’23: Things I Liked This Year
I’m late this year, but here’s my annual year-end list of my favorite movies, articles, books, and songs. My hope, as always, is for you to discover something new and inspiring through it.
Here is last year’s list, in case you want to check that out.
Movies
1. Godzilla Minus One
It turns out good action movies can still be made, just not by Hollywood, apparently. Godzilla Minus One is a well-paced, fun, action movie with top-notch visuals, an interesting story, good character development, and a virtuous message. Even if some points were predictable, it was an entertaining action movie experience, refreshingly, minus cringe.
Runner-up: The Truffle Hunters
Articles
1. “No Mercy Without Rules” by Carl Trueman
2. “There Is No Mary Problem in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’” by Clare Coffey
3. “Letters from a Vanishing Friend” by Lisabeth Button
Runners-up: “Why Doesn’t Artificial Banana Flavor Taste Like Bananas?” by Adam Campbell-Schmitt | and “Beheading Leviathan” by Aaron Kheriaty
Books
1. The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol 1: 1660 by Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys’s diary is a “must-read” for history buffs and Anglophiles alike. But is also surprisingly entertaining in general. Pepys—a mid-level, civil servant in the naval office during The Restoration—recounts the day-to-day events of 17th century life along with the history-making ones. 360 years is a long remove, but while plenty of his activities and sensitivities seems strange, others are unexpectedly familiar to our contemporary life.
November, 6th.
In the morning with Sir W. Batten and Pen by water to Westminster, where at my Lord’s I met with Mr. Creed. With him to see my Lord’s picture (now almost done), and thence to Westminster Hall, where we found the Parliament met today, and thence meeting with Mr. Chetwind, I took them to the Sun, and did give them a barrel of oysters, and had good discourse; among other things Mr. Chetwind told me how he did fear that this late business of the Duke of York’s would prove fatal to my Lord Chancellor. From thence Mr. Creed and I to Wilkinson’s, and dined together, and in great haste thence to our office, where we met all, for the sale of two ships by an inch of candle (the first time that ever I saw any of this kind), where I observed how they do invite one another, and at last how they all do cry, and we have much to do to tell who did cry last. The ships were the Indian, sold for £1,300, and the Half-moon, sold for £830. Home, and fell a-reading of the tryalls of the late men that were hanged for the King’s death, and found good satisfaction in reading thereof. At night to bed, and my wife and I did fall out about the dog’s being put down into the cellar, which I had a mind to have done because of his fouling the house, and I would have my will, and so we went to bed and lay all night in a quarrel. This night I was troubled all night with a dream that my wife was dead, which made me that I slept ill all night.
2. 14 Fresh Ways to Enjoy the Bible by James Coakley
Some books are gems; this book is a gold mine. I love reading books from my former professors because I can hear their voices as I read. 14 Fresh Ways to Enjoy the Bible is the rare book that communicates scholarly depth in layman’s terms that are easy to understand and apply. You’ll understand the Bible better and be more awed by its beauty.
Many of the techniques described in this book were developed by observing the artful and skillful ways in which authors compose literary texts. Since the Bible is a literary book, it should not be surprising that it contains some of the same devices that great authors implement as they go about their craft. If God has created beauty and structure in the created world around us on both the macro and micro level, it should not surprise us that the same beauty and design is also woven into the revealed Word of God…
Also, when I talk about techniques that the biblical author incorporates into the text of Scripture, I am talking about the intentionality of both the human author and divine author. The human author and divine author worked in harmony. Human authors were divinely moved and inspired by God to write His Word. As 2 Timothy 3:16 reminds us, “All Scripture is inspired by God”.
3. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
It’s hard to find books that are truly original, especially in science fiction, but this is one of them. It’s also not long, ponderous, and polemical (another rare feat), but imaginative and lively, surprising and fun. Why did the mid-century have all the good sci-fi? It’s easily in my top ten sci-fi books.
This was a Golden Age, a time of high adventure, rich living, and hard dying…but nobody thought so. This was a future of fortune and theft, pillage and rapine, culture and vice… but nobody admitted it. This was an age of extremes, a fascinating century of freaks… but nobody loved it.
