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Favorite Books I Read in 2017

Thursday, January 4, 2018
I read 59 books in 2017.

Sort of.

Looking through the list, there is at least one novella/short story, several plays, and one graphic novel (which made me realize that I've been very inconsistent in how I recorded my comics reading for the year). But I also read two Neal Stephenson books, one of which was over 1100 pages (in tiny print) so I think that makes up the difference?

Without being too much of a stickler about genre, here is the basic breakdown:
- 11 non-fiction
- 6 plays (all but one written by Martin McDonagh)
- 13 crime/thriller/mystery
- 5 fantasy
- 3 horror
- 6 science fiction
- 1 young adult
- 1 crime/fantasy hybrid
- 12 "literature" (this label became somewhat of a catch all for books that defied easy categorization, like Cryptonomicon, Children of Men, The Road, The Prestige, or Before the Fall. All of these are genre mixes of a sort and could easily fit into other categories)
- 1 graphic novel

With that background, I've boiled it down to a list of 15 that I enjoyed the most, and will try to highlight the best in each genre for me among that group.

On when the 15 were released:
- 6 were released in 2017
- 3 were released in 2016
- 2 were released in 2015
- 1 was released in 2012
- 1 was released in 2009
- 1 was released in 2006
- 1 was released in 1999

Without further ado, the books, in the order I read them:

BookDate FinishedReleasedGenre
Innocents and Others by Dana Spiotta1/2/20172016Literature
The Magicians by Lev Grossman1/10/20172009Fantasy
Before the Fall by Noah Hawley 3/4/20172016Literature
Police at the station and they don't look friendly by Adrian McKinty 3/19/20172017Crime
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson 4/5/20172015Sci-Fi
Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane5/17/20172017Crime
How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton Christensen6/19/20172012Non-Fiction
The Force by Don Winslow7/15/20172017Crime
Afterlife by Marcus Sakey8/5/20172017Crime/Fantasy
The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu 8/26/20172015Fantasy
The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu9/10/20172016Fantasy
Safe by Ryan Gattis11/3/20172017Crime
Strange Weather by Joe Hill11/12/20172017Horror
Special Topics in Calamnity Phyiscs by Marisha Pessl11/29/20172006Literature
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson12/23/20171999Literature


*Before the Fall was a kindle read, so no picture for Noah Hawley
**All pictures taken by my very talented and generous wife, Krystle Wahnschaffe.

The Crime/Thriller/Mystery Books



Police at the station and they don't look friendly by Adrian McKinty

I don't know how I'm supposed to capitalize that title. Also I don't know how Adrian McKinty is so good. Practice I guess.

He's an Irish author that now lives in Australia, and this is the sixth book in his Sean Duffy series, which follows a Catholic detective in a predominantly Protestant Northern Ireland during the 1980's, or the troubles.

The thing that always strikes me about his books is how I'm hooked even by the quiet, non-plot moments. Some of my favorite parts of these books are when Sean Duffy is just walking around at home, listening to a record, or stuff like that. I think that's what keeps me coming back to this series. Every one has had a great mystery and crime plot, but at the end of the day I care about this guy's life, and I want to spend time with him and see where he ends up.

Start with the first book in this series if you're interested.


Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane

Dennis Lehane is one of my favorite writers. He releases a book, I buy and start reading it the day it comes out. If you like crime/mystery novels and don't read this guy, evaluate your life choices. He's written things you might have heard of because of the film adaptations, like the wonderful Gone, Baby, Gone, Mystic River, Shutter Island, Live By Night, or The Drop.

His series that contains Gone, Baby, Gone is one of my favorites. The Given Day, Live By Night, and World Gone By, are all incredible. Mystic River is heart crushingly amazing.

Anyway... Since We Fell. Great read. Different than his last several books, which was refreshing. It sits in the space that Gillian Flynn made popular with Gone Girl, the whole I-think-my-significant-other-might-secretly-be-evil-or-trying-to-kill-me-or-at-least-lying-to-me-and-now-I-have-to-figure-it-out kind of genre. But right away I was reminded what makes him so good, as the first 50 pages or so is basically backstory for the main character, and it is so compelling.

