Apparently this title is from reddit. I can no longer pretend to be above reddit; one should always be beneath things, plus also they brought us Jorts<\/a>. Links are usually to my reviews. Previous years are here<\/a>. (Tell me where all past years are\u2026.)<\/p>\n Best books (nonfiction)<\/strong>:<\/p>\n 5- Peter Brown, Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350 \u2013 550 AD<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n 4- Mitchell Duneier, Slim\u2019s Table: Race, Respectability, and Masculinity<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n ETA: OK, so I couldn\u2019t find the little book where I wrote down what I read in the first part of the year, & forgot various items. I read Philippe Girard\u2019s Toussaint Louverture: A Revolutionary Life<\/em>, and if I\u2019d remembered it, it would\u2019ve gone here.<\/p>\n 3- Alice Baumgartner, South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n 2- Nicholas Griffin, The Year of Dangerous Days: Riots, Refugees, and Cocaine in Miami 1980<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n 1- Amy Richlin, Slave Theater in the Roman Republic: Plautus and Popular Comedy<\/em>.<\/p>\n Also of note<\/strong>: John Edgar Wideman, Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n ETA: I forgot Bridget\u2019s book!!! \/o\\ Because I\u2019ve only read the draft\u2013should read the final version next year. ANYWAYS Bridget Eileen Rivera\u2019s Heavy Burdens: Seven Ways LGBTQ Christians Experience Harm in the Church<\/em><\/a> has a fair amount that I loved, a fair amount that I disagreed with (or honestly, a lot of it was not about my personal opinion imho, she is coming from a different set of church commitments and there are things here to which as a Catholic I can\u2019t assent, which is a normal thing to happen, lol), a small amount I found undertheorized\u2026 and one absolutely enormous, necessary thing, which is just the stories of actual real people. Real lgbtq people, and what they experienced among the people who say that God is Love. A foundational book, both in the sense that we need to build upon it and in the sense that we need it to build upon.<\/p>\n Best books (real books)<\/strong>:<\/p>\n 5- Douglas Coupland, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n 4- Nina Bouraoui, Tomboy<\/em> <\/a>(tr. Salvodon & Gavarini)<\/p>\n 3- Mariam Petrosyan, The Gray House<\/em><\/a> (tr. Machkasov)<\/p>\n 2- Patricia Lockwood, No One Is Talking About This<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n 1- Garth Greenwell, Cleanness<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Also of note<\/strong>: Danielle Evans,\u00a0The Office of Historical Corrections <\/em><\/a>(plus my own historical note here<\/a>); Joni Murphy, Double Teenage<\/em><\/a>; Phil Klay, Missionaries<\/em>; Carl Neville, Eminent Domain<\/em><\/a> (this is the hon-mention I am most confident that a lot of my readers would find provocative\u2026 if you are down for experimental SF and the phrase \u201cfully-medicated luxury communism\u201d catches your attention, you should grab this); Stephen King, The Dark Half<\/em><\/a>; Ted Chiang, Exhalation and Other Stories<\/em><\/a>; R.O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell, eds., Kink<\/em><\/a>; Samit Basu, Chosen Spirits<\/em><\/a>; Jeremias Gotthelf, The Black Spider<\/em> (tr. Bernofsky); Joseph Roth, Tarabas: A Guest on Earth<\/em><\/a> (tr. Katzin); Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Slave<\/em><\/a> (tr. Singer & Hemley).<\/p>\n Best movies<\/strong>, 10 instead of five because I couldn\u2019t bear to cut Great Freedom<\/em>:<\/p>\n 10- Raging Bull<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n 9- A Serious Man<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n 8- The Rules of Attraction<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n 7- Great Freedom<\/em> (review forthcoming)<\/p>\n 6- Ganja & Hess<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n 5- The Hole<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n 4- Stromboli<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n 3- Nights of Cabiria<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n 2- My Darling Supermarket<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n 1- Lawrence of Arabia <\/em>(which I will probably write about in the New Year, finally.)<\/p>\n Also of note<\/strong>: The Social Network, Fires on the Plain, Sleeping Beauty, Night Comes On<\/a>;<\/em> The Strangers: Prey at Night<\/a><\/em>; Night of the Kings<\/em>,\u00a0Flatliners<\/em>,\u00a0His House<\/em><\/a>; The Hitcher<\/em><\/a>; Minari<\/a><\/em>; Project Nim<\/em><\/a>, One Night in Miami<\/em><\/a>, It<\/em> <\/a>parts 1 & 2; The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane<\/em>, Hell Night<\/em>;<\/a> The Night Porter<\/em><\/a>; Don\u2019t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood<\/em> (which I watched because of this podcast<\/a>, btw\u2013scroll down to February); Drunks, Monsoon Wedding, Dave Made a Maze<\/em><\/a>; Candyman<\/em> <\/a>(2021), Salt of the Earth<\/em>; Venom: Let There Be Carnage; Days of Heaven, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Petite Maman, The Red & the White, The Stepfather<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Best things I wrote for money<\/strong>: 5- \u201cThe Violence of Reason: \u2018Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1985\u2019<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n 4- Can the \u201credemption arc\u201d be saved?