2021 Favorites

 

It’s almost December 31st. And, as 2021 winds down, it’s also time to talk about all of my favorite things from the year. 

Movies & TV Shows…

Surprisingly, I didn’t watch too many movies or try as many new shows as I thought I would have. I mainly rewatched old favorites when I happened to catch them. What I have, in terms of first time viewing, isn’t enough for it to get its own posts. So…

Some movies: F9, Poltergeist (1982), Nightbooks, Red Notice, Birds of Prey, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Venome: Let There Be Carnage.

Some TV shows: Discovery of Witches season 2, SurrealEstate, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Gone For Good, Lost in Space season 2.

Books And Short Stories…

Generally, I liked most of what I read this year. I focused more on nonfiction as well as backlist titles and sequels that I’ve wanted to read. I didn’t get to all of them this year, but that just means I’m going into the New Year with a good-sized TBR list to keep me preoccupied. So, here are my favorite books from 2021.

Nonfiction...

• To The Greatest Heights by Vanessa O'Brien
• Aristocracy by William Doyle 
• She Memes Well by Quinta Brunson
• The Heartbeat of Trees by Peter Wohlleben, translated by Jane Billinghurst
• Fire & Ice by Natalie Starkey 
• Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake

Fiction...

• Exit Strategy , Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells
• We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal
• Tales from the Hinterland by Melissa Albert
• The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King by J. R.R. Tolkien
• The Case Study of Vanitas vol. 6, vol. #7 & vol. 8 by Jun Mochizuki
• Jelly by Clare Rees
• The Album of Dr. Moreau by Daryl Gregory 
• The Return of the Sorceress, Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno Garcia 
• Small Town Monsters by Diana Rodriguez-Wallach
• What Lives in the Woods by Lindsay Currie
• Mine by Delilah S. Dawson
• You Can Never Tell by Sarah Warburton 
• Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
• The Brilliant Abyss by Helen Scales
• Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You by Scotto Moore
• Dark Waters by Katherine Arden
• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
• A Swift and Savage Tide by Chloe Neill
• A Murder Yule Regret by Winnie Archer 
• Hollywood Heroine by Sarah Kuhn 
• It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Murder by Maria DiRico

The short stories...

• The Karyōbinga Sings To Jiro by Riyu Ando (Strange Horizons; Issue: 11 January 2021) Note: there is a podcast version of the story available from Strange Horizons
  
• Your Own Undoing by P H Lee (Apex Magazine, January 19, 2021)
• #Selfcare by Annalee Newitz (Tor.com, January 19, 2021)
• Judge Dee and The Three Deaths of Count Werdenfels by Lavie Tidhar (Tor.com, February 10, 2021)
  
• A Serpent For Each Year by Tamara Jeree (Strange Horizons, Issue 1 February 2021)
• Las Girlfriends Guide to Subversive Eating by Sabrina Vourvoulias (Apex Magazine; Issue 122, March 2021)
• Mouth by Sasha Lapointe (Strange Horizons; Issue: 1 March 2021)
• Masquerade Season by ‘Pemi Aguda (Tor.com; March 24, 2021)
• Mysteries of Visiocherries/Misteri Visciceri by Rio Johan (Strange Horizons; Issue: April 26 2021)
• Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory by Martha Wells (Tor.com, April 19, 2021)
• The Angel of Khan el-Khalili by P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com, April 28, 2021)
• The Life & Death of Mia Fremont: An Interview with a Killer by A.K. Hudson (Apex Magazine; May 4, 2021)
• Eilam is Forever by Beth Dawkins (Apex Magazine, July 6, 2021)
• Data Migration by Melanie Harding-Shaw (Strange Horizons; Issue: 12 July 2021)
• Survival, After by Nicole J. LeBoeuf (Apex Magazine, August 3, 2021)
• What Cacti Read by Mary Soon Lee (Strange Horizons; Issue; 26 July 2021) 
• Cocoon by H. Pueyo (Strange Horizons; Issue: 2 August 2021)
• Judge Dee and the Poisoner of Montmartre by Lavie Tidhar (Tor.com; September 15, 2021)
• Thread Count by Cynthia Gómez (Strange Horizons; Issue: Fund Drive 2021)
• Bespoke Nightmares by Carolina Valentine (Strange Horizons; Issue: 18 October 2021)

Music…

2021 was a great year for music. It seemed like most of my favorite artists had new music coming out, and I discovered a few new bands and groups I want to follow. Below is a list of all my favorite albums and EPs I listened to in 2021. There is no particular order.

• Alpha by CL
• Planet Her by Doja Cat
• Mini Mix vol. 1 and vol. 2, A Little Rhythm and a Wicked Feeling, and Mercurial World by Magdalena Bay
• Last Year Was Weird Vol. 3 by Tkay Maidza
• 1/f and Pink Noise by Laura Mvula
• If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power by Halsey
• Scaled and Icey by Twenty One Pilots
• 2000AND4EVA by Bree Runway
• The Bitter Truth by Evanescence
• Montero by Lil Nas X
• Harenchi by Chanmina

And that’s it. I hope everyone is having a great holiday season. I will see you all in the New Year!

2014: End of the Year Wrap Up & Favorite Reads

     2014 is nearly over.  Seriously, Christmas is practically around the corner so I figured it was time to do a wrap up for the year. This is probably one of the last posts on Our Thoughts Precisely before the new year.

     I have to say that 2014 was a much better year that 2013.  I didn't read as much, but most of the books I read were pretty good.  I think where the blog activity sort of dropped off for a while was during the move.  And with all the books in boxes and lack of internet connection for a while, I got no reading or blogging done. But after the move was over and everything was unpacked, things picked up again. The blog also got a new look this year, and I have to say that I'm relatively happy with it. I might add a few things here and there, but mostly it'll probably stay the same.

     What I learned this year...

     Balancing life with blogging/reading is more important than the number of books I read, and its perfectly fine that way.  Although--despite the lack of quantity--I read a bunch of good books, which makes me happy. Last year I, as a reader, still tried to finish every book.  But this past year I did something a little different.  I gave books the first 100 or so pages to grab my interest.  And if I really wasn't feeling it then I DNF'd it. That method saved a lot of time, and I got to read the books that I truly enjoyed.

     Some things from 2014...

     Through October and November I did a series of post called Falling into Fall.  It was just a fun way to share some of the things I wanted to do during fall. All links can be found on the Features Page.  I also got involved in a couple of weekly memes: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice & Musing Mondays hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading.

     Favorite reads of 2014...

     So, since its almost the end of the year I figured that I would share some of my favorite books that I read in 2014!  Some of the books on the list were released some time ago so the year they came out doesn't matter much to me.  It's in no particular order, and placement has nothing to do with how much I enjoyed the book.

• Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott
• The Warrior by Victoria Scott 
• The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw by Christopher Healy
• Living Violet by Jamie Reed
• The Archived by Victoria Schwab
• Courting Magic by Stephanie Burgis
• Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
• Foundations in Comic Book Art by John Paul Lowe
• Dork Diaries 7: Tales from a Not-So-Glam TV Star by Rachel Renee Russell
• Killer Frost by Jennifer Estep
• Crystal Fire by Jordan Dane
• Double Vision: The Alias Men by F.T. Bradley 
• Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne
• Words for Pictures by Brian Michael Bendis
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
• Monstrously Funny Cartoons by Christopher Hart

*I will be taking a break from blogging to enjoy my holiday. Any posts that show up after this one were already scheduled (There's only 2 of them). Happy Holidays!