He has this ability to bring characters to life that had me invested from the start. Then the rest of the book is just a blast. Does it live up to the rest of his works? I would rather not think about it. I was just glad to have another book from him to read.

Buy it here.


Safe by Ryan Gattis

I've read one other book by Gattis (Kung Fu High School - which is actually really fun), but had heard about him because of his book about the L.A. riots, All Involved. I actually bought that book a few years ago, but haven't read it yet. Then I saw this and for some reason just felt compelled to start it right away.

It reminded me a lot of another favorite of mine (The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton) in that the main character is a safe cracker. What really struck me about this book was the character work and emotion that went through the whole thing. It's a pretty standard crime story set up: a guy is trying to do ONE LAST BIG JOB to get enough money to get out. And yet this puts a great twist on it. The reason he needs the money, his ultimate goal, how he goes about it, and the people who end up crossing his path, all subverted my expectations for what I thought this story was going to be.

It surprised me with it's depth and love for its characters. It's a book that respects the murky nature of right and wrong, bad guys/good guys that you see a lot in some of these stories. And at the end I was moved emotionally in a way that surprised me.

Buy it here.


Afterlife by Marcus Sakey

That this guy isn't more well known is a constant surprise to me. He wrote a bunch of great stand alone Chicago crime novels, and then branched out with his Brilliance trilogy, which was really good.

This book has a killer premise: death is a gateway to the next plane where there is an epic war going on. Mix that with crime elements as the two main characters are FBI agents, who also happen to be in love, trying to get back to each other.

Great read. Supposedly already in development to be adapted into a movie. Not life changing, but very entertaining.

Buy it here.

And finally... The best crime book I read this year:


The Force by Don Winslow

Whatever I said above about Dennis Lehane applies doubly for Don Winslow. The Cartel might be one of the best books I've ever read in my life. The fact that he's working on a third one right now is something to be grateful for.

Here is the blurb for The Force from Amazon, because I can't say it better than this:

Based on years of research inside the NYPD, this is the great cop novel of our time and a book only Don Winslow could write: a haunting and heartbreaking story of greed and violence, inequality and race, crime and injustice, retribution and redemption that reveals the seemingly insurmountable tensions between the police and the diverse citizens they serve. A searing portrait of a city and a courageous, heroic, and deeply flawed man who stands at the edge of its abyss, The Force is a masterpiece of urban living full of shocking and surprising twists, leavened by flashes of dark humor, a morally complex and utterly riveting dissection of modern American society and the controversial issues confronting and dividing us today.
There is a sense of reality to Winslow's books that always blows me away. He must do so much research, and I felt that with The Force. On top of that, it's just exciting to read. I honestly don't feel like anything else I say will do this justice. It's great.

Buy it here.

The Fantasy Books



The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Odds are if you love fantasy, you've already read these. Harry Potter for adults doesn't quite work as a descriptor, because Harry Potter is for everyone, but it's close. Krystle read these books years ago and really liked them, but I had no interest. Then we started watching the TV show together, and again I found myself not too invested, but we kept watching it.

Then somewhere around episode 8 or 9 of the first season I was completely hooked, I loved these characters and this world and I had a strong urge to read every book in the series. And this first book delivered. I loved it. It's a grown up story that pulls from all of the best of your favorite fantasy/magic properties. It's also self aware about these influences, as this is a world where Harry Potter exists. You see this too in that the central premise revolves around a book series about a magical realm that happens to actually exist.

Anyway, the whole thing is great. I felt so invested in these characters and am still saving the last one for a rainy day.

Buy it here.



The Grace of Kings and The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu

I was introduced to Ken Liu by way of The Three Body Problem, one of my favorite sci-fi trilogies of all time. He translated the first and third book in that series from Chinese to English. I also enjoyed his collection of short fiction as well (although I still need to finish that).

