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The Source of Self-Regard, Toni MorrisonUncanny Valley, Anna WeinerOur Man: Richard Holbrooke…, George PackerHaving and Being Had, Eula BissMy Parents, Aleksandar HemonMinor Feelings, Cathy Park HongWeather, Jenny OffillPromised Land, Barack ObamaThen the Fish Swallowed Him, Amir Ahmadi ArianJack, Marilyn RobinsonMy Life in France, Julia ChildSeverance, Ling MaCaste, Isabel WilkersonLuster, Raven LeilaniIntimations, Zadie SmithMonocle: How to Make a NationThe Passion Economy, Adam DavidsonThese Fevered Days, Martha AckmannWine Simple, Aldo SohmNormal People, Sally RooneyThe Lying Lives of Adults, Elena FerranteGirl, Edna O’BrienLurking, Joanne McNeilHow to Be a Family, Dan KoisMies van der Rohe, Edith Farnsworth, and the Fight Over a Modernist Masterpiece, Alex BeamThe Secret Lives of Color, Kassia St. ClairNo Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram, Sarah FrierGo Ahead in the Rain, Hanif AbdurraqubHow to Write One Song, Jeff TweedyHow Architecture Works, Witold RybczynskiDark Mirror, Barton GellmanTo Start a War, Robert DraperThe Spy Masters:, Chris WhippleAgent Running in the Field, John le CarréThe Monocle Guide to Better LivingHell and Other Destinations, Madeline AlbrightThe Ride of a Lifetime, Robert IgerBitter Brew, William KnoedelsederOn Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean VuongThe Gathering, Anne EnrightFrederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, David W. BlightBecoming, Michelle ObamaTrick Mirror, Jia TolentinoThe Fifth Risk, Michael LewisSmall Fry, Lisa Brennan-JobsLet’s Go (So We Can Get Back), Jeff TweedyGrand Union: Stories, Zadie SmithBeastie Boys Book, Michael Diamond, et. alConversations with Friends, Sally RooneyThe Mueller Report, Robert S. Mueller III et. alThe World of Charles and Ray EamesSontag: Her Life and Work, Benjamin MoserThe Chief, Joan BiskupicWorking: Researching, Interviewing, Writing, Robert A. CaroThe Indispensable Composers, Anthony TommasiniFleishman Is in Trouble, Taffy Brodesser-AknerMeditations, Marcus AureliusParisian Lives: Deirdre BairPoetics of the Everyday (SLAM on John Foster!)The Education of an Idealist, Samantha PowerStriking Power, Edward Bleiberg and Stephanie WeissbergIt Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work, Fried and Heinemeier HanssonWhat We Lose, Zanzibar ClemmonsBreaking News, Alan RusbridgerSuper Pumped: The Battle for Uber, Mike IsaacDreyer’s English, Benjamin DreyerDear Data, Georgia Lupi and Stefanie PosavecTough Love, Susan RiceFinding My Voice, Valerie JarrettCall Them by Their True Names, Rebecca SolnitShortest Way Home, Pete ButtigiegAvid Reader: A Life, Robert GottliebSight, Jessie GreengrassDesign and Content, Abbott MillerReading Between the Wines, Terry TheiseWe Were Eight Years in Power, Ta-Nehisi CoatesMy Struggle: Book 6, Karl Ove KnausgårdThe Odyssey, Homer (Emily Wilson, tr.)Paula Scher: WorksFeel Free: Essays, Zadie SmithLost Property, Ben Sonnenberg (again)Medardo Rosso: Experiments in Light and FormThe World As It Is, Ben RhodesObama: An Intimate Portrait, Pete SouzaArchitecture's Odd Couple, Hugh HowardYes We (Still) Can, Dan PfeifferFrenemies, Ken AulettaHappiness: Ten Years of n+1 Mona Hatoum: Terra Infirma, Michelle WhiteThe Threat Matrix, Garrett M. GraffMagnitude, Kimberly K. ArcandA Tokyo Romance: A Memoir, Ian BurumaSaving Central Park, Elizabeth Barlow RogersAn Equation for Every Occasion, John M. HenshawPops, Michael ChabonMade to Stick, Chip HeathYes!, Noah J. GoldsteinMy Struggle: Book 5, Karl Ove KnausgårdBlind Spot, Teju ColeCitizen: An American Lyric, Claudia RankineExit West, Mohsin HamidBorn to Run, Bruce SpringsteenSwing Time, Zadie SmithVacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches, John HodgmanNow You See It and Other Essays on Design, Michael BierutHome and Away: Writing the Beautiful Game, Karl Ove Knausgård and Fredrik EkelundBorn a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood, Trevor