What I Read and Watched in 2021

Happy New Year! I wish you and yours the best of health and happiness for 2022. 

 

This post contains my annual list of books I read and movies I watched over the course of the year. Last year's list is here; it's interesting to compare the two. This year came in a number of different parts for me, which makes looking back on my reading an especially odd experience--some things feel like they were very long ago indeed.

 

In 2021 I read 132 books...

 

But before you brave the full list, allow me to share a few highlights.

My Recommendations

1. For fans of short fiction...I'd heard my sister, a writer, rave about Ted Chiang awhile ago, and I had the enormous pleasure of reading his stories for the first time this year. You shouldn't wait as long as I did.
   
2. For historical fiction fans...Dorothy Dunnett's House of Niccolo series is compelling, dense, and delightfully different from her famous Lymond Chronicles. I began reading the series late in the year and am currently savouring book four.
3. For fans of history books...Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power by Pekka Hamalainen is something I am still thinking about nearly a year later. 
4. For fantasy fans...each book of N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth triology won a Hugo Award for Best Novel, the first time this had ever happened for a series. They are unsettling, inventive, and like nothing else I've ever read.
   
5. For romance fans....Chloe Liese's Bergman Brothers series. I can't explain why this grabbed me so hard--even from the most commercially successfuly writers of the genre, I usually find a series of books about the love lives of the members of a family uneven, but every one of these delighted me in a different way. (It's an ongoing series, so be aware of that if you don't like to wait for new books to come out). Look, each book features the sharing of snack trays as an act of affection, which is something I can fully get behind.
6. For science fiction fans...I collect novels in which the premise is 'historian travels through space and time for research purposes.' Hard to Be a God does brilliant things with this trope. I loved it so much.
   
7. If you're wondering whether you should bother...having finally caught up to the end of the Outlander series, I preordered Go Tell the Bees I Am Gone. Despite eagerly looking forward to finding out what happened next in the series, I found this book equal parts baffling and frustrating. Your time might be better spent elsewhere--at least until book ten finally comes out and we find out how the heck it all ends.
8. For your viewing pleasure....Black Sails, Black Sails, Black Sails! I have not yet finished season 1, but I am a huge fan of this show.
   
9.  For further viewing pleasure...I am absolutely loving the Expanse, which is doing a cracking job filling my need for a smart, watchable sci-fi television show. Really hoping there will be as much Camina Drummer as possible in Season 6.

What did you read or watch in 2021? What would you recommend?

And now, without further ado, my list!

Reading

 

Anthologies (5)

1. Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
   
2. The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
3. Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway
   
4. What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi 
   
5. Queer: A Collection of LGTBQ Writings from Ancient Times to Yesterday edited by Frank Wynne
   

Autobiography, Biography, and Memoir (2)

1. Survive and Advance by Tiana Bartoletta 
2. The Art of Tasha Tudor by Harry Davis
   

Cookbooks (8)

1. Cadbury Creme Egg Cookbook 
2. Malaysia by Ping Coombes
   
3. Flavours of Azerbaijan: the family cooking collection by Khabiba Kashkay
4. The Hungry Student Vegetarian Cookbook
   
5. 30 Herbs for Your Kitchen Garden by Maureen Little 
6. Cooking on a Bookstrap by Jack Monroe 
7. Ottolenghi Flavour by Yotam Ottolenghi
   
8. Broke Vegan by Saskia Sidey 

Fiction and Historical Fiction (6)

1. The Ringed Castle by Dorothy Dunnett
2. Checkmate by Dorothy Dunnett
   
3. Niccolo Rising by Dorothy Dunnett 
4. The Spring of the Ram by Dorothy Dunnett
5. Race of Scorpions by Dorothy Dunnett
6. Go Tell the Bees that I am Gone by Diana Gabaldon
   

History (2)

1. Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power by Pekka Hamalainen 
   
2. Ahab's Rolling Sea: A Natural History of Moby Dick by Richard King 

Letters and Diaries (2)

1. Tolstoy’s Diaries Volume I: 1847–1894  ed by R.F. Christian
2. The House by the Sea by May Sarton
   

Mystery (2)

1. Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy Sayers 
2. Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers
   

Nonfiction (10)

1. Irish red and white setter by Nona Kilgore Bauer 
2. Constructive Wallowing by Tina Gilbertson 
3. Crops in Tight Spots by Alex Mitchell 
4. How Not to Kill Your Houseplant by Veronica Peerless
   
