Favorites and Recommendations - Books/Movies/TV
If you like any of this stuff, then you're in the right place
If you’re a reader, then I’d bet anything that you’ve had this experience.
I’m pushing all of my chips into the middle of the table. Okay, I don’t know if that’s how gambling works, but stay with me.
You’re at a gathering, or family event, and some potential new friend, or an aunt or uncle, finds out that you love to read, and their face lights up!
“Oh my goodness, me too! You just HAVE to read X! I just finished it and it is the best thing I’ve ever read!”
And maybe you were in a time and place in your life where you were open to trying something out. So you get the book and start reading it. It doesn’t usually take long for that cold realization to hit:
“Oh no. This is the biggest piece of shit I have ever read in my life.”
And just like that you know you can never trust your uncle’s taste in anything, ever again.
This is a trust building exercise.
Maybe you’ve been following me for a little while on other platforms, and have come to trust my takes and taste somewhat. Or maybe you’ve stumbled across this post and are trying to get to know me a little and decide if this is worth your time.
So let’s get into it.
I’ve been tracking almost everything I read and watch for the past ten years or so, and I’m going to share my favorite books and movies from each year, as well as some general favorites across a few categories.
My goals are twofold:
If you already know me a little, then this will be a ton of great recommendations across genres and mediums for you to dig into.
If you don’t trust me yet, hopefully you’ll recognize some of your taste in my picks and decide to stick around and have fun with the rest of us.
If you notice any notable omissions in any category then I’d love to hear it. I’m always searching for an incredible experience, and with all the content that is out there it’s impossible not to have some gaps, so please share. Maybe closing some of those gaps could be part of the fun we get into this year together.
Would I redo some of these lists if I were choosing today? For sure. But in the aggregate you’ll get a sense for what I like.
Top 10 Favorite Books from each of the Last 8 Years
2022
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Heat 2 by Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner
Babel by R. F. Kuang
Stolen Focus by Johann Hari
The Sandman by Neil Gaiman
The Island by Adrian McKinty
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama
2021
The Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson
The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu
Drug Use For Grownups by Carl Hart
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Shibumi by Trevanian
Emergency Contact by Mary H. K. Choi
Razor blade Tears by S. A. Cosby
The Devil's Advocate by Steve Cavanagh
The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
2020
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
A Promised Land by Barack Obama
Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Crosby
Satori by Don Winslow
Atonement by Ian McEwan
The Order of Time by Carlos Rivelli
Locke & Key: Alpha and Omega vol. 6 by Joe Hill
2019
The Border by Don Winslow
Recursion by Blake Crouch
How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan
Fleishman Is In Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyen
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
The Chain by Adrian McKinty
The Gone World by Tom Sweterlisch
2018
Educated by Tara Westover
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn
Saga by Brian K. Vaughan (issues #1-53)
The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis
November Road by Lou Berney
The Nix by Nathan Hill
The Defense by Steve Cavanagh
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
A Man Called Ove by Frederick Backman
2017
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
The Force by Don Winslow
Innocents and Others by Dana Spiotta
Before the Fall by Noah Hawley
Strange Weather by Joe Hill
Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
2016
The Cartel by Don Winslow
The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton
Dark matter by Blake Crouch
The Three Body Problem Series by Cixin Liu
The Fireman by Joe Hill
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Me before you by Jo Jo Moyes
Red shirts by John Scalzi
World Gone By by Dennis Lehane
2015
Child 44 by Tom Robb Smith
Number 9 Dream by David Mitchell
The Sean Duffy Series by Adrian McKinty
Live By Night by Dennis Lehane
Mind MGMT by Matt Kindt
Savages by Don Winslow
Planetary (Books #1-4) by Warren Ellis
Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon
Wool by Hugh Howey
Nineteen Seventy-Four by David Peace
But wait, there’s more! If you need to save this and come back, I understand, but let’s keep going.
