Photography Books

My Favorite Books, Films and Anime in 2024 /  by Todd Henson

My favorite books, movies and anime in 2024.

Photography is the focus of my website and blog, but it’s not the only activity that brings me joy. I also love reading and watching great movies and series, and I enjoy sharing some of that with you in hopes you may find something you’d enjoy, or perhaps discover we both enjoyed the same thing. Take a look below to see which of the books, movies and series ended up my favorites in 2024.

Some of the links below are affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links. This is at no extra cost to you.

Favorite Photography Books

As with last year, I only read two photography books in 2024 so it made it easy to pick my two favorites. 😊 On a positive note, I did really enjoy them both, each about older buildings.

Backroads Buildings - In Search of the Vernacular by Steve Gross & Susan Daley

This was a great portfolio-type book on the theme of old buildings along the backroads of the eastern US. It’s a book for those who love traveling those backroads and finding all those old everyday buildings of yesteryear, often now in disrepair and frequently abandoned. I thoroughly enjoyed looking through the photographs in this book, one I checked out from the library.

Abandoned Virginia: The Forgotten Commonwealth by Joel Handwerk

Similar to the previous, this book also focuses on old abandoned buildings, this time focusing on those found in Virginia. It’s a short book but especially fascinating if you happen to be familiar with any of the featured locations. For me it was the remains of the Virginia Renaissance Faire, which I was fortunate to visit a couple times before it closed down.

Favorite Non-fiction Books

The Happiest Man on Earth - The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor by Eddie Jaku

What an extraordinarily powerful book. In it Eddie Jaku introduces himself and tells of his life, how he was a captive of the Nazis and of the events he witnessed. What makes this book really stand out to me is how he came out of those experiences with such a positive outlook. He was determined to survive, and if he did he vowed to become the happiest man alive. And when he did survive he followed through on that vow, telling his story, sharing the power of family and friendship, and how choosing to be happy can help us get though so many hardships. Well worth the read.

Night by Elie Wiesel

This was another very powerful read, one that was difficult to get through, telling of Elie Wiesel’s experiences as a captive in multiple Nazi concentration camps, and what happened to his family. A heart wrenching story, but one worth reading. We can’t forget these events. We can’t let ourselves be lulled into allowing them to repeat. We need to keep learning our lessons, over and over again, for however long it takes.

A Middle-earth Traveler: Sketches From Bag End to Mordor by John Howe

And finally, a non-fiction book with a much lighter topic: the artwork of Middle-earth by John Howe. If you’re a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien and his works you may be familiar with John Howe’s work, even if you don’t recognize the name. He has created some of the very iconic artwork now associated with Tolkien’s Middle-earth, and I loved looking through all of it within this book.

Favorite Fiction Books

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

This classic may be one of the greatest books I’ve ever read. I wish it hadn’t taken me so long to get around to trying it, though perhaps it’s for the best. Perhaps it resonated more now than it might have when I was younger. Though a work of fiction, it incorporates so much history and shares so many valuable life lessons. I would like to reread this book one day.

The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell

For a long while I’d seen the many books by this author, and this year I decided to give one a read, and what a read it was. I loved this first in a series taking place in the time when England was a series of warring kingdoms, and when the Danes invaded and began taking over. Such a great story and so well told. I very much look forward to continuing the series and trying others by the author.

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa

A beautiful story taking place in Japan about a girl who seems to have lost her way in life, so she goes to stay with her uncle who runs the Morisaki Bookshop, a used bookstore. He’s able to slowly bring her back to life as she begins helping around the store, meeting new people, building a new life for herself. And all that time she unknowingly also helps him with his life, dealing with his ties to the past. A wonderful book. I hope to read the next in this series.

Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao

I won an advance reader copy of this book through a goodreads giveaway, and I couldn’t be happier that I did. I loved this story, full of magic, whimsical landscapes and experiences, characters drawn together and pulled apart, a quickly growing love story weaved into the other plot lines as the two mains characters run from creatures that could mean their end if ever caught. A story about the choices we make, and about destiny and what kind of control over our lives we give that idea. Perhaps this fits into the cozy fantasy category so popular today. A beautiful story.

Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien

This children’s book was a reread for me. I first read it in grade school and I’ve always remembered it fondly, so when I found the audiobook on sale I grabbed it, and I’m glad I did. The story held the same adventure, wonder, loss, hope, happiness and mystery that it did when I was much younger, telling the story of Mrs. Frisby trying to survive in the farmers field, but also telling the story of the incredible rats of NIMH. A wonderful read for a child or an adult.

