Best of 2019 in Media
Jan. 14th, 2020 11:15 pmEvery year, sometimes very late, I write a list like this. Here's the best media I consumed, but which was probably not released, in 2019. Beware: books.
I somehow missed a month when calculating my running tally. It turns out that not only was I on track to read a book a day, I read 374 books in 2019. That's more than double my usual, which for the last few years averaged to 150. It's deceptive because I read a lot of short books, but I also increased my pages read by 50% over the last few years: more short books, but more reading in general.
( Reading wrap-up musings. )
Animorphs series, K.A. Applegate
For years this would come up on my feed and I'd be struck by nostalgia but also wonder why people were still talking about that MG series. I get it now! This is a hot mess, but so successful despite and because of that mess: substantial character arcs made more accessible by pulpy serialization; challenging themes hidden under a premise of wish-fulfillment and made memorable by body horror. Mainlining this series came when I most needed to be absorbed in something & shaped my entire reading year.
X and Tokyo Babylon, Clamp
These were formative series for many, but while other Clamp was formative for me I didn't read these until 2019—and they're as id-delighting and imprint-worthy now as they would have been then, which is the highest praise I can think of for Clamp.
Picture Books
Easy access to a physical library opened the world of picture books to me, and it was a revelation. Short, visual stories written for children are unbounded, atmospheric, condensed. They're perfect palette cleansers and punchy seasonal reading. And, as mentioned in my musing above, diverse children's creators are hiding throughout history, and I'm delighted to discover them. Some favorites: I Am a Witch's Cat, Harriet Muncaster (affirming, charming, comforting), Millions of Cats, Wanda Gág (the oldest picture book still in print is written by polyamorous woman!), Goodnight Moon & The Runaway Bunny, Margaret Wise Brown (as good as I remember), The Bones of Fred McFee, Eve Bunting (highlight of my spooky picture book binge), The Tea Dragon Society, Katie O'Neill (this is more MG, but: if McKinley wrote secondary-world graphic novels)
Maurice Sendak
My Sendak deep-dive helped me recontextualize and relearn the art of reading picture books. Sendak claimed not to write for kids so much as to be read by kids, and to some extent I agree: he inhabits a child's mind, he teaches, but he also writes intuitive, humorous dreamscapes and experiments that the reader—child or elsewise—just happens to visit. Some highlights: Where the Wild Things Are; Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or, There Must Be More to Life. My favorite: Kenny's Window.
Ruth Krauss
Sendak illustrated so many of her books that the two are almost inseparable, and the interplay between her declarative sentences and his evocative doodles is fantastic. Krauss more than any picture book author I read this year truly inhabits a child's mind, speaking with them, going strange places with them. Some highlights: A Hole is to Dig, I'll Be You and You Be Me. My favorite: Charlotte and the White Horse.
"The Fourth Pig," Naomi Mitchison
Has a short story ever been on my favorites list? (No.) This retelling/sequel of the three little pigs and their identity built around the-wolf-who-is-death speaks directly to my personal metaphors. It's bewitchingly written, strange and intense, but its effect on me exceeds objective judgement—the happenstance of the perfect reader for a particular narrative.
The Were-Wolf, Clemence Housman
Some classic examples of genre writing feels staid in view of all that's followed it; some can still invigorate the genre, and the treatment of gender and particular niche of werewolf tropes here are brilliant and bracing.
Portal Fantasy
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staranise mused on Tumblr about the resurgence of the portal fantasy genre and I largely agree with her reasoning. The result has been a new generation of portal fantasy interrogating and subverting the genre: how do you get there, what happens when you leave, how does it change you, who believes you, what are the boundaries of a "portal." These stories are frequently flawed, but I adore the trend, which does my favorite thing with one of my favorite tropes. 2019 is somewhere in the height of this resurgence, and reoccurred throughout my reading.