5. Big Plants by Emma Sibley
   
6. The Procrastination Equation by Piers Steel
7. The Container Garden by Frances Tophill
8. The body keeps the score by Bessel A. Van der Kolk 
9. The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells 
10. Forever Christmas: Tasha Tudor by Harry Davis
    

Poetry (7)

1. Contemporary Kazakh Literature: Poetry
2. After Callimachus: Poems by Stephanie Burt  
3. Seductive Harmonies: the Poetry of Music edited by Deborah Gaye
4. Faithful and Virtuous Night by Louise Gluck
5. When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Throught, edited by Joy Harjo
   
6. Swift, Lord, You Are Not by Kilian McDonnell
7. The Zoo of the New: Poems to Read Now edited by Don Patterson and Nick Laird
   

Romance (55)

1. Isn't it Bromantic by Lyssa Kay Adams 
2. Dump and Chase by Tony Aleo
   
3. Talk Bookish to Me by Kate Bromley
4. The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun
   
5. Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade 
6. All the Feels by Olivia Dade
7. The Roommate by Rosie Danan
8. The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan
   
9. The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare
   
10. The Singles Table by Sarah Desai
11. The Dating Plan by Sarah Desai
12. The Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory 
13. While We Were Dating by Jasmine Guillory
    
14. The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang
15. The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
16. Only When It's Us by Sarah Hogle
17. Twice Shy by Sarah Hogle 
18. Pucked Off by Helena Hunting
    
19. Say Yes to the Duke by Eloisa James
20. Say No to the Duke by Eloisa James
21. Your Wicked Ways by Eloisa James
22. Duchess in Love by Eloisa James 
23. This Duchess of Mine by Eloisa James
24. The Taming of the Duke by Eloisa James
25. Much Ado About You by Eloisa James
26. A Duke of Her Own by Eloisa James
27. Three Weeks with Lady X by Eloisa James
28. Once Upon a Tower by Eloisa James
29. Desperate Duchesses by Eloisa James
30. Born to be Wilde by Eloisa James
31. My Last Duchess by Eloisa James
32. How to Catch a Wild Viscount by Eloisa James
33. With You Forever by Chloe Liese
34. Ever After Always by Chloe Liese
35. Always Only You by Chloe Liese
36.  Only When It's Us by Chloe Liese
37. Brazen and the Beast by Sarah MacLean 
38. A Duke Worth Falling For by Sarah MacLean 
39. Bombshell by Sarah MacLean 
40. I Hate You by Isla Madden-Mills
41. I Promise You by Isla Madden-Mills
42. I Bet You by Isla Madden-Mills
43. I Dare You by Isla Madden-Mills
44. The Devil You Know by Kit Rocha
    
45. The Lawrence Browne Affair by Cat Sebastian
46. Two Rogues Make a Right by Cat Sebastian
47. A Gentleman Never Keeps Score by Cat Sebastian
48. It Takes Two to Tumble by Cat Sebastian 
49. High Risk Rookie by Odette Stone
50. Home Game by Odette Stone
51. Penalty Box by Odette Stone
52. Puck Me Secretly by Odette Stone
53. The Layover by Lacey Waldon 
54. To Love and to Loathe by Martha Waters
55. Cinnamon Roll by Anna Zabo
    

Science Fiction and Fantasy (35)

1. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
   
2. Burn Bright by Patricia Briggs 
3. Wild Sign by Patricia Briggs
4. Night Broken by Patricia Briggs
5. Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold
6. The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
7. Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
8. Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
9. Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold
10. Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold
11. Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdich 
12. The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec
13. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green 
14. The All Soul's Trilogy by Deborah Harkness
    
15. The Inheritance by Robin Hobb
    
16. The Shadowed Sun  by N.K. Jemisin
17. The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin
18. The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
19. The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin
20. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
21. Provenance by Ann Leckie
    
22. The Birthday of the World by Ursula K. Le Guin 
23. Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin 
24. A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
    
25. Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell
    
26. Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon
27. Moving Target by Elizabeth Moon 
28. Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
29. Cold Welcome by Elizabeth Moon
    
30. Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski
31. Time of contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski
32. The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
33. Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski
34. Hard to be a god by Arkady Strugatsky
35. The Return of the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner 

