#bestof

French guiana night

whoever picks up gtn from this jeopardy clue with no other context is in for an experience

love how the series is called ‘the locked tomb’ when we find out in book one that the tomb has literally been unlocked for like 10 whole years before book one’s timeline even starts

harrow: i am completely devout to God and so loyal and i take my duties as the reverend daughter, aka the tomb keeper, very very seriously

also harrow: well except for the part where it’s my job to keep the tomb locked at all times. turns out the apocalypse of god locked inside the tomb is hot. i can and will try to make out with her-

This episode we’re talking about our Favourite Reads of 2021! We discuss our favourite fiction and non-fiction reads for the podcast (and not for the podcast) as well as other things that helped us get through the year!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts,Stitcher, Google Podcasts,Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri|Meghan Whyte|Matthew Murray|RJ Edwards

Bookshop.org list of (most) our our top titles

• https://bookshop.org/lists/favourite-reads-of-2021 

Favourite Fiction

• For the podcast
• Matthew
• Dreamships by Melissa Scott (1992)
• Episode 131 - Cyberpunk
  
• Anna
• Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (2017) 
• Episode 123 Psychological Horror
• Tied with Episode 134 - Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
  
• Meghan
• Trouble and Her Friends by Melissa Scott (1995)
• Episode 131 - Cyberpunk
• RJ
• The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino, translated by Alexander O. Smith (Japanese 2005, translated 2011)
• Episode 127 - Crime Fiction
• (But it’s really Piranesi by Susanna Clarke)
  
• Not for the podcast
• Anna
• Minimum Wage Magic by Rachel Aaron (2018)
  
• Meghan
• Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys  (2017)
  
• RJ
• To Be Taught if Fortunate by Becky Chambers (2019)
• Episode 124 - Media (and Noodles) We’ve Recently Enjoyed
• Matthew
• Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (2019)

Favourite Non-Fiction

• For the podcast
• Meghan
• The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket by Benjamin Lorr (2020)
• Episode 117 - Sociology Non-Fiction
  
• RJ
• The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin (1992; originally 1979)
• Episode 125 - Literary Theory & Literary Criticism
• Matthew
• Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond (2016)
• Episode 117 - Sociology Non-Fiction
  
• Anna
  
• All the Rage: Mothers, Fathers and the Myth of Equal Partnership by Darcy Lockman (2019)
• Episode 117 - Sociology Non-Fiction
• Not for the podcast
• RJ
• Napkin by Carta Monir (2019)
• Episode 132 - Recent Media We’ve Enjoyed
• Matthew
• 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei by Eliot Weinberger (2016; originally 1987)
• Episode 132 - Recent Media We’ve Enjoyed
  
• Anna
• Having and Being Had by Eula Biss (2020)
• (except I feel guilty that this is the same author as last year’s non-fic fav so I could also do Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy by Tressie McMillan Cottom)
  
• Meghan
• Three Squares: The Invention of the American Meal by Abigail Carroll (2013)

Other Favourites Things of 2021

• Anna
• Maintenance Phase&You’re Wrong About(podcasts)
  
• RJ
• Unpacking(game)
  
• Matthew
• Barge Chilling Beach
• The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen (2020)
  
• Meghan
• wandrer.earth
• Sacré dépanneur! by Judith Lussier (2010)

Runner-Ups

• Matthew
• Books
• Typeset in the Future: Typography and Design in Science Fiction Movies by Dave Addey
• Episode 129 - Non-Fiction Film & TV Books
  
• The Skin We’re In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power by Desmond Cole
  
• Comics (Twitter thread with more info on each title)
• Nicola Traveling Around the Demons’ World by Asaya Miyanaga (4 volumes, complete)
• Episode 124 - Media (and Noodles) We’ve Recently Enjoyed
• The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, A Rún by Nagabe, translated by Adrienne Beck (11 volumes, complete)
• Witch  Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama, translated by Stephen Kohler (8 volumes, ongoing)
• Episode 132 - Recent Media We’ve Enjoyed
  
• Spy x Family by Tatsuya Endo, translated by Casey Loe (6 volumes, ongoing)
• Episode 132 - Recent Media We’ve Enjoyed
  
• What Is Obscenity? The Story of A Good For Nothing Girl and Her Pussy by Rokudenashiko
• The Nib edited by Matt Bors
• Website
• PulpandReckless by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, and Jacob Phillips 
  
• Super Fun Sexy Times by Meredith McClaren
• This is How I Disappear by Mirion Malle
• Scary manga:
  
• Kasane by Daruma Matsuura (14 volumes, complete)
• Sensor by Junji Ito (1 volume, complete)
• PTSD Radio by  Masaaki Nakayama (6 volumes, complete)
• Blood on the Tracks by Shūzō Oshimi (7 volumes, ongoing)
  
