Tien-Yi LeeWhat was the strongest debut book of 2014?
Catherine Lacey, “Nobody Is Ever Missing.”
Rochita Loenen-Ruiz (@rcloenenruiz)The “Hannibal” fandom, which along with astounding dedication to reading romance into a show about murder, produced for the world this perfect gifset.What is the book from 2014, either from your list or not, fiction or non-fiction, that is most likely to join the canon, or still be discussed 20 years from now?
I suspect that “Citizen,” Claudia Rankine’s crushing book-length poem/essay/memoir on racism, will have a long life on college syllabi. But in which department? English, yes, for the ferocity of its language, for her emotional acuity at describing how bigotry arrives in offhand comments and in violence, and for her fluid shifts from declamation to abstraction. Psychology and sociology too, for its window into how prejudice is experienced and responded to (or avoided). And history, because it speaks to racism’s long, stubborn persistence. “Citizen” was written before the deaths of Mike Brown and Eric Garner debunked “post-racial America” as the canard that it was. Rankine was ahead of the news; what would it take for this book not to be ahead of the news two decades from now?
Mark Athitakis is a writer, editor, critic and blogger who’s spent more than a dozen years in journalism. His work has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Washington Post Book World, Chicago Sun-Times, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Washington City Paper and many more publications.
T. Kira Madden (@TKMadden) “Not today, Satan. Not today.”
Which is a line from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” contestant Bianca Del Rio that has become a mantra. Accompanied, fittingly, by Adore Delano and Trinity K. Bonet’s lip-sync elimination battle to Paula Abdul’s “Vibeology.”Aaron Paul vs. Barbie
When Toys ‘R’ Us pulled a line of “Breaking Bad” action figures from their shelves, Aaron Paul took to Twitter to protest, writing “Wait, so @ToysRUs pulled all of the Breaking Bad figures from their shelves and still sells Barbie? Hmmmm…I wonder what is more damaging?” adding “And what about all of the violent video games you sell @ToysRUs ? Do you still sell those? Florida mom really messed it up for everyone.” Paul also posted a petition to reinstate the toys. His costar Bryan Cranston also chimed in, slightly less angrily, saying “Florida mom petitions against Toys ‘R Us over Breaking Bad action figures.” I’m so mad, I’m burning my Florida Mom action figure in protest.”
Bel Poblador (@belpobs) “Transparent”
In a year of astounding debuts and incredible performances, Jill Soloway’s “Transparent” stands out as a masterpiece, and Jeffrey Tambor’s Maura as a titan.
Tabitha Sin (@tabithameep) “Looking”
Andrew Haigh’s HBO series had an incredible freshman season. It’s a show so subtle and intimate that it’s easy to overlook, considering that it lives on the same network as “Girls,” which is a continued magnet for controversy, and the far splashier “Game of Thrones.” But while there are droves of stories that attempt to tell the experience of being young and confused, “Looking” manages to find it by distilling it to the one word in its title. It’s about gay men in San Francisco, undoubtedly, and the peculiar triumphs and pitfalls of that scene. But it’s mostly about the optimism and frustration of that age, coupled with the optimism and frustration of hipster life in San Francisco. The last 60 seconds of “The Newsroom’s” finale “What Kind of a Day Has It Been”
The rest of the episode is fine, but the subtle, atmospheric last minute of “The Newsroom” is lovely. It’s the last episode of “News Night With Will McAvoy” that we the viewers will watch being made, and a minute before filming, the camera pans back to let us watch the characters do their daily work of making the news come to life. Mackenzie McHale is in the control room, watching her monitors, and in front of her several technicians are working soundboards and murmuring into their headsets, communicating with McAvoy, sitting behind his desk on set. Her deputy Jim is making a call out to Washington to ready them for the broadcast. In the newsroom, the staffers are conducting research on stories, and in the foreground, one woman brings a file to another. Phones ring. The conversation murmurs in the background. The work continues, and for once, no one is shouting about it. Not only is it one of the best moments of the show, it is a vision of “The Newsroom” that demonstrates what the show could have been.
Melissa Sipin (@msipin)What was the strongest debut book of 2014?
I’m going to go with The Wallcreeper by Nell Zink, using “strongest” in the sense of “most pungent.”What was the best essay that you read this year? (Published in 2014)Was there one book, either on your list or off your list, fiction or non-fiction, which seems to best encapsulate America in 2014?
Claudia Rankine’s “Citizen: An American Lyric.”