These two books are the start of a series of epic fantasy, often described as "silk-punk" because of how they draw from non-western influences. It had the scope and depth of a Game of Thrones, but with an Eastern twist. The magic comes through as mechanical or technical innovations. It focuses on a array of characters, but ultimately zeroing in on a few and the people around them.

I had the first book in this series on my list for years but didn't start it because I was intimidated by the length. These are both long books. But it was so exciting, engaging, and fun to read that when I finished the first one, I went out and started the second one right away, even though it was much longer than the first!

If you love epic fantasy, I think these are a must. And The Grace of Kings is my favorite read in that category this year for sure.

Buy it here.

The Lonely Horror Book



Strange Weather by Joe Hill

This is the only one, so obviously it's the top in this category. Joe Hill wrote one of my favorite books from 2016 (The Fireman - it's so good, read it!), and so even though I'm not a huge fan of shorter fiction, I got this as soon as it came out.

As you can see from the cover, it's four short novels. Not quite short stories, not quiet full length novels, I guess he didn't want to call them novellas. Whatever. They are four amazing pieces of story telling.

"Snapshot" is the disturbing story of a Silicon Valley adolescent who finds himself threatened by "The Phoenician," a tattooed thug who possesses a Polaroid Instant Camera that erases memories, snap by snap.
A young man takes to the skies to experience his first parachute jump. . . and winds up a castaway on an impossibly solid cloud, a Prospero’s island of roiling vapor that seems animated by a mind of its own in "Aloft."
On a seemingly ordinary day in Boulder, Colorado, the clouds open up in a downpour of nails—splinters of bright crystal that shred the skin of anyone not safely under cover. "Rain" explores this escalating apocalyptic event, as the deluge of nails spreads out across the country and around the world.
In "Loaded," a mall security guard in a coastal Florida town courageously stops a mass shooting and becomes a hero to the modern gun rights movement. But under the glare of the spotlights, his story begins to unravel, taking his sanity with it. When an out-of-control summer blaze approaches the town, he will reach for the gun again and embark on one last day of reckoning

So out of the four, "Rain" and "Loaded" were my favorite. They blew me away. Knocked my socks off. Buttered my grits. And then the other two were still very good, just didn't have the same knockout impact for me, personally. I also don't know if Horror is the right category for these stories, or maybe I just don't understand the full range of what's possible in that genre. Either way, I loved this collection and it was one of the best things I read this year.

Buy it here.

The Lonely Science Fiction Book



Seveneves by Neal Stephenson

So this is far and away the best sci-fi book I read this year. Overall it's probably my second favorite read of the year. It's also another long one, that reads fast because it's so engaging and exciting that I couldn't stop.

It starts with the moon exploding, and everyone finding out that this will lead to an extinction level event in two years. So it becomes a race for the survival of our race, but not everyone will be able to get into space. So who stays, who goes? What does society look like on the other side?

I really don't want to say too much else, as part of the joy of this read for me were the unexpected twists and turns as the story progressed. But this is pretty much a book I would recommend to anyone.

Buy it here.

The Lonely Non-Fiction Book



How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton M. Christensen, James Allworth and Karen Dillon

So I first saw this as the HBR article, and then later the TED talk, and when I saw the book, I assumed it was essentially the same text as the original article but with a fancy hardcover. Even when I thought it was just that, I still wanted to buy it, just because I got so much out that material originally.

When I finally got around to buying a copy of this, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this isn't just a fancy publishing of the original text of his article, but Christensen and his colleagues took those original ideas and fleshed them all out, with more color and examples.

I think this is a potentially life changing book. I plan to re-read it again this year as a reminder. Sometimes I just watch that TED talk for a quick gut check of where I am with my priorities. Especially at the beginning of a new year, if you're looking for something inspiring and motivating, this is a great place to start.

Start with the TED talk if you want a preview. If you like that at all, then you'll probably love the book.

Buy it here.

