Episode 116 - Best Books We Read in 2020

Book Club for Masochists: a Readers’ Advisory Podcast

This episode we’re talking about the Best Books We Read in 2020! (Not necessarily things that came out in 2020, but there are some of those too!) We discuss reading in the pandemic era, “good enough” reads, academic publishing, and more! Plus: Are noodles media?

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

Favourite Fiction

• For the podcast
• • Matthew
  • • The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark
    • • (From Episode 106 - Alternative/Alternate History)
    • Serre
    • • Watch Matthew and Meghan play this visual novel!
      • (From Episode 108 - Visual Novels)
  • Anna
  • • Dead Astronauts by Jeff Vandermeer
    • • (From Episode 115 - New Weird)
    • Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville
    • • (From Episode 106 - Alternative/Alternate History)
  • Meghan
  • • The Etched City by KJ Bishop
    • • (From Episode 115 - New Weird)
  • RJ
  • • Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
    • • (From Episode 107 - Pet by Akwaeke Emezi)
• Not for the podcast
• • Anna
  • • Binding Shadows by Jasmine Silvera
  • Meghan
  • • The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley
  • RJ
  • • Saturday by Oge Mora
    • Dayspring by Anthony Oliveira
    • • Read online for free
    • Delicious In Dungeon, vol. 1 by Ryoko Kui
  • Matthew
  • • A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djèlí Clark
    • • Read online for free
    • The Space Traders by Derrick Bell (Wikipedia)
    • • Collected in Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora edited by Sheree Thomas
    • 68:Hazard:Cold by Janelle C. Shane
    • • Read online for free
      • Listen to the podcast version
    • Houses by Mark Pantoja
    • • Read online for free
    • The Murderbot Diaries Series by Martha Wells

Favourite Non-Fiction

• • For the podcast
    • Meghan
      • Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey by Mark Dery
        • (From Episode 092 - Arts (Non-Fiction))
    • RJ
      • The Debunking Handbook by John Cook and Stephan Lewandowsky
        • (From Episode 100 - Library and Information Studies)
      • Medallion Status: True Stories from Secret Rooms by John Hodgman
        • (From Episode 104 - Entertainment Non-Fiction)
    • Matthew
      • Comics and Critical Librarianship: Reframing the Narrative in Academic Libraries edited by Olivia Piepmeier and Stephanie Grimm
        • (From Episode 100 - Library and Information Studies)

• • • • A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power by Paul Fischer
        • (From Episode 104 - Entertainment Non-Fiction)
  • Anna
    • Feminist Pedagogy for Library Instruction by Maria T. Accardi
      • (From Episode 100 - Library and Information Studies)
    • Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film by Adilifu Nama
      • (From Episode 104 - Entertainment Non-Fiction)

• Not for the podcast
• • RJ
  • • Dinosaur Feathers by Dennis Nolan
  • Matthew
  • • Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots by Kate Devlin
  • Anna
  • • On Immunity: An Inoculation by Eula Biss
  • Meghan
  • • The Undying by Anne Boyer

Other Favourites Things of 2020

• Anna
• • The Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb (trailer on YouTube)
• RJ
• • Dan-Dan Noodles?? Noodles are media, right???
  • • Dandan noodles (Wikipedia)
    • RJ’s recipe
  • Leather Archives & Museum Instagram account
  • Game Changer episode 1 - The Game Show Where Nobody Knows the Rules (YouTube)
• Matthew
• • Reply All, episode 158, The Case of the Missing Hit
  • Anarchism & Police Abolition｜Feat. Domri Rade
  • Mis(h)adra by Iasmin Omar Ata
• Meghan
• • Nature (no hyperlink, see: outside) (No, there’s a hyperlink - Matthew)

