately fell in love. Season 1 was terrific, and far from a sophomore slump, this year's Season 2 was outstanding. Individual episodes dealing with the vampire family's encounters with witches and ghosts and small town girls' volleyball budget crises were hilarious, and if that weren't enough, they managed to weave in a seasonal arc about Guillermo's slayer calling and the Council of Vampires that wants the crew dead. If I said more, it'd just be me sitting here recounting full scenes. Hopefully, we won't have to wait too long for more vampiric adventures.

There were a handful of other outstanding shows as well. Both Los Espookys (Season 1) and A Black Lady Sketch Show (Season 1) would have had real shots at being favorite of the year, had they not come out in 2019. Curse me for getting to them late. As to 2020 shows of the year, Never Have I Ever (Season 1) had a very strong inaugural season, and likely would have gotten more attention were it not for, well, *gestures at the entire world*. There were some emotional and powerful ending seasons, too, as BoJack Horseman (Season 6) and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (Season 5) nailed their final bows.

The rest of 2020 shows was a mix of farcical comedy, a couple of spooky mysteries, and as ever, the warmth and familiarity of everyone's favorite baking show. The ranked list:

Brooklyn Nine Nine (Season 7)
The Good Place (Season 4)
The Great British Baking Show (Season 8 (US), Season 11 (UK)
Superstore (Season 5)
The Haunting of Bly Manor (Season 1)
The Goes Wrong Show (Season 1)
The Great American Baking Show (Season 5)
Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun (Season 1)
Locke & Key (Season 1)
Indian Matchmaking (Season 1)
100 Humans (Season 1)

And then there were the catch-up shows, from 2019 and before that I finally had the time to get to. Here's the ranking:

What We Do in the Shadows (Season 1) (2019)
Dollface (Season 1) (2019)
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (Season 4) (2019)
iZombie (Season 1) (2015)
Always a Witch (Siempre Bruja) (Season 1) (2019)
Marvel Rising (standalones) (2018-2019)
Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories (Season 2) (2019)
Avatar: The Last Airbender (Season 1-3) (2005-2008)
Toast of London (Seasons 1-3) (2012-2015)
Nailed It! Holiday! (Season 2) (2019)

The State of the Art: Books 2020

Hey, guess what? It turns out when you're essentially confined to home for the better part of a year, you wind up having more time to read. Who'd have thunk it? In 2018, I had a lot going on, and only read 12 books. Pitiful. I did much better in 2019, putting away 24 books. And in 2020, it's bumped up again to 34. There usually seems to be a guiding theme for each year's books, and as with the games I played this year, the theme for 2020 appears to be "Dealing With Loss".

A lot of the books I read this year bear witness to their characters looking inward to explore a tangled web of painful memories, or grimly going about their business as the world falls to pieces around them. Some make peace with their demons, be they literal or metaphorical, and some are subsumed. 2020 has forced us all to ask some probing questions about the human condition, and to look for answers about just how the hell we're supposed to react when the invisible bonds of society fray and snap.

Not everything I read this year was a bummer, but even among the books that did have a melancholy bent, there were plenty of wonderful finds. Let's get to the ranking!

 

The Book of Speculation - Erika Swyler (2015) (A)

Atonement - Ian McEwan (2001) (A)

To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis (1998) (A)

Circe - Madeline Miller (2018) (A-)

The Just City - Jo Walton (2014) (A-)

The Last Policeman - Ben Winters (2012) (A-)

The Starless Sea - Erin Morgenstern (2019) (B+)

Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine - Sarah Lohman (2016) (B+)

My Sister, The Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite (2017) (B+)

Gods of Jade and Shadow - Silvia Moreno-Garcia (2019) (B+)

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore - Robin Sloan (2012) (B+)

The Ten Thousand Doors of January - Alix E. Harrow (2019) (B)

Sea of Rust - C. Robert Cargill (2017) (B)

XL - Scott Brown (2019) (B)

The Party - Elizabeth Day (2017) (B)

The Dreamers - Karen Thompson Walker (2019) (B)

Then She Was Gone - Lisa Jewell (2017) (B)

The Warehouse - Rob Hart (2019) (B)

The Dirge of Reason - Graeme Davis (2018) (B)

Did You Ever Have a Family - Bill Clegg (2015) (B-)

253 - Geoff Ryman (1998) (B-)

Becoming - Michelle Obama (2018) (B-)

Annihilation (Southern Reach #1) - Jeff VanderMeer (2014) (B-)

Long Way Down - Jason Reynolds (2017) (B-)

Ire of the Void - Richard Lee Byers (2017) (B-)

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts - Kate Racculia (2019) (C+)