NoahObama: The Call of History, Peter BakerCork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure, Bianca BoskerA Separation, Katie KitamuraPaul Rand: A Designer's ArtMore Alive and Less Lonely: On Books and Writers, Jonathan LethemPowers of Ten, Philip MorrisonFreud: Inventor of the Modern Mind, Peter D. KramerGrief Is the Thing with Feathers, Max PorterHow to..., Michael BierutCan’t We Talk about Something More Pleasant?, Roz ChastMy Struggle: Book 4, Karl Ove KnausgårdThe Underground Railroad, Colson WhiteheadMy Struggle: Book 3, Karl Ove KnausgårdHunger Makes Me a Modern Girl, Carrie BrownsteinThe Days of Abandonment, Elena FerranteKnown and Strange Things: Essays, Teju ColeThe Monocle Guide to Cosy Homes, MonocleNobody Grew but the Business, Joseph TabbiAlter Egos, Mark LandlerNotorious RGB, Irin Carmon and Shana KnizhnikSeven Interviews with Tadao Ando, Michael AupingMax Beckmann at SLAM: The Paintings, Lynette RothBeliever: My Forty Years in Politics, David AxelrodThe Whole Harmonium, Paul MarianiThe Violet Hour, Katie RoipheEleven Museums, Eleven Directors, Michael E. Shapiro
My Brilliant Friend, Elena FerranteThose Who Leave and Those Who Stay, Elena FerranteThe Story of a New Name, Elena FerranteThe Story of the Lost Child, Elena FerranteLila, Marilyn RobinsonMy Struggle: Book 2, Karl Ove KnausgårdBetween the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi CoatesH is for Hawk, Helen MacdonaldThe Balloonists, Eula BissBeing Mortal, Atul GawandeBecoming Steve Jobs, Brent SchlenderStress Tests, Timothy F. GeithnerVan Gogh: A Power Seething, Julian BellMarissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo, Nicholas CarlsonBark, Lorrie MooreGirl In a Band, Kim GordonOn Immunity: An Inoculation, Eula BissMy Struggle, Book One: Karl Ove KnausgårdLittle Failure, Gary ShteyngartNotes from No Man’s Land: American Essays, Eula BissWhat We See When We Read, Peter MendelsundInferno (The Divine Comedy, #1), Dante Alighieri (Mary Jo Bang, Translator)Becoming Freud: The Making of a Psychoanalyst, Adam Phillips, by Peter Watson 2. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (exquisite, perfect)ParasiteBooksmartMarriage StoryLittle WomenUncut Gems1917Meyerowitz Stories: New & CollectedThe IrishmanThe Trip to GreecePalm SpringsRamsKnives OutThe Other GuysMaggie’s PlanShopliftersSpider-Man: Into the Spider-VerseThe Price of EverythingFord v. FerrariDespicable MeThe FavouriteCall Me By Your NameBlacKkKlansmanCan You Ever Forgive Me? The Souvenir WidowsThe Ballad of Buster ScruggsAd AstraSpirited AwayJuliet, NakedBrexit: Behind Closed DoorsMission: Impossible – FalloutGet OutPrivate Life RoomColumbusA Ghost Story Dunkirk Phantom Thread 20th-Century Women45 YearsThe Death of StalinThe PostFirst ReformedSicarioIcarusLockeThe End of the Tour Molly’s Game The Big SickThe LobsterMoonlightLady BirdUnder the SkinThe Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)Clouds of Sils MariaLife ItselfArrivalManchester By the SeaSelmaThe Big ShortLove and FriendshipSpotlightForce MajeureAbout EllyStraight Outta ComptonThe AssassinGoing ClearCafé SocietyIdaEx MachinaWhile We’re YoungBirdmanBoyhoodMr. TurnerCarolInterstellarMagic in the MoonlightMarina Abramović: The Artist Is PresentGerhard Richter PaintingMoonrise KingdomAi Weiwei: Never SorryLincolnThe MasterThe Queen of VersaillesSomething from Nothing: The Art of RapArbitrageSkyfallThe Dark Knight RisesBill Cunningham New YorkTinker Tailor Soldier SpyCertified CopyMargin CallNotoriousA Dangerous MethodBridesmaidsYoung AdultMoneyballConan O'Brien Can’t StopJ. EdgarToo Big to FailHopscotchHaywireBetter Call Saul, Seasons 4 and 5 Atlanta, Seasons 1 and 2Schitt’s Creek, All Seasons Never Have I Ever Call My Agent, Season 1Roadkill Devs Great British Bake-Off, Season 6 and 8Ted Lasso Fleabag, Seasons 1 and 2 Barry, Seasons 1 and 2 Succession, Seasons 1 and 2 Russian DollVeep, Season 7Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Season 3 Killing Eve, Season 