Episode 140 – Favourite Reads of 2021
December 21, 2021
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
Favourite Fiction
- For the podcast
- Matthew
- Dreamships by Melissa Scott (1992)
- Anna
- Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (2017)
- Meghan
- Trouble and Her Friends by Melissa Scott (1995)
- 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)
- The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino, translated by Alexander O. Smith (Japanese 2005, translated 2011)
- Matthew
- 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)
- Matthew
- Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (2019)
- Anna
Favourite Non-Fiction
- For the podcast
- Meghan
- RJ
- The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin (1992; originally 1979)
- Matthew
- Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond (2016)
- Anna
- All the Rage: Mothers, Fathers and the Myth of Equal Partnership by Darcy Lockman (2019)
- Not for the podcast
- RJ
- Napkin by Carta Monir (2019)
- Matthew
- 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei by Eliot Weinberger (2016; originally 1987)
- 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)
- RJ
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
- Comics (Twitter thread with more info on each title)
- Nicola Traveling Around the Demons’ World by Asaya Miyanaga (4 volumes, complete)
- 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)
- Spy x Family by Tatsuya Endo, translated by Casey Loe (6 volumes, ongoing)
- What Is Obscenity? The Story of A Good For Nothing Girl and Her Pussy by Rokudenashiko
- The Nib edited by Matt Bors
- Pulp and Reckless 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
- Fiction
- 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
- Games
- Voyagers: A LARP Duet (PDF link)
- Picture books!!!
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!
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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!
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