The Deep Gate - Chris A. Jackson (2017) (C+)

Dark Revelations - Amanda Downum (2020) (C+)

Blood of Baalshandor - Richard Lee Byers (2020) (C+)

Murder in the Crooked House - Soji Shimada (2016) (C+)

To Fight the Black Wind - Jennifer Brozek (2018) (C+)

The Arrangement - Sarah Dunn (2017) (C)

You Know You Want This - Kristen Roupenian (2019) (C-)

American Panda - Gloria Chao (2018) (C-)

The State of the Art: Games 2020

It can be strange to describe myself as a "gamer", because that word carries connotations that don't apply to me. The general public hears "gamer", and assume I'm downing fifteen energy drinks and loading the latest shoot 'em up to murderize as many pixels as I can. And you know, some days I do feel like doing that.

Games can be so much more than that, though, and for 2020 in particular, the themes of this year's favorites are depth, thoughtfulness, regret, and sadness. The games I enjoyed the most this year are all about looking back, and trying to summon the strength to put the pieces of broken lives back together in order to move forward. And at the top of that bittersweet pile is... Spiritfarer.

 

In Spiritfarer, you play as Stella, who is accompanied by her cat Daffodil. Stella has taken over duties from Charon, and is now in charge of accomplishing the last wishes of her passengers before dropping their souls off in the Great Beyond. Charon managed his duties with cold efficiency, but that is not how Stella treats her charges. For Stella, her job is about compassion and empathy. The game itself is about resource management, as Stella cooks and gardens and runs errands and builds new rooms on her ship, all in service of making the souls she's accompanying feel more comfortable and ultimately, more understood. Inevitably, it is time to say goodbye, and this game left me in tears more than once. It's got beautiful visuals, beautiful music, and a beautiful message, and was exactly the game I needed this year.

 

The clear runner-up is similarly melancholy. Tell Me Why is a three-chapter game in which twins Tyler and Alyson meet again after many years apart to sell their childhood home. Tragedy in their childhood separated them, breaking the close bond they shared, and plunging them each into their own separate problems: Tyler going to a troubled youth facility as he deals with not only the complications of his transgender transition, but being blamed for the death of his mother, and Alyson remaining in their hometown and never breaking out of her shell. When the twins reunite, they begin to discover that there was much more to their troubled mother's story, and begin to dig up truths that the rest of the town would rather leave buried.

 

 

This game was extremely well-written and well-acted, and far from just being a point-and-click novel, included branching story decisions and fun puzzles. Clearly, 2020 game designers have as much on their minds as the rest of us. 

It wasn't all tears, though. The other big hit of the year was Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?! which is no surprise, given how much I liked Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2. Time management games appeal to me for some reason, especially if they're food-themed, and this one is not only fun, but has amazing food art, and incredible music. One of the songs wound up legitimately being one of the year's biggest jams for me.

On the tabletop front, Tiddy and I continue to enjoy our horrific journeys through Arkham Horror, even taking part in an Ironman in which we played through the entire "The Circle Undone" campaign, which took literally all day. We've explored the Marvel Champions and Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth tabletop games as well, though we always seem to find our way back to Arkham.

As for the rest of the games I finished, am still playing, or at least tried out during 2020, here's a list, in the order they made the biggest impact on me:

Dungeons & Dragons (I'm so happy we've been able to keep this up virtually, but am looking forward to getting back to playing in person)
Zero Time Dilemma (Nonary Games #3)
Greedfall
Hidden Through Time
Disco Elysium
Overwatch
Dragon Quest 11
A Normal Lost Phone
Max Gentleman Sexy Business
Eliza
Octopath Traveler
Aviary Attorney
Your Royal Gayness
Dragonfire
Final Fantasy XIV

The State of the Art: Movies 2019

If there's a main criticism I have of myself when it comes to movies, it's that in the past few years, the majority of ones I see in the year they're released are superhero flicks. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with those, but I want to have a broader spectrum of the year's offerings come December. Happily, I did pretty well with that in 2019, though a lot of the credit has to go to streaming services, which allowed me to see new or original content without having to get out of my pajamas or deal with the dreaded public. When you mix in the non-2019 movies I watched, there's a healthy mix of genres, and a wide spectrum from critical darlings to popular-with-the-masses to utter garbage. (Listen, I have friends who love nothing more than loading up on snacks and riffing through the worst things Amazon/Netflix/Hulu have to offer, and I am here for it.) Goodbye, 2019! It's time to kick off a new decade of cinema. Let's hope it's a good one.

