The ‘Bestest’ of 2017

2017 is about to end. The macro perspective can be dreary, but from a local point of view, we can’t complaint. It’s been a great year for The Wild Detectives!

Having better author events, more engaging and dynamic, was one of our key objectives for 2017. We’ve managed to bring great authors this year such as Chris Krauss, Morgan Parker, Amelia Gray, Jami Attenberg, Deb Olin Unferth, Melissa Febos… while keeping our events as a platform for local talent and community driven events (Rejected, Backyard Story Night, Shakespeare in the Bar…). We’ve expanded our Spanish program with the visits of top Spanish language writers. It was such an honor to have authors like Carlos Velázquez, Verónica Gerber Bicecci, Santiago Gamboa or Cristina Rivera Garza presenting their work in our bookstore. Our Spanish event will be a key part of our mission in 2018.

We’ve also consolidated our new co-curation system which has helped us not just to sell more books, but more importantly, to sell books that are relevant for our community.

Last November, Damien Jurado (and Jacob Metcalf) inaugurated our series of intimate shows in our backyard last November and we’re already planning to bring great artists to our spot.

What else… oh yeah, our friends at Dieste came up with the #LitBait campaign and we won 2 Lions at Cannes!

Ok, enough with blowing our horn, let’s go to the ‘bestest’ of 2017 according to us, our collaborators and friends. Again, a very heterogeneous list, which just speaks tonnes about how diverse our community is. It’s the first time we have a book in Spanish as the best book of the year and that makes us immensely happy (even better: a book written by a friend).

Just so you know, our list includes not just those books, albums and movies/TV shows released on 2017, but also those that have been read, listened to and watched this year regardless of the publication date. Kind of interesting, that 1984, which was published in 1949, made it to the top 3. Why would that be. Any idea?

Books:
1.
Conjunto vacío – Verónica Gerber Bicecci
2.
4 3 2 1 – Paul Auster
3.
The Kingdom – Emmanuel Carrere
Lincoln in the Bardo – George Saunders
Sing, Unburied, Sing – Jasmyn Ward
My Favorite Thing Is Monsters – Emil Ferris
1984 – George Orwell

Albums:
1.
Masseduction – St. Vincent
Melodrama – Lorde
2.
American Dream – LCD Soundsystem
Damn – Kendrick Lamar
Kelly Lee Owens – Kelly Lee Owens
Salvavidas De Hielo – Jorge Drexler

Movies:
1.
Get Out – Jordan Peele
2.
Ladybird – Greta Gerwig
3.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – Martin McDonagh

At The Wild Detectives:

Jean Paul Caron

Best Book:
Sticky Fingers – Joe Hagan

Best Album:
Villains – Queens of the Stonge Age

Best Movie:
Silence – Martin Scorsese

Andrés de la Casa Huertas

Best Book:
4 3 2 1 – Paul Auster

Best Book in Spanish:
Patria – Fernando Aramburu

Best Album:
Garden of Ashes – Duke Garwood
Kelly Lee Owens – Kelly Lee Owens

Best Movie:
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – Martin McDonagh

Jose Garay

Best Book:
Absalom, Absalom – William Faulkner

Best Album:
Psycho Tropical Berlin – La Femme

Best Movie:
Pickpocket – Robert Bresson

Javier García del Moral

Best Book:
The Kingdom – Emmanuel Carrere

Best Non-Fiction:
Oil Blood – Leif Wenar

Best Book in Spanish:
La Uruguaya – Pedro Mairal

Best Album:
Music for the Age or Miracles – The Clientele

Best Movie:
A Ghost Story – David Lowery

Victor Rimach

Best Book:
Quien Mató a Palomino Moreno – Mario Vargas Llosa

Best Album:
Salvavidas De Hielo – Jorge Drexler

Best Movie:
Los Perros – Marcela Said

Leala Rosen

Best Book:
The Song Poet: Memoirs of My Father – Kao Kalia Yang

Best Album:
Masseduction – St. Vincent

Best Movie:
Ladybird – Greta Gerwig

Lauren Smart

Best Novel:
We Are Never Meeting in Real Life – Samantha Irby

Best Poetry Collection:
There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonce – Morgan Parker
(plus having her read her poems in the shop was MAGICAL!)