The Fiction/Literature Books



Innocents and Others by Dana Spiotta

I heard about this on one of my favorite podcasts (The Watch on the Ringer podcast network), and decided to check it out based on their recommendation.

Innocents and Others is about two women who grow up in LA in the 80s and become filmmakers. Meadow and Carrie have everything in common—except their views on sex, power, movie-making, and morality. Their friendship is complicated, but their devotion to each other trumps their wildly different approaches to film and to life.
It's a short novel, and contrasts their different paths of trying to make art. Meadow is making "real art" and Carrie goes a more commercial route. The book dives deep into their relationship, how they affect each other, how pursuing their creativity affects their lives.

Ultimately this was just a joy to read. It's the kind of book that's an experience more than a plot that sticks with you. I could see myself reading it again.

Buy it here.



Before the Fall by Noah Hawley

No picture for this one because I read it on kindle, but you can check out the cover on the amazon page here.

This book won the 2017 Edgar Award for Best Novel, and while I don't recall what it was up against, it makes sense. This book is great.

Noah Hawley makes me a little upset. He has written and produced three seasons of the excellent FX show Fargo. At the same time he made Legion on FX, which was incredible. And then in the middle of all of that, he releases a novel. What is this guy's deal?

Anyway, I guess you could call this a mystery. Literary mystery maybe? It doesn't matter. It's really good.

Basically there is a private plane that crashes, and only two people survive. A random artist, and the young child of the rich people who owned the plane. The book goes back and forth between the after math of the crash, and their experience dealing with that investigation, and flashbacks that gives us insight and background into all of the various passengers and crew of the flight. All of this comes crashing together as we understand why everyone was on the plane, and ultimately what led to the crash.

I loved it.


Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

I started this book in the spring, and just barely finished it in December. I had to take a little break. This book is long. It's dense. It's brilliant, but sometimes brilliance is hard for me to take in.

This is three books smashed into one. It's a hacker novel about cryptocurrency (released in 1999!), it's a WWII novel about code breakers, and it's a novel about treasure hunting ultimately related to those first two novels as well.

There is a 4-page section where one of the WWII characters provides a mathematical analysis of how the time between a sexual release affects his ability to concentrate in his code breaking duties. Complete with equations and charts as he works through the various variables and connected ideas. It's a tangent. It's also an example of what makes this book so good. It's sprawling. It's epic. And ultimately that makes the journey extremely satisfying once it all comes crashing together at the end.

This might not be for everyone, but if you have the stamina, it's a worthwhile ride.

Buy it here.

And now, for my favorite read of 2017:

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

This book had some of the best prose I've read all year. It had some of the best characters, character descriptions, and character references. It had some of the best pop culture/literature references (my favorite example of this comes on page 344 when there is an exchange with a police officer, and the father is calling him every detective name from every novel ever). It also provoked some of the most visceral reactions in me. I felt things reading this book that I didn't feel reading anything else.

But what it comes down to is that this is a mystery I ended up actually caring about. It's basically 350 pages of character introductions, set-up, and then the main mystery happens, and the rest of the book is her trying to make sense of it. And I cared. I wanted her to find out. I wanted to know what happened. And I was invested in her finding out before other characters in the novel. There were stakes. There was real emotional investment to the proceedings. And that's rare for me.

So I think this was the book I enjoyed the most this year. It's long, and it's not long enough. It was another case of wanting to slow down, and really just savor what I was reading because the experience was so enjoyable. Whenever a writer can do that, as opposed to me just wanting to race to the end to figure out what happened, that's remarkable.

Buy it here.

***

We made it folks! Let me know what you guys read this year and what you think I should check out for 2018.


Favorite Films of 2017 (so far)

Wednesday, January 3, 2018
You know what this is, so no preamble is really needed, but here are some opening thoughts as you consider the list.

1) I have had a great time at the movies this year. I've had several experiences that really moved and thrilled me, which served as a reminder of the power of stories and film as an art form. 

