Episode 068 – Best of 2018

It’s our Best of 2018 episode! Of course, these are not necessarily the best things published in 2018, but instead the best things we read for the podcast (including everything from Family Sagas to Nature/Outdoors Non-Fiction) and the best we read of everything else. Join us for our #libfaves18!

[Sorry this is a bit late coming out, Matthew had a terrible bout of food poisoning.]

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

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards

Favourite books read for the podcast

• Fiction
• • Meghan: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (Episode 045 – Family Sagas)
  • Anna: Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell (Episode 049 – Southern Gothic)
  • Matthew: Romeo and/or Juliet by Ryan North (Episode 053 – Comedic Science Fiction & Fantasy)
  • RJ: Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede (Episode 053 – Comedic Science Fiction & Fantasy)
• Non-Fiction:
• • Anna: This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America by Morgan Jerkins (Episode 051 – Essay Collections)
  • Matthew: Manga in Theory and Practice: The Craft of Creating Manga by Hirohiko Araki (Episode 047 – Creative Writing/Books About Writing)
  • RJ: Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley (Episode 059 – Food and Cooking)
  • Meghan: My Conversations with Canadians by Lee Maracle (Episode 051 – Essay Collections)

Favourite books we read not for the podcast

• Fiction
• • Matthew: Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
  • RJ: Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
  • Meghan: The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
  • Anna: Jørn Lier Horst (Anna talked about his book The Caveman for Episode 057 – Nordic/Scandinavian Noir)
  • • Here’s Jørn Lier Horst’s tweet about us!
• Non-Fiction:
• • RJ:  Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis
  • Meghan: The Flaneur: A Stroll through the Paradoxes of Paris by Edmund White
  • Anna: Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World by Mark Pendergrast
  • Matthew: Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall by Tim Mohr
• Other
• • Meghan: The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O’Neill
  • Matthew: Last of the Sandwalkers by Jay Hosler
  • • Matthew talked about this one in Episode 062 – French and Dinosaurs and Beetles and Cereal
  • RJ: “Revenant” from Invasions by Calvin Gimpelevich
  • Anna:
  • • Woman World by Aminder Dhaliwal
    • E-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning by Ruth C. Clark and Richard E. Mayer

Runner ups (not necessarily mentioned in the podcast)

Meghan:

• Non-Fiction
• • Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks by Annie Spence
  • War’s Unwomanly Face by Svetlana Alexievich
  • The Pursuit of Endurance: Harnessing the Record-Breaking Power of Strength and Resilience by Jennifer Pharr Davis
  • The Little Book of Feminist Saints by Julia Pierpont and Manjit Thapp
  • What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen by Kate Fagan
• Sci Fi: Home by Nnedi Okorafor
• Romance: A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson
• Graphic Novel: Spinning by Tillie Walden
• Poetry: A Place Called No Homeland by Kai Cheng Thom
• Middle-grade/YA: The Agony of Bun O’Keefe by Heather Smith

Anna:

• My Neighbor Totoro

Matthew:

• Non-Fiction: How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveller by Ryan North
• Graphic Novels:
• • Persephone by Loïc Locatelli-Kournwsky (So good!)
  • About Betty’s Boob by Vero Cazot and  Julie Rocheleau (Great!)
  • Erased, vol. 1 by Kei Sanbe
  • Frankenstein by Junji Ito
  • Fatherland by Nina Bunjevac
  • Ménage à 3, vol. 1 by Gisèle Lagacé and David Lumsdon (webcomic)
  • Gunnerkrigg Court, vol. 4-5 by Tom Siddell (webcomic)
  • Order of the Stick by Rich Burlew (webcomic)
  • Dimension W by Yuji Iwahara
  • Delicious in Dungeon by Ryoko Kui
  • Silver Spoon by Hiromu Arakawa
  • Dodo by Felipe Nunes

RJ

• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
• Crunch, the Shy Dinosaur by Cirocco Dunlap and  Greg Pizzoli
• The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Beats Up the Marvel Universe by Ryan North and Erica Henderson

Links, Articles, and Things

• Hark! Episode 146: Fuck Yes Dragon Tuesday
• JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure

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Join us again on Tuesday, January 15th we’ll be talking about Bizarro Fiction!

Then on Tuesday, February 5th we’ll be talking about Erotic Romance! (Just in time for Valentine’s Day!)