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abigailzimmer · 4 months

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Favorite Reads of 2023

As a reader, I think of myself as slow to turn toward fiction, but this year started off with stunning story after stunning story, thanks to writers like Emily St. John Mandel, Rivka Galchen, Amal El-Mohtar, and Max Gladstone. Miriam Toews' Fight Night made me weep on a train from Edinburgh to Glasgow; Josephine Tey's mysteries made me chuckle from Glasgow to Edinburgh. I wandered slowly but steadily with Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell throughout the year and I read Timothy Moore's short stories in one sitting and then started them over the next week. Grateful for these writers who move me in so many ways, and of course I have some poetry and nonfiction favorites!

1. Timothy Moore's exciting debut short story collection, I Will Teach You Retribution, is perfection. Its humor and absurdism and poignancy remind me a bit of George Saunders (CivilWarLand in Bad Decline), a bit of Aoka Matsuda (Where the Wild Ladies Are), and excitingly and obviously of Tim. If you aren't moved by the plight of a people-eating giant's quest for justice against himself, or a side character/ex-lover's desire to have her own transformative character arc, or a girl's use of social media to be popular, even though dead—or at least by the empathetic way Tim writes these characters and the wonderful crafting of his sentences—your heart may have stopped. An unexpected love-at-first-paragraph. Ten out of ten best use of exclamation points.

2. In Scared Violent Like Horses, John McCarthy writes about childhood in rural Illinois, absent parents, fistfights with friends, and flyover states, but mostly he writes of people in a way that sees their empathy and value. I read this while feeling a little lost and heartsick, and these poems wrapped around me and reminded me of what I love best. This is not to say that I saw my journey reflected back at me, but that lyric can offer the comfort of a song, that poetry lets you sit in a space of experience not answers, and that you can endure so much hardship and still emerge with tenderness. John’s writing is thoughtful and vivid, graceful and grace-giving. “But I’m not sure why we would expect dreams to make sense, when our waking lives so often fail to observe narrative convention,” he writes. And later: “No place is sad if you stay long enough.”

3. How to Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone is an abundantly written book, composed of letters between Red and Blue, two agents on opposite sides of a time war, one side more organic and one more tech-driven. It’s surprising and inventive in its world building and sweet on the act of letter writing. A love story that gushes to the beloved, overflowing without feeling cheesy. I read this on a beach in Mexico, against the bluest backdrop with the reddest sunrises.

“I want to tell you something about myself. Something true, or nothing at all.”

4. Emily St. John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility was satisfying and unexpected, even up to the last line. As in her other books, she weaves together stories of multiple characters, gently nudging them more and more into each other’s orbits as the book draws to a close. This book feels higher stakes or maybe has more imaginary elements than The Glass Hotel, which I thought was nice but forgettable—I prefer the bigger “what ifs” in my fiction. But her writing always feels like a gliding, with these lovely details that linger. Here, there's an untouched forest in Canada and a shabby moon colony with a river reflecting the darkness of space. A writer of post-apocalyptic fiction, now a mother and turned off her own ideas. (It’s interesting to hear from an author who wrote a wildly successful novel about a global pandemic, then lived through one, and wrote a second pandemic-related novel in which much happens very differently.) The question of simulation a backdrop, the difference between knowing something in the abstract and the experience of it, how we come to the knowledge we have and the gestures we know we must make. All of it so well done and a pleasure to read.

5. The overarching frame of On Dreams by Maureen Thorson is the author's diagnosis of a rare eye disease that causes blind spots and some of Aristotle's absurd theories, such as how a mirror turns red when a menstruating woman looks into it. From there, in essays composed of short, aphoristic lines, Thorson explores what is reality and truth, how we know what we know, the illusion we have of control, and why we turn to writing and narrative. It's funny and smart, weaving in notes from her broad reading, and poignant in the leaps and turns it takes from line to line.

6. Border Vista by Anni Liu is composed of these lovely memory poems—atmospheric. She writes about emigrating to the US while young and being separated from her dad and grandparents with uncertain status, about relationships and home and dreaming in her nonnative language. The poems read almost memoir-like, back to back. The settings simple: a walk in the woods or market, hearing a piece of news or sitting in a movie theater, with some startling insight dropped upon the reader, the reader unaware even that she was building toward something. The lines below have echoed in my head the whole year, naming a longing so ingrained I didn't even know it was there:

“Crossing a deer-shaped patch of earth, I come back to the edge of an ancient sadness of being just one thing”

7. I really enjoyed diving into the oeuvre of Josephine Tey this year, and in particular I don’t think I’ve read anything quite like her Daughter of Time, a unique take on both the histories and mysteries genres. Her Inspector Grant, laid up in a hospital and bored, takes on an academic investigation of the slander against Richard III, infamous for killing his two nephews—the Princes in the Tower—to remove any rivals to the throne. Despite the fact that Grant is initially driven into this mystery because Richard’s face just "looks" more like a judge’s than a criminal’s (classic Tey ridiculousness), Tey makes a compelling case for his innocence. Grant and his “looker-upper” (researcher) friend take a policeman’s approach to the unresolved mystery, looking at the whereabouts and motivations of the people involved instead of what they say, and keeping an eye out for any breaks in the patterns that suggest foul play. For a book whose main action is two men talking about historical accounts, it’s surprisingly gripping and convincing (although my own knowledge of British history is spottier than a spotted dick pudding!).

"Give me research. After all, the truth of anything at all doesn't lie in someone's account of it. It lies in all the small facts of the time. An advertisement in a paper. The sale of a house. The price of a ring."

8. When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen is a book that “wants to believe it’s always possible / to love bigger & madder” and a poet whose “job is to trick adults / into knowing they have / hearts.” There's so much unbounded joy in these poems, even when writing of the sadness of having sadness or of the painful rejection by his mom for being gay or by fellow Americans for being Chinese. He writes rooted in a strong sense of self, which means his poems overflow with brightness, humor, and triumph.