Best Album:
Empressionism – Ruby Empress

Best Movie:
Ladybird – Greta Gerwig

Paco Vique

Best Book:
Camanchaca – Diego Zúñiga

Best Album:
City Music – Kevin Morby
Relatives in Descent – Protomartyr

Best Movie:
The Florida Project – Sean Baker

Our collaborators:

Elizabeth Alexander
Check Elizabeth’s articles on our website here and here

Best Book:
Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions – Valeria Luiselli

Luis Borges
Check Luis’ article on our website (Spanish)

Best Book:
Conjunto vacío – Verónica Gerber Bicecci

Best Album:
Salvavidas de hielo – Jorge Drexler

Best Movie:
Coco – Lee Unkrich (Pixar)

Camile Bradley
Co-Heart-and-soul of The WD’ book club

Best Book:
Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness – Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein

Best Album:
Damn – Kendrick Lamar

Best Movie:
The Big Sick – Michael Showalter

John Bradley
Co-Heart-and-soul of The WD’ book club
Check his article on our website here and here

Best Book:
Lincoln in the Bardo – George Saunders

Best Album:
Goths – The Mountain Goats

Best Movie:
Get Out – Jordan Peele

Kelsey Capps
Check Kelsey’s articles on our website here and here

Best Book:
4 3 2 1 – Paul Auster

Best Album:
Mr. Finish Line – Vulfpeck

Best Movie:
Blande Runner 2049 – Denis Villeneuve

Ana Lourdes Campoy
Ana is El Book Club –our book club in Spanish– coordinator

Best Book:
Fiesta en la Madriguera – Juan Pablo Villalobos

Best Album:
Qué lindo es el amor – Interactivo

Best Movie:
The Stressful Adventures of Boxhead & Roundhead – Elliot Cowan

Trey Carlock
Check Trey’s poems on our website

Best Book:
The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt

Best Music:
Bon Iver’s 2017-18 live tour

Best Movie:
Snowden – Oliver Stone

Marina Cuesta
Creative Director at Dieste. Responsible for this campaign and the 2 Bronze Lions in Cannes we got this year

Best Book:
The Girls – Emma Cline

Best Album:
Residente – Residente

Best Movie:
Your Name – Makoto Shinkai

Best TV Show:
Ozark – Bill Dubuque

Austin Dupree
Austin helped us to put Women Galore together last March

Best Book:
Sex and Rage – Eve Babitz

Best Album:
Hallelujah Anyhow – Hiss Golden Messenger

Best TV Show:
Godless – Scott Frank

Katy Dycus
Check Katy’s articles on our website here, here and here

Best Book:
Theft By Finding – David Sedaris

Best Album:
Cigarettes After Sex – Cigarettes After Sex

Best Movie:
Ladybird – Greta Gerwig

Matías Jaramillo
Digital Director at Dieste. Responsible for this campaign and the 2 Bronze Lions in Cannes we got this year

Best Book:
Death’s End – Liu Cixin

Best Album:
EP2 – Yaeji

Best TV Show:
Halt and Catch Fire – Christopher Cantwell & Christopher C. Rogers

Janielle Kastler
Director and co-creator of the Movies that should Be Musicals series

Best Book:
Commonwealth – Ann Patchett

Best Album:
Melodrama – Lorde

Best Movie:
Ladybird – Greta Gerwig

Bret McCormick
Check Bret’s stories on our website here and here

Best Book:
Heroes of the Frontier – Dave Eggers

Best Album:
The Authorized Bang Collection – Van Morrison

Best Movie:
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – Martin McDonagh

Ernesto Montiel
Dj, music erudite and the engine behind our Further Sounds and Further Jazz series

Best Book:
Pim & Francie – Al Columbia
Conjunto vacío – Veronica Gerber Bicecci
The Old Ways – Robert Macfarlane
La gesta del marrano – Mario Aguinis