All the habitable worlds of the solar system were occupied. Three planets and eight satellites and eleven million million people swarmed in one of the most exciting ages ever known, yet minds still yearned for other times, as always. The solar system seethed with activity… fighting, feeding, and breeding, learning the new technologies that spewed forth almost before the old had been mastered, girding itself for the first exploration of the far stars in deep space; but —
“Where are the new frontiers?” the Romantics cried, unaware that the frontier of the mind had opened in a laboratory on Callisto at the turn of the twenty-fourth century.
4. Planting by Pastoring by Nathan Knight
This is not only the best book (by far) that I’ve read on church planting specifically, it’s also a good book on ecclesiology (the doctrine of the Church) generally. This is not a coincidence, by the way.
Here’s how Calvin put it: “Wherever we see the word of God purely preached and heard, and the sacraments administered according to Christ’s institution, there, it is not to be doubted, a church of God exists.” More recently, theologian Jonathan Leeman defined the church as “a group of Christians who regularly gather in Christ’s name to officially affirm and oversee one another’s membership in Jesus Christ and his kingdom through gospel preaching and gospel ordinances.”
I like those definitions. Here’s the shorthand definition I use: “A local church is the regular assembly of Christians who have covenanted together in order to preach the gospel, portray the gospel, and protect the gospel.”
5. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
If you haven’t read Cormac McCarthy, this would be a good place to start. It’s one of his least bleak books. Remember, though, this is a relative statement, dear first-time reader. There is beauty and goodness here, amid the barren, and hope peaks through and leads you along.
They opened up the rocky hillside ground with pick and mattock and brought to light a great bolus of serpents perhaps a hundred in number. Collected there for a common warmth.
The dull tubes of them beginning to move sluggishly in the cold hard light. Like the bowels of some great beast exposed to the day. The men poured gasoline on them and burned them alive, having no remedy for evil but only for the image of it as they conceived it to be. The burning snakes twisted horribly and some crawled burning across the floor of the grotto to illuminate its darker recesses. As they were mute there were no screams of pain and the men watched them burn and writhe and blacken in just such silence themselves and they disbanded in silence in the winter dusk each with his own thoughts to go home to their suppers.
Runners-up: Holy Sexuality and the Gospel by Christopher Yuan | Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro | Trusting God by Jerry Bridges | and Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef
See the rest of the books I’ve been reading via Goodreads.
Songs
1. “Whole Heart” by Jervis Campbell
A song and a prayer: “You can have my heart / You can have my whole heart / You can have every part of me.”
2. “Mist Over the Mountain” by Road Less Traveled
Somehow brooding and soaring at the same time, like those sublime moments when, by awe, nature points to her Creator.
3. “Tin Roof” by Blessing Offor
A soulful, hopeful, yearning for heaven and the washing away of our sorrows. Offor’s voice is amazing.
4. “Pieces” by Joshua Hyslop
Music as poetry—where the lyrics and timbre join so well it keeps drawing me back again and again. This EP—Down the Line—is my 2023 album of the year.
5. “Awake My Soul (Psalm 57)” by Worship Initiative, Writers Well
Shane & Shane/Worship Initiative are perennials on this list. From its opening baritones to signature ascending counterpoints “Awake My Soul (Psalm 57)” deepens their already impressive collection.
6. “Jako” by Benjamín Drápal
Benjamín Drápal’s mellow vocals pair perfectly with the stings to carry the understated richness of this meditation on God’s majesty. The chorus translates to: “You are my all.”
7. “Shattered” by Trading Yesterday
First hearing this song in 2023 felt like traveling back in time twenty years to something totally new but also very familiar (the album was written in 2005, but not released until 2011). There is something special about that rare kind of experience. More Than This is my album of the year runner up.
Runners-up: “Colossians 1:15–16” by Verses, Sing Team | “Wildest Dreams” by Jaisua | “On a Cold, Dark Night” by Greg Maroney | “Psalm 9 - Be Kind to Me God” by Project of Love | “Psalm 130:3–4” by Verses, Aaron Strumpel | and “Walkman FM” by Lupus Nocte
Listen as a playlist on Spotify, including all 30 of my top songs for ’23.
Bonus
Check out these cool coded animations by Etienne Jacob. Fun, inventive, mesmerizing, a time sink— everything internet content ought to be.
Thanks for reading. Your enthusiasm keeps me creating this list each year.