Some possibilities:

“I want to be the Anti-Sisyphus, in love / with repetition, in love, in love. Foolish repetition, / wise repetition. I want more hours. I want insomnia, I want / to replace the clock tick with tambourines.”

“I am … an elegy that has felt light, the early morning light falling / on your lovely someone’s / lovable bare feet as he walks across the wood floor to sit by the window”

“Let’s put our briefcases on our heads, in the sudden rain, // & continue meeting as if we’ve just been given our names.”

9. Serendipitously, I read Rivka Galchen’s Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch just after reading Maria Popova’s marvelous storytelling about Johannes Kepler’s defense of his mother’s witch trial in Figuring. It’s a fascinating story in that Kepler felt responsible for fueling the accusations against her due to an allegorical sci-fi story he wrote about moon people holding onto outdated beliefs despite evidence otherwise, and—small detail—the narrator got to the moon thanks to his magical mother. Kepler eventually cleared his mother’s name of charges and spent years annotating his own manuscript so that no one could misunderstand his intentions again.

Rivka’s book is a fictional telling more focused on the accused, Katherine Kepler, and reminded me of the narrative style of Miriam Toews' Woman Talking with a literate third party roped in to make a record and with the reader being told about the events conversationally vs. reading them. Around the same time, I watched the movie The Wonder (which has some tough tw content but was excellently done) which also resonates in theme, about the stories we believe and shape our lives around, and how the efficacy of religion and science is all wrapped up in story.

This was an excellent story based on fascinating history, and Rivka’s writing is both dryly funny (“A hummingbird once rested near my shoulder. It was a very ill omen. For one who isn't a flower.”) and thoughtful (“I had to say what was in my heart, which is knowledge.”).

10. I really enjoyed This Party's Dead, in which British journalist Erica Buist, to cope with her grief at the loss of her father-in-law-to-be, travels to seven death festivals around the world to learn how people in other cultures grieve.

“Whenever anyone suggests the dead are in attendance, gifts and sugar always seems to follow.”

The journey's question broadens from "how do we grapple with the reality of mortality" to the more meaningful exploration of "in what ways do we continue to have a relationship with 'our dead'"? Because we do have one, even if our culture doesn't know what to do with that relationship or provide us with outlets for remembering in community. (There's a lovely line in which someone refers to their ancestors as "my" dead.)

Some of the festivals she visits involve meals in graveyards, others take place when it's time to bury a body--sometimes months or even years after a death, and others involve exhuming bodies so that living family members can rewrap them or visit quite literally with their bones before reburying. As part of a western tradition that sees very little of and so fears dead bodies, Erica asks celebrants how they feel about the corpse of their loved one. She often assumes incorrectly a reason why something is done (perfume over the body not to hide the smell of decay for us but to show the loved one they are still cared for) and observes: “Time and again, I see fear [as a cause for a ritual] where there is only love.”

It's a moving book, written with humor and openness, and I'm very drawn to the rituals of communally remembering our dead. I wish we had something like this beyond a funeral to help us transition from having a living loved one to a dead loved one: a reason to come together often with food and sharing and to invite our dead back home, even if for a little while.

As one festival celebrant tells her, “We think about dead people all the time. We pray for all the ancestors, even the ones we don’t remember; we have a huge celebration for them every six months. They’re not lost.”

(Book buddies: Mexico's beaches and Scotland's train views.)

#endofyearlists #favorite books #2023 reads

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nyctarian · 4 months

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My Favorite Books I Read in 2023

(In a rare event this year I gave up on any kinda bad book so quickly that this is just a best list for once. As such i have just put the list in order of when i read the book. In addition to this specific list Here Are A Few Other posts about books from this year)

[These reviews are not spoiler free be warned!!!]

This list is as of yet incomplete!!! I have most of the books that will be on it listed, thought I did just go through everything I read this year and not just the ones I saved to an endofyearlist shelf as I finished them and found a few more that reasonably stuck with me enough to warrant a note on here. I have not added them yet! Also although I did say in the literal first paragraph that this is just a best list there were some books i saw as I went thru that were like, oh I wish those were better than they were they had such potential, so I may also add those at some other point

Trust by Hernan Diaz: Putting this list in order of when I read it means that the first one is the one that :) i may or may not have actually finished before the year ends :) [NOTE: I have not.] BUT it is good enough that i am Adding It Anyways! Trust is written as a series of excerpts from books about Benjamin and Helen Rask some 1920s rich people. The book manages to present the couple from a series of differing narratives (starting with an in-universe novel about a fictionalized version of the couple before going forward with the "non fiction" books about them, increasing the revelations as you go. This was one of the ones i went into before i engaged any online hype about it bc its cover caught my eye on the new arrivals shelf of the library i work at, and the actual premise was so intriguing i had to check it out. It took me as long to read bc I prefer to listen to nonfiction and this book manages to meat that tone so closely that i kept wanting to listen to the audiobook instead, but also this year i kept not being able to engage w audiobooks and podcasts so i didnt want to actually spend the money on buying it!

Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri: This another book that I read because I stumbled across it at the library I work at. I spent a lot of this year looking for things that were similar to my standout favorites from Last Year, specifically Cook, Pure Colour, and No One Is Talking About This, and this was one of the first ones that I pursued of that ilk that I really liked. The story is about a writer and how she is living and has lived her life. If you are looking for more plot or a character who is either nicer or nastier this probably isnt for you, but for a look into how a woman has lived her life, what she regrets and how she find hers joys, i thought it was really really engaging. Here are some of my GR progress updates as an indicator of how the experience of reading could be ehhhhh but also was still one of The Books Of The Year To Me

Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh: This is 2010s tumblrcore millennialbait. Once more, at the library I work at, I found this book. We did a display of our graphic novels collection and we had both the first book collecting the hyperbole and a half webcomics and this one. This was during a winter break period in january when the library was basically empty, so i basically just grabbed both books and, despite having read the original webcomic back in the day (and its ubiquity to this day in some memes) i had spent long enough away from the original material that they both managed to make me laugh a surprising amount. Only the second one is on here bc speaking of 'surprising amount' the first one had a surprising amount of times the R word was used, which while is Of Its Time having been published in the early 2010s, made me uncomfortable! it wasnt an egregious amount to make me not read the sequel, w the knowledge that the sequel was intended to be at times an emotionally heavier read and also was published in the 2020s, but i still wanted to note it here. my enjoyment of this book also was aided by the fact that i started it in january and finished it in april, just reading a bit at a time to get some laughs in. These reads also did spur me to checking out more of my libraries graphic novel collection, and then this plus my interest in reading more translated fiction lead to me giving more of a chance to misc mangas etc this year.

One Hundred Shadows by Hwang Jungeun: Hey everyone have I mentioned that One Hundred Shadows by Hwang Jungeun was the best book i read this year. Because this was the best book i read this year. This is a book about the romance between the two leads, with a background story of a fantastical magical realism plot, that is centered around modern gentrification and classism. It is all of those things in the quietest way possible. The central relationship is so much of the two characters spending time together and talking. The Magical realism is the occasional thrum of the idea of shadows rising. The discussion of gentrification and classism is the background worry about where they work being demolished. This is the best book I read this year. I spent the entire year the minute i finished this book desperately trying to find another book like it. This is the best book For Me this does everything i want a book to do and it does it in the best way possible. this book ruined my ability to read novels about romance because they were too Loud and could never meet this books high, quiet standards. [NOTE: I actually do not believe everyone should read this book because seeing bad takes about this book would make me insane. Only read this book if you are going to experience it the exact same way as me and have all my same thoughts and emotions!!!!]

Soft Science by Franny Choi: April is national poetry month, so my library did a display about it. I didn't read this because of seeing it in that display, but part of the display we did was us recommending short poems we liked, and one of mine was Choi's "We Used Our Words We Used What Words We Had" which lead to me realizing I had never read any Franny Choi poetry collection in full despite already liking a number of her poems, so I read several poetry collections and this one was my favorite. Bodies and Technologies and the ways they are and are not the same things and are at odds with each other and in conversation with and an aid to each other was a theme i was interested in this year in a specifically poetic way so this book was perfect for that

Mona by Pola Oloixarac: I was able to enjoy this bc i have been terminally online twitterbrained in a leftist internetsphere way for a while now. As I note in the attached goodreads progress updates my first real Thought about the book was to compare it to "Nobody Is Talking About This" which was one of my best books i read last year and also a book that i found Very Very Very Frustrating for much of the time i was reading, and also was in conversation with terminally online stuff in a way that didnt always work but still managed to feel Of The Moment in a way that wouldnt be (too horribly) outdated in the future. Mona is about author and professor Mona, a peruvian author who frequently reflects on what it means for her to be a Woman Of Color working in an american college system, with much of the plot focusing on her leaving the country (and also leaving her responsibilities and the expectations people have of her and the violence that just happened to her behind) as she is nominated for a Very Prestigious Literary Award, as she mingles with other international authors. I hated large chunks of this novel, it frequently had discussions of sex that i found frustrating to read because of the verbiage used, the ending was jarring and it was inarguably one of the best books i read this year. The juxtaposition of the frequent flashbacks to the main character's recent experience with sexual assault and intimate partner violence which she is only vaguely aware of happening. Despite being very different books i found the way this book ended and the way Piranesi (next on this list as i finished them at the same time) ended to be similarly frustrating but understandable.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke: Ok i found the ending frustrating BUT the incredible prose and the amazing descriptors made the journey to get there good enough that i was okay with it. I spent a very long time working on reading piranesi. Sometimes when i want to finish a book but know that i probably won't i do a trick where i read the book backwards. i go to the last chapter and then i read it, and then i go to the next to last chapter and read that one, and i do that until i either can go back and continue from where i left off at the start of the book, or until i just join up with that part and have finished the novel by making it to the middle. I ended up doing that with piranesi and let me tell you it was confusing! and as someone who semiregularly (a time or two a year at most) i know its my fault for doing it but it isnt normally THAT confusing. The book was still very good. The ending (spoiler) jolts what i had assuming to be a straightforward fantasy into the real world in the same way that Mona's ending seemingly thrust that book into a fantastical narrative when it had been a more straightforward contemporary novel before then. Reading these books at the same time made me think about those choices a lot! Oh the plot of this book is that its about a man and the magic house he lives in. It was beautifully written and that was more important than the plot, which wasnt BAD persay, but i liked Mona better.

Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda: This was a book about vampires that was actually about food culture gender family and being mixed race. The book was one that as I was reading it I knew it was going to be on this list. At times the womanhood aspects were a little Too universalizing for a story that otherwise was really good about centering its main character as a singular figure moving through the world. Genuinely incredibly well written prose, and the way it reaches its climax was really excellent.

Inheritance by Taylor Johnson: Another book of poetry that I found incredibly striking. Another book that I found by happenstance in the library I work in. I read it long enough ago now I can't really describe it but multiple of the poems stuck with me enough to repost here. Never one note or repetitive while still having a tonal and narrative consistency tying it all together.

Fever Dream by Samantha Schweblin: I didnt like that in the end this became somewhat of a standards "those strange creepy kids are strange and creepy and evil innit" type story bc of how genuinely strange and captivating the narrative was for most of the book. It was a little bit of a let down but despite that it was Still Excellent. The whole time I was reading it it was a very anticipatory experience letting the story unfold, even if I found the conclusion somewhat lackluster it made me want to read more from the author.

