Some Things I Liked in 2024

Books, tv shows, movies, podcasts & museums

Books

I mainly read contemporary fiction. I don’t have a lot of patience for books without plot. Two of the books below (King and Conclave) did not come out in 2024 – it’s just when I happened to read them. The rest are new (this is in no particular order, same for the other categories below).

• Leaving – Roxana Robinson

• Family Family — Laurie Frankel

• Victim — Andrew Boryga

• King: A Life — Jonathan Eig

• Real Americans — Rachel Khong

• Very Bad Company — Emma Rosenblum

• Assassins Anonymous — Rob Hart

• The Expat — Hansen Shi

• Guilty Creatures: Sex, God and Murder in Tallahassee, Florida — Mikita Brottman

• Little Rot — Akwaeke Emezi

• On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything — Nate Silver

• The God of the Woods — Liz Moore

• Colored Television — Danzy Senna

• Conclave — Robert Harris

• I Will Do Better: A Father’s Memoir of Heartbreak, Parenting, and Love — Charles Bock

• There Is No Ethan – Anna Akbari

• On Being Jewish Now — Zibby Owens

• All the Worst Humans: How I Made News for Dictators, Tycoons and Politicians — Phil Elwood

• Good Material — Dolly Alderton

• Health and Safety — Emily Witt

• We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite – Musa al-Gharbi

• Every Arc Bends Its Radian — Sergio De La Pava

• The Wizard of the Kremlin — Giuliano Da Empoli

TV Shows

In looking at the list below, not sure there’s any consistent theme other than that I enjoyed them all.

• Say Nothing (Hulu)

• The Penguin (Max)

• Nobody Wants This (Netflix)

• 3 Body Problem (Netflix)

• Sugar (Apple)

• The Gentleman (Netflix)

• The Brothers Sun (Netflix)

• Mr. Throwback (Peacock)

• True Detective: Night Country (Max)

• Industry (Max)

• Somebody Somewhere (Max)

• Hacks (Max)

• Mayor of Kingstown (Paramount)

• Interior Chinatown (Hulu)

• Day of the Jackal (Peacock)

• The Veil (Hulu)

Movies

I used to see 20-30 movies a year. Now maybe 8-10 and if I’m lucky, there are 4 or 5 worth recommending, including these:

• Hit Man (Netflix)

• Wild Robot (actual movie)

• Deadpool and Wolverine (actual movie)

• The Bikeriders (actual movie)

• My Old Ass (Amazon)

Podcasts

I listen to a lot of podcasts but these are on the regular playlist.

• Bill Simmons

• People I Mostly Admire: Steve Leavitt

• Risky Business: Nate Silver and Maria Konnikova

• Plain English: Derek Thomspon

• Mets Fix: Blake Zeff, Peter Kaufmann and Jeffrey Bellone

• Prof G – No Mercy/ No Malice: Scott Galloway (as read by George Hahn)

Museums I Hadn’t Been to Before and Really Liked

• International Center for Photography (New York)

• Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Montreal)

• LVMH Foundation (Paris; more the building than the collection)

• National Tile Museum (Lisbon)

• Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden (New Orleans)