Here are my selections for notable films, music, and books of 2011. Please share your favorites in the comments.

FILMS

• The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)
• Of Gods and Men (Xavier Beauvois)
• Downton Abbey (Julian Fellowes)
• The Help (Tate Taylor)
• The Iron Lady (Phyllida Lloyd)
• A Dangerous Method (David Cronenberg)
• Higher Ground (Vera Farmiga)
  
• Coriolanus (Ralph Fiennes)
• Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn)
  
• Meek’s Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt)
• Buck (Cindy Meehl)
• Contagion (Stephen Soderbergh)
• Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols)
  
• Wuthering Heights (Andrea Arnold)
• Jane Eyre (Cary Fukunaga)

MUSIC

Rock/Pop/Folk

• Bon Iver, Bon Iver
• Radiohead, The King of Limbs
• Feist, Metals

Classical

• Ebène Quartet, Fiction
• London Philharmonic, Mahler: Symphony No. 2 ‘Resurrection’

BOOKS

Top Picks

• Craig Bartholomew, Where Mortals Dwell: A Christian View of Place for Today (Baker Academic)
• William A. Dyrness, Poetic Theology: God and the Poetics of Everyday Life (Eerdmans)
• Gabriele Finaldi, The Image of Christ (Yale)
• Michael Horton, The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way (Zondervan)
• Alan Jacobs, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction (Oxford)
• Jenell Williams Paris, The End of Sexual Identity: Why Sex Is Too Important to Define Who We Are (InterVarsity)
• Alvin Plantinga, Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism (Oxford)
• Miroslav Volf, A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good (Brazos)

Literature

• Jane Austen, Persuasion: An Annotated Edition (Harvard)
• Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights. Illustrated by Tracy Dockray (HarperDesign)
• Rachel M. Brownstein, Why Jane Austen? (Columbia)
• Geoffrey Chaucer, The Selected Canterbury Tales: A New Verse Translation. Translated by by Sheila Fisher (Norton)
• Edward Copeland & Juliet McMaster (editors), The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen: Second Edition (Cambridge)
• William Deresiewicz, A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter (Penguin)
• Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Becoming Dickens: The Invention of a Novelist (Harvard)
• Marjorie Garber, The Use and Abuse of Literature (Pantheon)
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sufferings of Young Werther: A New Translation. Translated by Stanley Corngold (Norton)
• Jim Scott Orrick, A Year With George Herbert: A Guide to Fifty-Two of His Best Loved Poems (Wipf & Stock)
• Nathaniel Philbrick, Why Read Moby-Dick? (Viking)
• Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet. Translated by Mark Harman (Harvard)
• John Sutherland, How Literature Works: 50 Key Concepts (Oxford)
• Claire Tomalin, Charles Dickens: A Life (Penguin)
• Susan VanZanten, Mending a Tattered Faith: Devotions with Dickinson (Cascade)
• Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition (Harvard)

Reading & Writing

• 25 Books Every Christian Should Read: A Guide to the Spiritual Classics (HarperOne)
• Stanley Fish, How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One (HarperCollins)
• Tony Reinke, Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books (Crossway)
• John Mark Reynolds, The Great Books Reader: Excerpts and Essays on the Most Influential Books in Western Civilization (Bethany)
• Francis-Noël Thomas & Mark Turner, Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose (Princeton)

Religion & Theology

• David Baggett & Jerry L. Walls, Good God: The Theistic Foundations of Morality (Oxford)
• J. Todd Billings, Union with Christ: Reframing Theology and Ministry for the Church (Baker Academic)
• Anette Ejsing, The Power of One: Theological Reflections on Loneliness (Cascade)
• Timothy George, Reading Scripture with the Reformers (InterVarsity)
• Michael Horton, For Calvinism (Zondervan)
• Belden C. Lane, Ravished by Beauty: The Surprising Legacy of Reformed Spirituality (Oxford)
• Mark A. Noll, Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind (Eerdmans)
• Gary Scott Smith, Heaven in the American Imagination (Oxford)
• Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World’s Largest Religion (HarperOne)
• Kenneth J. Stewart, Ten Myths About Calvinism: Recovering the Breadth of the Reformed Tradition (InterVarsity)
• Jerry L. Walls, Purgatory: The Logic of Total Transformation (Oxford)
• N. T. Wright, Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters (HarperOne)

History

• John Fea, Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? A Historical Introduction (Westminster John Knox)
• Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (Norton)

Science

• Karl W. Giberson & Francis S. Collins, The Language of Science and Faith: Straight Answers to Genuine Questions (InterVarsity)
• Alister McGrath, Darwinism and the Divine: Evolutionary Thought and Natural Theology (Wiley-Blackwell)
• Alister McGrath, Surprised by Meaning: Science, Faith, and How We Make Sense of Things (Westminster John Knox)

Politics

• William T. Cavanaugh, Migrations of the Holy: God, State, and the Political Meaning of the Church (Eerdmans)
• Darryl Hart, From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin: Evangelicals and the Betrayal of American Conservatism (Eerdmans)
• Amy A. Kass, Leon R. Kass, and Diana Schaub (editors), What So Proudly We Hail: The American Soul in Story, Speech and Song (ISI Books)
  

Art

• Nicholas Holtam, The Art of Worship: Paintings, Prayers, and Readings for Meditation (National Gallery)
• Steven Ozment, The Serpent and the Lamb: Cranach, Luther and the Making of the Reformation (Yale)

Philosophy

• Stephen Backhouse, Kierkegaard’s Critique of Christian Nationalism (Oxford)
• James Miller, Examined Lives: From Socrates to Nietzsche (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Charles Taylor, Dilemmas & Connections: Selected Essays (Harvard)
• Clifford Williams, Existential Reasons for Belief in God: A Defense of Desires & Emotions for Faith (InterVarsity)

Education

• James K. A. Smith & David I. Smith, Teaching and Christian Practices: Reshaping Faith & Learning (Eerdmans)

Sociology

• Christian Smith, Lost in Translation: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood (Oxford)

Other

• William J. Bennett (editor), The Book of Man: Readings on the Path to Manhood (Thomas Nelson)