Mr. Salary by Sally Rooney: I never finished Normal People but i found this weird novella interesting. Just this side of safe from being problematic with a very intentionally smash cut-y conclusion of the story. It was very interpersonal and character oriented without going too unnecessarily deep or staying too safely shallow. If it was longer or more detailed it probably wouldnt make the list. That's all i really can say about it.

Heaven Official's Blessing by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù: This series. hmm. how to explain my mental illness. This was the only thing i got as insane about as i did one hundred shadows, but because this was an 8 volume/1400 page light novel with a thriving fandom, my mental illness was encouraged more than with one hundred shadows. It was a little up and down with the beginning being a little slow to start, and the flashback arcs being a little drudgery-y, but whenever xie lian and hua cheng got to have chemistry together it was a homerun, and the fact that the story was basically a mystery series with an overarching big bad villain but in a world inspired by chinese mythology made it great. It wasn't my only light novel this year (after checking out some of the guardian cdrama i started reading the fanslation for that which was my first light novel this year but the fanslation is imperfect so im still working on it s l o w l y) but it was my favorite that i read and my other favorite of the year with one hundred shadows. If one hundred shadows was my like, litfic Genuinely Good Book fave than tgcf was my lightreading Genuinely Fun Book fave. Someone should write a tgcf!au of one hundred shadows and a ohs!au of tian guan ci fu just for me.

Temporary by Hilary Leichter: This was a weird one! The narrative structure of the sort of work drudgery surrealism is something that both kind of bores me a lot but I find endlessly fascinating when done well. This one at times edged too close to the sillier end of things but was grounded enough to be very enjoyable. The end of it hit somewhat similar to Pure Colour in a way I wasn't expecting, but I found the strange worldbuilding very enjoyable, even if narratively it never quite seemed to do what I want a book to do.

Manga Catchall: As noted above, I did read some manga this year but most of them had some substantial flaw enough to not make the list. Of specific note I would say Yubisaki to Renren (volume three being my favorite volume of the not-yet-completed series which is why its specifically the one in the cuspies screenshot) as the most well-rounded highlight, and the incomplete series I am most excited for more volumes of. The other manga in the screenshot was either stupid fun but very flawed or almost very good with one or two big "oh come on's," especially in regards to either tonally inconsistent cringe or unnecessary (for me) graphic content. The only one that I didn't finish reading the (available) volumes of was boys run the riot which i stalled out in the middle of vol 2 for being just a little too YA for me not for any other real reason, but it had diverse rep and is something I could see being important to a younger queer reader. The cat proposed could have been really excellent, which it was for most of the story, and then inexplicably the epilogue was like about 3r3ctile dysfunction? which kinda affected the whole thing. Semantic error i read because i broadly enjoyed the drama even if it was flawed but the manhwa was hmmm kinda insane and wayyyy toooo hot and cold unnecessary conflict-y. Very much the "you too are insane but just dont involve anyone else in your shit and youll be fine" meme. Fangs was an interesting plot intriguing worldbuilding good slowburn(ish) romance but uhh more graphic than expected and the plot really kicked off at the very end of the 2nd volume..of 2 published so far lol. I Married My.... was fine but the chemistry wasnt really there as much as it should be even as a friend thing, but the main characters sort of internal monologue about what is my place in the world was good. Sasaki to miyano was good chemistry but a kind of silly main plot for how they orbit into each others lives, but the characters are an enjoyable enough bunch and it was an easy read. something that i think will be better as a sit down and finish in a row once the series is completed.

Other Cuspies Of Note: Something New was an enjoyable read I previously read the authors other book Relish which I think was better but this one was also good. The author is friends with and mentions in the book ojst!erika who is like a noted insane problematique weirdo lol. Scholomance as with many novik books I had a lot of issues with and didnt enjoy the whole time but she is good at writing a main character of a really strong personality and interesting magic systems. As of right now ive stalled out early into the second book and likely will dnf instead of getting to the third, so my critique as with many fantasy series is "wish it was a standalone" lol. There were some side characters of note in this first book w/openended endings who i checked the other books and they dont really get mentioned again which was a bummer lol. Portrait of a thief I started last year and finished by reading backwards around the same time as piranesi. I enjoyed the writing and that the characters had distinct pov's but I wish the heist had been centered more somehow? and the character conflicts a little less rote although I did broadly enjoy the characters themselves. mainly it made me excited to check out the authors next (as of yet unreleased) book. One Good man was a novella I was interested in reading for ages and if it was longer than a novella I likely wouldnt have enjoyed it as the romance was a little too hot and cold and the characters a little unncessarily dumb at times but it was pretty good, and while ambitious in its setting of vietnam era france it largely managed to hit the right mark for me.

ok its jan 21 2023 im prob not gonna finish this rn!!! but here are the cuspies that could have made the list + the mangas/manhwa that could have made it (if its a volume of a manga it just is a catchall for the series) (eta: 2/6/24 I did end up baaaaaasically finishing the unwritten entries but am leaving the screenshots for clarity as i mentioned them in some of my reviews.)

and while i didnt have a worst of here are the disappointments that i had high hopes for that range from i dnf'd bc it was bad to disappointing whole to store to stumbled at the ending

#personal #bookblogging #book recs #2023 #i saw today (2/6/24) that ytr had an animated adaptation so i finally filled this out more to note i read it before learning about that #i think this is about as finished as its gonna get!

