Not that anyone asked, but here my favorites of 2023 anyway:

Favorite Book – The Guest by Emma Cline. The central character is a black humor mix of Moll Flanders and Tom Ripley. Has a lot to say about our contemporary morass, too. Two of my most anticipated writers hit it out of the park this year as well with a couple of chillers, Elizabeth Hand with A Haunting on the Hill and Megan Abbot with Beware the Woman. 

Favorite True Crime Book: I’m going with a reprint, House of Pain by Helen Garner. Usually I’m more of a just the facts type guy when it comes to the genre, but Garner’s subjective approach proves immensely moving. With a forward puzzlingly more about Janet Malcolm than Garner by industry striver Sarah Weinman, who has given me the high hat on several occasions.

Best Movie: This isn’t even an opinion, just fact – Killers of the Flower Moon is, as Fran Lebowitz said in her appearance (oration?) at the Michigan Theater, a masterpiece of world cinema. And shame on you if you didn’t see it on the big screen, as Marty intended. After the debacle of The Irishman, it was great to see him come up with this one.

Favorite Horror Movie: This is definitely the genre with the most pop these days, commercially and creatively, and saw several excellent ones, including sequels (Scream VI kept up the superior standard, but who guessed Evil Dead Rise would be so much scary fun). However I’m going with a true original, Talk to Me, which was, well, really creepy and nailed a disturbing ending.

Like it or not, there you have it – and if you’ve read this far, happy new year.