Movies 2025

1. The Wild Robot 

2. Saturday Night

3. Dog Man

4. Back to the Future (rewatch)

5. Inside Out 2 (airplane with F)

6. Ratatouille (rewatch, airplane with F)

7.  Goonies (F gave up after 1 hour)

8. Happy Gilmore 2

9. Unfrosted 

10. Rudy (rewatch)

11. The Woman in Cabin 10

12. The Life List

13. A Minecraft Movie 

14. A Merry Little Ex-mas

15. The Family Holiday

16. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (was on while I mostly ignored it)

17.  A Biltmore Christmas 

18. Freakier Friday

19. Back to the Outback

I enjoyed most of the kids' movies. I was quite taken with A Biltmore Christmas and quite annoyed with A Merry Little Ex-mas. 

Books 2025

 I guess we're still doing this. I'm using The Storygraph to track my reading. I read 41 books this year and quit at least 2. I average a book every 10 days and 76% of my reading this year was fiction, slightly above the 68% of the last 19 years. 

1. Roller Girl

2. The Flawless Skin of Ugly People

3. Welcome to Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles, and Parks and Recreation

4. Dear Edward

5. The Game

6. Wellness

7. The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. (re-read)

8. The Wild Robot Escapes

9. Uncommon Type

10. Kingdom Quarterback: Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City Chiefs, and How a Once Swingin' Cow Town Chased the Ultimate Comeback

11. The God of Woods

12. The Night We Lost Him

13. Take Back the Game: How Money and Mania Are Ruining Kids' Sports-- And Why it Matters

14. Great Big Beautiful Life

15. Rental House

16. The Ministry of Time

17. Less

18. All the Water in the World

19. A Different Kind of Power

20. Curbing Traffic: The Human Case for Fewer Cars in Our Lives

21. The Sense of Wonder

22. The Woman in Suite 11

23. The Future

24. 10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People: A Groundbreaking Approach to Leading the Next Generation for Managers, Parents, and Educators

25. Life Audit: A Step-by-Step Guide to Discovering Your Goal and Building The Life You Want

26. The Bullet Swallower

27. Girls They Write Songs About

28. It's Elementary (Mavis Miller #1)

29. The Nineties

30. A Girl Like Us

31. Culpability

32. I Hope This Finds You Well

33. Wild Dark Shore

34. The Flatshare

35. French Braid

36. The Teacher

37. Convenience Store Woman

38. Heart the Lover

39. Wreck (Rocky #2)

40. The Anxious Generation: How The Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causign an Epidemic of Mental Illness

41. Joan is Okay 

My favorite was Dear Edward. Heart the Lover was high on my list too. Less was my least favorite. I also abandoned Spice Gate, The Sellout and a couple others. 

Books 2024

1. In the Lives of Puppets
2. Fates and Furies
3. Old Man's War (#1)
4. She-Hulk (#1)
5. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
6. Scattered Showers: Stories
7. Wayward Son 
8. Any Way the Wind Blows
9. The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics (re-read)
10. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
11. A Quantum Love Story
12. Bunyan and Henry; Or, the Beautiful Destiny
13. Weird Parenting Wins: Bathtub Dining, Family Screams, and Other Hacks from the Parenting Trenches
14. Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places
15. Funny Story
16. One Perfect Couple
17. Before the Coffee Gets Gold
18. Rules for Becoming a Legend
19. The Library
20. Sub 4:00: Alan Webb and the Quest for the Fastest Mile
21. How High We Go in the Dark
22. Come and Get It
23. City Limits; Infrastructure, Inequality, and the Future of America's Highways
24. Just a Couple Of Days
25. How to Stop Time
26. James
27. Erasure
28. Such a Bad Influence
29. Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters
30. The Murder on the Links (Hercule Poirot #2)
31. The Dallergut Dream Department Store
32. The Ghost Brigades (Old Man War #2)
33. Remarkably Bright Creatures
34. Believe: The Untold Story Behind Ted Lasso, the Show that Kicked Its Way into Our Hearts
35. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
36. Tooth and Claw (A Longmire Mystery)
37. Holidays on Ice (re-read?)
38. Tietam Brown

James was my favorite. Remarkably Bright Creatures, How to Stop Time and Come and Get It deserve special mention. The Dallergut Dream Department Store conceit deserves mention all on its own. I didn't love the story, but the idea still floats through my thoughts. 

