Book Club for Masochists: a Readers’ Advisory Podcast

This episode we’re talking about our Favourite Reads of 2022! (Some of them were even published in 2022!) We discuss our favourite things we read for the podcast and our favourite things we read not for the podcast. Plus: Many more things we enjoyed this year, including video games, manga, graphic novels, food, and more!

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

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jam Edwards

Favourite Fiction

• For the podcast
  • Anna
    • Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enríquez, translated by Megan McDowell, narrated by Tanya Eby
      • Episode 158 - Audiobook Fiction
  • Jam
    • Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg
      • Episode 160: Biographical Fiction & Fictional Biographies
  • Matthew
    • Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori, narrated by Nancy Wu
      • Episode 158 - Audiobook Fiction
  • Meghan
    • Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman, translated by Robert Chandler and Elizabeth Chandler
      • Episode 164 - Military Fiction
• Not for the podcast
  • Jam
    • Thirsty Mermaids by Kat Leyh
      • Episode 147 - Contemporary Fantasy
  • Matthew
    • Semiosis by Sue Burke
  • Meghan
    • Black Helicopters by Caitlín R. Kiernan
  • Anna
    • The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa, translated by Philip Gabriel

Favourite Non-Fiction

• For the podcast
  • Matthew
    • Soviet Metro Stations by Christopher Herwig and Owen Hatherley
      • Episode 141 - Architecture Non-Fiction
  • Meghan
    • The Last Stargazers: The Enduring Story of Astronomy's Vanishing Explorers by Emily Levesque
      • Episode 149 - Astronomy & Space
  • Anna
    • Unholy: How White Christian Nationalists Powered the Trump Presidency, and the Devastating Legacy They Left Behind by Sarah Posner
      • Episode 162 - Investigative Journalism
  • Jam
    • Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century by Charles King
      • Episode 145 - Anthropology Non-Fiction
• Not for the podcast
  • Meghan
    • Fashion Is Spinach: How to Beat the Fashion Racket by Elizabeth Hawes
  • Anna
    • Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories that Make Us by Rachel Aviv
  • Jam
    • Into the Minds of Babes: How Screen Time Affects Children From Birth to Age Five by Lisa Guernsey
  • Matthew
    • X-Gender, vol. 1 by Asuka Miyazaki, translated by Kathryn Henzler, adapted by Cae Hawksmoor

Other Favourite Things of 2022

• Anna
  • Tasting History with Max Miller
    • Debunking the Myths of Leonardo da Vinci
• Jam
  • Dirty Laundry/“Garbage Tuesday”
    • French tacos (Wikipedia)
• Matthew
  • Unpacking
• Meghan
  • Favourite manga: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, vol. 1 by Sumito Oowara, translated by Kumar Sivasubramanian