<\/a><\/p>\n 3- My long reported piece on anti-gay \u201cconversion therapy\u201d in Catholic settings<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2- My Tablet<\/em> essay on, basically, the \u201cviolence interrupters\u201d of late medieval Italy<\/a>. Neither reform nor revolution but penance. (As with #4, you will need to register your email to read it, but lol I may as well say I hope you take the time to jump through that hoop if you\u2019re interested in criminal punishment and its alternatives.)<\/p>\n 1- \u201cVelvet and Pus<\/a>\u201d at Commonweal<\/em>\u2013the \u201cCatholic imagination\u201d I discovered on conversion was the queer imagination I\u2019d known before. Or, everybody talks about the Catholic imagination but nobody does anything about it\u2026.<\/p>\n Also, I started a substack<\/strong>, basically for writing too incoherent to justify an article. I think it\u2019s gone well! Here are my favorites:<\/p>\n Thomas Becket and Kesha<\/a><\/p>\n a long ramble about the dangers of \u201cstory\u201d<\/a> and also playground rhymes for some reason<\/p>\n \u201cThen When the Hurdy-Gurdy Man Came Singing Songs of Love<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n the bit about Vampire: The Masquerade<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cPutting Morality in Its Place<\/a>\u201c\u2013I mostly do my Gay Catholic Whatnot elsewhere but this is one substack post I think might be esp relevant to my queerer readers. The second bit, in which I gnaw on \u201cwholesome culture,\u201d I think is also pretty good and perh somewhat less obnoxious than that summary sounds.<\/p>\n And the people\u2019s choice<\/strong>, which I refuse to consider irony: \u201cA Habsburg Behind the Veil of Ignorance<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Best essays etc by others<\/strong>: I think I will do this as \u201cone thing per genre\u201d rather than ranking them.<\/p>\n genre: economic apocalypse<\/strong>: Lauren Smiley, Wired<\/em>, \u201cHe Thought He Could Outfox the Gig Economy. He Was Wrong<\/a>.\u201d Heartbreaking and also very well-structured.<\/p>\n here\u2019s another one: Diana Hubbell, Eater<\/em>, \u201cThere Has Been Blood<\/a>.\u201d On palm oil, and powerless people coming together.<\/p>\n genre: substack post<\/strong>\u2026 sorry to my friends but: Aaron A. Reed, 50 Years of Text Games<\/em>, \u201c1992: Silverwolf<\/a>.\u201d Seriously, just strap in to this rollercoaster and let it take you.<\/p>\n genre: devotional<\/strong>: Stephen Staten, Black Catholic Messenger<\/em>, \u201cThe Sacred Heart Beats for LGBT Catholics<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n genre: personal essay<\/strong>: Heonju Lee, Plough<\/em>, \u201cThe Baby We Kept<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n genre: BD McClay<\/strong> (although the Margery Kempe one<\/a> and especially the Netflix Gothic adaptations one<\/a> are also excellent): Commonweal<\/em>, \u201cI Firmly Resolve<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n genre: response to being attacked by a literal serial killer, genre: off-label uses for a plastic roast chicken,<\/strong> AND genre: <\/strong>beard<\/strong>: Iris Benaroia, Toronto Life<\/em>, \u201c\u2018I feel like I live in a ballroom in Versailles.\u2019<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n Also, if you have any interest at all in their subjects, I would strongly recommend subscribing to In Spirit and Truth<\/a> (about the sex-abuse crisis in the Catholic Church) and Other Feminisms<\/a> (about feminisms of interdependence rather than independence).<\/p>\n Miscellany<\/strong>: Here is the text of my speech from this year\u2019s Revoice conference<\/a>, which is not a bad intro to my basic gay Catholic shtik.<\/p>\n Here is my post about Harrison Lemke\u2019s terrific indie\/pop album<\/a> about debt, getting what you need but don\u2019t deserve, and staying in your hometown for reasons you\u2019re starting to regret: Forever Only Idaho<\/em>, aka Music to Violate Your Parole Conditions By.<\/p>\n I did an interview with the Pelican<\/a>, a pro-life newsletter, about crisis pregnancy counseling and depictions of decisionmaking around abortion in art.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s some underrated twittering<\/strong>: devotional\/hilarious<\/a>; meta<\/a>.<\/p>\n Best book I published in 2021<\/strong>: Tenderness: A Gay Christian\u2019s Guide to Unlearning Rejection and Experiencing God\u2019s Extravagant Love<\/em><\/a>. I\u2019m doing a playlist soon so feel free to suggest songs.<\/p>\n