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vinniedangerous · 1 year

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New episode of The #1430Podcast out now on YouTube (link in bio)

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#comment #endofyear #bestof2022 #endofyearlists #besthiphopoftheyear #jid #kendricklamar #freddiegibbs #blackthought #westsideboogie #absoul #denzelcurry #nas #pushat #smino

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thzmttkk · 3 years

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FAVOURITES 2020

Long list of this years favourites. Spotify playlist via this link here. Buy Music Club link for albums here. Special mention to Sferic, Experiences Ltd, Youth, Motion Ward, West Mineral, and XPQ? who pushed nothing but cool stuff this year. Same for an unstoppable flow of spaced out mixes by Perila, Pontiac Streator, Special Guest DJ, Ben Bondy, Exael, Aeriform, J, JS, mdo etc. Too many to list them all really. Most listened albums (a-z) buymusic.club link Actress - 88 ( Self Released ) ASC - Isolated Systems ( Samurai Music ) Civilistjävel! - Generalstrejk ( Low Company ) CS + Kreme - Snoopy ( The Trilogy Tapes ) DJ Python - Mas Amable ( Incienso ) DVS1 - Beta Sensory Motor Rhythm ( Axis ) Israel Vines - And Now We Know Nothing ( Interdimensional Transmissions ) Jake Muir - The Hum Of Your Veiled Voice ( Sferic ) K-Lone - Cape Cira ( Wisdom Teeth ) Koraal - La Casa del Volcán ( Nous’klaer Audio ) LF58 - Alterazione ( Astral Industries ) Move D & Benjamin Brunn - Let's Call It A Day ( Smallville ) Perko - City Rings ( Numbers ) Piezo - Perdu ( Hundebiss ) Pontiac Streator - Triz ( Motion Ward ) Regis - Hidden In This Is The Light That You Miss ( Downwards ) Romeo Poerier - Hotel Nota ( Sferic ) Sockethead - Harj-o-Marj ( Youth ) Soft Boi - So Nice ( Climate Of Fear ) Terrence Dixon - From The Far Future Pt. 3 ( Tresor ) Tolouse Low Trax - Jumping Dead Leafs ( Bureau B ) Ulla - Tumbling Towards A Wall ( Experiences Ltd. ) URA - Blue ( NAFF ) Favourite mixes (a-z) Agonis - INVEINS \ Podcast \ 061 link Bake with Lewis Lowe (Redstone Press) - 30 November 2020 link Bake with Wonja - 28 September 2020 link dBridge - Essential Mix 2020-02-01 link Dino Sabatini - Global Vibe Radio 227 link Erika - vurt podcast 23 link F-on - Alpenglühen #54 link Forest Drive West - Bleep Mix #131 link Garçon - Dekmantel Podcast 284 link Garçon - MNMT 277 link GiGi FM Presents Azu Tiwaline NTS 11/11/20 link Jane Fitz - isolatedmix 97 We Fall Into The Sun link Joe Ellis - Phonons Podcast 065 link Jon K - Cav Empt /// TTT TOKYO Tape link Joy Orbison - wooly window sessions part wun - UKG 4/4 +++ link Karl Meier - The Bunker Podcast 211 link Konduku - The Memoir — Page 46 link Lcp - Blowing Up The Workshop 111 ◆ re:st link Lemna - MNMT Recordings: Lemna (live) — Contact Tokyo link mad miran - a message of manifestation, from the music room link mad miran - clone records x radio radio x ade link mdo - Knekelhuis 63 link Milo Bragg - Campfire Stories 79 (A New Dawn) link Milo Bragg - Club Rooted #1 link Nadia Khan - RA.710 Nadia Khan link Objekt - Essential Mix 2020-06-06 link Patrick Russell - IT.podcast.s09e01: No Way Back Streaming link Patrick Russell - Patterns of Perception 76 link Pessimist And That w/ DJ Python - Noods Radio - EPISODE 9 link Spekki Webu - RA.714 link Toki Fuko - Oslated Mix Episode 205 - Toki Fuko link upsammy - Bleep Mix #122 link Vlada - RA.742 link Woody92 - Patterns of Perception 68 link

