SUITCASE OF MEMORIES: So I’m not at all sorry to see the back of 2005. But here are some best-of lists from my year:

Best books read (fiction, poetry, drama): Kathy Shaidle, Lobotomy Magnificat
Louise Fitzhugh, Harriet the Spy (re-read)
Caryl Churchill, The Skriker (re-read).
The Song of Roland
uh… JK Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. This wasn’t a great year for me and fiction.

(non-fiction): Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character (…I really am still planning to post on this)
Elizabeth Marquardt, Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce
John Keegan, The Mask of Command
David Simon, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
Jeffrey Steingarten, The Man Who Ate Everything (pushed on me by Ratty)

Best movies seen: Therese
The Mission
Sweet Smell of Success (re-watch–I love this movie)
Closet Land/Suspiria (tie–they’re really too different to compare)

Best posts by me: 1. A few stars from a constellation that hasn’t been drawn yet. Or, gay mackerel-snappers a-go-go.

2. Series on same-sex marriage, for MarriageDebate. God vs. heterosexuals, doing the hard stuff, atheist cathedrals, and more. If you want to read this, I suggest you read all of my posts in the series, and only then go back and read the comments (if you want) and then maybe scroll up for some relatedish material. But the series itself was written to be read all at once rather than broken up–it flows a lot better that way, and makes more sense.

3. What’s a Girl Like You Doing in a Nice Place Like This?

When I first came to Yale–not that I realized this at the time–I was trying to understand three questions: Why is poetry meaningful? Why is sex meaningful? Why is estrangement meaningful? Other people can talk about market economics or national security; I can only sketch how investigating these three questions led me away from left-wing subjectivism and into what you could call conservatism.

more

4. Five sci-fi/fantasy books you should read

5. What He really thinks of you

Runner-up, because I did six last year and I’m too fond of my own voice: The Pope makes me feel minty.

Cheers, and a blessed year to all of you. If you pray please keep me in your prayers, as I will do for you all.