'22: My Year in Favorites
Here’s my annual list—my “year in review”—of my favorite movies, articles, books, and songs. As always, my hope in sharing this list is that you would find something new and inspiring.
In case you want to check it out, here is last year’s list.
Movies
1. Marcel The Shell With Shoes On
Good film doesn’t need a $300 million budget. It needs good story-telling. Enter Marcel the Shell With Shoes On. It’s funny, relatable, and touching. Seriously, it had me laughing and tearing up. Yes, a documentary-style film starring a one-eyed, stop motion animated shell from YouTube videos that went viral over a decade ago was the best movie of the year. That’s the power of good story-telling.
Runner-up: Top Gun: Maverick
Articles
1. “How to Fly a Spitfire” by Will LLoyd
Living legends take flight one final time.
2. “50 Years Off-Grid” by Kirsten Dirksen
So I cheated. This isn’t really an article but a video. However, it’s wonderful and worth your time. Charles’s love for his place is evident and infectious.
3. “‘Crime Is a Construct’” by Suzy Weiss
Curiosity, it is said, killed the cat. But a construct killed the dog, apparently. And nihilism came for the neighborhood watch.
Runners-up: “Cold, Ashamed, Relieved” by Maxim Osipov | and “The Myth of ‘Pagan’ Christmas” by Tom Holland
Books
1. The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin Jr.
It’s difficult to categorize this book. Is it fantasy, or fable, or a commentary on medieval philosophy? Or something else entirely? One-of-a-kind is what it is. It stays with you and surfaces over and over. Maybe that’s because it is a story about community—something we today know so very little about.
Almost as evil as the stench was the silence. Senex, however poorly he had ended his rule, had always remembered the canonical crows. He sang them, to be sure, in a disoriented manner; but he did sing them, keeping his animals that way, banding them, unifying them. But Cockatrice never crowed the canon. So under him the day lost its meaning and its direction, and the animals lost any sense of time or purpose. Their land became strange to them. A terrible feeling of danger entered their souls, of things undone, of treasures unprotected. They were tired all the day long, and at night they did not sleep. And it was a most pitiful sight to see, how they all went about with hunched shoulders, heads tucked in, limping here and there as if they were forever walking into an ill wind, and flinching at every sound as if the wind carried arrows.
2. True Grit by Charles Portis
My only introduction to True Grit was the film adaptations, which are good. The book is manifestly better. Portis is a master of comedic character and dialog. I smiled my way through the entire book.
Captain Finch said, “There is no need to apologize for that shot. A good many more people have missed Ned than have hit him.”
“I was not apologizing,” said LaBoeuf. “I was only explaining the circumstances.”
“Rooster here has missed Ned a few times himself, horse and all,” said the captain. “I reckon he is on his way now to missing him again.”
Rooster was holding a bottle with a little whiskey in it. He said, “You keep on thinking that.” He drained off the whiskey in about three swallows and tapped the cork back in and tossed the bottle up in the air. He pulled his revolver and fired at it twice and missed. The bottle fell and rolled and Rooster shot at it two or three more times and broke it on the ground. He got out his sack of cartridges and reloaded the pistol. He said, “The Chinaman is running them cheap shells in on me again.”
LaBoeuf said, “I thought maybe the sun was in your eyes. That is to say, your eye.”
Rooster swung the cylinder back in his revolver and said, “Eyes, is it? I’ll show you eyes!” He jerked the sack of corn dodgers free from his saddle baggage. He got one of the dodgers out and flung it in the air and fired at it and missed.
3. The Children of Ash and Elm by Neil Price
This is the story of the Vikings as they actually were. Neil Price distills a lifetime of academic research into a fascinating and illuminating story that is accessible to the average reader. History at its captivating best.
One individual from the later Viking Age can stand for them all, here at the end, someone we have already met. Shortly after the year 1000, Gudríd Thorbjarnardóttir coasted the shores of Helluland and Markland before landing in Vinland with her husband, Thorfinn karlsefni, and their crew. They were probably not the first Norse visitors and likely followed the path taken by others before them. Gudrid was pregnant, and while in Vinland, she gave birth to the first European child born in North America (and how appropriate to future history that he should be called Snorri). She had already come a long way, of Norwegian family from Iceland via Greenland, and from one set of beliefs to the new faith. She met First Nations people, and later — making a pilgrimage to Rome — she would almost certainly meet the pope; she had eaten wild grapes in Vinland, and she would taste Mediterranean wines under the Italian sun. By the time she reached old age as a Christian nun in Iceland, Gudrid was probably the most travelled woman on the planet.
4. The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy L. Sayers
If I told you this book is a treatise on the art of writing and the Trinity, would it sound dry? Well, it is anything but. Sayer’s masterpiece is full of wit, humor, and profound insight. Any serious student of Christianity should add Mind of the Maker to their reading list.
It is unpleasant to be called sinners, and much nicer to think that we all have hearts of gold — but have we? It is agreeable to suppose that the more scientific knowledge we acquire the happier we shall be — but does it look like it?
5. Goodbye to a River by John Graves
John Graves writes a charming memoir to the river that framed his youth and, in the larger telling, to the folks and fauna of west Texas. Part travelog, part folk history, part elegy, it’s a story that felt closer to me then 1959 would suggest.
The thing was, I had once known what bird that whistle belong to. Knowledge of that kind takes so long to come by, solidly at least, and there is so much of it to try to have before you die, if you care anything about it, that to lose any small part of what you do have seems unfair.
Runners-up: Virgil Wander by Leif Enger | Death’s End by Cixin Liu | Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard | and The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
See what else I’ve been reading, via Goodreads.
Songs
1. “Grandfather Mountain” by Taylor Leonhardt
Perhaps it’s because I live in mountain country for the first time in my life, but this song—in imagery and mood—perfectly fit my year. “The rain comes/the rain goes/you are still/you are still standing.”
2. “Know You As You Are” by Kingdom Kids, Shane & Shane
Every year, it seems, Shane & Shane produce a song that gives voice to deep places of my heart. This is one of those.
3. “What’s Left to Say” by Daniel Dorman
Simplicity and depth mingle to produce a rare beauty in “What’s Left to Say,” a song that deserves to be much more widely known.
4. “Send Out Your Light” by Sandra McCracken
Light In The Canyon is “album of the year” for me. The whole thing overflows with richness. This song—an exceptional rendition of Psalm 43—is no exception.
5. “Kyle n’ Paul” by Lucky Chops
This is a “How-could you not love this song?” song. Full of energy and life, reminding us, that, yes, even in '22 we can still just have fun.
6. “At Your Mercy” by Jess Ray
“Into your hands I commit my spirit; Into your arms I surrender all.” I love when I can sing along to a song and the words form the prayers I need to be praying.
7. “Coming Home” by Drew & Ellie Holcomb
Drew and Ellie Holcomb are the perfect duo to sing this. Truth telling we all need to hear and remember. Good luck trying to not sing along.
Runners-up: “Dwell in Your House” by Colorvault, Young Oceans | “Thank You Jesus for the Blood” by Charity Gayle | “Bigger” by Grace Fellowship Church | “Returning” by Lovkn | “H(OUR)S” by gray | and “I Will Sing” by Sandra McCracken.
Listen as a playlist on Spotify including all 30 of my top songs for '22.