Viewing

Movies 

1. Arrival
   
2. Athlete A 
3. Avengers Assemble
4. Avengers Endgame
5. Avengers Infinity War
6. Avengers Age of Ultron
7. Black Widow
   
8. Captain America: the Winter Soldier
   
9. Single All the Way
10. The Martian
    
11. The Old Guard 
12. Thor
13. Thor the Dark World
14. Thor Ragnarok
    

Podcasts

1. Ali on the Run
2. The Anthropocene Reviewed  
3. Citius Mag Podcast 
4. Glittership
   
5. Keeping Track
6. The Morning Shakeout 
7. No Meat Athlete
   

TV Shows

1. Alien Worlds 
2. A Discovery of Witches (Season 1)
   
3. Black Sails (ongoing)
   
4. The Expanse (Seasons 1-5)
5. Lost in Space (almost all)
   
6. Stranger Things (Seasons 1-3) 
7. Teen Wolf (Seasons 1-5)
   
8. Wheel of Time (in part)
   
9. The Witcher (Season 1)
   

Youtube

1. MyKayla Skinner
   
2. Vlogbrothers
3. Yoga with Lena
   

Thanksgiving: Flypaper Thoughts Edition

 I love Barbara Emodi's flypaper thoughts; here is my own version

• Thanksgiving is the final Thursday in November
• unless you are Canadian
• Then it is in October
• If you choose your friends wisely 
• you can have two thanksgivings a year  
• Because I live over the ocean
• I can never remember when Thanksgiving is
• I've been telling British people it's the third Thursday for years
• This is not correct
• Since 2016, I have had my Thanksgivings
• On weekends
• When you have a job, it's easier
• to manage large dinner parties on Saturdays
• Than Thursdays
• But during my PhD, when I had Thanksgiving on Thursdays
• I would put the turkey in the oven
• go to a seminar
• skip the questions after the paper
  
• And head back to finish off the meal
• to be joined by a dozen or more guests afterwards
• Being young and fearless sure is something
• the turkey always turned out great
• sometimes things need less effort than we think they do
• My UK Thanksgivings began in 2012
• I borrowed a friend's apartment in Cambridge
• the 2013 one was in Leeds
• I had two Thanksgivings in 2014, 2015
• And 2016
• Small Thanksgivings in 2017 and 2018
• And a very special one in 2019
• Less than a week before I moved
• Nothing was packed
• It was so worth it
• There was no Thanksgiving in 2020
• I hate eating on zoom
• And Lincolnshire in November doesn't allow for outdoor picnics
• But this year, with vaccines and rapid testing kits
• I was able to have a small indoor Thanksgiving
• My guests announced themselves as "Thanksgiving virgins"
• So we began the meal joking and whooping with laughter
• Thank goodness for friends
  
• I overcatered
• No one minded
• It was so very lovely
• to have Thanksgiving again.
  

Revisiting My Goals for 2021

This morning I received an email from one of my favourite running companies reminding me that there are eight weeks left in 2021 and 48 shopping days until Christmas. Where did this year go?!

In early January, I wrote a post setting out my goals for the year and with two months left to achieve them, let's check how I am doing.

Goals I Have Met

"Hand with a quill pen" by Monceau is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

In my goals for research, reading, and writing I have made some fairly good progress! 

• I have submitted two long-overdue book reviews, now published in Speculum and History: Reviews of New Books. (There is also a review I remember submitting to Early Medieval Europe but which doesn't seem to have ever been published. I should check on that...) I then proceeded to add two new book reviews to my plate; one of which is a comparison of two translations, one in German and one in English. So two steps forward, two steps back.
• I submitted a final draft of my book to my editor in late August so my goal of editing my book is in hand.
• I haven't counted lately but am confident I've read more than 52 books this year.
• I successfully pitched a 'How I Do History' feature to Contingent magazine, sent them a draft, and am presently waiting for the editor's feedback.
  

Running has been relatively successful too.  

• I managed completed NYCRuns Subway Challenge II's Train Operator run: 691 miles in 26 weeks, which I did between September 2020 and March 2021.
  
• I have made some good use of Youtube as a resource to help me warm up for runs, cool down after them, and do some foam rolling. I haven't been as good about using it for strength training and have done a grand total of two abs workouts, so still some progress to be made here.

Lastly, in the kitchen things have been going well.

