My favorite books, movies and anime in 2024.
Photography is the focus of my website and blog, but it’s not the only activity that brings me joy. I also love reading and watching great movies and series, and I enjoy sharing some of that with you in hopes you may find something you’d enjoy, or perhaps discover we both enjoyed the same thing. Take a look below to see which of the books, movies and series ended up my favorites in 2024.
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Favorite Photography Books
As with last year, I only read two photography books in 2024 so it made it easy to pick my two favorites. 😊 On a positive note, I did really enjoy them both, each about older buildings.
Backroads Buildings - In Search of the Vernacular by Steve Gross & Susan Daley
This was a great portfolio-type book on the theme of old buildings along the backroads of the eastern US. It’s a book for those who love traveling those backroads and finding all those old everyday buildings of yesteryear, often now in disrepair and frequently abandoned. I thoroughly enjoyed looking through the photographs in this book, one I checked out from the library.
Abandoned Virginia: The Forgotten Commonwealth by Joel Handwerk
Similar to the previous, this book also focuses on old abandoned buildings, this time focusing on those found in Virginia. It’s a short book but especially fascinating if you happen to be familiar with any of the featured locations. For me it was the remains of the Virginia Renaissance Faire, which I was fortunate to visit a couple times before it closed down.
Favorite Non-fiction Books
The Happiest Man on Earth - The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor by Eddie Jaku
What an extraordinarily powerful book. In it Eddie Jaku introduces himself and tells of his life, how he was a captive of the Nazis and of the events he witnessed. What makes this book really stand out to me is how he came out of those experiences with such a positive outlook. He was determined to survive, and if he did he vowed to become the happiest man alive. And when he did survive he followed through on that vow, telling his story, sharing the power of family and friendship, and how choosing to be happy can help us get though so many hardships. Well worth the read.
Night by Elie Wiesel
This was another very powerful read, one that was difficult to get through, telling of Elie Wiesel’s experiences as a captive in multiple Nazi concentration camps, and what happened to his family. A heart wrenching story, but one worth reading. We can’t forget these events. We can’t let ourselves be lulled into allowing them to repeat. We need to keep learning our lessons, over and over again, for however long it takes.
A Middle-earth Traveler: Sketches From Bag End to Mordor by John Howe
And finally, a non-fiction book with a much lighter topic: the artwork of Middle-earth by John Howe. If you’re a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien and his works you may be familiar with John Howe’s work, even if you don’t recognize the name. He has created some of the very iconic artwork now associated with Tolkien’s Middle-earth, and I loved looking through all of it within this book.
Favorite Fiction Books
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
This classic may be one of the greatest books I’ve ever read. I wish it hadn’t taken me so long to get around to trying it, though perhaps it’s for the best. Perhaps it resonated more now than it might have when I was younger. Though a work of fiction, it incorporates so much history and shares so many valuable life lessons. I would like to reread this book one day.
The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell
For a long while I’d seen the many books by this author, and this year I decided to give one a read, and what a read it was. I loved this first in a series taking place in the time when England was a series of warring kingdoms, and when the Danes invaded and began taking over. Such a great story and so well told. I very much look forward to continuing the series and trying others by the author.
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa
A beautiful story taking place in Japan about a girl who seems to have lost her way in life, so she goes to stay with her uncle who runs the Morisaki Bookshop, a used bookstore. He’s able to slowly bring her back to life as she begins helping around the store, meeting new people, building a new life for herself. And all that time she unknowingly also helps him with his life, dealing with his ties to the past. A wonderful book. I hope to read the next in this series.
Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao
I won an advance reader copy of this book through a goodreads giveaway, and I couldn’t be happier that I did. I loved this story, full of magic, whimsical landscapes and experiences, characters drawn together and pulled apart, a quickly growing love story weaved into the other plot lines as the two mains characters run from creatures that could mean their end if ever caught. A story about the choices we make, and about destiny and what kind of control over our lives we give that idea. Perhaps this fits into the cozy fantasy category so popular today. A beautiful story.
Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien
This children’s book was a reread for me. I first read it in grade school and I’ve always remembered it fondly, so when I found the audiobook on sale I grabbed it, and I’m glad I did. The story held the same adventure, wonder, loss, hope, happiness and mystery that it did when I was much younger, telling the story of Mrs. Frisby trying to survive in the farmers field, but also telling the story of the incredible rats of NIMH. A wonderful read for a child or an adult.
Favorite Graphic Novels & Comics
Saga Volume 3 by Brian Vaughan & Fiona Staples
I don’t have a lot of commentary on this one, other than to say I continue to love this comic series. This one is squarely aimed at adults, tackling topics like trying to raise a young child in a violent and out of control world (or universe), hatred between different groups of people, friendship and loyalty, romance in many forms, and just the general topics of life. In this case, though, that life is lived in a fantastic universe with interesting races so often at conflict with one another. Great series and I look forward to the next volume.
Hokusai: A Graphic Biography by Guiseppe Latanza & Francesco Matteuzzi
This was a fascinating biography of the great Japanese artist, Hokusai, who created that famous woodblock print of The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Look it up, you may recognize it. This biography is told graphically, so it may appeal to a wider audience. And I loved the explanations at the end of how the graphic novel came to be and the challenges of sorting through all the stories about Hokusai, some which may be true and some false, though we’ve no way to know which are which these days.
Favorite Movies
The Lord of the Rings
What can I say? Anytime I rewatch the Lord of the Rings movies they will be favorites that year, just as anytime I reread the books. At this point most folks probably have at least heard of them, even if they haven’t seen or read them. But if you haven’t yet tried them, maybe consider it. The story is so very good, and for me it keeps giving me something new each time I watch or read them. There’s such richness to it, such history and backstory.
Dune Part Two
I watched part two of Dune, finishing up the retelling of the first book, and what a retelling it was. As with The Lord of the Rings, this ranks as one of the best movie adaptations of a science fiction / fantasy book or series. It included all the political and religious undertones and took full advantage of todays state of the art special effects to bring the world of Dune to life. A fantastic set of movies.
The Creator
I thoroughly enjoyed this science fiction movie, far more than I expected to. It tackles the topic of advanced robotic artificial intelligence and such issues as sentience, what rights an artificial intelligence should have, biases and prejudices, and conflicts that could surface between various groups. I thought the movie handled these topics really well and told an engaging story full of emotion and excitement.
Stranger Things Season 1+2
I am very much a latecomer to this series. I’ve heard about it for years but never had access to it so I largely ignored it. Then I discovered my library had the first two seasons on DVD so I checked them out. And now I’m hooked. Just as with the book, Ready Player One, I seem to be perfectly within the target market for this series having grown up in the ‘80s playing Dungeons & Dragons, hanging out with friends, and imagining all sorts of crazy things. But of course, in my life it was all just imagination, whereas in this series it’s real. I loved it.
Favorite Anime & Animated Movies
Suzume
I think it was almost a foregone conclusion that Suzume would end up my favorite anime watched in the year. I tend to love anything Makoto Shinkai creates, with each new movie a masterpiece. This one is about doors that open to another location, and the people who can see through them, and a young girl who gets caught up in all of this.
Planetes
Planetes was a great series about a serious topic, that of orbital debris and the great risks it poses to any who venture into orbit around our planet. The series takes place a little ways in the future when debris has become a much bigger problem with permanent manned stations, and so some of those people have the job of cleaning up that debris to prevent any catastrophic and deadly mishaps.
So what did you read or watch in 2024? Did any of your favorites match my own? And if not, what were your favorites? Let me know in the comments below.
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