Movies 2024

1. Gran Turismo
2. The Family Plan
3. Up (re-watch with F)
4. Break Point
5. Ford vs. Ferrari
6. The Love Bug (re-watch with F)
7. Muppets Take Manhattan (re-watch with F)
8. The Instigators
9. Curry: Underrated 
10. Twist 
11. Next Goal Wins 
12.  Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
13. The Fall Guy
14. IF (tears)
15. American Fiction 
16. Herbie Goes Bananas
17. The Long Game (airplane)
18. Hot Frosty 
19. Our Little Secret
20. Christmas in Notting Hill
21. Merry Gentleman

A few notes: Car movies are sports movies though Herbie Goes Bananas could have used more racing. I watched American Fiction after reading "Erasure" and the book was better. IF wasn't that great, but it had the themes to make me weep. I'm not that happy with this year's Christmas movies though I'm not sure what I would have done differently. Happy New Year. 

Books 2023

1. Rebecca

2. Anvils, Mallets, and Dynamite: The Unauthorized Biography of Looney Tunes

3. The Captain and The Glory

4. This Time Tomorrow

5. Six Years (accidental re-read of a Harlan Coben)

7. Dark Music

8. The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

9. Our Missing Hearts

10. The Cartographers

11. The Box in the Woods (Truly Devious #4)

12. Real Life (Taylor Brandon)

13. The Amateur Marriage

14. The Dictionary of Lost Words

15. Marple: Twelve New Mysteries

16. K-Pop Revolution (K-Pop Confidential #2)

17. The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

18. I Have Some Questions for You

19. Dan versus Nature

20. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

21. To Be Taught, If Fortunate

22. The Verifiers

23. A Highly Unlikely Scenario, or a Neetsa Pizza Employee's Guide to Saving the World

24. Happy Place

25. The Sense of an Ending

26. The Bolt Supremacy: Inside Jamaica's Sprint Factory

27. The Mythmakers

28. Tom Lake

29. Delicious!

30. The Girl in the Eagle's Talons (Millennium #7)

31. America the Beautiful? One Woman in a Borrowed Prius on the Roads Most Traveled

32. The Mysteries Affairs at Styles (Hercule Poirot #1)

33. Translating Myself and Others

34. Gator Country: Deception, Danger, and Alligators in the Everglades

35. Horse

Gave up: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead and Lonesome Traveler

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow was my favorite book of the year and the one I recommended most. The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, Delicious! and Horse (possible recency bias) are all high on my list of enjoyable reads as well. There were a number that I struggled through this year. I wanted to like The Cartographers so much more than I did. Gator Country was a mess. The Bolt Supremacy didn't do it for me and neither did Translating Myself and Others. 

I have the sense that I could do better at picking books that I'd like before I start reading them, but as I'm making this list I really don't see that many that I could have avoided. Back to the stacks! 

Movies 2023

1. Don't Worry, Darling

2. Ticket to Paradise

3. Champions

4. DC League of Super Pets (theater!)

5. Flamin' Hot

6.Trolls: World Tour (theater)

7. Borg vs. McEnroe

8. Barbie (theater)

9. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

10. meet cute

11. Theater Camp

12. On the Rocks

13. A Turtle's Tale (kinda)

14. Elemental

15. AIR

16. Turkey Bowl

17. Wizards of Waverly Place The Movie

18. Hustle

19. Spirited

20. (most of) Home Alone

I made my first visit to the theater since January of 2020. I enjoyed it, even for the kid's movies. It has become a challenge to watch a movie, especially in one sitting. Barbie was my favorite. A Turtle's Tale is an unbelievably bad cartoon. 