2) A lot of movies on this list have no business being compared. How do you compare Lady Bird to something like Star Wars? Or Coco to Dunkirk? The Big Sick and Blade Runner 2049? While I've roughly tried to put these in order, at the end of the day I'm grateful that they all exist, because they each gave me something unique, and all of these could move up or down based on what you value in that moment.

I'm looking mainly at my experience. Did I feel something? Was I moved? Did it make me think? Was I genuinely thrilled or shocked by what I saw? Did it make me laugh? At the end of the day I could argue the different merits of each film, but what really drives the placement is how profoundly I was affected. So there will be films I enjoyed, liked, and will re-watch more than my current number one pick, but they didn't have as powerful an impact on me. 

3) This list will likely change. As I mentioned in a previous post, I still haven't seen Phantom Thread, The Shape of Water, The Post, Call Me By Your Name, and a few others that I expect might crack this list. And there are movies that rocked me when I first saw them in theaters that may move down a few spots as I re-watch, and reevaluate this years offerings. This is a snapshot of how I feel at this moment.

To put it into further context, here is a list of the 2017 movies I saw this year.

4) And finally - I can't narrow it down to just ten, so in descending order, here are my favorite twenty films of 2017:

20. John Wick: Chapter 2 - if you don't love Keanu Reeves, I don't have room for you in my life.
19. It - R-rated Stranger Things. The kids were great. It was actually scary, and surprisingly emotional.
18. Wind River - Didn't quite reach the highs of Taylor Sheridan's last two scripts, but still so good.
17. Logan - It was worth all of the mediocre X-Men movies to get to this. I can't believe they let them make this movie.
16. Good Time - Robert Pattinson doesn't get enough credit around here! This movie was a surprise.
15. Get Out - I know this is going to be much higher on everyone's lists, but as much as I loved it, it didn't connect with me like some other movies this year.
14. Molly's Game - I'm a devoted Aaron Sorkin head, so enjoying this was no surprise. I wasn't expecting to cry or feel as emotionally connected to this as I did.
13. The Disaster Artist - hilarious and moving. It didn't feel like they were making fun of Wiseau but actually connecting with his dreams and aspirations as an artist.
12. The Big Sick - best rom-com in years.
11. Stronger - underrated how great Jake Gyllenhall and Tatiana Maslany are in this. I'm a sucker for a great Boston film.

 
10. Wonder Woman

I saw this three times in theaters, and cried each time. I still wish the ending was a little different. I think they wasted a powerful opportunity to subvert the big-boss-fight trope of these movies with the more complicated "maybe men are just bad sometimes all on their own" idea that Steve Trevor articulates at the end. For Diana to have to grapple with the fact that Ares wasn't pulling the strings, and that men might still be worth fighting for would have been much more powerful to me, but oh well. 

Gal Gadot was perfect as Diana. I felt invested in the journey. There were moments of genuine thrill and excitement (No-man's land!), and it made me feel things. Patty Jenkins is a national treasure.

9. Thor: Ragnarok

Taika Waititi is one of the funniest people on planet earth. The fact that this man got to make a Marvel movie that was so quirky and fun is a miracle that gives me faith in what the MCU still might be able to do (Ryan Coogler's Black Panther helps a lot too!). 

I loved Taika's previous two films, and this one delivered the goods. Apparently a good chunk of the dialogue was improvised, and you can feel it. The interactions feel genuine, and there is an energy and excitement that the actors have in these scenes that really brings this movie to life. The main story is straight forward, giving the characters lots of room to shine and grow. It also has one of the best Marvel villains to date, some great action set pieces, and made me laugh out loud repeatedly. 

I really hope I can see this one more time before it leaves theaters!

8. Baby Driver

God bless Edgar Wright! The fact that we didn't get his version of Ant-Man is still one of the great crimes of the MCU, but anyway, Baby Driver.

The music. The driving. The love story. I loved all of it. I enjoyed this movie on so many levels. The thing sticking in my mind right now is how talented Wright is as a director. Usually, there is nothing I find more boring than a car chase. It's something I feel like I've already seen 100 times, and yet he makes it feel fresh. He brings an energy to every conversation, every cut, every action scene that makes this movie so much fun to watch. 