Id-Novel Catch-All
2019 contained a preponderance of novels that appealed directly to my id—genres I like, dynamics I like, atmospheres I like, united only by the arbitrary feeling of indulgence. Some highlights: The Monster of Elendhaven, Jennifer Giesbrecht (wintery Dunwall + soulbonded sociopaths); Strange Grace (run into the dark and magical forest to follow your beloveds); Expedition, Wayne Barlowe (an entire planet of speculative evolution); Black Wine (a loose knit of language, polyamory, identity); White Wing, Susan Shwartz and Shariann Lewitt (group marriage space opera); On a Sunbeam, Tillie Walden (space whales, space ruins, space coming of age), Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf (we are connected but isolated by the way our personal paradigms can't contain one another's experiences), and particularly:
Autonomous, Annalee Newitz
This is everything I want in a AI/robot narrative, distilled almost to a concentrated state. It's critical, engaged, and awash with speculative elements, but digs down so gritty to precise and subversive issues of sex, bodies, identity—those elements hooked me hard.
Kingdom Hearts
2019 was the year that Kingdom Hearts III came out, and in preparation I finished playing through (nearly) all of the side-games, which were engaging in themselves and critical to the pay-off of the final game. It's the culmination of decades of my emotional investment, and thus resonates despite any quibbles with KHIII.
Deemo (Switch version)
Deemo was on my list in 2016, but this year I discovered 1) checking out video games from the library, which makes for an fevered week of binging before the due date, and 2) the Switch port of this, the best of rhythm games—which on Switch is a full-priced game containing NG+ and every song-pack.
Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World & Yoshi's Crafted World
I adore the soft line of Nintendo spin-offs which are sweeter and easier than their platforming origins. These aren't as clever in concept as the inimitableKirby's Epic Yarn, but they're a joy.
Untitled Goose Game
What it lacks in longevity it makes up for in commitment.
Person of Interest
This was on my list in 2017, but this time I watched it with Devon—and to my surprise it was better on rewatch, anticipating every character arc and catching all the foreshadowing, alternately vibrating with suppressed spoilers or discussing the speculative elements in depth.
Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir
This began as—and absolutely still is—a guilty pleasure, but it's improved with every season; the writing and characterization is solid, and it has a superb ability to preserve tension while still moving the narrative forward. Quality brain-candy.
2019 was the year I started using Spotify, and my top songs of 2019 list is on-point and provides a seasonal tour of my yearly musical tastes: weird lady artists (spring), video game-esque instrumental (summer), and southern gothic & werewolves (autumn). Is it disjointed in collection? sure is.
Books
I somehow missed a month when calculating my running tally. It turns out that not only was I on track to read a book a day, I read 374 books in 2019. That's more than double my usual, which for the last few years averaged to 150. It's deceptive because I read a lot of short books, but I also increased my pages read by 50% over the last few years: more short books, but more reading in general.
( Reading wrap-up musings. )
Animorphs series, K.A. Applegate
For years this would come up on my feed and I'd be struck by nostalgia but also wonder why people were still talking about that MG series. I get it now! This is a hot mess, but so successful despite and because of that mess: substantial character arcs made more accessible by pulpy serialization; challenging themes hidden under a premise of wish-fulfillment and made memorable by body horror. Mainlining this series came when I most needed to be absorbed in something & shaped my entire reading year.
X and Tokyo Babylon, Clamp
These were formative series for many, but while other Clamp was formative for me I didn't read these until 2019—and they're as id-delighting and imprint-worthy now as they would have been then, which is the highest praise I can think of for Clamp.
Picture Books
Easy access to a physical library opened the world of picture books to me, and it was a revelation. Short, visual stories written for children are unbounded, atmospheric, condensed. They're perfect palette cleansers and punchy seasonal reading. And, as mentioned in my musing above, diverse children's creators are hiding throughout history, and I'm delighted to discover them. Some favorites: I Am a Witch's Cat, Harriet Muncaster (affirming, charming, comforting), Millions of Cats, Wanda Gág (the oldest picture book still in print is written by polyamorous woman!), Goodnight Moon & The Runaway Bunny, Margaret Wise Brown (as good as I remember), The Bones of Fred McFee, Eve Bunting (highlight of my spooky picture book binge), The Tea Dragon Society, Katie O'Neill (this is more MG, but: if McKinley wrote secondary-world graphic novels)
Maurice Sendak
My Sendak deep-dive helped me recontextualize and relearn the art of reading picture books. Sendak claimed not to write for kids so much as to be read by kids, and to some extent I agree: he inhabits a child's mind, he teaches, but he also writes intuitive, humorous dreamscapes and experiments that the reader—child or elsewise—just happens to visit. Some highlights: Where the Wild Things Are; Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or, There Must Be More to Life. My favorite: Kenny's Window.
