Here Are My Favorite Books, Movies, TV Shows and Music of 2020

As 2020 comes to a close, I wanted to share my annual lists of favorites. I’ll start by sharing my favorite books this year, deliberately omitting what I think is a pretty good book — A Promised Land — by a certain 44th president. I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I did.

• Homeland Elegies — Ayad Akhtar
• Jack — Marilynne Robinson
• Caste — Isabel Wilkerson
• The Splendid and the Vile — Erik Larson
• Luster — Raven Leilani
• How Much Of These Hills Is Gold — C Pam Zhang
• Long Bright River — Liz Moore
• Memorial Drive — Natasha Trethewey
• Twilight of Democracy — Anne Applebaum
• Deacon King Kong — James McBride
• The Undocumented Americans — Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
• The Vanishing Half — Brit Bennett
• The Glass Hotel — Emmy St. John Mandel
• Hidden Valley Road — Robert Kolker
• The Ministry for the Future — Kim Stanley Robinson
• Sharks in the Time of Saviors — Kawai Strong Washburn
• Missionaries — Phil Klay

Like everyone else, we were stuck inside a lot this year, and with streaming further blurring the lines between theatrical movies and television features, I’ve expanded the list to include visual storytelling that I’ve enjoyed this year, regardless of format.

Movies:

• Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
• Beanpole
• Bacurau
• Nomadland
• Soul
• Lovers Rock
• Collective
• Mank
• Martin Eden
• Let Him Go
• Crip Camp *A Higher Ground Production
• Time
• Boys State
• Selah and the Spades

Television Series:

• Better Call Saul
• The Queen’s Gambit
• I May Destroy You
• The Boys
• The Good Lord Bird
• Devs
• The Last Dance
• Mrs. America
• The Good Place
• City So Real

Here are some of my favorite songs of the year. As usual, I had some valuable consultation from our family music guru, Sasha, to put this together. I hope you find a new song or two to listen to.

• Love Is The King — Jeff Tweedy
• Savage Remix — Megan Thee Stallion ft. Beyoncé
• FRANCHISE — Travis Scott ft. Young Thug & M.I.A.
• Nada — Lido Pimienta ft. Li Saumet
• Can’t Do Much — Waxahatchee
• The Bigger Picture — Lil Baby
• Ghosts — Bruce Springsteen
• Levitating — Dua Lipa ft. DaBaby
• The Climb Back — J. Cole
• Repeat — J Hus ft. Koffee
• Damage — H.E.R.
• Summer 2020 — Jhené Aiko
• Brave — Ruston Kelly
• Uwrongo (Edit) — Prince Kaybee, Shimza, Black Motion & Ami Faku
• Better Distractions — Faye Webster
• Lemonade — Internet Money ft. Don Toliver, Gunna & NAV
• Blue World — Mac Miller
• CUT EM IN — Anderson .Paak ft. Rick Ross
• Starting Over — Chris Stapleton
• Mecca — Spillage Village, Jid & EARTHGANG
• La Difícil — Bad Bunny
• Essence — WizKid ft. Tems
• All My Girls Like To Fight — Hope Tala
• Kyoto — Phoebe Bridgers
• SUN CAME OUT — Gunna
• Remember Where You Are — Jessie Ware
• 4 My Ppl — Goodie Mob
• Distance — Yebba
• one life, might live — Little Simz