Not to mention the chemistry of Lily James and Ansel Elgort. The fact that I became genuinely invested in their relationship and cared about what happened to them still feels like a magic trick. And don't forget about the music.

7. Blade Runner 2049

Give Roger Deakins his Oscar already! The man deserves it. I mean look at this!

And this.

And this!

This movie blew me away. I love Denis Villeneuve and this cements him as one of the most exciting filmmakers working today. Denis making Dune as his next project makes me happier than I can express. 

This movie is 2 hours and 44 minutes long. It was made for adults. It cost $150-180 million to make. The fact that this movie exists is a miracle. We don't deserve it. It was a gift that hopefully we will fully appreciate in time. 

They somehow made something that fully respected the original film, while standing on its own and even breaking new ground. This movie made me think. I was in awe of the visuals. And ultimately I really enjoyed where the story took me and where it ended up.

6. Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri

If you look at the things I read in 2017 you'll notice a lot of Martin McDonagh. This guy is one of my favorite writers right now. In Bruges is one of my favorite movies of all time. I have been anticipating this flick ever since I first heard about it, and I love it. 

Frances McDormand is getting nominated for Best Actress. That's a sure thing. I don't know if she will win, but she will be nominated. How she goes from anger to moments of compassion and sadness is a marvel. This movie surprised me in that it starts off dark, gets darker, but somehow ends up in a place that is sweet, and really about the power of forgiveness.

Another thing I love about this film, which is what I love about McDonagh's writing, is that you never know where it's going. It can go anywhere, be anything, and it does. I laughed. I cried. I was surprised. That's what I love about going to the movies.

5. Lady Bird

Oscar prediction #2: Saoirse Ronan is also getting nominated for best actress. And Greta Gerwig deserves to be nominated for all the things for this movie. 

My girl Sershe gave one of my favorite performances from a few years back in Brooklyn, and she keeps up her hot streak with Lady Bird. It's a beautiful film about the relationship between a mother and a daughter, and at the same time it's a coming of age story, it's about religion, it's about friendship, and love, and life... and I'm crying. 

Seeing this movie in a theater was a joy. My wife leaned over to me early on and said, "You can tell that this was directed by a woman. No other movie would let their lead actress have blemishes on their skin like that!" I think this is representative of what makes this movie so special. It feels so real. It's personal. Intimate. It's so specific in the experience that it presents that it becomes universal in the feelings that it evokes. I have only seen it once, but I look forward to revisiting this film again and again.

4. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

I don't know where to start with this one. Spoiler warning? Listen. If nothing else this movie gave us the Ben Swolo memes, and Luke Skywalker drinking breast milk *almost* straight from the source. And when you put those two things together...

Anyway...

I think I will have to write more about this movie, because I have many thoughts and people are nuts.

Here is the hill I am ready to die on: The Last Jedi is one of the best directed, acted, written, and filmed Star Wars movies of all time. It's up there with A New Hope and Empire. It focused on characters, subverted expectations, made me think, made me feel, and thrilled me like few other films have this year. 

In time, I believe we'll look back and appreciate Rian Johnson for the visionary that he is.

But for now, we still have porgs. 

3. Coco

I'm not big on animated movies. I am not a huge Pixar guy. But I did sob my way through Inside Out, and heard good things about this film.

As I was sitting in the theater I thought to myself, "This is obviously going to be good, but there is no way that this will affect me as much as Inside Out did." Cut to me sobbing like a child as this movie gets to the end. 

It's just so good. The people at Pixar are so good. I loved the basic premise of this movie, I loved the music, and ultimately the character journey was satisfying and emotionally rich. Anything that can reduce me to a puddle in the theater has to rank high. I can't wait to see this again.