Favourite tracks longlist (a-z) playlist Al Wootton - Snake Dance ( Livity Sound ) Andria - Komina ( Phase Group ) Archivist - Cinder Cone (Patrick Russel Remix) ( Second Nature ) Artefakt - Delphic ( Delsin Records ) ASC - Lost to the Void ( Samurai Music ) ASC - Orchid ( Samurai Music ) Azu Tiwaline - Terremer ( Livity Sound ) Batu - SYX ( Timedance ) Ben Bondy - Bodi ( Experiences Ltd. ) Ben Bondy - Lith ( Experiences Ltd. ) Black Merlin - MIEA ( Bitta ) Blâme - Bells ( [Re]Sources ) Blazer SoundSystem - Heavens Gate ( Youth ) BNJMN, rRoxymore - Atoms Speak - rRoxymore Remix ( Delsin Records ) Cio D’Or - Celestial ( Semantica ) Civilistjävel! - Generalstrejk ( Low Company ) Clarity - Taking Effect ( UVB76 ) CS + Kreme - Slug ( The Trilogy Tapes ) CS + Kreme - Blue Flu ( The Trilogy Tapes ) CUB - Dream Logic ( Osiris Music ) D.K. - The Three Realms ( Good Morning Tapes ) DB1 - Point Three ( Nullpunkt ) DJ Python - Alejandro ( Incienso ) DJ Python - oooophi ( Incienso ) DJ Python, LA Warman - ADMSDP ( Incienso ) Don't DJ, Harmonious Thelonious - Hambi ( Midnight Shift ) Donato Dozzy - Mai ( Samurai Music ) DVS1 - Drifting ( Axis ) DVS1 - The Five Aggregates ( Axis ) DYL, DB1 - ECOU #2 ( re:st ) DYL, DB1 - ECOU #12 ( re:st ) E-Unity - Not for Me ( TemeT Music ) Eszaid - The Most Sacred Syllable ( Good Morning Tapes ) Felix K - Deconstructor ( Nullpunkt ) Feral - Crossing ( Hypnus ) Flora Yin-Wong - Aurochs ( Modern Love ) Forest Drive West - Terminus ( R&S ) Forest Drive West - Hidden Past ( Mantis ) Franck Vigroux - Styx ( Raster ) Gavsborg - Making Love To Volca ( Equiknoxx Music ) Gavsborg, Shanique Marie - Earth & Clan ( Equiknoxx Music ) Grimescapes - Emergence ( Youth ) Haedong Seoungguk, D.K. - Daegeum Dosa (D.K. Huru Mix) ( Total Unity ) Henzo - Not Like That, Not Like You ( Worldwide Unlimited ) Higher Intelligence Agency - Sound Matter ( Headphone ) INTe*ra - Aqueduct B1 ( Acting Press ) Israel Vines - Tri Polar ( Interdimensional Transmissions ) Israel Vines - Path Correction ( Interdimensional Transmissions ) Jabu, Daniela Dyson - Slow Down ( Do You Have Peace? ) Jake Muir - Resevoir Of Memory ( Sferic ) Jake Muir - Fleeting Touches ( Sferic ) K-Lone - In The Pines ( Wisdom Teeth ) K-Lone - Bluefin ( Wisdom Teeth ) K-Lone - Honey ( Wisdom Teeth ) Karenn - On Request ( Voam ) KGIV - Blue Octavo ( Eye Teeth ) Konduku - Fallout ( IDO ) Konduku - Cipres ( Mantis ) Konduku - Şeker ( Disk ) Koraal - La Casa del Volcán 7 ( Nous’klaer Audio ) Koraal - La Casa del Volcán 9 ( Nous’klaer Audio ) Kӣr - Topot ( Disk ) Lack - RRRush ( Livity Sound ) Laksa - Fire Kit ( Hessle Audio ) Last Life - Escape ( Samurai Music ) LF58 - Metamorfosi ( Astral Industries ) Ligovskoï - Emeyo ( IDO ) Lo Kindre - Grey Skies (i) ( Phase Group ) LOG - LOG 4 ( Experiences Ltd. ) Low Budget Aliens - HOME SICK! ( XPQ? ) Lurka - Rhythm Hi-Tek ( Timedance ) Lurka - Clean ( Don’t Be Afraid ) Maayan Nidam - Untitled B2 ( Hellium ) Marco Shuttle - Ritmo Elegante ( Spazio Disponibile ) Meetsysteem - Je Wist Het Al ( Nous’klaer Audio ) Mike Parker - The Melting Mask ( Spazio Disponibile ) Monolake - Beirut ( Morphine ) Monolake - Espace Fourier ( Monolake ) Move D, Benjamin Brunn - C-Sick ( Smallville ) Nathan Melja, Pariah - Synesthesia - Pariah Remix ( Kalahari Oyster Cult ) natural/electronic.system. - Scirocco ( Tikita ) natural/electronic.system. - Marea ( Mantis ) NRLSD - Marching Band ( Man Band ) øjeRum - Prelude To The Immortality Of Nothing ( Opal Tapes ) OL - Block24 ( ГОСТ ИНСТРУМЕНТ ) Pan Sonic, Muslimgauze - Muslimgauze - Remix 2 ( Sahko ) Pearson Sound - Alien Mode ( Hessle Audio ) Perko - Stutter ( Numbers ) Perko - Pippin ( Numbers ) Pessimist - Love In The Jungle ( Ilian Tape ) Piezo - Blue Light Mama Magic ( Hundebiss ) Piezo - Amore Tossi ( Hundebiss ) Pontiac Streator - Triz Cohors Pt. 3 ( Motion Ward ) Pontiac Streator - Stuck In A Cave ( Motion Ward ) Primal Code - Elixir ( Hypnus ) RDS - Aro ( De Lichting ) Regis - The Sun Rose Pure ( Downwards ) Regis - Everything is Ahead of Us ( Downwards ) Regis - Eros in Tangiers ( Downwards ) Relapse - Two Worlds Colliding … ( Pinecone Moonshine ) Robin Stewart - Not Buoyant ( The Trilogy Tapes ) Roméo Poirier - Le bématiste ( Sferic ) Roméo Poirier - Du rocher ( Sferic ) Shed - Try ( Tectonic ) Significant Other - Little Blue Pills ( Oscilla Sound ) Simo Cell, Abdullah Miniawy - Caged in Aly's Body ( BFDM ) Skee Mask - Zzodiac ( Ilian Tape ) Sockethead - Love Loss Missing Yearning ( Youth ) Sockethead - In Search Of Truth ( Youth ) Sockethead - Jahiliyyah ( Youth ) Soft Boi - Something to Say ( Climate Of Fear ) Soft Boi - Guestlist ( Climate Of Fear ) Stave, Grebenstein - Rack 4 ( Standards & Practices ) Surgeon - The Golden Sea ( Ilian Tape ) SW. - theMARTIANswing ( Avenue 66 ) Tammo Hesselink - Ballet Mécanique ( Nous’klaer Audio ) Terrence Dixon - Unconditional Love ( Tresor ) Terrence Dixon - Program Weight ( Tresor ) Terrence Dixon - Earth Station ( Tresor ) The Untouchables - Pon A Dread ( Rupture London ) Tolouse Low Trax - Dawn Is Temporal ( Bureau B ) Tolouse Low Trax - Inverted Sea ( Bureau B ) Tolouse Low Trax - Berrytone Souvenier ( Bureau B ) Toma Kami - Gymnase Chaos ( Man Band ) Two Shell - Fracture ( Mainframe Audio ) Ulla - Leaves and Wish ( Experiences Ltd. ) Ulla - Feeling Remembering ( Experiences Ltd. ) Ulla - Soak ( Experiences Ltd. ) upsammy - Send-Zen ( Dekmantel ) URA - Dirge ( NAFF ) URA - Shojin ( NAFF ) Varuna - Ratu ( Mantis ) VC-118A - Plonk ( Delsin Records ) Via Maris - Lapse ( Timedance ) Wang Inc. - Gommone ( Random Numbers ) Waon-P - BRF dante2infelno - donfellianoeverythingmix ( The Trilogy Tapes ) Web - Ancient Wind ( Acido ) Yogg, Pharaoh, CUB - The Neverending Gever (CUB Version) ( Parallax ) YPY - Garando ( Acido )