Books 2022

 1. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

2. Please Ignore Vera Dietz

3. Black Buck

4. Ready Player Two

5. The President's Daughter

6. Pumpkinheads

7. A Season of Daring Greatly

8. The Last Thing He Told Me

9. The Midnight Library

10. Jukebox

11. Hell of a Book

12. Sure, I'll Be Your Black Friend: Notes from the Other Side of the Fist Bump

13. And Now She's Gone

14. Pashmina

15. Friendshipping: The Art of Finding Friends, Being Friends, and Keeping Friends

16. The Flood Girls

17. The Glass Hotel

18. That Summer

19. We Are the Brennans

20. The Final Revival of Opal & Nev

21. The Husbands

22. Educated

23. The Violin Conspiracy

24. The New One: Painfully True Stories of a Reluctant Dad

25. Frankly in Love

26. Troubled Blood 

27. The Office BFFs: Tales of The Office from Two Best Friends Who Were There

28. The 6:20 Man

29. The Pull of the Stars

30. A Key to Treehouse Living

31. American Spy

32. The Borrower

33. The Every

34. The Last White Man

35. Hello, Cruel Heart

36. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

37. The Art of Fielding (re-read)

38. These Precious Days: Essays

39. K-pop Confidential

40. A Psalm for the Wild-Built

41. Writers & Lovers

42. Demon Copperhead

43. A Prayer for the Crown-Shy

44. Black Cake

Not A Carnival of Snackery, The Ten Thousand Doors of January

Books that made me want to be in a book club so we could talk about good stuff:  Writers & Lovers, A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Frankly in Love

It was a bit of a rough year for some of my favorite authors as Demon Copperhead, The Last White Man, The Every and Ready Player Two weren't nearly as enjoyable as I'd hoped.

Book I have that I'd most like to loan you: A Key to Treehouse Living

Movies 2022

 

1. Where'd You Go, Bernadette?

2. The Starling

3. Together, Together

4. Cars

5. Palm Springs 

6. Ingrid Goes West

7. Table 19

8. Encanto

9. Senior Year

10. Sing 2

11. Licorice Pizza (1 hour, then quit)

12. It had to be you

13. Rio

14. The Lost City

15. Downton Abbey: A New Era

16. Rosaline

17. WEIRD 

18. Where the Crawdads Sing

19. Falling for Christmas

20. Christmas at the Drive-in 

21. Holiday in Santa Fe

22. Merry Kiss Cam

23. Love Actually (I guess)

24. The Grinch

25. A not so merry Christmas (en espanol)

26. Rumble

Palm Springs was my favorite. Licorice Pizza was the worst. Another year without a visit to the theater. 

Books 2021

1. Genuine Fraud

2. The Stranger Diaries

3. Piranesi

4. Mother Tongue: The Story of the English Lanugage

5. How to be an Antiracist

6. The New Ships

7. Fleishman is in Trouble

8. Endless Night

9. All Our Wrong Todays

10. Snap

11. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed

12. Wonderful Feels Like This

13. Uneasy Street: The Anxieties of Affluence

14. The Starless Sea

15. Art Matters

16. 88 Names

17. American Delirium

18. Neon in Daylight

19. The Partner (re-read)

20. Oona Out of Order

21. The Boy From the Woods

22. The Hundred-Year House

23. Such a Fun Age

24. Where the Crawdads Sing

25. The Gone World

26. The Ballads of Songbirds Snakes

27. This Was Not the Plan

28.  Utopia Avenue

29. Leave the World Behind

30. The Weather Man: A Limitless Pursuit of Happiness

31. The Silent Patient

32. The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao

33. Just Like You

34. An Object of Beauty (re-read to my own surprise)

35. The Book Thief (re-read)

36. Charming as a Verb

37. Beacon 23

38. Lanterne Rouge: The Last Man in the Tour de France

39. What Do You Say? How to Talk With Kids to Build Stress Tolerance, Motivation, and a Happy Home

40. The Plot

41. The Guncle

42. Evvie Drake Starts Over

43. Project Hail Mary

44. A Caribbean Mystery

45. The Throwback Special

46. The Very Nice Box

47. The Other Black Girl

48. Beautiful World, Where Are You

49. Death on the Nile

I like reading. Utopia blew me away, but so many of these were fun to read and I'd happily recommend them including The Guncle, Project Hail Mary, Charming as a Verb, Where the Crawdads Sing, Such a Fun Age, Oona Out of Order, The Starless Sea, All Our Wrong Todays, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone...