Knives Out (A)
Jojo Rabbit (A-)
The Farewell (A-)
Booksmart (B+)
Lego Movie 2 (B+)
Avengers: Endgame (B)
Happy Death Day 2U (B)
Always Be My Maybe (B)
Captain Marvel (B)
Spider-Man: Far From Home (B)
The Perfect Date (B-)
Isn't It Romantic (C+)
Wine Country (C+)

And the ranking of all the pre-2019 movies I caught up on:

The Favourite (2018) (A-)
Paddington 2 (2018) (B+)
Roma (2018) (B+)
A Simple Favor (2018) (B+)
The Little Prince (2015) (B+)
Blockers (2018) (B+)
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018) (B)
Incredibles 2 (2018) (B)
Mary Poppins Returns (2018) (B-)
Tea with the Dames (2018) (B-)
50 First Dates (2004) (B-)
Aquaman (2018) (C+)
Never Been Kissed (1999) (C+)
Mini Witch (2010) (C+)
Like Father (2018) (C+)
April and the Extraordinary World (2015) (C)
Avengers Grimm: Time Wars (2018) (F)
Oh My Ghost 2 (2011) (F)

I've said this for essentially every area of pop culture, but picking a favorite movie of the decade was extremely difficult. Not only are there too many great movies to choose from, but I'll have had a favorite comedy, a favorite drama, a favorite documentary, a favorite musical, and on and on and on. So, I went for one that made my jaw drop with happiness in the theater, and still delights me to this day. I post GIFs of it. I quote it. I'm always in the mood for it. From Knives Out to Knives Chau, it's...

Scott Pilgrim vs.the World (2010)

This movie is almost tailor-made to my tastes. I know there are more highbrow movies out there, drowning in Oscars. I know there are more crowd-pleasing movies out there, earning huge box office numbers. But when it comes to the movie that filled me with the most joy this decade, it had to be this.

The State of the Art: Books 2019

It's strange. I certainly didn't have any additional free time this year, but somehow, I managed to pull myself out of the depths of my terrible track record from last year, and finished a decent amount of books. It was probably affected by finally finishing that 1100-page behemoth, but whatever the reason, I'm glad I got to immerse myself in more literature in 2019. A theme tends to emerge in every year, and looking over the titles I read this year, it's fairly clear that 2019's theme is "Anywhere But Here". The books I read tended to embrace the fantastical, the magical, and the faraway. It's pretty obvious I was in no mood to be reading things about our current society.

As ever, it'd be too restrictive to limit the list to only books published this year, so I've included everything I read. Let's get to the ranking!

Only the Strong - Jabari Asim (2015) (A)
Sourdough - Robin Sloan (A)
How Long 'til Black Future Month? - N.K. Jemisin (2018) (A-)
The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue - Mackenzi Lee (2017) (A-)

Horrorstör - Grady Hendrix (2014) (B+)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie (2007) (B+)
How to Stop Time - Matt Haig (2017) (B+)
The Shepherd's Crown - Terry Pratchett (2015) (B+)

So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y'all Don't Even Know - Retta (2018) (B)
The Immortalists - Chloe Benjamin (2018) (B)
Tales of H.P. Lovecraft - H.P. Lovecraft (collection published in 2000) (B)
The Queen of the Night - Alexander Chee (2016) (B)
The Hunting Party - Lucy Foley (2019) (B)
The Unexpected Heiress - Frank W. Butterfield (2016) (B)
Hour of the Huntress - Dave Gross (2017) (B)
Final Girls - Riley Sager (2017) (B)
Rosalie Lightning - Tom Hart (2016) (B)
Die Volume 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker - Kieron Gillen (2019) (B)

1Q84 - Haruki Murakami (2009) (B-)
Leah on the Offbeat - Becky Albertalli (2018) (B-)
Neither Snow Nor Rain: A History of the United States Postal Service - Devin Leonard (2016) (B-)
The People We Hate at the Wedding - Grant Ginder (2017) (B-)

Press Start to Play - Edited by Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams (2015) (C)
Get in Trouble - Kelly link (2015) (C)

And the books I abandoned partway through:

Shaker - Scott Frank (2016)
Made to Kill - Adam Christopher (2015)

As to my favorite book of the decade, it's an almost impossible choice; I've read so many amazing titles over the past ten years! Once I sat down to consider which one I've reread the most often, or the one I catch myself thinking about the most, or the one that still captures a magical atmosphere better than any other book I've ever read, one definitely stood out.

The Night Circus (Erin Morgenstern, 2011) casts a spell that's impossible to break free from, and makes you feel as if you're actually wandering the winding paths alongside its mysterious characters. If you haven't read it, make sure you do, but with the proviso that you should read it during chilly weather.