2Howards End (TV Miniseries)Great British Bake-Off, Season 10The Americans (Final Season!) Atlanta, Season 1Killing Eve Succession, Season 1BodyguardUnbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Season 3Bojack Horseman, Season 1Silicon Valley, Seasons 1-3Better Call Saul, Season 3The Americans, Seasons 4-5OJ: Made in AmericaMaster of None, Season 2Better Call Saul, Season 1Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Seasons 1-2The Americans, Seasons 1-3The People vs. O.J. SimpsonThe Night ManagerBroad City, Seasons 1-2Veep, Season 5The Good Wife, Seasons 5-7Borgen: Season 3Mad Men: Final SeasonAn Honorable WomanBlack Mirror: Season 1Master of None: Season 1Veep: All SeasonsThe Good Wife: Seasons 1-6SherlockRuth Asawa: Life’s Work at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation (curated by my wife and called by the Washington Post)Mona Hatoum: Terra Infirma at the PulitzerLola Álvarez Bravo: Picturing Mexico at the PulitzerAmy Sherald at Contemporary Art Museum St. LouisKehinde Wiley: Saint Louis at the Saint Louis Art MuseumWatching “Love Is the Message, The Message Is Death,” an unforgettable, gut-wrenching video work by Arthur Jafa at the HirshornBaselitz: Six Decades at the HirshornThe Martin Luther King Jr. MemorialA trip back to The Phillips CollectionLess happy note: Excitedly took a morning cab to the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, but there were no tickets to be had. Great for the institution, though I was bummed.
The stunning Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future at the GuggenheimBruce Nauman: Disappearing Acts at MoMACharles White: A Retrospective at MoMAToward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948-1980 at MoMADelacroix at the MetJewelry: The Body Transformed at the MetRelative Values: The Cost of Art in the Northern Renaissance at the MetMartha Rosler: Irrespective at The Jewish Museum (plus the permanent collection)
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1. Counterpoint: A Memoir of Bach and Mourning, Philip Kennicott
2. The Most Fun Thing: Dispatches from a Skateboard Life, Kyle Beachy
3. Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design, Michael Bierut
4. Suppose a Sentence: Brian Dillon
5. Hannah Wilke: Art for Life’s Sake (Eds., Tamara Schenkenberg and Donna Wingate)
6. Three Women, Lisa Taddeo
7. They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us, Hanif Abdurraqib
8. The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War, Louis Menand
9. Of Human Kindness: What Shakespeare Teaches Us About Empathy, Paula Marantz Cohen
10. Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres, Kelefa Sanneh
11. The Monocle Book of Homes (Monocle)
12. The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time, Jim McKelvey
13. Studio Culture Now (Ed. Mark Sinclair)
14. The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel, Kati Marton
15. Paul Thomas Anderson: Masterworks, Adam Nayman
16. This Isn’t Happening: Radiohead’s “Kid A” and the Beginning of the 21st Century, Steven Hyden
17. After the Fall: Being American in the World We’ve Made, Ben Rhodes
18. Vesper Flights, Helen Macdonald
19. An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination, Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang
20. The Master: The Long Run and Beautiful Game of Roger Federer, Christopher Clarey
21. Proustian Uncertainties, Saul Friedländer
22. Seeing Serena, Gerald Marzorati
23. Graphic Life, Michael Gericke
24. How to Raise an Adult, Julie Lythcott-Haims
25. Self-Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson, paired with Twelve New Essays by Jessica Helfand
26. Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century, Tim Higgins
27. The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope, Jonathan Alter
28. No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention, Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer
29. Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know, Adam Grant