Best Albums:
Bronshoj (Puncak) – Senyawa
Tibetan Buddishm Trip – Kink Gong
Hand in Hand – Felicia Atkinson
The Kid – Katlyn Aurelia Smith
Cosmogony – Demdike Stare
Superlative Fatigue – Errorsmith
Nídia é má, Nídia é Fudida – Nidia
For Organ and Brass – Ellen Arkbro
Musikautomatika – Musikautomatika
Estórias para voz, instrumentos acústicos e eletrónicos – Jocy de Oliveira
Motore Immobile – Giusto Pio

Best Movies:
The Death of Louis XIV – Albert Serra
Patterson – Jim Jarmusch
The Killing of a Sacred Deer – Yorgos Lanthimos

Brigham Mosley
Performer and co-creator of the Movies that should Be Musicals series

Best Book:
Station Eleven – Emily St. John Mandel

Best Album:
Melodrama – Lorde

Best Movie:
Get Out – Jordan Peele

Laura Pacheco
The super talented illustrator of our web-comic series Reading Quirks

Best Book:
El libro de Gloria Fuertes para niñas y niños – Gloria Fuertes

Best Album:
Los Ángeles – Rosalía

Best TV Show:
Ozark – Bill Dubuque

Ashuni Lucía Pérez
Check Ashuni’s poems on our website

Best Book:
General Alonso de Leon’s Expeditions into Texas, 1686-1690 – Lola Orellano Norris

Best Album:
Chsss! EP – Los Manises

Best Movie:
Una mujer fantástica – Sebastián Lelio

Vicky Sanz
Vicky is our moderator in all our bi-lingual events

Best Book:
Conjunto vacío – Verónica Gerber Bicecci

Best Album:
I See You – The XX

Best Movie:
The Shape of Water – Guillermo del Toro

Tempranillo (David Piorno)
Dj and our Mondays music curator

Best Book:
The Heavenly Table – Donald Ray Pollock

Best Album:
Slowdive – Slowdive

Best Movie:
Dunkirk – Christopher Nolan

Robert Tinajero
Check out Robert’s poems on our website

Best Book:
Angels of Our Better Nature – Steven Pinker

Best Album:
American Teen – Khalid

Best Movie:
War for the Planet of the Apes – Matt Reeves

Julia Ruth Worland
Check out her article Confessions of a Wannabe Bibliophile on our website

Best Book:
1984 – George Orwell

Best Album:
Capacity – Big Thief

Best Movie:
Get Out – Jordan Peele

Our friends:

Andrea Amosson
Author

Best Book:
1984 – George Orwell

Best Movie:
Coco – Lee Unkrich (Pixar)

Will Clarke
Author

Best Book:
Autumn – Karl Ove Knausgaard

Best Album:
Sleep Well Beast – The National

Best Movie:
Get Out – Jordan Peele

Barak Epstein
Texas Theatre

Best Book:
My Favorite Thing Is Monsters – Emil Ferris

Best Album:
Generation X – Generation X
Jawbreakers – Unfun

Best Movie:
A Ghost Story – David Lowery
The Lure – Agnieszka Smoczynska

Will Evans
Deep Vellum (boh, Publishing and Books)

Best Book:
Radiant Terminus – Antoine Volodine

Best Album:
The Dusk in Us – Converge

Best Movie:
Blade Runner 2019 – Denis Villeneuve
Get Out – Jordan Peele

Patricia García
Professor in Hispanic and Translation Studies at The University of Nottingham

Best Book:
Desoriental – Negar Djavali

Best Album:
The First Days of Spring – Noah and the Whale

Best Movie:
The Salesman – Ashgar Farhadi

Veronica Gerber Bicecci
Author

Best Non-Fiction:
Los condenados de la pantalla – Hito Steyerl

Best Poetry Collection:
O reguero de hormigas – Yolanda Segura

Best Graphic Novel:
My Favorite Thing Is Monsters – Emil Ferris

Best Movie:
Homo Sapiens – Nicolaus Geyrhalter

Kendra Greene
Author

Best Book:
Among the Living and the Dead – Inara Verzemnieks
Animals Strike Curious Poses – Elena Passarello
Don’t Come Back – Lina Ferreira
All the Agents and Saints – Stephanie Elizondo Griest
This is the Place (anthology)