Ruth Krauss
Sendak illustrated so many of her books that the two are almost inseparable, and the interplay between her declarative sentences and his evocative doodles is fantastic. Krauss more than any picture book author I read this year truly inhabits a child's mind, speaking with them, going strange places with them. Some highlights: A Hole is to Dig, I'll Be You and You Be Me. My favorite: Charlotte and the White Horse.
"The Fourth Pig," Naomi Mitchison
Has a short story ever been on my favorites list? (No.) This retelling/sequel of the three little pigs and their identity built around the-wolf-who-is-death speaks directly to my personal metaphors. It's bewitchingly written, strange and intense, but its effect on me exceeds objective judgement—the happenstance of the perfect reader for a particular narrative.
Honorable Mentions in Books
The Were-Wolf, Clemence Housman
Some classic examples of genre writing feels staid in view of all that's followed it; some can still invigorate the genre, and the treatment of gender and particular niche of werewolf tropes here are brilliant and bracing.
Portal Fantasy
staranise mused on Tumblr about the resurgence of the portal fantasy genre and I largely agree with her reasoning. The result has been a new generation of portal fantasy interrogating and subverting the genre: how do you get there, what happens when you leave, how does it change you, who believes you, what are the boundaries of a "portal." These stories are frequently flawed, but I adore the trend, which does my favorite thing with one of my favorite tropes. 2019 is somewhere in the height of this resurgence, and reoccurred throughout my reading.Id-Novel Catch-All
2019 contained a preponderance of novels that appealed directly to my id—genres I like, dynamics I like, atmospheres I like, united only by the arbitrary feeling of indulgence. Some highlights: The Monster of Elendhaven, Jennifer Giesbrecht (wintery Dunwall + soulbonded sociopaths); Strange Grace (run into the dark and magical forest to follow your beloveds); Expedition, Wayne Barlowe (an entire planet of speculative evolution); Black Wine (a loose knit of language, polyamory, identity); White Wing, Susan Shwartz and Shariann Lewitt (group marriage space opera); On a Sunbeam, Tillie Walden (space whales, space ruins, space coming of age), Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf (we are connected but isolated by the way our personal paradigms can't contain one another's experiences), and particularly:
Autonomous, Annalee Newitz
This is everything I want in a AI/robot narrative, distilled almost to a concentrated state. It's critical, engaged, and awash with speculative elements, but digs down so gritty to precise and subversive issues of sex, bodies, identity—those elements hooked me hard.
Games
Kingdom Hearts
2019 was the year that Kingdom Hearts III came out, and in preparation I finished playing through (nearly) all of the side-games, which were engaging in themselves and critical to the pay-off of the final game. It's the culmination of decades of my emotional investment, and thus resonates despite any quibbles with KHIII.
Honorable Mentions in Games
Deemo (Switch version)
Deemo was on my list in 2016, but this year I discovered 1) checking out video games from the library, which makes for an fevered week of binging before the due date, and 2) the Switch port of this, the best of rhythm games—which on Switch is a full-priced game containing NG+ and every song-pack.
Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World & Yoshi's Crafted World
I adore the soft line of Nintendo spin-offs which are sweeter and easier than their platforming origins. These aren't as clever in concept as the inimitableKirby's Epic Yarn, but they're a joy.
Untitled Goose Game
What it lacks in longevity it makes up for in commitment.
Visual Media
Person of Interest
This was on my list in 2017, but this time I watched it with Devon—and to my surprise it was better on rewatch, anticipating every character arc and catching all the foreshadowing, alternately vibrating with suppressed spoilers or discussing the speculative elements in depth.
Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir
This began as—and absolutely still is—a guilty pleasure, but it's improved with every season; the writing and characterization is solid, and it has a superb ability to preserve tension while still moving the narrative forward. Quality brain-candy.
Music
2019 was the year I started using Spotify, and my top songs of 2019 list is on-point and provides a seasonal tour of my yearly musical tastes: weird lady artists (spring), video game-esque instrumental (summer), and southern gothic & werewolves (autumn). Is it disjointed in collection? sure is.
