Best of 2010: Eric's Picks

Five Favorite Books that I Read in 2010

Berlin Noir by Philip Kerr – Classic noir style meets Nazi-dominated Berlin. What’s not to like?

The City and The City by China Mieville – Classic noir style meets weird Eastern European literature and an original sci-fi premise. What’s not to like?

Bodyworld by Dash Shaw – Trippy, disturbing, beautiful, disgusting.

Mathilda Savitch by VIctor Lodato – The voice of the title character dominates this novel – a voice that is ferocious, naive, witty and teetering on the precipice of some kind of myth-tinged darkness.

Nothing by Janne Teller – Danish tweens try to prove that life is not meaningless. Starts off simple and almost sweet, but things slowly veer into frightening and violent territory. A timeless parable.

Five Favorite Albums of 2010

Hidden by These New Puritans – Booming percussion fused with contemporary classical music fused with post punk, all stemming from an ambition too big to ever possibly be sated.

At Echo Lake by Woods – They are sort of just another indie band from Brooklyn, but somehow they hit all the right notes.

Minotaur by The Clientele – A minor work by a band capable of distilling longing and loneliness and slow wonder into sublimely beautiful pop songs.

Your Future, Our Clutter by The Fall – This is about 40% as good as the music The Fall was putting out in the early 80s, which means it’s still better than just about anything else.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West – Actually this is quite awful. Or is it genius? I can’t tell and I’m not sure that it matters.