Movies 2021

1. The Crooked House

2. Herbie: Fully Loaded (re-watch)

3. Just My Luck

4. Gorgeous

5. The Merger

6. Yesterday

7. Tony Parker: The Final Shot

8. Downton Abbey: The Motion Picture

9. 12 Monkeys (Re-watch) 

10. To All The Boys Always and Forever

11. Eagle vs. Shark

12. Bronze

13. Bandits

14. Hunt for the Wilderpeople

15. Wind River

16. Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope (re-watch)

17. What we do in the shadows

18. Worth

19. Dream Horse

20. Barb and Star go to Vista Del Mar

21. 12 Mighty Orphans

22. Love Hard

23. A Castle for Christmas

24. Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas

25. Love Actually (sort of)

26. Happiest Christmas

27. Harold and Kumar Christmas

28. Single All The Way

29. The Good Dinosaur 

Hunt for the Wilderpeople is my recommendation and "bad" Christmas movies are getting pretty good. First year recorded that I never made it to the theater. Also, I wonder if I forgot to include something from that long plane ride. 

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. 

Books 2019

1. The Cure for Death by Lightning
2. The Antiques
3. The Strangler Vine
4. Astroturf
5. Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality
6. A Dreadful Fairy Book
7. Small Admissions
8. Breaking the Male Code: Essential Skills for Solving Men's Emotional Crisis
9. Heroes of the Frontier
10. The Course of Love
11. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
12. Exit West
13. The Rabbit Back Literature Society
14. Autumn's Kiss
15. Race Across the Sky
16. Andre the Giant: Life and Legend
17. The Infidel Stain
18. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay
19. Montessori in the Classroom: A Teachr's Account of How Children Really Learn
20. Last Night in Montreal
21. The Power
22. The Reluctant Fundamentalist
23. Who Do You Love
24. My Uncle Oswald
25. Miracle at St. Andrews
26. The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 1/4 Years Old
27. State of the Union: A Marriage in Ten Parts
28. The Year of Living Danishly: My Twelve Months Unearthing the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country
29. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia
30. Moth Smoke
31. Poems That Make Grown Men Cry: 100 Men on the Words That Move Them
32. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (re-read)
33. Fathermucker
34. Losing My Virginity: The Autobiography
35. And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready
36. Such Good Work
37. Truly Devious
38. The Vanishing Stair
39. How Should a Person Be?
40. The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly: A Physician's First Year
41. Homegoing
42. The Turn of th Key
43. The Kiwi Pair
44. All the Bright Places
45. Everything Under
46. Lexicon
47. Unsheltered

The Power was my favorite book in 2019. It was powerful and thought-provoking. Lexicon was a good one too. My favorite author though was Mohsin Hamid and I grabbed everything of his I could get my hands on. It also seems I was very attracted to titles with semi-colons.

Movies 2019

Hey. Look. This thing still works.

1. Moneyball (re-watch)
2. Speed (re-watch)
3. Coin Heist
4. Set it up
5. Pitch Perfect (re-watch)
6. Castaway (re-watch)
7. The Day After Tomorrow (re-watch)
8. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (re-watch)
9. The Terminal (re-watch)
10. Saving Private Ryan (re-watch)
11. Sommeren '92
12. Coach Carter (re-watch)
13. The Last Castle (re-watch)
14. Isn't it Romantic
15. Bourne Identity (re-watch?)
16. Tramps
17. Deidra and Laney Rob Trains
18. Wonder Woman
19. Fired up!
20. Sing
21. The Meddler
22. Lady in the Van (mostly)
23. The Unicorn Store
24. CHiPs
25. Some Like it Hot (Theater, re-watch)
26. The World's End
27. About Time (re-watch)
28.Super Troopers (re-watch)
29. Despite Everything
30. The Clapper
31. See You Yesterday
32. People Places Things
33. Always Be My Maybe
34. Murder Mystery
35. Thunderstruck
36. Win it all
37. The Girl on the Train