Favorite Comics:
The Sandman Series by Neil Gaiman
Reckless Series by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
Kill or Be Killed by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
Saga by Brian K. Vaughan
Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan
Batman: The Court of Owls by Scott Snyder
Daredevil: The Man Without Fear by Frank Miller
Batman: Year One by Frank Miller
Locke and Key by Joe Hill
Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan
Watchmen by Alan Moore
Favorite Crime Writers:
Elmore Leonard (Out of Sight)
Michael Connelly (Bosch and Haller series)
Jo Nesbo (Harry Hole series)
Dennis Lehane (Pat and Angie Series)
Don Winslow (The Border Trilogy)
Adrian McKinty (Sean Duffy Series)
James Ellroy (The L. A. Quartet)
Favorite Science Fiction Writers:
Cixin Liu (Three Body Problem Trilogy)
Frank Herbert (Dune Series)
Isaac Asimov (Foundation Series)
Phillip K. Dick (A Scanner Darkly)
Neal Stephenson (Seveneves)
Becky Chambers (A Psalm for the Wild-Built)
Ted Chiang (Exhalation)
Favorite Fantasy Writers:
Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive)
N. K. Jemisin (The Broken Earth Trilogy)
Neil Gaiman (American Gods)
V. E. Schwabb (The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue)
R. F. Kuang (Babel)
Naomi Novik (The Scholomance Trilogy)
Ken Liu (The Dandelion Dynasty)
Favorite Classics:
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Top 15 Favorite Movies from each of the last 10 Years
2022
Top Gun: Maverick
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Avatar: The Way of Water
NOPE
The Batman
RRR
The Woman King
Decision To Leave
Prey
Barbarian
Glass Onion
Banshees of Inisherin
Tár
The Fabelmans
After Yang
2021
Dune
The Mitchell's vs the Machines (Netflix)
Bo Burnham's Inside (Netflix)
Encanto
Another Round
Minari
Billie Eilish Documentary (Apple+)
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Shang-Chi
Coda (Apple+)
Licorice Pizza
King Richard (HBO)
The Suicide Squad (HBO Max)
Black Widow
The French Dispatch
2020
Soul (Disney+)
Palm Springs (Hulu)
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix)
The Way Back
The Gentlemen
Enola Holmes (Netflix)
Boys State (Apple+)
The Old Guard (Netflix)
Tenet
Onward
Birds of Prey
Emma
The Hunt
EuroVision: Fire Saga (Netflix)
WW84
2019
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
Parasite
Marriage Story (Netflix)
Knives Out
Little Women
Ford v. Ferrari
The Irishman (Netflix)
Avengers: Endgame
Uncut Gems
Jo Jo Rabbit
The Farewell
A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood
Fighting With My Family
Long Shot
Booksmart
2018
Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse
Black Panther
First Man
A Star Is Born
Widows
A Quiet Place
Annihilation
Mission:Impossible - Fallout
American Animals
Game Night
Avengers Infinity War
If Beale Street Could Talk
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Roma (Netflix)
Blindspotting
2017
Lady Bird
Blade Runner 2049
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Detroit
Dunkirk
Coco
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Baby Driver
Thor: Ragnarok
Wonder Woman
Phantom Thread
Stronger
The Big Sick
The Disaster Artist
Molly’s Game
2016
La La Land
Manchester By The Sea
Hell or High Water
Moonlight
Sing Street
Lion
The Nice Guys
The Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Moana
Arrival
Nocturnal Animals
Green Room
Silence
The Accountant
Midnight Special
2015
Ex Machina
Mad Max: Fury Road
Inside Out
Creed
The Martian
Brooklyn
The Big Short
The Bridge of Spies
Spotlight
Steve Jobs
Sicario
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Kingsman: The Secret Service
The Gift
The Revenant
2014
Whiplash
Frank
Boyhood
The Drop
Gone Girl
Birdman
Nightcrawler
Interstellar
The Raid 2: Berandal
Chef
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Captain American: The Winter Soldier
Locke
X-Men Days of Futures Past
Edge of Tomorrow
2013
The Wolf of Wall Street
About Time
Her
Prisoners
This is the End
What If
Side Effects
Begin Again
Inside Llewyn Davis
Locke
Snowpiercer
The Conjuring
Dallas Buyers Club
Man of Steel
Gravity
For movies from the dawn of time through 2012 I got another 100 titles, but realized that I needed to calm down. So I whittled that down to 62.
Not calm enough.
40 was the best I could do right now!
A Few Good Men
Bridesmaids
Catch Me If You Can
Children of Men
Crazy, Stupid, Love
Die Hard
Gone Baby Gone
Good Will Hunting
Goodfellas
Heat
In Bruges
Jack Reacher
Jackie Brown
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Kramer vs. Kramer
Looper
Mean Girls
Michael Clayton
Minority Report
Moneyball
Ocean's 11
Out of Sight
Pride and Prejudice (2005…obviously)
Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World
Scream
Seven
Spirited Away
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
The Aviator
The Big Lebowski
The Departed
The Matrix
The Prestige
The Silence of the Lambs
The Social Network
The Town
There Will Be Blood
Titanic
When Harry Met Sally
Zodiac
I definitely need to watch some older movies… maybe we’ll do a little of that this year too.
Finally - TV. Ironically, I probably watch more TV than I watch movies or read books, but I only just started tracking those details last year, so I don’t necessarily have ranked lists from each year.
Here are my 15 favorite TV shows from 2022:
Andor
Station 11
The Bear
Reservation Dogs season 2
Severance
Atlanta seasons 3 and 4
The White Lotus season 2
We Own This City
Barry season 3
The Rehearsal
Strange new worlds season 1
Arcane
Reacher
Derry Girls season 3
The Sandman
Here are a few of my favorite shows of all time:
30 Rock
Atlanta
Attack on Titan
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Breaking Bad
Fleabag
Friday Night Lights
Game of Thrones
Justified
Star Trek (the Original Series)
Succession
Ted Lasso
The Queen's Gambit
The West Wing
The Wire
You did it. You made it to the end.
I’m glad you’re here, and hope you decide to subscribe (or stay subscribed), because there are so many great things to read and watch, and so many interesting things to talk about!
Leave me a comment and let me know what I absolutely have to watch or read in order for my life to be complete!