Favorite Graphic Novels & Comics

Saga Volume 3 by Brian Vaughan & Fiona Staples

I don’t have a lot of commentary on this one, other than to say I continue to love this comic series. This one is squarely aimed at adults, tackling topics like trying to raise a young child in a violent and out of control world (or universe), hatred between different groups of people, friendship and loyalty, romance in many forms, and just the general topics of life. In this case, though, that life is lived in a fantastic universe with interesting races so often at conflict with one another. Great series and I look forward to the next volume.

Hokusai: A Graphic Biography by Guiseppe Latanza & Francesco Matteuzzi

This was a fascinating biography of the great Japanese artist, Hokusai, who created that famous woodblock print of The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Look it up, you may recognize it. This biography is told graphically, so it may appeal to a wider audience. And I loved the explanations at the end of how the graphic novel came to be and the challenges of sorting through all the stories about Hokusai, some which may be true and some false, though we’ve no way to know which are which these days.

Favorite Movies

The Lord of the Rings

What can I say? Anytime I rewatch the Lord of the Rings movies they will be favorites that year, just as anytime I reread the books. At this point most folks probably have at least heard of them, even if they haven’t seen or read them. But if you haven’t yet tried them, maybe consider it. The story is so very good, and for me it keeps giving me something new each time I watch or read them. There’s such richness to it, such history and backstory.

Dune Part Two

I watched part two of Dune, finishing up the retelling of the first book, and what a retelling it was. As with The Lord of the Rings, this ranks as one of the best movie adaptations of a science fiction / fantasy book or series. It included all the political and religious undertones and took full advantage of todays state of the art special effects to bring the world of Dune to life. A fantastic set of movies.

The Creator

I thoroughly enjoyed this science fiction movie, far more than I expected to. It tackles the topic of advanced robotic artificial intelligence and such issues as sentience, what rights an artificial intelligence should have, biases and prejudices, and conflicts that could surface between various groups. I thought the movie handled these topics really well and told an engaging story full of emotion and excitement.

Stranger Things Season 1+2

I am very much a latecomer to this series. I’ve heard about it for years but never had access to it so I largely ignored it. Then I discovered my library had the first two seasons on DVD so I checked them out. And now I’m hooked. Just as with the book, Ready Player One, I seem to be perfectly within the target market for this series having grown up in the ‘80s playing Dungeons & Dragons, hanging out with friends, and imagining all sorts of crazy things. But of course, in my life it was all just imagination, whereas in this series it’s real. I loved it.

Favorite Anime & Animated Movies

Suzume

I think it was almost a foregone conclusion that Suzume would end up my favorite anime watched in the year. I tend to love anything Makoto Shinkai creates, with each new movie a masterpiece. This one is about doors that open to another location, and the people who can see through them, and a young girl who gets caught up in all of this.

Planetes

Planetes was a great series about a serious topic, that of orbital debris and the great risks it poses to any who venture into orbit around our planet. The series takes place a little ways in the future when debris has become a much bigger problem with permanent manned stations, and so some of those people have the job of cleaning up that debris to prevent any catastrophic and deadly mishaps.

So what did you read or watch in 2024? Did any of your favorites match my own? And if not, what were your favorites? Let me know in the comments below.

Do you enjoy these posts?

Sign up to receive periodic emails with updates and thoughts. Don’t worry, I won’t spam you. And please consider purchasing artwork or products from my online store, and using my affiliate links in the sidebar to the right when shopping online.

I appreciate your support!

Backroads Buildings: In Search of the Vernacular by Steve Gross & Susan Daley /  by Todd Henson

Backroads Buildings: In Search of the Vernacular by Steve Gross & Susan Daley

Have you ever driven some back road and noticed that interesting old building, perhaps in disrepair, perhaps still in use, but with plenty of character? I often do, and yet for whatever reason I rarely stop to photograph these buildings. Reading this book, Backroads Buildings: In Search of the Vernacular by Steve Gross and Susan Daley, I wish I had stopped more often and created a collection of my own photographs of these marvelous buildings that leave one wondering about their long history.

Thankfully, these two photographers have often stopped to photograph the buildings they’ve found. In this book they’ve focused on architecture from around the time of the Civil War to the Great Depression, roughly 1870 to 1930, and stretching along the eastern United States from Vermont down to Louisiana. I often smiled when I saw buildings from not that far down the road in Virginia.