38. Bend it like Beckham (re-watch)
39. I Don't Feel at Home in this World anymore
40. Sextuplets
41. Rebound
42. Falling Inn Love
43. Tall girl
44. Between Two Ferns: The Movie
45. Coming to America (re-watch)

46. Trouble with the Curve (re-watch)
47. October Kiss
48. Little Hours
49. Suicide Squad
50. Brewster's Millions (re-watch)
51. Holiday in the Wild

52. The Do Over (didn't finish)

53. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

54. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

55. Shooter
56. Full Out
57. The Knight before Christmas
58. The Princess Bride (re-watch)

59. Four Christmases

60. 6 Underground

I re-watched 19 on this list, including the only 1 I saw in a theatre. Tramps was a pleasant surprise. Sextuplets was only outdone by The Do Over in awfulness. Coming to America didn't hold up very well. The Day After Tomorrow gets me every time. If Netflix is listening, they could really use more sports movies. 

Movies 2018

1. Jumanji (theater)
2. Step Sisters
3. The Day We Met
4. Battle of the Sexes
5. Eddie the Eagle
6. Cruel Intentions (re-watch)
7. Pretty Ugly People
8. I, Tonya (theater)
9. Welcome to Me
10. Downsizing
11. Can't Buy Me Love
12. Happy Anniversary
13. Atomic Blonde
14. Kingsman: The Golden Circle
15. Pitch Perfect 3
16. A Mighty Team
17. Miracle (re-watch)
18. Star Wars: Rogue One (re-watch)
19. Star Wars: Last Jedi (re-watch)
20. Life of the Party
21. The Post
22. Wish I was Here
23. Like Father
24. Game Night
25. Ready Player One
26. I Feel Pretty
27.Groundhog Day (re-watch)
28. Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Society
29. A Stupid and Futile Gesture
30. Looney Tunes: Back in Action
31. Solo
32: Irreplaceable You (napped through most of it)
33. Serenity (re-watch)
34. Back to the Future (re-watch)
35. Rough Night
36. NY Minute
37. Christmas with a View
39. Crazy Rich Asians
40. Ocean's 8 (airplane)
41. Tag (airplane)
42. ????? (airplane)
43. Christmas Prince II
44. Dumplin'
45. Notting Hill (re-watch)
46. Waiting
47. La La Land
48. All Roads Lead to Rome

I suspect a couple didn't make the list. I, Tonya and Crazy Rich Asians were my standouts. Tag and Dumplin' were the most pleasant surprises and Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Society and Irreplaceable You were the duds.

Books 2018

1. The Passenger
2. Turtles All the Way Down
3. The Punch
4. The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit
5. Sourdough
6. The Coaster
7. Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls, and Everything in Between
8. Everybody's Fool
9. A Wrinkle in Time (re-read)
10. Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood
11. Two Hours: The Quest to Run the Impossible Marathon
12. The Girl from Everywhere
13. The Westing Game
14. Artemis
15.  Be Frank With Me
16. The Punch Escrow
17. Version Control
18. Einstein Never Used Flashcards: How Our Children Really Learn-- and Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less
19. Invincible Summer
20. Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are
21. High Fidelity (re-read)
22. Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens
23. Lawn Boy
24. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
25. The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.
26. Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give
27. I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer
28. Seabiscuit: An American Legend (re-read)
29. The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye: A Lisbeth Salander Novel
30. All the President's Men (re-read)
31. My Name is Venus Black
32. George Lucas: A Life
33. The Death of Mrs. Westaway
34. This Body's Not Big Enough for Both of Us
35. Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline: The 7 Basic Skills for Turning Conflict into Cooperation
36. My Heart and Other Black Holes
37. The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact
38. Show and Prove
39. Call of the Mall: The Geography of Shopping
40. The Mouse and The Motorcycle (re-read)
41. The Hobbit (re-read)
42. The Time Traveler's Wife (re-read)
43. The Best of Adam Sharp

I dipped heavily into my personal library, re-reading 7 books this year that I'd read previously. Stand outs on the list include: Sourdough, The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O and the portion of Version Control about autonomous vehicles. I am also thankful for the recommendations of others which lead me into some interesting books. Happy reading.