Runner-Ups

• Anna
  • Video Games:
    • Crashlands
    • Wobbledogs
  • YouTube:
    • Ryan Hollinger (horror movie reviews)
  • Podcasts: 
    • American Hysteria
    • Maintenance Phase
    • You Are Good
  • Other (Audio)Books:
    • Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach
    • Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age by Annalee Newitz
    • Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf (Wikipedia)
    • Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland by Jonathan M. Metzl
    • Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
    • The Invisible Kingdom by Patrick Radden Keefe
    • Off the Edge: Flat Earthers, Conspiracy Culture, and Why People Will Believe Anything by Kelly Weill
    • I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara
• Jam
  • Favourite classic: 
    • The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
      • Episode 151 - Classics
  • Favourite manga: 
    • Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama, translated by Stephen Kohler (Wikipedia) 
  • Favourite Album: 
    • Laurel Hell by Mitski (Wikipedia)
      • Working for the Knife (YouTube)
  • Favourite AAA video game: 
    • Pokemon Legends: Arceus (Wikipedia)
  • Favourite indie video game: 
    • Wytchwood
  • Favourite Wordle spin-off: 
    • Worldle
• Matthew
  • Video game:
    • Hyper Light Drifter
  • Manga
    • Dai Dark by Q Hayashida, translated by Daniel Komen
    • My Dress Up Darling by Shinichi Fukuda, translated by  Taylor Engel
    • Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun by Izumi Tsubaki, translated by Leighann Harvey
    • Descending Stories by Haruko Kumota, translated by Matt Treyvaud
    • Yotsuba&! by Kiyohiko Azuma, translated by Amy Forsyth
    • Biomega, vol. 1 (just the first volume really, it does not stick the landing) by Tsutomu Nihei, translated by John Werry
    • Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service by Eiji Otsuka and Housui Yamazaki, translated by Toshifumi Yoshida
    • Disappearance Diary by Hideo Azuma, translated by Kumar Sivasubramanian and Elizabeth Tiernan
  • Graphic novels:
    • Beetle and Hollowbones by Aliza Layne
    • A Gift for a Ghost by Borja González, translated by Lee Douglas
    • Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels by Scott McCloud
  • Books
    • Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
• Meghan
  • Favourite new-to-me author:
    • Zviane
  • Favourite work of translation:
    • The Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate, translated by David Bowles
  • Podcast non-fiction runner up: 
    • Raw Concrete: The Beauty of Brutalism by Barnabas Calder
  • Podcast fiction runner up:
    • Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
  • Non-fiction
    • The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute by Zac Bissonnette
    • Sum It Up: 1,098 Victories, a Couple of Irrelevant Losses, and a Life in Perspective by Pat Summitt and Sally Jenkins
    • Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash by Eka Kurniawan, translated by Annie Tucker
  • Runner up graphic novels:
    • Himawari House by Harmony Becker
    • Taproot by Keezy Young
    • Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto and Ann Xu
    • Sunny Sunny Ann! by Miki Yamamoto, translated by Aurélien Estager (French)
    • L'homme qui marche by Jirō Taniguchi, translated by Martine Segard (French, available in English as The Walking Man)
    • Something Is Killing the Children by James Tynion IV and Werther Dell'Edera 
    • Le petit astronaute by Jean-Paul Eid (French)
    • Tony Chu détective cannibale by John Layman with Rob Guillory (French, available in English as Chew)
    • Radium Girls by Cy. (French)
    • Queen en BD by Emmanuel Marie and Sophie Blitman (French)
    • Memento mori by Tiitu Takalo (French)
    • Enferme-moi si tu peux by Anne-Caroline Pandolfo and Terkel Risbjerg (French)

Links, Articles, Media, and Things

• Episode 140 - Favourite Reads of 2021
• Episode 142 - Sequels and 2022: The Year of Book Two
• ChatGPT (Wikipedia)
• There no longer appears to be an easy way to find images sent through Google Chat anymore, so no screenshots of fake podcast co-hosts discussing reptile fiction. Sorry!
• I Am a Cat by Natsume Sōseki (Wikipedia)
• Brian David Gilbert - The Perfect PokéRap

24 Travel Non-Fiction Books by BIPOC 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.

• America in an Arab Mirror: Images of America in Arabic Travel Literature by Kamal Abdel-Malek
• Meeting Faith: The Forest Journals of a Black Buddhist Nun by Faith Adiele
• Due North: A Collection of Travel Observations, Reflections, And Snapshots Across Colors, Cultures and Continents by Lola Akinmade Åkerström
• All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes by Maya Angelou
• The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches by Matsuo Bashō, translated by Nobuyuki Yuasa
• The Travels of Ibn Battutah by Ibn Battuta
• Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana by Stephanie Elizondo Griest
• A Stranger in the Village: Two Centuries of African-American Travel Writing edited by Farah Jasmine Griffin & Cheryl J. Fish
• I Wonder as I Wander: An Autobiographical Journey by Langston Hughes
• Red Dust: A Path Through China by Ma Jian, translated by Flora Drew
• A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
• An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie
• Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon
• Buttermilk Graffiti: A Chef’s Journey to Discover America’s New Melting-Pot Cuisine by Edward Lee
• The Adventure Gap: Changing the Face of the Outdoors by James Edward Mills
• The Middle Passage by V.S. Naipaul
• Travelling While Black: Essays Inspired by a Life on the Move by Nanjala Nyabola
• Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam by Andrew X. Pham
• An Indian Among los Indígenas: A Native Travel Memoir by Ursula Pike
• Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria by Noo Saro-Wiwa
• From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet by Vikram Seth
• Ten Thousand Miles Without a Cloud by Sun Shuyun
• Richard Wright's Travel Writings: New Reflections by Virginia Whatley Smith
• Kinky Gazpacho: Life, Love & Spain by Lori L. Tharps

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Join us again on Tuesday, January 3rd we’ll be talking about Sports non-fiction!

Then on Tuesday, January 17rd we’ll be discussing our 2023 Reading Resolutions!