Tuesday 1 January 2013

Review of 2012

Not to take myself too seriously, but here are some of the things I've really enjoyed this year -- they didn't all come out this past year as I'm usually to be found rootling around in the long tail.

Let's start with...

ART

Richard Hamilton: The Late Works at the National Gallery
David Hockney: A Bigger Picture at the Royal Academy
Lucian Freud: Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery
Martin Honert: Children's Crusade at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin
Seduced by Art: Photography Past and Present at the National Gallery

BOOKS: FICTION

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (brilliant psychothriller)
Tin Toys trilogy by Ursula Holden (amazingly truthful portrait of childhood)
The Partnership by Barry Unsworth (wonderfully dark early novel by Barry Unsworth,died in 2012)
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont (great novel by woefully underrated writer)
Bird Brain by Guy Kennaway (lovely, funny novel of just deserts and making amends)

BOOKS: NON-FICTION

My Judy Garland Life by Susie Boyt (beautiful personal account of hero worship and empathy)
Seeking Rapture by Kathryn Harrison (memoir of an impossible-to-reach mother)
Delirious New York by Rem Koolhaas (psycho-architectural enquiry into New York City)
Groovy Bob by Harriet Vyner (oral history of Robert Fraser, the art dealer)
The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones by Stanley Booth (best rock tour account ever)
America: Empire of Liberty by David Reynolds (pulled together American history for me)

FILMS

True Grit remade by the Coen Brothers
Moonrise Kingdom by Wes Anderson
Nowhere Boy by Sam Taylor-Wood
Crossfire Hurricane documentary by Brett Morgen
The Queen of Versailles documentary by Lauren Greenfield
The Thomas Crown Affair -- the original by Norman Jewison

TV

The Killing III
Hunderby
The Glee Project
The Bridge
Murder
Moominland Tales: The Life of Tove Jansson
From the Sea to the Land Beyond

SINGLES

'Welcome Home' by Radical Face
'Home and Dry' by The Silver Seas
'A Lack of Understanding' by The Vaccines
'Hollow Talk' by The Choir of Young Believers (theme tune from The Bridge)
'Doom and Gloom' by The Rolling Stones (still got it)
plus
'Joburg Jam' by Pogo:
 

1 comment:

LAC EMP 2020 said...

What a year! All I can say is 'where was I?' I can only say I've seen a couple of the tv things but I shall search out some of those books Jane, particularly the Gillian Flynn. Moonrise Kingdom is on next month at the local Film Society so we have that on the calendar... only a year after everyone else... quite fast for down here really... have a great 2013. Off to check out that new website of yours.