#EOYList #eoy #endofyearlist #best of 2020 #bestof20

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helixcb · 3 years

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Top 3 Social Distancing Lines of 2020!!! 1. Marquess Road, Islington 📐 2. King Henry’s Walk, Hackney 🐾🐾 3. Red Post Hill, Dulwich ➡️👣⬅️ #socialdistancing #endofyearlist #toplists2020 https://www.instagram.com/p/CJMYZHRnyZr/?igshid=iv7ykztvse72

#socialdistancing #endofyearlist #toplists2020

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thecompanykc · 4 years

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Calling it. @toolmusic @cchelseawwolfe @blackwaterholylight @kinggizzard @monolordofficial @lingua_ignota @fullofhell @russiancircles @lumeband @rezzzn #top9of2019 #bestalbums #list #favoritealbums #endofyearlist #fearinoculum (at The Company) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5dhZLqJioL/?igshid=1qp221lrzzwl6

#top9of2019 #bestalbums #list #favoritealbums #endofyearlist #fearinoculum

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g-castel · 3 years

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R&B's Best Albums of 2020

Greg's R&B's Best Albums of 2020 – #endofyearlists #rnb #2020music #musiccritic

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#2020 R&B Greg Castel #Brent Faiyaz #PARTYNEXTDOOR #Summer Walker

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at-panic-station · 4 years

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Top 10 favorite songs of 2019 • • • • • • • #nickcaveandthebadseeds #thesoftcavalry #theraconteurs #thenational #rammstein #karenoanddangermouse #kareno #dangermouse #sleaterkinney #fidlar #angelolsen #samsmith #music #music2019 #2019 #endofyearlist #musiclist https://www.instagram.com/p/B6G53C4hqci/?igshid=1tuy8203r43ye

#nickcaveandthebadseeds #thesoftcavalry #theraconteurs #thenational #rammstein #karenoanddangermouse #kareno #dangermouse #sleaterkinney #fidlar #angelolsen #samsmith #music #music2019 #2019 #endofyearlist #musiclist

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giftedkids · 5 years

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Best Books We Read in 2018

Best Books the Questing Child Read in 2018 #bookreviews #endofyearlist #picturebooks #yalit

Not all of these titles were published in 2018 (some were), but we found them and loved them all the same. Here are our favorite books this year:

Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Every Day by Clemency Burton-Hill

Although this is not a young adult or picture book, it still tops the list. This beautiful day-by-day investigation into the subtle brilliance of classical music is a must-have for…

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#2018 #Bibliotherapy #book reviews #books #end of year list #fiction #middle grades #picture books #readers advisory #young adult

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outreachnerd · 7 years

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"Lost Beloveds - Part 1" There’s no need to rehash what a dumpster fire many consider 2016 to be, with (sometimes beloved) celebrity deaths leading the charge. Many of those who passed left us a legacy of books, others tackled their personal demons, and still more gave us laugh-laden memoirs. What better way to honor their memory than by reading the stories they personally penned? This will be in two parts because 2016 cannot contain its own misery. Read the whole list @dwarfandgiant @lastbookstorela http://dwarfandgiant.com/lost-beloveds-part-one/ Graphic by @heatherwhooo #davidbowie #carriefisher #patconroy #watershipdown #nobelprize #fetochemistry #celebritydeaths #goodbye2016 #happynewyear #endofyearlists #historybooks #memoirs #recipes #celebrity #booklovers #usedbooks #golfbooks #holocaust #journalism #vietnam

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abigailzimmer · 2 years

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Favorite Reads of 2021

I read more books this year than I ever have since I started documenting my reading in 2009. The continued ups and downs of the pandemic made books a grateful escape, but having read so much—and a lot of it “reading lite”—there’s much that blurs together and fades quickly. However, I was excited to come across Katherine Addison and Nghi Vo, whose stories thrilled me to my toes. I read Ken Liu’s The Paper Menagerie in January and his images have haunted me throughout the year. I read very few poetry books in 2021, and yet they’re the words that most take up residence in my mind and heart. And The Hidden Life of Trees kept me company on my frequent walks among the trees of my neighborhood. Here are a few more books that clung to my restless mind this year:

1. The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben portrays trees so personably, talking in terms of how they parent and educate, passing on knowledge or learning from a summer of drought. How beeches are somewhat the bullies of the forest as they grow around and through the crowns of other trees. How trees that are sleep deprived—either nightly or seasonally—don't live long. How the roots of a particular old quaking aspen have sprouted thousands of offshoots in its time. How trees are social, communicating threats to each other via scents and taking care of their wounded by sharing nutrients via their roots. How walking under some stands of trees can lower your blood pressure and increase lung capacity. How tree species migrated south and then back north after the Ice Age. How trees with year round red leaves are rather inefficient and would have died out had humans not thought them so pretty and continued cultivating them. How the whole life cycle of a tree's life is important to a forest, which we often don't allow for, and other fascinating facts that makes this book such a pleasure to spend time with.

2. Hotel Almighty is such an exquisite book that immediately upon finishing I went and ordered three more copies to gift to friends! Sarah J. Sloat erasures and adds collage to pages from Stephen King's Misery. Each page is rendered so differently. I gasped aloud several times. There are surprising and beautiful lines such as “lay back in the urgency of work” and "burning seemed the proper thing, like research for a great drama." This book is a pleasure.

3. In Nghi Vo’s novella When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, a story collector is trapped by three tiger sisters and must wait through the night for help to come, so the story collector tells the sisters a folk story of a tiger and scholar. However, the tigers have the same tale in their folklore, and frequently interrupt to tell it from their perspective. It's a beautiful questioning of who gets to tell a story and how the story is shaped by who’s telling it. Doesn’t hurt that that the folktale also centers a poem, which I will always cheer on.