• Anna
• The Art of Cruelty by Maggie Nelson
• What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon
• Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest by Hanif Abdurraqib
• Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen
• How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell
  
• Meghan
• Fiction
• The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (horror)
• The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli (literary fiction)
• No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (literary fiction)
• Rabbits by Terry Miles (techno thriller)
  
• Non-fiction
  
• Bikes and Bloomers: Victorian Women Inventors and their Extraordinary Cycle Wear by Kat Jungnickel
• The Cold Vanish: Seeking the Missing in North America’s Wildlands by Jon Billman
• Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of ‘70s and '80s Horror Fiction by Grady Hendrix
  
• RJ
• Picture books!!!
• Ping by Ani Castillo
• Poojo’s Got Wheels by Charrow
• Two Many Birds by Cindy Derby
• This Is Ruby by Sara O'Leary & Alea Marley
• Animals Brag About Their Bottoms by Maki Saito, translated by Brian Bergstrom
• Your Name Is a Song by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow & Luisa Uribe
• Someone Builds the Dream by Lisa Wheeler & Loren Long
  
• Comics
• Beetle and the Hollowbones by Aliza Layne
• The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen
• Stargazing by Jen Wang
• Grease Bats by Archie Bongiovanni
  
• TV/Video
• Taskmaster
• Only Connect
• Puzzgrid: Only Connect wall-style puzzles
  
• Dimension 20
• Mice & Murder
• Misfits & Magic
  
• Games
• Voyagers: A LARP Duet (PDF link)

Other Media We Mentioned

• Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
• Neuromancer by William Gibson
• On Immunity: An Inoculation by Eula Biss
• Red Spider White Web by Misha Nogha
• You Are Good(podcast)
• Animal Crossing: New Horizons(Wikipedia)

Links, Articles, and Things

• Hark! Episode 300: Good to Better, Bad to Worse
  
• Secret Stacks Episode 65
• Episode 116 - Best Books We Read in 2020
• Episode 113 - Seeking Book Recommendations
• Episode 114 - Hot Cocoa & Book Recommendations
• Dude Chilling Park(Wikipedia)

20 Philosophy books by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors to help our listeners diversify their readers’ advisory. All of the lists can be found here.

• The Promise of Happiness by Sarah Ahmed
• Tsawalk: A Nuu-chah-nulth Worldview by Umeek / E Richard Atleo
• The Location of Culture by Homi K. Bhabha
• Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by Adrienne Maree Brown
• Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis
• The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
• Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
• Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center by bell hooks
• The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything by Michio Kaku
• Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde
• Memory Serves: Oratories by Lee Maracle
• Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity by José Esteban Muñoz
• Everyday Ubuntu: Living Better Together, the African Way by Mungi Ngomane
• Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
• Mexican Philosophy in the 20th Century: Essential Readings edited by Carlos Alberto Sánchez & Robert Eli Sanchez Jr.
• As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance by  Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
• Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton
• Mathematics for Human Flourishing by Francis Su
• Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice by Shunryu Suzuki
• Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta

Give us feedback!

• Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, follow us on TwitterorInstagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday,  January 4th we’ll be discussing the genre of Architecture!

Then on Tuesday,  January 18th we’ll be talking about how (and why) 2022 is the Year of Book 2!

Songs 

Birds of Tokyo-Good Lord

Bon Iver-Hey Ma 

The HU-Wolf Totem

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard-Cyboogie

Lil Nas X feat. Billy Ray Cyrus-Old Town Road (Remix) 

Of Monsters and Men-Alligator

Rammstein-Deutschland 

Sharon Van Etten-Seventeen

Silversun Pickups-It Doesn’t Matter Why

Tool-Fear Inoculum

Albums

Lil Nas X-7 Songs EP 

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard-Infest the Rats’ Nest 

Of Monsters and Men-Fever Dreaming

The HU-Gereg 

Rammstein-[untitled] 

Sturgill Simpson-Sound & Fury 

Tool-Fear Inoculum

Songs

Cryoshell-Don’t Look Down

Kamasi Washington-Fists of Fury

Kendrick Lamar feat. SZA-All the Stars

Mitski-Nobody

Ocean Alley-Confidence

Shame-The Lick

Travis Scott feat. Drake-SICKO WORLD

Unknown Mortal Orchestra-American Guilt

Vance Joy-Saturday Sun

Albums

Alice in Chains-Rainier Fog

Courtney Barnett-Tell Me How You Really Feel

Janelle Monae-Dirty Computer

Low-Double Negative

Mike Shinoda-Post-Traumatic

Ocean Alley-Chiaroscuro

Shame-Songs of Praise

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks-Sparkle Hard

Travis Scott-ASTROWORLD

Unknown Mortal Orchestra-Sex and Food

Vance Joy-Nation of Two

Various Artists-Black Panther Soundtrack