First of all, happy new year to everyone. Now on to business. This is my 2006 Year-End(ish) Picks List. Meaning, my favorites in books, movies, and music. The twist is that not all of the material I’m picking came from 2006, but it’s more of a reflection of what I read, watched, and listened to last year. Got it? These lists are in no particular order and they only cover items I experienced for the first time.

Movies, Films, or Whatever You Want to Call Them
I saw several films in the theater this year and was grossly underwhelmed. I can’t say I saw awful films, but films that while good, still didn’t completely deliver for me. The one exception was Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige. Highly enjoyable movie with solid acting and a terrific story—though not the most optimistic about human nature. Most everything else just never reached into the A category. There were some that I really liked such as Marie Antoinette (d. S. Coppola, 2006) or Little Miss Sunshine (d. Dayton and Faris, 2006), but they didn’t blow me away. That said, let’s turn to other movies I watched this year, but didn’t come out in 2006.

      The Conversation (d. F. Coppola, 1974)

      Dog Day Afternoon (d. Lumet, 1975)

      Capote (d. Miller, 2005)

      The Iron Giant (d. Bird, 1999)

      Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (d. Cuarón, 2004)

      Downfall (d. Hirschbiegel, 2004)

      Bonhoeffer (d. Doblmeier, 2003)

      Mystic River (d. Eastwood, 2003)

      The New World (d. Malick, 2005)

      Good Night, and Good Luck (d. Clooney, 2005)

Television
Bill Moyers’ had two excellent series this year. The first was Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason, which I blogged about here. The second series was Moyers on America, and particularly the show Is God Green?. Other than that, the television I truly enjoyed were shows I rented on DVD. Foremost are the first and second seasons of Lost. (Carey and I are in the middle of the second season, so if you know what happens, shut it.) I finished out the second series and Christmas special of The Office—the original British version. Lately I’ve been thinking that Lost and The Office are my favorite TV shows of all time. I know there may be better shows in the history of television, but I can’t think of them. Lost actually saddens me to a certain extent because I see how good television can be, but the vast majority is so mediocre. I also enjoyed the first two seasons of The West Wing.

Music
This one is kind of tough because in 2005 we received an iPod for Christmas and since then we spend a lot of time listening to songs on shuffle. One artist definitely shone this year: Sufjan Stevens, about whom I blogged briefly here.

      Sufjan Stevens, Illinois, 2005; my favorite album last year.

      Sufjan Stevens, Michigan, 2003

      Sufjan Stevens, Songs for Christmas, 2006 (recorded and released in smaller albums between 2001-2006)

      Tom York, The Eraser, 2006

      Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam, 2006

      Death Cab for Cutie, Plans, 2005

      Bob Dylan, Modern Times, 2006

Books, Fiction
My reading intake has actually decreased since ending seminary. I tend to read much more slowly, even fiction I read for pleasure. My aim is to read at least one fiction work alongside one non-fiction work, normally a book having to do with theology. This year I read the biography Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times (2005) by H. W. Brands in lieu of a novel, but it won’t make it on my lists. I also re-read a favorite, Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (2000), which you can read a review of here.

      Marilynne Robinson, Gilead, 2005; probably my favorite last year.

      Edward P. Jones, The Known World, 2003

      Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, 1866

Books, Non-Fiction

      Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconcilitation, 1996. By far the most challenging book, film, or music I encountered last year and I hope it will be the most influential in my life. I began it in 2005 and didn’t finish it until 2006, but I’m putting it in this list. I’ve written several posts on the book, which you can find here, here, here, here, here, here, and my big review on the book can be found here.

      Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace, 2006

      N. T. Wright, What St. Paul Really Said: Was Saul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity, 1997

      Doug Pagitt, Church Re-Imagined: The Spiritual Formation of People in Communities of Faith, 2005 (formerly titled, Reimagining Spiritual Formation)

      H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture, 1951; not that influential in my thinking, but now I know what all the hubbub is about and can engage in the long conversation that American Christianity has had for the last fifty years.

      Mark Lau Branson, Memories, Hopes, and Conversations: Appreciative Inquiry and Congregational Change, 2004