3. Leave the World Behind, Rumaan Alam
4. The Copenhagen Trilogy, Tove Ditlevsen
5. Whereabouts, Jhumpa Lahiri
6. The Morning Star, Karl Ove Knausgaard
7. Beautiful World, Where Are You, Sally Rooney
8. The Sellout, Paul Beatty
9. Tenth of December, George Saunders
10. My Heart, Semezdin Mehmedinović
11. Fox 8, George Saunders
12. The Carrying: Poems, Ada Limon
13. New Teeth, Simon Rich
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My Spotify’s a shared-with-kids mess, and for loads of weekly hours I stream jazz and classical music that I don’t make a note of to be recalled. That said, I did especially enjoy new records from Fiona Apple, Phoebe Bridgers, Adrianne Lenker, Jeff Tweedy, Lomelda, Bob Dylan, Run the Jewels, and Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist. I’m grateful to have been turned on to the music of Big Thief, Harold Budd (via the e-newsletter ), Eleanor Bindman, and Haley Heynderickx, whose always brightened our family’s quarantine, with the kids screaming and jumping along to the swelling refrain, “I need to start a garden!” Here’s to what’s to come.
Hours and hours of daily Spotify listening again this year. A few new-to-me artists I enjoyed: Lomelda, Florist, Big Thief, Father John Misty, Better Oblivion Community Center, Julia Holter, Clifford Brown, Red Garland.
Beyond the many hours of classical music I listened to at work through the headphones, the the albums I most enjoyed this year were (nearly a daily listen for me), as well as new/newish records from Julien Baker, Boygenius, Jeff Tweedy, Pusha T, Earl Sweatshirt, Cat Power, Damien Jurado and Lomelda, whose song “From Here” in a way that always makes me smile and sing along.
I'm going to skip making a long list of favorite albums and podcasts, and instead note a discovery in each, respectively: (watch her), and . They each feel a bit haunted, and they share, in parts, a gothic sensibility. (Also: I can't not mention Black Thought's instantly classic , which c'mon.)
One of the things I like most about being a Spotify subscriber and daily listener is being able to quickly tune into new artists — whether I read about them or they’re served up via the app’s “Discover” tab. New-to-me folks I enjoyed this year include Eskimeaux, Father John Misty/J. Tilman, Florist, J. Cole, Laura Gibson, Alina Ibragimova, My Bubba, Agnes Obel, Angel Olsen, Andy Shauf, and Sun Kil Moon. Among the artists I’ve long loved, I couldn’t get enough of Radiohead’s beautiful 2016 record, “A Moon-Shaped Pool.”
I used to make long lists of specific albums purchased and enjoyed, but since I’ve gone to paid streaming (and, maybe, since I’ve become a committed podcast listener), it’s harder for me to point to specific recordings at a year’s end. This is especially the case since Rdio shut down, and I’m now starting fresh with Spotify — my digital records are kind of a mess. While I listen to hours of classical and ambient/lush music through the headphones during work, a few specific artists I spent more time with in 2015 include Angel Olsen, Youth Lagoon, Sun Kil Moon, Sharon Van Etten, My Bubba, Jennifer O’Connor, Girlpool, Atlas Sound, Earl Sweatshirt, J Cole, Common, Pusha T, A$AP Rocky, Villagers, Natalie Prass, and Perfume Genius.
VISUAL ARTS
I can’t recall a year when I saw less art — whether here in St. Louis or in cities we didn’t travel to. With that unfortunate reality, I’m especially grateful to have been able to see the fantastic exhibition at the Pulitzer this summer.
Close to home:
During a wedding trip to Chicago, I enjoyed diving back into the permanent collection of the Art Institute Chicago and doing quick cruise through the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
While attending and speaking at a conference in D.C., museum highlights included:
During a day-and-a-half trip to NYC, I was able to see a remarkable amount of world-class art, including:
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