As in years past (best of 2013, best of 2014), I’d like to share some of the things I enjoyed this year, based on Eve Tushnet’s annual list.
Best non-fiction read for the first time
The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia by James C. Scott
The Book of My Life by Teresa de Ávila
Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free by Héctor Tobar
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Best fiction read for the first time
The Beet Queen by Louise Erdrich
Emma by Jane Austen
Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Best movies/TV watched for the first time
I hardly watched any movies this year, mainly because I love to experience movies by actually going to the cinema, which didn’t happen much for me this year. In Buenos Aires, movies are fantastically cheap (eighty cents!) but slim pickin’s (mostly American movies, six months late); here in Virginia, movies are expensive and inconvenient. That said, three stood out: the touching, tragic La jaula de oro (2013); the brilliant, fierce Mad Max: Fury Road (2015); and the delightful, surprising The Martian (2015).
I watch a lot of TV these days, though. The best thing I saw this year was CW’s Jane the Virgin, which is now my favorite show of all time. Telenovela drama with heart, religiosity, tenderness, and spunk. It’s wonderful in every way.
Best performances
Beauty & the Beast at Synetic, Arlington, VA
January 9, 2015
Let the Right One In at St. Ann’s Warehouse, NYC
January 24, 2015
Hamilton at the Public, NYC
January 25, 2015
Mariinsky Ballet (Hodson’s Le sacre du printemps, Fokine’s Le Spectre de la Rose and The Swan, and Petipa’s Paquita Grand Pas) at the Kennedy Center, DC
January 28, 2015
Lecture by Santiago Porter at NYU Buenos Aires
April 21, 2015
DC United 3-1 Chicago Fire at RFK Stadium, DC
June 3, 2015
Royal Ballet (Don Quixote) at the Kennedy Center, DC
June 12, 2015
Arcadia (reading) at the National Academy of Sciences, DC
June 29, 2015
Once at the Kennedy Center, DC
August 16, 2015
The Aliens at James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA
September 19, 2015
Hamilton at the Richard Rodgers, NYC
October 24, 2015
Honorary mention: watching Lionel Messi cut down Jérôme Boateng, on a loop, for months
Best exhibits/museums
“Experiencia infinita” and “Intenciones secretas/Annemarie Heinrich,” Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Argentina
“Marino Marini: do arcaísmo ao fim da forma,” Fundação Iberê Camargo, Porto Alegre, Brasil
Museo del Presidio, Ushuaia, Argentina
Permanent collection, Museu do Arte do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brasil
Qorikancha/Convento de Santo Domingo, Cusco, Perú and gardens
Stations of the Cross at Catedral de San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina
Honorary mention: though it did not present itself as such, República de los Niños, La Plata, Argentina is an incredible museum of Peronism; and the whole of Casa Cavia, Buenos Aires, Argentina is a work of art
This would be cheating: the ruins at Sacsayhuamán, Ollantaytambo, and Machu Picchu, Perú were also ok
Best posts or articles by other people
“Addy Walker, American Girl” by Brit Bennett
“Hamilton and the End of Irony” by Alexandra Petri
“How to Decolonize Your Diet” by Shelby Pope
“Loving Books in a Dark Age” by Michael Pye
“Noma” by Jacob Mikanowski
“On Pandering” by Claire Vaye Watkins
“‘Rampant, Systemic, and Deep-Rooted’: A Sting in Zurich Finally Targets FIFA Corruption” by Brian Phillips (#RIPGrantland)
“There Is No Pro-Life Case for Planned Parenthood” by Ross Douthat
“Unfollow” by Adrian Chen
Honorary mention: The best article I read this year wasn’t published this year, and it was “The Empathy Exams” by Leslie Jamison.
Best posts or articles by me
Academic: “Dios y los Diez: the Mythologization of Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi in Contemporary Argentina” (senior honors thesis), “Crime and Crisis: the Films of Fabián Bielinsky”
On this blog: on anxiety and Patagonia, on starting over and media habits, on judging character
at TAC: “How to Stop Brutality-Adjacent Policing,” “What Cuba Means for Latin America,” “Celebrating American Catholics”
Cool things that happened this year, not mentioned elsewhere in this post
- My sister got married
- I ran a conference
- I learned a bunch of Portuguese, and also how to quilt
- Carli Lloyd scored from half-field in the Women’s World Cup final
Catherine L. Addington 