Books 2017

1. Horrorstor
 -The Mark and the Void- did not finish
2. Commonwealth
3. The Mandibles: A Family 2029-2047
4. The Bookshop Strikes Back
5. The Magician's Assistant (re-read)
6. Selection Day
7. How to Be a Person in the World: Ask Polly's Guide Through the Paradoxes of Modern Life
8. Dark Matter
9. Super Extra Grande
10. The Book of Lost Things
11. Behold the Dreamers
12. The Mysterious Benedict Society
13. Britt-Marie was Here
14. The Nest
15. Utopia for Realists: Why Making the World a Better Place Isn't a Fantasy and How We Can Do It
16. The Wonder
17. The Sun is Also a Star
18. All the Birds in the Sky
19. Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable...about Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business
20. The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds
21. The Driver
22. The End of Advertising: Why It Had to Die, and the Creative Resurrection to Come
23. The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko
24. Animal Farm (re-read)
-Gentle Discipline: Using Emotional Connection-Not Punishment- To Raise Confident, Capable Kids- did not finish
25. Into the Water
26. The Reminders
27. How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success
28. The Summer Before the War
29. Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore
30. Every Anxious Wave
31. In the Company of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon
32. Quicksand
33. Midnight at the Electric

Movies in 2017

1. Star Wars: Rogue One (theater)
2. Man Up
3. Wet Hot American Summer (re-watch)
4. Sully
5. Passengers
6. Edge of Seventeen
7. Office Christmas Party
8. Ricki and the Flash
9. The Fundamentals of Caring
10. Sausage Party
11. Star Wars: Rogue One (re-watch)
12. Last Night
13. Beauty and the Briefcase
14. Beauty and the Beast
15. It's Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong
16. 13 Going on 30 (re-watch)
17. Founder
18. Geenberg
19. The Circle
20. Christmas Prince
21. Finding Santa
22. Christmas in the City
23. Wilson (1st movie watched on a cell phone)
24. Keeping up with the Joneses (phone)
25. Going out in style (phone)
26. 12 Dates of Christmas
27. Christmas Inheritance
28. El Camino Christmas
29. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (theater)

The year in movies was notable for Netflix, the first through third movies watched on a plane on a phone and the only 2 movies in a theater being Star Wars. Star Wars: Rogue One was so nice I saw it twice. I have no idea what Christmas movie during the binge watch was the worst. I also watched some of Love Actually while setting up the Christmas tree and many Netflix shows.

A good week for championships

After taking a cup at Wildwood on Sunday, my weekly rec league team took our 4 or 5 seed and turned it into a Cinderella story.  The details are already a little fuzzy, but the longer the evening wore on, the better we got at frisbee. By the time all the brats were gone, we were amazing. 

In the semis, we jumped out to a 4-0 lead. Despite a few throwaways, our offense was comparatively clean and moving the disc. The defense was awake and pressuring the other team. We weren't getting D's, but we were taking away the first few cuts and forcing Ochos to consider other options. Not wanting the lead to grow too large, we dropped a couple discs and the Ochos got it into the endzone. They started getting smarter about taking advantage of match-ups, but we kept playing our game which actually was (finally!) dump swing on this fine summer evening and we traded points and took half at 8-4. I'm not sure how others felt, but after half it felt like time was standing still... We kept doing us (in the good way!)  and the Ochos got anxious and took a few deep shots, fortunately Beeby was there to crush their hopes and dreams. Tim was breaking marks, Patti was getting open and we kept nursing our 4 point lead. It was either the end of semis or start of finals, but we just kept moving the disc and waiting for openings. Patient offense made a huge difference.  Everybody was contributing and nothing was too flashy. Maybe we gave one back, but I think the score ended up something like 11-8.  

