Thursday, January 14, 2021

Books 2020

 1. The Tragedy of Arthur

2. Penguins Stopped Play

3. Lay Down Your Weary Tune

4. Murder on the Orient Express

5. The Lager Queen of Minnesota

6. Lily and the Octopus

7. Agatha: The Real Life of Agatha Christie

8. The Summer that Melted Everything

9. The Murder at the Vicarage

10. They Do It With Mirrors

11. Comanche Moon

12. Murder in Mesopotamia

13. Five Little Pigs

14. Streets of Laredo

15. Hickory Dickory Dock

16. Ghosted

17. The Great Believers

18. The Dreamers

19. As If Running On Air: The Journals of Jack Lovelock

20. The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding

21. An Englishman in Paris: L'Education Continentale

22. The Field Guide to the North American Teenager

23. One Two Buckle My Shoe

24. American Pop

25. Between The World and Me

26. The Hand on the Wall

27. The Age of Magic

28. A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons

29. The Office: The Untold Story of Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s: An Oral History

30. The Overdue Life of Amy Byler

31. Almost Midnight

32. Peril at End House

33. The Parade

34. Baby

35. Happy Campers: 9 Summer Camp Secrets for Raising Kids Who Become Thriving Adults

36. Telex from Cuba

37. A Good Neighborhood

38. The Death of Truth

39. The Banker's Wife

40. More Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops

41. When All is Said

42. Fame Adjacent

43. The Art of Noticing: Rediscover What Really Matters to You

44. Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know

45. Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry

46. Vexation Lullaby

47. We Don't Need Roads: The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy

48. One by One

49. Tell the Wolves I'm Home

50. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

51. Death in the Clouds

52. The Bridge: How the Roeblings Connected Brooklyn to New York

53. Normal People

54. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

55. Tarnished Are With Stars

56. Qualityland

57. In Other Lands

58. The Listerdale Mystery

59. 4:50 from Paddington

60. The Dutch House


None were worse than The Tragedy of Arthur though remembering Baby does not make me pleased. 

There were some good ones this year. The discovery of Agatha Christie was a joy and I read 12 of her books and have plans to read more. Overall, Tell the Wolves I'm Home was my favorite, but The Dutch House, Normal People, and The Great Believers were all tales well told. I also fondly recall The Lager Queen of Minnesota as I review this list. That's the most books I've read since 2015, though I think Christie helped on that front too. 

Movies 2020

1. Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker (theater)
2. Marriage Story
3. Journey 2: Mysterious Island (sorta)
4. We are Marshall (re-watch)
5. To all the boys 2: P.S. I still love you
6. Annie (2014)
7. Acceptance (re-watch)
8. Mean Girls (re-watch)
9. Spenser Confidential
10. Zombieland (re-watch)
LOCKDOWN
11. The Big Sick
12. Shawshank Redemption (re-watch in 3 parts)
13. Lady Bird
14. Madagascar (re-watch and first family movie and F's first in one sitting)
Post Lockdown
15. Kimmy Schmidt
16. World War Z (re-watch)
17. All The Freckles in the World
18. The Half of it
19. Focus (re-watch)
20. Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa
21. 13th (tears)
22. BlacKkKlansman
23. Back to the Future (re-watch)
24. The Lovebirds
25. Burlesque
26. Night School
27. Train to Busan (tears)
28. Back to the Future II (re-watch)
29. The Wrong Missy
30. Work it
31. Eurovision
32. Bad Moms Christmas
33. V for Vendetta (re-watch)
34. Love, guaranteed
35. Freaks, you're one of us
36. A Star is Born
37. The F Word (re-watch, called What if?)
38. Late Night
39. Despicable Me
40. Notting Hill (re-watch)
41. Enola Holmes
42. The Lake House (re-watch)
43. Music & Lyrics (re-watch)
44. Hubie Halloween
45. On the Basis of Sex
46. Holidate
47. A New York Christmas Wedding
48. High Flying Bird
49. The Old Man With A Gun
50. Let it Snow
51. California Christmas

I watched one movie in the theater and 15 movies I'd seen previously. Train to Busan was the biggest surprise. On the Basis of Sex got me pretty pumped up. Shawshank Redemption felt like a good choice for Lockdown.