2009: The year in.... just about everything?
Favorite Books Read In 2009
1. Suite Française, by Irène Némirovsky
But what is certain is that in five, ten or twenty years, this problem unique to our time, according to him, will no longer exist, it will be replaced by others. Yet this music, the sound of this rain on the windows, the great mournful creaking of the cedar tree in the garden outside, this moment, so tender, so strange in the middle of war, this will never change, not this, this is forever.
2. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
I can believe things that are true and I can believe things that aren’t true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they’re true or not.
3. Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell
My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?
4. Persuasion, by Jane Austen
Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant.
5. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
"He was going to live forever, or die in the attempt."
6. The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and they would smile at the beauty of destruction.
7. The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
People sometimes talk about man's 'bestial' cruelty, but that is being terribly unjust and offensive to the beasts; a beast can never be as cruel as a human being, so artistically, so picturesquely cruel.
8. Mother Night, by Kurt Vonnegut
We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.
9. Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis
When the time comes to you at which you will be forced at last to utter the speech which has lain at the center of your soul for years, which you have, all that time, idiot-like, been saying over and over, you'll not talk about the joy of words. I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why whould they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?
10. The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein
Learn to listen! I beg of you. Pretend you are a dog like me and listen to other people rather than steal their stories.
11. The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro
Moreover, as you might appreciate, their implications were such as to provoke a certain degree of sorrow within me. Indeed- why should I not admit it? - at that moment, my heart was breaking.
12. Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes
Don't feel sorry for me. I'm glad I had a second chance in life like you said to be smart because I learned a lot of things that I never knew were in this world, and I'm grateful I saw it even for a little bit.
Least favorites:
1. The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho
2. A Clash of Kings, by George R.R. Marin
3. Closing Time, by Joseph Heller
4. Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown
5. Bee Season, by Myla Goldberg
Favorite Movies Seen In 2009
1. The Pianist
2. Sense and Sensibility (1995)
3. Earth
4. Up
5. The Brothers Bloom
6. Waltz With Bashir
7. Little Miss Sunshine
Least favorites:
1. Revolutionary Road
2. Knowing
3. Monsters vs. Aliens
4. The Time Traveler's Wife
5. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Favorite albums released in 2009:
1. Noble Beast - Andrew Bird
Andrew Bird was, hands down, my biggest musical obsession of the year. Mysterious Production is still my favorite album, but this one is great too.
2. Far - Regina Spektor
Delightful and imaginative and quirky as ever.
3. The Hazards of Love - The Decemberists
An incredible album--but admittedly, I don't listen to it very often because I find it a bit emotionally exhausting.
4. Go Easy Little Doves - Brooke Waggoner
I just discovered Brooke Waggoner a few weeks ago--she has a lovely voice and amazing skills in composition.
5. The Resistance - Muse
My initial reaction of "huh?" eventually did give way to liking. ♥
Songs that will remind me of 2009:
Slightly random videos for some of these since it's all I could find!
1. The Naming of Things - Andrew Bird
You can't be found when the bell rings,
You weren't there that day for the naming of things.
2. The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us! - Sufjan Stevens
Oh, I am not quite sleeping,
Oh, I am fast in bed,
There on the wall in the bedroom creeping,
I see a wasp with her wings outstretched.
3. Peace and Hate - The Submarines
In light of all
Darkest things,
The fire glimmers
And the darkness sings.
4. Army Men - Charlotte Sometimes
I'm alone I know it,
I'm alone if I show it.
5. Blue Lips - Regina Spektor
He tried to walk but then felt tired,
He said I'll rest a little while,
But when he tried to walk again
He wasn't a child.
6. Sons and Daughters - The Decemberists
By land, by sea, by dirigible,
We'll leave our tracks untraceable.
7. The Fame - Lady Gaga (it feels strangely liberating to admit that I listen to this stuff)
We got a taste for champagne and endless fortune.
Favorite news story of 2009:
Wallabies make crop circles!
Least favorite news story of 2009:
Anything and everything to do with the abominable snow-woman Sarah Palin.
Favorite new fandom:
Merlin! Well, it was really my only new fandom this year...
Things learned this year:
1. How to draw.
2. Studying biology in graduate school is what I want after all.
3. My misanthropy may be a bit misplaced.
Overall: an uncommonly good year!