The other semi had been a one-point game, but when the finals started, we picked up where we left off. They tried to hurt Beeby after we were up 1-0. He landed hard on the ground and had to come out. Not to be deterred, we pressured on D and moved the disc on O and we were up 4-0 when Shiny called a time out. We threw a zone at them and saw immediate results. We punched in 4 more as their desperation grew and took half 8-0. Shiny was getting pretty upset and pick calls were rampant, but our reinforcements arrived (Yay Carley!) and we came out of half and kept rolling. Big Nate got a lay out D and then grabbed the score. We were up 10-0 before Shiny got on the board. They went nuts with the score 10-1. They had a couple nice breaks after that to get a few more. Gravy/Plantaris/Kate hauled in a deep shot near the front of the end zone, called a time out and set up the iso for Mel. With a little over the top break high-release, we kept marching toward our destiny. I think we closed out 15-6 (maybe?) and then the championship grilling was on!

Good times. Thanks Stink!

Wildwood #11- Dressed for the occasion

There's no recap from last year's 3:1 division, Boardwalk Treats road to the cup, but there are a lot of pictures. This year I'm short on pictures, but I thought I'd try to jot down a few memories.

Broaddus, Johnson & Associates were named after a long-ago joke stemming from nickname confusion. Despite comical beginnings, our play was no joke. We took our portion of the 2:2 division with force. We were barely challenged during the weekend, but we had a blast. There's less flying around than their used to be. I'd like to credit improved throws and improved throwers, but I should probably also credit the passage of time. I did have one layout bid, but the disc glanced off my hand.

The drive up from DC was full of traffic as usual, but being with friends made it just perfect. We once again landed at the Caribbean Hotel where we introduced a new wrinkle and grilled out dinner by the pool. It was delicious and took about as long as waiting for a table with a group of 11 (or 14).

Rain and wind were forecasted for Saturday. The wind showed up, but we seemed relatively protected by the pier. One team did comment that we seemed to defy physics and I think that was a testament to the previously mentioned throwers. It's hard to judge talent after going 7-0, but our DC elite women played like elite women (read: freakin' awesome) and the rest of us can hold our own, or at least we could this weekend. The rain circled and sprinkled, but thankfully never arrived. The closest a team came to us on Saturday was something like 15-8. I made it my goal to get on the field with everyone and I met that goal. My mind could have used more playing time, but my body was probably good.

We grilled again Saturday night and enjoyed being together. Many of us even skipped the beer garden, something that's become a strong tradition in the last few years. Times are changing? Somebody suggested we skip Wildwood and just vacation together. It has some appeal, but probably not the same draw. The Ultimate is still important and holds a special place in my heart. I skipped the party at the Bolero and was lamenting the fact that I hadn't run in to any old friends based on those evening choices. Sunday morning, down the steps came two friends who'd moved away from Colorado 3 years ago. We chatted a bit and realized that a finals match-up was possible (imminent?).

We rolled through quarters like we were living in a laundromat. I loved playing with everyone, but Jessie was amazing. She was just this calming force and as soon as I got the disc, I wanted to give it back to her. We had a bit of competition in semis, only winning by 4 and then faced off against my friends and former teammates in the finals. They had small numbers and talented women, but we had large numbers and more talented women. We turned on some focus and crushed that team from Charleston 15-4. It almost ended on a 2 point thumber from AJ, but when that came up just short, I got another chance to play. I took a pass from Sam, turned up field and fired a shot to the streaking workhorse Stills who laid out for the win.   The cup was ours (or our fearless leader's). Jessie and Stills were named MVP and I apparently picked up the nickname of Old Man Sprinter.

That's cup #3 for me in Wildwood #11. I totally dig that place, at least on the last weekend in July. I totally dig these people... probably any weekend they'd let me.