It’s that time of year.  As we prepare to “check out” for a few days, with family, and loved ones, and food, and faith, we look back over a year nearly gone.  So, looking back, here is my list of some of my favorites – my very personal “best of” lists for 2011.  It is not comprehensive.  It is just “mine.”  So, here goes.

Best TV Show of 2011
Homeland.  It had me riveted every week.  Its season finale was perfect.  If you did not watch it, put it on your “to catch up on” list.  Claire Danes and Damian Lewis were utterly believable, and the drama, the tension, the issues… great show!

Best Blogs/Web Sites for 2011
First, there are many that I read for news and opinion, and for shopping…  Amazon, the New York Times, Memeorandum, the Huffington Post.  And my friend’s blog on Urban/Social Justice/Poverty issues, Larry James Urban Daily.

But, after these, and after our blog (Bob Morris keeps us up on the newest and best books, with interviews of important authors, and so much more), if you made me choose — “Randy, which are the web sites you cannot do without?” here are just three that come readily to mind…

Tyler Cowen’s Marginal Revolution.  Cowen is a self-described Libertarian, but his blog is about economics issues, and so much more.  Great blog!, and I’m addicted to a check and catch up at least once every two days.

Paul Krugman’s Blog, The Conscience of a Liberal.  Krugman is the liberal economist (Nobel Recipient), and reading him and Cowen together gives me just enough of an education to make me think I am beginning to understand some of this stuff.

Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish.  The name of the blog is not adequate – I do not check it daily.  I check it multiple times a day.  It is a marvel.  It is about…everything.

Best Long Reads of the Year
David Brooks ended his 2011 Sidney Awards with this terrific quote:  “Tweets are fun, but essays you’ll remember.”  He is right.

The list is long.  There is more than one from Malcolm Galdwell.  There is Gladwell’s Creation Myth:  Xerox PARC, Apple, and the truth about innovation, and this piece on Steve Jobs:  THE TWEAKER:  The real genius of Steve Jobs.

There is the one on needing a coach by Atul Gawande (popping up on Google this way — Coaching A Surgeon:  What Makes Top Performers Better):  Personal Best:  Top athletes and singers have coaches. Should you?

There is this one by Tyler Cowen, The Inequality That Matters on Income Inequality (with a genuinely different take from any others I’ve read on this issue).

I know there were others.  Check out the two-part Sidney Awards by David Brooks for his list.  Part 1 here.  Part 2 here.

Best Business Books for 2011
This is a very short list.  I presented synopses of about 20 business books in 2011 – my selection each month at the First Friday Book Synopsis, and a few others for other events or at the specific request for clients.  I am “defining” best as – something that was useful, something that made me think more, or differently, something that seemed to explain a big-picture issue.  And, it was personally engaging.  You might disagree with my list, and there might be better books on these issues.  But, here is my list:

• For Women in Business Issues — Knowing Your Value: Women, Money and Getting What You’re Worth by Mika Brzezinski.

• For business planning/success issues — Demand: Creating What People Love Before They Know They Want It by Adrian Slywotzky, and Karl Weber. (I think this is my favorite business book of the year, mainly because I am personally so captivated by the “get rid of all hassles” idea in the book.  Learn to actually do this, and people will like your product or service!  At least, I know I will).

• For understanding the ongoing financial crisis — The Great Stagnation:  How America Ate All the Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, And Will (Eventually) Feel Better by Tyler Cowen.  This is the shortest book I read this year, and it really makes sense.  I think his basic premise is correct, and is fully understandable.

There were other books I presented that I found really useful.  Tribal Leadership; Practically Radical; and others…  But these were my “favorites” for the year.

And, you ask, what about Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.  I’m not quite finished reading it.  I will present my synopsis at the January 6, 2012 First Friday Book Synopsis.  (come join us!).  But, from all impressions, it will definitely be on my list for next year.  It is a terrific read, filled with important observations and insight.

Best Social Justice/Poverty Books for 2011
I also speak monthly at the Urban Engagement Book Club for CitySquare (formerly Central Dallas Ministries).  I present two books a month (though, many months, one of the two is a book I presented earlier, at the different location).

The best book, by far, that I presented in 2011 was The Warmth of Other Suns:  The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson (winner of the Pulitzer Prize).  This is not a good book – it is a great book!  It is about racial issues, human drama, our changing nation.  An important book!  (Yes, I know it came out in 2010.  But this is my list of what I presented in 2011).

I presented other good books (Aftershock:  The Next Economy and America’s Future by Robert B. Reich; two James Cone books:  A Black Theology of Liberation (Twentieth Anniversary Edition), and God of the Oppressed, both of which help us understand the past and still-ongoing racial struggles in our country.  Many of the books that I present for these gatherings were published in earlier years, but they all add to my understanding of the struggles of the poor, and the struggles over differences of all kinds — racial, economic, and…

I read little fiction, so have nothing to offer here. (Though I did read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo this year).  And, though I love movies, our family situation means that I simply have not been to many this year.  So, no movie suggestions for you.  (Read Roger Ebert’s list of the best of 2011 here).  (But…  my wife’s dad now lives with us, and the three of us watched Home Alone the other night.  I had not seen it in years.  It was the first time we all laughed so hard together in quite a while.  A nice, funny diversion).

Oh – and one more thing.  The best thing I bought in 2011 – my iPad.  I cannot begin to tell you how valuable it is; how wonderful it is!

Well, this is my list.  I’m sure you have your own.  Have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year – and be ready to get back to work in 2012.  There is so much to learn, and so much to do…

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Update:  How could I forget?  I will try not to keep adding, but…  to put on the “best” list, practically everything written by Farhad Manjoo, at Slate.com.  Especially his series on the changes that Robots will bring.  Here is part 1 of this multi-part series:  Will Robots Steal Your Job?  You’re highly educated. You make a lot of money. You should still be afraid.