2, 3, 10, 11, 14 if no ones asked it yet :3
It doesn't have to have come out this year, does it? I think the only new album I listened to was GNX by Kendrick Lamar and it deserves another listen since it didn't hit for me beyond "heart pt. 6" and I think it'll hit for me more on another listen--my experience with his music goes like that a lot where I end up really loving it after a few listens, but not at first. Also I just looked it up and it came out in 2024. Whoops
Anyway, I revisited Shades of Purple by M2M this year. Used to be a big M2M fan when I was a kid and gave this album a full listen when I remembered Don't Say You Love Me randomly. Good album. Don't Say You Love Me, Mirror Mirror, The Day You Went Away, Pretty Boy, etc all classics to me. Quintessentially 2000s Europop.
3. Favorite musical artist / group you started listening to this year?
Hmmm. I haven't really picked up anybody new in a meaningful way. I'm a picker with songs if that makes sense. Like... I pick one or two songs for an artist and rarely go after anything else from them. So I listened to a lot of new people, but maybe one or two songs. Doechii, Sabrina Carpenter, etc.
I revisited a couple artists. Obviously got back into M2M, but I also started listening to Weird Al again as I've mentioned before. I guess if I can pick anyone and can include people whose music I revisited, it'd be Weird Al LMAO.
10. Something that made you cry this year?
I cry a lot. I don't talk about it much but I really do. I remember going to the airport to head home after spending a few short days with my best friend in California after he dropped me off. I sat there in the lobby crying because I missed him so much already and I was overwhelmed by the prospect of having to leave him. It was really special getting to meet him irl for the first time and I just never wanted to leave. It was a really special trip for me for a lot of reasons so it was hard LOL.
11. Something you want to do again next year?
Write a book again. I guess I can only count it halfway this year because I was "only" doing major rewrites for a majority of the base novel but I want to keep going. I can't let it get away from me again.
I also want to go back to California next year.
14. Favorite book you read this year?
Love this question. Great question. I rank all the books I read as I read them, so I'm going to show my top 10. It is my definitive top 10, though I may choose to rearrange it at some point.
GOT is my number one ranked but I think any of these are fantastic, really. Game of Thrones just hit for me in a way I haven't felt in a while. I don't personally feel I read a lot of books this year that I absolutely loved, but this one I was glued to. Unfortunately, the reports of A Song of Ice and Fire being really good are true.
Custer's Trials is still my favorite non-fiction book. Truly special. Nothing like it in the world. The Last Stand is also up here, but I had issues with it and felt he was taking certain things for granted as true (such as Benteen's reports on what happened) when they require a more critical eye. But I learned some new things and it was an entertaining read so it still made it to the top 10.
American Ulysses I have similar feelings towards. I thought it was good and well-researched, but it was also clear to me that White was ... well ... whitewashing Grant's life and history a little bit. Too many excuses for a guy the author was already convinced was an amazing person. I do think Grant was a decent guy, but he wasn't perfect, and I could tell the author was avoiding bringing up bad things he did to make him look better. That's not what I read history for.
American Psycho was visceral, a tough read, and to me, rather brilliant. I know people consider loving this book a red flag, but I can't do much when the book is great. I am someone who is supportive of "offensive horror" as I often put it-- meaning the inclusion of topics people find offensive, disturbing, or uncomfortable to read about for any number of perfectly valid reasons.
I like it as long as offensive topics are handled intelligently, with meaning, and with clear understanding of WHY it is being used. Repulsive topics can be done in a way that don't feel like they're not there for edginess's sake but for a REASON and this is one of them. I feel similarly about Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Brite, one of my top reads last year.
King Sorrow was just a solidly fun horror novel by Joe Hill. Most Stephen King novel never written by Stephen King. I had my issues but I actually LOVE the format and pacing of this novel.
Aednan was brilliant and unlike anything else I read this year: a translated novel in verse about two Sami families struggling with assimilation, colonialism, and prejudice throughout a few generations into the modern day. It's fantastic.
Beowulf is a classic. I've talked about it at length on this blog over the years. I just like King B, he's cool.
Bambi is a classic I've never read. It actually reads like pointed political commentary. The author is an Austrian Jewish man and the novel came out in the early 1900s. To me, there are quite a few moments that feel like he is alluding to the persecution and violence towards Jewish peoples in Europe. It's more than worthy of a read. Excellent book just in general. Love all the discussion of dying and violence in it. The Disney film is fun but the fangs of the story are sawed down to nubs.
Buffalo Hunter Hunter is one of Stephen Grahm Jones's most recent novels and it is his best work yet. I have been clamoring for a Western written by a Native author for years and here it is, and it fuckin slaps bro. One of my favorite takes on vampires I've encountered recently too; very interesting, no easy way out of it at all. Fantastic stuff.
