Below is a list of my noteworthy readings, viewings and listenings of 2016. Some titles may not have been released in 2016 but purchased by me in the past 12 months. I tried to stick to five items for each category, but sometimes have more, sometimes less, and that’s the way it is. Hope you enjoy reading Larry’s List of Favourites, 2016 ? What’s on your list?
Picture Books
The Bear Who Wasn’t There by LeUyen Pham
Penguin Problems by Jory John and Lane Smith
Shh! We Have a Plan by Chris Haughton (2012)
Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox by Danielle Daniel
Thunder Boy Jr. by Sherman Alexie
Novels: Ages 8 – 14
All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook by Lesley Cannon
Lucky Strike by Louis Bayard
Pax by Sara Pennypacker
Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo
As Brave as You by Jason Reynolds
The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk
Novels: Adult
Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
The Nutshell by Ian McEwan
My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Stroud
Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Nonfiction / Autobiography
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Then and Now by Barbara Cook
Life, Animated by Ron Suskind
Lit Up by David Denby
Walk Through Walls by Marina Abramovic
Movies
It’s a Wonderful Life (finally went to see this at the local Cineplex, without commercials)
La La Land
Life, Animated
Manchester by the Sea
Maudie
Moonlight
Theatre: Local
And So It Goes (YPT)
Come From Away (Mirvish)
Counting Sheep (Lemon Bucket Orkestra)
Death of a Salesman (Yiddish)
Mr. Shi and His Lover (Summerworks)
Nest (Wee Festival)
One Kid, Two Kittens and Me (Christopher Wilson)
A Winter’s Tale (A Groundling Theatre Production)
Theatre: Shaw/ Stratford
The Adventures of The Black Girl in Her Search of God
All My Sons (Stratford)
Master Harold and the Boys
Our Town
Theatre: New York/ London
A Life
Amadeus (National Theatre)
A View From the Bridge
The Crucible
Dear Evan Hansen
Natasha Pierre and the Comet of 1812
Peter Pan (National Theatre)
Shuffle Along, or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed
Music
December by Chris Botti (2006)
Encore by Barbra Streisand
The Essential Leonard Cohen (2002)
Liasons: Re-imaging Sondheim from the Piano by Anthony De Mare
New York Rhapsody by Lang Lang
Songbird by Eva Cassidy (1977)
ETC.
concert: Rufus Wainwright: Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall (Luminato)
concert: Tony Bennett (St. Petersburg, Florida)
cabaret /concert: Brent Carver: Walk Me To the Corner (Harold Green Theatre)
TV: Gypsy with Imelda Staunton (PBS)
TV: The Night Of…(HBO series)
dance: Carmen by Flamenco Antonia Gades (Barcelona)
professional read: Literacy 101 by David Booth
short stories: The World’s Worst Children by David Walliams
National Theatre Live: Jane Eyre
A special book: The Singing Bones by Shaun Tan