“With their humble beauty and distinctive character, these once-useful structures infuse the American landscape with a strong sense of place. This collection of buildings preserves a sampling of our country’s architecture heritage and encourages travelers to slow down and notice the details.”

As with any collection of photography like this, some photos will resonate with me more than others. Many of the photos felt strictly documentary, and to some extent I think they all were intended to be documentary. The photographers have documented pieces of the past before they fall into complete disrepair or are torn down. But some photos also had an artistic air about them which I appreciated.

The book appears designed to last as long as some of the buildings have, being printed on a very thick smooth white paper well suited to showcasing the collection of color and black & white photographs. Schiffer Publishing has done a fantastic job with both the quality of the book materials and the overall layout. There is very little text throughout, though the book does begin with a foreword by Brian Wallis, followed by a short preface. All the rest of the 144 page book is photography, with each photo having a very short description along with the location of the building.

This is a book that may appeal not just to photographers, but to anyone who appreciates these old everyday buildings along backroads just along the fringes of society. If you’ve ever taken a moment to notice one of these buildings then you may appreciate some of these photos.

I found a copy of Backroads Buildings in my local library. Check your own library and maybe you’ll also find a copy. If you’d rather own a copy then check out the link below to see if it’s in stock.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

 
 

Do you enjoy these posts?

Sign up to receive periodic emails with updates and thoughts. Don’t worry, I won’t spam you. And please consider purchasing artwork or products from my online store, and using my affiliate links in the sidebar to the right when shopping online.

I appreciate your support!

My Favorite Books, Films and Anime in 2023 /  by Todd Henson

My favorite books, movies and anime in 2023.

I love reading, and I love watching movies and anime. And sometimes I come across something that really stands out. Below you’ll find those stand outs I read and watched in 2023. Maybe some of these will be familiar to you, and maybe you’ll discover something new to explore. Either way, I hope you enjoy this look back at 2023.

Some of the links below are affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links. This is at no extra cost to you.

Favorite Photography Books

Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning by Elizabeth Partridge

I read this as an ebook, which is not exactly the best format for a book on photography, but it’s what I have. The book was produced as a companion to the 2014 PBS American Masters series, a video I also recommend, though it’s been years since I watched it. This is a relatively short book and contains an essay about Lange followed by a collection of her photography.

Daring to Look: Dorothea Lange’s Photographs and Reports from the Field by Anne Whiston Spirn

In this book the author chose to focus on one year of Lange’s life, 1939. She pored over the various archives of Lange’s work and gathered together photographs both well known and many never before published, along with the field notes and general captions Lange had submitted with the photographs when she worked for the Farm Security Administration. So the book is more than a book of photography. It’s also a book of history, describing the state of parts of the US during that year, and of how the people lived. A fascinating book. As a side note, this was the first book I’ve checked out from a library in decades, but hopefully not the last.

Favorite Non-fiction Books

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

Where do I even begin with this book? It’s extraordinary. It tells the story of Frankl’s time as a prisoner within the Nazi concentration camps in World War II. It tells of the hardships he and others had to endure, but it also tells of the small pleasures he still managed to find, how he was able to appreciate what he still had. The book is split into two sections. The first is his story, and this was by far the more impactful section for me. The second was an introduction to his philosophy of logotherapy, something he’d been developing even before his time in the camps, but something that time helped solidify. I can’t recommend this enough.

A Man For All Markets by Edward O. Thorp

Ed Thorp is a name that may be known to some but is likely unknown to most. He may be most well known for his part in finding ways to actually beat the casinos of his day, things that were thought impossible, but with his skills in mathematics and other fields he did it. He contributed to many fields, with those of statistics, chance, gambling and the financial markets being perhaps the most notable. A fascinating story, one I listened to as an audiobook, which I followed up by reading the ebook to try to absorb as much as I could.

The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura

This book was written in English around 1906 and geared towards a Western audience as a way to teach us the finer points of tea and the history surrounding it. And with tea such a foundational part of the Japanese culture it ends up talking about many topics. A fascinating read for anyone interested in Japan and/or tea.

Favorite Fiction Books

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman

I absolutely adored this book. Such a beautiful, touching, lovely, delightful, funny and sad tale about a young girl, Elsa, who has to deal with the death of her grandmother, someone she was very close to. Her grandmother left letters for all the various people she’d interacted with and Elsa finds herself delivering the letters and learning both about her grandmother and about life. I will absolutely read more by this author.

Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries 6) by Martha Wells

The Murderbot Diaries are my favorite recent science fiction series, telling the evolving story of an entity known as a SecUnit, which is perhaps like an android, part human and part computer. In previous books it broke away from its servitude with the help of others and in this book continues learning how to fit into their new life, unable to fully escape the prejudices against SecUnits. This book went in a different direction than I’d anticipated and I loved that.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman is quickly becoming a go-to author for me. In this story we follow the life of a young boy whose world was shattered, leaving him raised by the ghosts and other creatures of a local graveyard, protected from those who might want to do him harm. Such a beautiful story, one that ends up being about families, parenthood, and watching your child grow up and become their own person. I listened to this as an audiobook, which had a wonderful full cast narration.

Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

My first exposure to this Spanish author was The Shadow of the Wind, the first book in the series, The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, and it became one of my all-time favorite books. This time around I read Marina, a beautiful story of first love set amidst a series of strange events and people. A beautiful and tragic story, and one I very much enjoyed.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

My first reaction after finishing this book was: what a magical, mysterious and elusive story. I find it hard to describe. It’s very different from other books I’ve read, telling the story of a man who lives in a strange house full of endless rooms and halls of statues, some of which are open to the ocean. He slowly learns more about how he came to be here and of who he is. A wonderful read. Now I’m very much looking forward to Susanna Clarke’s much longer book, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

 

Edges & Silver (Inverted Frontier) by Linda Nagata

This is very much the sort of science fiction I enjoy, full of fascinating ideas, sometimes wide ranging in space and time, but also full of characters I find engaging. The first book, Edges, takes place mostly in space as the crew travel great distances seeking answers to what happened to other parts of humanity. The second book, Silver, takes place largely on a planet and deals with the consequences of an encounter with another entity in the first book. I have a number of other Linda Nagata books I hope to get to.

Favorite Graphic Novels & Comics

 

Critical Role Vox Machina Origins Volume III & Critical Role The Tales of Exandria: The Bright Queen

The only comics I read this year were related to Critical Role, a group of folks who stream their D&D gaming sessions, and have grown in popularity such that they now can tell their stories through books, comics, and more. This year I read the third volume of the origins of the Vox Machina group of characters, and a tale of Exandria about the Bright Queen. I still regularly watch their games, and I really enjoy reading these comics to provide more detail and richness to their collaborative storytelling.

Favorite Movies

Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope & Star Wars Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

The first two Star Wars movies will likely always be two of my favorites. I watched them when they first came out in theaters and they made their marks on my young life. Granted, I’ve not found some of the more recent stories in the series nearly as entertaining, but I still love these first two movies.

Hackers

Another movie I first watched in the theater when it came out. I’ve always been interested in computers and in the counterculture associated with them, so it was natural for me to watch, and end up loving, this now classic hacker movie. It remains one of my favorite computer-related films, along with Sneakers and WarGames.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

Yet another classic of my youth, and one that still stands up today. What an iconic character, and what memorable adventures. It was one of those movies and series where the actor made the character, and to some extent the character made the movie.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

And now we get to a movie that actually came out this year and ended up a favorite. I loved playing D&D when younger, and I’ve enjoyed reading many novels either set in D&D worlds or at least similar in their styles of story. And yet when it comes to movies, much of what’s come before just didn’t work very well for me. Finally, though, here is a fantastic D&D movie, perfectly melding adventure and comedy. I’ve already rewatched it a couple times and likely will again.

Everything Everywhere All at Once

Everything Everywhere All at Once was my absolute favorite movie watched in 2023. It was completely crazy and bizarre, funny and yet very touching, exciting and confusing, and something that still managed to have a plot I could follow and messages that resonated. I can easily see myself rewatching this one.

Favorite Anime & Animated Movies

Planetes

I didn’t watch a lot of anime this year, but I am currently watching the series, Planetes, one I purchased many years back when a chain of DVD stores went out of business. It tells the story of a future when all the accumulated junk of abandoned satellites and launch debris in orbit becomes too much, which requires the creation of groups to clean up all that trash. And just as on earth, the folks who do this are often looked down upon and treated as lesser than many other professions. I’m only 7 episodes in out of a total of 26, but I’ve already seen a fantastically impactful and personal story in one episode, and I can’t wait to continue the series. 

So what have you read or watched this year? Did any of your favorites match my own? And if not, what were your favorites? Let me know in the comments below.

Do you enjoy these posts?

Sign up to receive periodic emails with updates and thoughts. Don’t worry, I won’t spam you. And please consider purchasing artwork or products from my online store, and using my affiliate links in the sidebar to the right when shopping online.

I appreciate your support!