Top 10 Books of the Decade

I posted my Top 10 movies of the 2010s earlier this month, so now it's on to the Top 10 books of the 2010s.

10. Beautiful Ruins (2012), Jess Walter: I would call this one an epic. Walter expertly weaves together the lives of multiple characters over the course of a lifetime, with unrequited love always the driving force. Walter hasn't published another novel since this, so I eagerly await more from him.

9. A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010), Jennifer Egan: This is a brilliant book. Don't take my word for it, Egan won a little something called the Pulitzer Prize for this baby. Egan masterfully uses multiple characters, weaving their stories together to create a transcendent whole. I don't want to give anything away, but at one point Egan uses the power point format, and if for no other reason, you should read this book just to see how she pulled it off.

8. The Goldfinch (2013), Donna Tartt: At 784 pages, this is the longest book in my Top 10. Although critical reception was quite mixed, it did manage to win a little something called the Pulitzer Prize. I was very excited when the film adaptation came out, but unfortunately, the movie is no where near as good.

7. Unbroken (2010), Laura Hillenbrand: Nonfiction doesn't get much better than this. Louis Zamperini is a true American hero, and you will be a different person after reading his heroic story. Simply put, Hillenbrand is a nonfiction master.

6. Gone Girl (2012), Gillian Flynn: This book is just wicked fun. I like to think of it as War of the Roses.....on steroids.....or even better, meth.  Flynn's first two books are really good, but this one was a coming out party for a great writer.

5. Born to Run (2016), Bruce Springsteen: If you love The Boss, this book must forever live in your personal orbit. If you don't love The Boss, you should still read this book. It is one of the best looks into the mind of an artist I've ever come across in any medium.

4. Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017), Jesmyn Ward: This is an epic road novel about 3 generations and the ghosts that haunt them. It is also a searing portrait of a country still struggling to deal with its past. Ward is arguably the best American novelist of the decade. This is her second book, the other being Salvage the Bones in 2011, to win the National Book Award.

3. Killers of the Flower Moon (2017), David Grann: In the early 1920s, oil deposits were discovered on the land of the Osage tribe in Oklahoma. Grann masterfully details a series of murders of wealthy Osage tribal members that essentially amounts to a secret history of the American frontier. This is hands down my favorite nonfiction of the decade.

2. The Underground Railroad (2016), Colson Whitehead: In this alternate history infused with surgical doses of magical realism, the Underground Railroad is reimagined as an actual railroad. The protagonist is Cora, a runaway slave whose journey is a unique exploration of the foundational sin of America. This is the first book since The Shipping News in 1993 to win both the Pulitzer and the National Book Award.

1. Station Eleven (2014), Emily St. Mandel: I wold call this a literary descendant of Cormac McCarthy's The Road and David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. This is the book that simultaneously moved and entertained me the most this decade. I can't say that I remember specific details of the story all that well, but the memory of it hovers in my mind and still has the power to evoke the feeling of awe I had when reading.

Let me know what you think of my choices, and of course, I'd love to hear your thoughts on best books of the decade.

Top 10 Movies of the 2010s

End-of-the-decade lists are definitely making the rounds right now. Seems like the list makers are putting their decade lists out first, with the traditional end-of-the-year lists to come later this month.

I haven't done a Top 10 list since 2015 (to my great shame of course), but all this decade reflection has my list-making juices flowing again. I'm going to follow the trend and do my end-of-the-decade lists first, and then follow up with 2019 lists around the new year.

10. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015): As a child of the 80s, of course I had watched all of the other Star Wars movies with my daughters. If I'm being honest, this really isn't top 10 worthy per se, but it is easily one of the best movie experiences of my life as a parent sharing movies with his kids.

9. Get Out (2017): Horror movies had a real renaissance this decade, with a number of excellent directors using the genre to disguise social commentary. No one pulled this off better than Jordan Peele with his masterful take on cultural appropriation. 

8. La La Land (2016): This is the first of two Damien Chazelle movies on my list. I love the look of this movie, and the music is awesome. I'm not really a love story kind of guy, but this one got me. Not as much as my daughters, who were literally bawling on the drive home.

7. Arrival (2016): Denis Villeneuve is another director who had a great decade. Here he uses sci-fi to ask one of life's BIG questions: If you knew all the bad things that were going to happen in your life, would you still go down the same path? The Max Richter song at the end of this movie is one of the best uses of music in film history. 

6. Lady Bird (2017): I feel safe in saying that Greta Gerwig's directorial debut is the best mother/daughter movie of all time. It's also one of the better coming-of-age movies. My oldest is about the same age as LB, so this was a particularly heightened movie experience. 

5. Inside Out (2015): This is right up there in the Pixar pantheon for me. Of course, watching a movie that mostly takes place in the mind of an 11-year-old girl with your own daughters, one of whom was 11 at the time, made resistance futile. 

4. Bridesmaids (2011): This is easily the most rewatchable movie of the decade. I don't even know how many times I've rewatched it, but it still cracks me up. This is also one of the most quotable movies ever made, and let me tell ya, not many days go by that I don't quote a line from this one. 

3. Whiplash (2014): This is Damien Chazelle's directorial debut and his second film on my list. J.K. Simmons gives an iconic, Oscar-winning performance that challenges viewers to consider how far people should go to achieve greatness.

2. Frances Ha (2012): I had avoided this movie for a long time. It looked too Woody Allen-lite to be honest. But thanks to a recommendation/cinematic shaming from my oldest, this was, without a doubt, the most pleasant movie surprise of my decade. It perfectly captures the ups and downs of life in your 20s. 

1. The Social Network (2010): Not only do I believe this is the best movie of the decade, I believe it is currently the best movie of the 21st century. This is that rare movie that feels more relevant now than when it was released. Fincher and Sorkin tried to warn us people. 

Let me know what you think of my choices, and of course, I'd love to hear your thoughts on best movies of the decade.