Runner-Ups

• RJ
• • Fiction
  • • Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
    • On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
• RJ
• • Other
  • • Steven Universe Future (Wikipedia)
    • Sohla El-Waylly / Stump Sohla
• Meghan
• • Fiction
  • • Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
    • The Subtweet by Vivek Shraya
    • Self Care by Leigh Stein
    • Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
    • After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones
    • The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa
    • Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
    • Check, Please! Book 1: #Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu
    • Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
    • Immigrant City by David Bezmozgis
• Meghan
• • Non-fiction
  • • Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time by Jeff Speck
    • The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O'Meara
    • In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
    • Turning by Jessica J. Lee
    • Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui
    • Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob
    • Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener
    • Dreaming in Hindi: Coming Awake in Another Language by Katherine Russell Rich
• Meghan
• • French Language
  • • Tom Thomson, esquisses du printemps by Sandrine Revel
    • Les petites victoires by Yvon Roy
    • Waves by Ingrid Chabbert
    • Un soleil entre des planètes mortes by Anneli Furmak
• Matthew
• • Comics
  • • Emanon, vol. 1 by Shinji Kajio and Kenji Tsuruta
    • On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden
    • • Read online
    • Super Fun Sexy Times by Meredith McClaren
    • When I Arrived at the Castle by Emily Carroll
    • Monstress, vol. 3: Haven by Marjorie M. Liu and Sana Takeda (yes, I’m two volumes behind, the next volume is literally sitting on my shelf waiting to be read)
    • Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle, vol. 1 by Kagiji Kumanomata
    • Steeple by John Allison (webcomic)
    • Blade Runner 2019, vol. 1 by Michael Green, Mike Johnson, Andres Guinaldo (Illustrator)
    • Le facteur de l'espace by Guillaume Perreault (in French! It’s not just Meghan who reads French language things now)
    • • Available in English as The Postman from Space
    • Rock Mary Rock, vol. 1 by Nicky Soh
    • • Webcomic version
    • Gardens of Glass by Lando

Other Media We Mentioned

• You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: How Artificial Intelligence Works and Why It's Making the World a Weirder Place by Janelle Shane
• Robots: The Recent A.I. edited by Rich Horton and Sean Wallace
• Pulgasari (Wikipedia) - North Korean giant monster movie
• I Blame the Patriarchy by Twisty Faster

Links, Articles, and Things

• #LibFaves20 (library worker’s favourite books published in 2020)
• National Magazine Awards Winners 2020
• AI Weirdness
• Overlay journal
• Our Twitch channel!

21 Books in Translation by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) 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. All of the lists can be found here.

• Mama Hissa's Mice by Saud Alsanousi, translated by Sawad Hussain (Arabic)
• Mirror of the Darkest Night by Mahasweta Devi, translated by Shamya Dasgupta (Bengali)
• Invisible Planets: An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese SF in Translation, edited and translated by Ken Liu (Chinese)
• Beijing Comrades by Bei Tong, translated by Scott E. Myers (Chinese)
• The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar, translated by Anonymous (Farsi)
• Ru by Kim Thúy, translated by Sheila Fischman (French)
• Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanza Mujila, translated by Roland Glasser (French)
• Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye, translated by John Fletcher (French)
• Last Night in Nuuk by Niviaq Korneliussen, translated by Anna Halager (Greenlandic/Danish)
• Beauty Is a Wound by Eka Kurniawan, translated by Annie Tucker (Indonesian)
• Beyond Babylon by Igiaba Scego, translated by Aaron Robertson (Italian)
• Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo, translated by Jamie Chang (Korean)
• Your Republic is Calling You by Young-Ha Kim, translated by Chi-Young Kim (Korean)
• The Lonesome Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya, translated by Asa Yoneda (Japanese)
• Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag, translated by Srinath Perur (Kannada)
• The Sun on My Head by Geovani Martins, translated by Julia Sanches (Portugese)
• Good Morning Comrades by Ondjaki, translated by Stephen Henighan (Portugese)
• Time Commences in Xibalbá by Luis de Lión, translated by Nathan C. Henne (Spanish)
• La Bastarda by Trifonia Melibea Obono, translated by Lawrence Schimel (Spanish)
• Poonachi: Or the Story of a Black Goat by Perumal Murugan, translated by N. Kalyan Raman (Tamil)
• Doomi Golo: The Hidden Notebooks by Boubacar Boris Diop, translated by Vera Wülfing-Leckie and El Hadji Moustapha Diop (Wolof/French)

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 Twitter or Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, January 5th we’ll be discussing the genre of Sociology!

Then on Tuesday, January 19th we’ll be talking about our Reading Resolutions for 2021!