Brittany Griffiths
Poet and publisher at Spontaneous Afflatus

Best Book:
Leaving the Atocha Station – Ben Lerner

Best Album:
Masseduction – St. Vincent

Best Movie:
Song to Song – Terrence Malick

Louisa Hall
Author

Best Book:
The Kingdom – Emmanuel Carrere

Best Album:
Heavn – Jamila Woods
Pleasure – Feist

Brentney Hamilton
Dallas Morning News

Best Book:
You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me – Sherman Alexie

Best Album:
Lotta Sea Lice – Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile

Best Movie:
A Decade On – Ethan Newberry

Juan Jaramillo
Al Día Dallas

Best Book:
4 3 2 1 – Paul Auster

Best Album:
American Dream – LCD Soundsystem

Best Movie:
The Florida Project – Sean Baker

Kathleen Kent
Author

Best Book:
Sing, Unburied, Sing – Jasmyn Ward

Best Album:
Fake Sugar – Beth Ditto

Best Movie:
Wind River – Taylor Sheridan

Josh Kumler
Bar Politics

Best Book:
Battles for Freedom: the Use and Abuse of American History – Eric Foner

Best album:
Damn – Kendrick Lamar

Best song:
Wear Black – The Mountain Goats

Best Concert:
Jacob Metcalf & Damien Jurado (at The WD)

Best Movie:
Get Out – Jordan Peele

Best TV Show:
Master of None – Aziz Ansari, Alan Yang

Best Play:
Shadow Woman – Claire Carson

Best Podcast
The Miseducation of Dallas County

Julián Lacalle
Publisher at Pepitas de Calabaza

Best Book:
Conjunto vacío – Verónica Gerber Bicecci

Best Album:
Fuego – La Bien Querida

Alex Macon
D Magazine

Best Book:
I Hate the Internet – Jarrett Kobek

Best Album:
Kelly Lee Owens – Kelly Lee Owens

Best Movie:
Good Time – Ben & Josh Safdie

Joe Milazzo
Writer, editor, educator, and designer.

Best Book:
Time Travel for Daydreamers, Volumes 1 & 2 – James Barret Rodehaver, with illustrations by Nadia Wolnisty

Best Album:
Cedars – AF Jones & Derek Rogers

Best Movie:
Telefóto – Richard Bailey

Charles Dee Mitchell
Wordspace

Best Novel:
Lincoln in the Bardo – George Saunders

Best Story Collection:
Things We Lost in the Fire – Mariana Enriquez

Best Non-Fiction:
Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of ‘70’s and ‘80’s Horror Fiction – Grady Hendrix

Best Biographies:
The Invention of Angela Carter – Edmund Gordon
Guilty Thing: A Life of Thomas de Quincey – Frances Wilson

Best Album:
Masseduction – St Vincent’s

Best Movie:
Cure – Kiyoshi Kurosawa (1998)

Michelle Newby
Lone Star Literary Life

Best Book:
Sing, Unburied, Sing – Jessmyn Ward

Best Album:
Melodrama – Lorde

Best Movie:
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – Martin McDonagh

Jason Roberts
Better Block

Best Book:
Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind – Yuval Noah Harari

Best Album:
Hot Thoughts – Spoon

Best Movie:
Dunkirk – Christopher Nolan

Cristina Rodriguez
Deep Vellum Books

Best Book:
We Were Witches – Ariel Gore
The Book Of Disquiet – Fernando Pessoa, translated by Margaret Jull Costa

Best Non-Fiction:
Word By Word: The Secret Life Of Dictionaries – Kory Stamper

Best Album:
About Time – Sabrina Claudio

Best Movie:
Get Out – Jordan Peele

Carlos Velázquez
Author

Best Book:
Burning Your Boats – Angela Carter

Best Album:
American Dream – LCD Soundsystem

Best Movie:
Blade Runner 2049 – Denis Villeneuve
Transpotting 2 – Danny Boyle

Tonya Wardell
Deep Vellum Publishing

Best Book:
Exist West – Moshin Hamid
The Iliac Crest – Cristina Rivera Garza

Best Album:
Okovi – Zola Jesus
Process – Sampha
Expect the Best – Widowspeak
Tropix – Céu

Best Movie:
Blade Runner 2049 – Denis Villeneuve
Transpotting 2 – Danny Boyle