4. A lot of poetry books are quiet with a kind of quiet that works its way in, slows you, attunes you, shifts you, and I like that kind of poetry, I do. But then there's Homie by Danez Smith, which is loud and spilling off the page and calling to you from across the street and even while there are a lot of heavy topics that they address—of losing a friend to suicide, of not being able to come out fully to their family, of trying to survive and thrive in a white supremacist and straight world—at its core, it is a book of joy that revels in and reveres friendship, and god, I love friendship and I love people writing about their friends and I love when love feels loose and uncontainable and the largest part of the sky and I think this book might bring you joy, too. "a thousand years of daughters, then me. what else could I have learned to be?"

5. I was surprised at how compelling I found Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor, which has a premise I glossed over and not much plot to speak of. But I couldn’t put it down! A forgotten half goblin/half elf in the middle of nowhere suddenly finds himself in line for the throne and moves to the elven court to begin his rule. It’s not as high fantasy as it sounds as it’s more about the intricacies and politics of being at a royal court than in a fantastical land. And it’s not even as Games of Thrones-ish as it sounds because the new king, Maia, whose journey we follow, is so earnest in his desire to rule kindly and give respect to those who serve him—to the continued astonishment of those around him. He’s good, but with all the relatable insecurities about managing others while being true to oneself. There are several attempts to dethrone Maia, yet there isn’t a strong plot driving the book. It’s mostly about Maia learning the ropes in an oppressive/traditional society while trying to change it and tenuously building friendships even though he’s repeatedly told that kings can’t be friends with those below him—meaning anyone. Ugh. You just want him to find a friend!

6. Meghan Privitello’s Notes on the End of the World doesn't look like any specific apocalypse. At the end of the world time crumbles, carnivals never leave town, earthquakes hit, animals are where they don't belong, and "every barn has become a church / to worship storms in." But each day's note captures some moment of bravery or loneliness, regret or determination or sanity that speaks to even small world-falling-apart experiences. Privitello asks: "with minutes until disaster / what do you gather? How do you / navigate your own useless fear?” And later: “Somehow we’ve all been given the same fate, / which means our lives are ordinary.”

7. By Bus by Erica Van Horn is a little travelogue documenting the conversations you don't want to hear as the author commutes by bus through the small towns of Ireland. So much happens on a bus: shoes are polished and a woman looks for a husband and a mother is forgotten in the last town. A near disaster with a red Ford Fiesta creates an unexpected kinship among the passengers, and tourists on one side of the bus take pictures of sheep while the other side focuses on a castle. There are lots of missed connections and lateness (never earliness) and scathing criticism for passengers who don't say thank you when they leave. It's a very charming book about people being people that almost (almost!) has me thinking fondly of my daily train commute before the pandemic.

8. Witch Wife by Kiki Petrosino is so playful and witchy! I feel in awe of the energy in Kiki’s poems, her unapologetic way of writing and being herself, the human mix of everything good, messy, and hard. And it’s clear that she takes pleasure in words—through her forms such as sestinas and villanelles as well her prose and other pieces—a pleasure so swiftly passed on to the reader.

9. Night Talks by Elisabeth Rynell, translated from Swedish by Rika Lesser, is a raw expression of grief / a long poem and lament written upon the sudden death of Rynell’s husband. It’s beautiful and hard. Most of it is poetry, but she bookends it with a moving interview with her sleepless self at night and with stills of memories. // I began reading poetry when in need of words I couldn’t find myself, and I am always grateful for those who commit to paper their thoughts in the midst of pain. It makes some books strange to recommend, but they are there for when you need them.

10. The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu is a beautiful collection of short stories that take place in China, Japan, the US, beneath the Atlantic Ocean, outer space, the past, and the future. My favorite story is one in which people's souls are born with them as objects—a salt shaker, ice cube, pack of cigarettes—and they must learn to live without using them up. Another story imagines the ways different alien species make "books"—some record of thoughts that can be passed to the next generation. In another story, a woman survives by accepting change again and again until ultimately she is transformed into light. There are heavy-sad moments as well as sweet-sad, and often a theme of something to be sacrificed. Ken Liu's premises are smart and inventive, and like any good sci-fi, tell us a tale of our humanity.

#books 2021books #endofyearlists #favorite books

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rockinchicagomag · 7 years

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Geoff Teach’s Top 15 of 2016

15) Caecus - "The Funeral Garden" 14) Third Ion - "Biolith" 13) Freya - "Grim" 12) Mistur - "In Memoriam" 11) Predatory Light - "Predatory Light" 10) Vale of Pnath - "II" 9) Desaster - "The Oath of an Iron Ritual" 8.) Destroying The Devoid - "Paramnesiac" 7) Vukari - "Divination” 6) Obscura - "Akroasis" 5) The Zenith Passage - "Solipsist" 4) Vindland - "Hanter Savet" 3) Holy Grail - "Times of Pride and Peril" 2) Virvum - "Illuminance" 1) Fallujah - "Dreamless"

#endofyearlists #top15 #2016releases #2016metalalbums

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mideastunes · 9 years

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Mideast Tunes’ Top 20 Indie Artists of 2014

It’s the end of an amazing year for independent music in the Middle East and North Africa. From hip hop to metal to indie rock and pop, the region has seen an explosion of new artists, albums, and creativity. We could never truly narrow down the regions' amazing and diverse artists to a Top 20 list, but here's our attempt to show you some of our favorites!

Alsarah - Sudan Genre: Nubian Retropop

We’ve posted about Alsarah before because her album, Silt, released in March 2014 (with a remix released this October) deserves all the praise it can get. Alsarah characterizes her music as “East African retro pop,” and her songs have a life-affirming buoyancy that makes it hard not to dance along as you listen.