My favourites viewed or read in the past year. Films are all new. Books are new to me this year and mostly not published in 2024 (given my preference for paperbacks, and the long delay before these appear, I rarely read books the year they’re published). Not necessarily in any rank order.
Films
The Zone of Interest
Anatomy of a Fall
All of Us Strangers
Monster
I Saw the TV Glow
Fiction
Adam Mars-Jones trilogy, Pilcrow (2009), Cedilla (2012), Caret (2023) (not finished the latter yet)
John le Carré, ‘Karla’ trilogy, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974), The Honourable Schoolboy (1977), Smiley’s People (1979). Hadn’t realised what a good writer in general le Carré was.
Jennifer Egan, Candy House (2023)
Jon Fosse, Septology (2019)
Non-fiction
Naomi Klein, Doppelganger (2023). I think everyone should be required to read this, to understand the contemporary political/cultural scene
John Durham Peters, The Marvelous Clouds: Towards a Philosophy of Elemental Media (2016)
Judith Butler, Who’s Afraid of Gender? (2024)
Anne Fausto-Sterling, Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality (2020)
Carol Smart, Personal Life: New Directions in Sociological Thinking (2007)
Jeffrey Weeks, The World We Have Won: The Remaking of Erotic and Intimae Life (2007)
Timothy Snyder, Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning (2015)
Graham Robb, The Discovery of France (2016)