2. Dunkirk

A new film by Christopher Nolan is always an event for me. Although I have to say I found myself questioning whether his legacy would really stand the test of time after Interstellar and The Dark Knight Rises, two films that I really enjoyed when I saw them, and enjoy less and less as time passes.

I also have very little interest in war movies. WWII movies do very little for me, so when I heard that this was his next project I was disappointed. I was of course still going to see it, and be excited about it, but if it had been by anyone else I probably would have passed given the premise.

Then I saw this thing in IMAX, and goodness gracious! I went back and paid another $20 to see it in IMAX again a few days later. Seeing this in 70mm, with the footage shot on the IMAX cameras filling up the whole screen was an experience I don't think I'll ever forget. The first gun shot you hear shook me to the core, it was so loud. It's not the kind of movie I typically love, but it was an experience. He put me on that beach, in that plane, on that boat. Christopher Nolan delivered on an epic scale, and made me feel something about this event. 

And *Spoilers* there are only a few other images this year that stuck with me like Tom Hardy standing in front of his burning plane.

1. Detroit

I am full of self-doubt. No one else is really talking about this movie, and I thought they would be. This movie also is not a ton of fun. A big chunk of it is white cops being aggressively nasty to a group of mostly young black men. Not easy to watch.

But. I felt transported while watching this movie. Several times I was in awe at how Bigelow was bringing to life a time and a place. How she moved the camera. How she grounded the characters and events in a way that made this feel so painfully real. And by the end, I was heartbroken and angry. During the coda for one of the characters, I was affected so deeply, feeling loss and pain that it just hit me all at once how powerful the storytelling was.

And yet, I only saw it once. I bought it on iTunes and plan to revisit it and see if my initial feelings hold up. And I have to admit that over time some of that initial awe has faded as other exciting films have pressed into my consciousness. But that impact stayed with me. So for now, at this moment, Detroit is at the top of my list. I don't think it's my favorite, but I struggle each time I try to put another movie above it.

And now, back to waiting for Phantom Thread to release in Dallas.

Movies I watched in 2017

Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Same exercise as the "books I read in 2017" post! Before I post my favorites of 2017, here is an alphabetical list of all the movies I saw, how many times I saw them, and where (theater vs. not). This should give some context going into my final lists!

Notable absences that I plan to see ASAP: Phantom Thread, The Shape of Water, Call Me By Your Name, I, Tonya, The Post, and All the Money in the World. Some non-notable absences might include: Pitch Perfect 3, Jumanji, and The Greatest Showman. Let's be real, I'll probably see all of those too.

Here is the list:


MovieTheater viewsHome Views
A Ghost Story10
Alien: Covenant10
American Made10
Atomic Blonde10
Baby Driver22
Bad Moms 210
Battle of the Sexes10
Beauty and the Beast10
Blade Runner 204920
Bright (Netflix)01
Coco10
Death Note (Netflix)01
Detroit10
Dunkirk30
Free Fire10
Get Out10
Girl's Trip10
Good Time10
Guardians of the galaxy 210
Ingrid Goes West10
It10
It Comes at Night10
John Wick: Chapter 220
Justice League20
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword20
Kingsman: The Golden Circle10
Kong: Skull Island10
Lady Bird10
Life10
Logan30
Logan Lucky21
Molly’s Game10
mother!10
Murder on the Orient Express10
OKJA (Netflix)01
Roman J. Israel Esq.10
Song to Song10
Spider-Man: Homecoming10
Star Wars: The Last Jedi40
Stronger10
The Big Sick20
The Boss Baby10
The Dark Tower11
The Darkest Hour10
The Disaster Artist10
The Discovery (Netflix)01
The Hitman's Bodyguard10
The Killing of a Sacred Deer10
The Lego Batman10
The Lost City of Z10
The Mummy01
The Snowman10
Thor: Ragnarok10
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri20
War for the Planet of the Apes10
War Machine (Netflix)01
Win it all (Netflix)01
Wind River10
Wonder Woman30

That makes for 69 theater trips, and a total of 80 viewings for films that were released this year.