The best of 2008

Well, the year is drawing to a close: we left Princeton yesterday, and we’re spending the week in snow-white Vancouver before heading back to red-hot Australia. So if you’ll allow me another moment of nostalgia, here are some of my highlights from 2008:

• Best novel: Marilynne Robinson, Home
• Best book of poetry: Rowan Williams, Headwaters
• Best film: The Visitor
  
• Best Australian film: The Black Balloon
  
• Best TV show: John Adams (HBO)
  
• Best online superhero musical tragicomedy: Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
  
• Best theology book (in English): Nate Kerr, Christ, History and Apocalyptic
• Best theology book (in German): Günter Thomas, Neue Schöpfung
  
• Best work of literary criticism: Rowan Williams, Dostoevsky: Language, Faith and Fiction
  
• Best book on politics: Ian Hunter, The Secularisation of the Confessional State: The Political Thought of Christian Thomasius
• Best book on history: Quentin Skinner, Hobbes and Republican Liberty
  
• Best journalistic piece: Chris Hedges, “The Best and the Brightest Have Led America Off a Cliff”
  
• Best food: fresh tomatoes and watermelons in Rome
  
• Best place for kids: Cotsen Children’s Library in Princeton (a wonderful, magical place for kids to read and play)
  
• Best vacation: a lovely overnight stay in Soho, New York (incidentally, this little holiday for my wife and me was the generous gift of an F&T reader!)
  
• Best live music: seeing Bob Dylan in New York
• Best surprise: receiving a painting of Karl Barth from Oliver Crisp!
  
• Best new discovery: the works of William Stringfellow – I’m completely obsessed with Stringfellow at the moment; try to talk to me about anything else, and I’ll be sure to slip Stringfellow into the conversation somehow...