January 2025 Top Ten

My best friend gave me the book Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft and told me he felt like this book was written especially for me. So, I had high expectations going in, and…..it lived up to the hype. It’s quirky and strange and thoughtful and fun and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Here’s my review on Goodreads.

I introduced my seven year old son to one of my favorite Pixar movies, Onward. It’s a heavy one for fathers to watch with their sons, I’ll say that. But it’s so great. I’m into the fantasy setting, and watching it this time made me realize how tight of a story it really is.

My son guessed the big reveal about halfway through, which I was pretty impressed by. It’s one of Pixar’s movies that’s not talked about enough in my opinion.

I read Curious George Flies a Kite to my five year old daughter, in one sitting. I remember reading this book as a kid and have fond memories of it. It’s just a slow, meandering story with low stakes (until the end!). I haven’t seen a lot of books like this lately, eighty-plus pages filled with illustrations. Unfortunately, publishers base the length of children’s books on the attention span of the parents, and how long they’re willing to read, not the kids’ attention spans.

I’ve still been listening to the album New Mexico by Anchor & Braille (solo project of former Anberlin frontman Stephen Christian). I usually listen to it straight through. It’s great.

My favorite podcast for the past 5 years, Nateland, has officially ended as Nate Bargatze decided to leave the show. But, the three other hosts, Aaron Weber, Brian Bates, and Dusty Slay, have started a new podcast called Public Figures, which looks like it will keep the spirit of the old show, based on the first episode that aired this past week.

I read the graphic novel Batman: Last Knight on Earth and it was fine. Batman is still my favorite hero, but where he shines is in small stories. This one was big and convulted. If you want an elseworld, post-apocalyptic superhero story, I’d recommend Wonder Woman: Dead Earth before reading this Batman one.

We watched Frozen 2 as a family and have been singing all of the songs. My five year old daughter will just walk around the house making this sound over and over.

I read the book Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity by Paul Kingsnorth and enjoyed it. Here’s my full review from Goodreads:

Kingsnorth names “that funny feeling” that Bo Burnham sang about, but unlike Burnham, Kingsnorth offers a hopeful, flourishing way forward despite the machine threatening (or in most cases already succeeding) to devour everything that makes us human.

Nothing groundbreaking here, but it’s definitely worth the read to realize you’re not crazy for thinking the way of the “machine” is not working.

Discovered a few books I’d like to read, and a quote I’ll probably use as an epigraph for an upcoming novel, so I’m glad I read it.

Me and my son have been playing through Kirby and the Forgotten Land on the switch. It’s a lot of fun. Well, it looks like a lot of fun. Two-player mode is significantly less fun for the second player who doesn’t get to have any of the cool abilities. So, I just run around while Milo gets to shoot lava and turn into cars. But, as they say, not all heroes wear capes.

10.

I found this video by my friend Tim DeMoss helpful.