• While I was in Oxford, I expanded repertoire of quick and healthy meals to include stir fries with tofu (not in any way an 'exotic' ingredient but still one that is new to me).
  
• On average I have tried one new recipe a month. August through October were very busy months, so I did less experimental cooking--when you don't have a lot of time, it's easier to stick to what you know.
  

Goals Underway

"Stack of Books - 023" by Daniel Weber is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

 

In academic and research terms, the goal that was personally most meaningful to me was one I haven't fully achieved yet. I wrote in January that I wanted to   

Celebrate other people's good news. I sometimes feel that academic has a toxic culture of always finding fault, rather than celebrating achievements. Some of my most joyful moments as a historian last year came from celebrating others' achievements or having them celebrate mine. I want to be the kind of person who enjoys a colleague's article or book, hears about their grant or job success, and sends them a note of congratulations.

I can definitely point to some instances where I have done this but many more where I could have done and didn't. Still, with eight weeks left in the year there are definitely more opportunities to celebrate colleagues and friends.

Running-wise,  I still would like to try to use the local track for speed workouts at least twice. (I chickened out of running on the Roger Banister Track when I was in Oxford, though I went past it several times.) And Lincoln has a Santa Fun Run on Sunday 12 December; I may be running the virtual Honolulu Marathon on that date, but I could always run it in my Santa top and hat.

I set myself some ambitious goals for my writing and am hopefully about meeting these.

• Although I haven't quite been able to post on this blog once a week, I will have produced at least 52 posts during 2021, which feels like an accomplishment.
• I still have time to pitch at least one story to JSTOR Daily.
• I had forgotten that I'd set myself the goal to write an essay about long-distance relationships in the 1918 Influenza pandemic; it is technically still possible I could do so, but increasingly unlikely.
• While I probably won't submit a new draft of at least one academic article to a journal by December 2021, I have an article to redraft and a chapter to finish, both of which I want to get off by the end of this month, so I'm putting this one firmly in the 'doable' column!
  

In terms of my reading, I can still meet my goals to:

• Read at least three books in each of the following categories: history, short stories, and poetry. I'm pretty sure the short story and poetry categories are in the bag; the history category is still in progress. My own rules for this category is that the book has to be written for a general audience, not a scholarly one, so I can't count any academic books (or books I've reviewed!) towards this category.
• Share more books! I've just lent a friend Murder Must Advertise, and I'm hoping to write more about Dorothy Dunnett and Lois McMaster Bujold this month, so this one should be checked off my the end of the month.
  

My ambitious goals for my knitting, on the other hand, are not currently achievable. I wanted to make:

• six pairs of socks
•  a hat
• mittens
• a stuffed animal from the Dovestone Smallholding book
• and finish a large cabled blanket that has been in progress since 2015

Some combination of these is still achievable but at this point I'm not sure which it will be. The hat and mittens might happen, or just one of them. The blanket awaits a major blocking and sewing job before I can begin to tackle the border.

And finally, my charitable and volunteering goals are still achievable.

• I give a monthly donation to the Trussell Trust, a UK organisation that supports foodbanks, though I may need to top this up at the end of the year to equal my takeaway spending. 
• I am still trying to get registered to volunteer with Reenage Call Companions, though I have fallen somewhat behind on this.
•  AgeUK's Vitals for Veterans Programme seems to have stopped as the pandemic has changed, but there are other things I could volunteer to do.

Not Happening

"The Start and Finish Line of the 'Inishowen 100' Scenic Drive" by Andrew_D_Hurley is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

 

There are a number of things won't achieve this year. Probably the biggest was my goal to finish the 2021 Manchester Marathon, in under four hours, uninjured and if possible smiling--I ran the race in 4:20 and was NOT smiling as I finished, though I did so afterwards. I did managed the uninjured part of things, so that's good.

I will absolutely not be able to knit six pairs of socks by the end of the year, but might be able to finish at least another pair or two before Christmas.

In terms of trying to limit my takeaway consumption, there have definitely not been two months where I never ordered food delivery or picked up a takeaway; though there have been some months where I only ordered one, the overall average is probably over that. During the earlier part of the pandemic I got out of the habit of doing top-up shopping at my neighbourhood grocery store, but started doing this again while I was in Oxford and then while I got through the start of term madness here. Smaller, more grocery trips are a good strategy for avoiding the temptations of food I didn't cook.

Looking back through this years post, I see I have only produced five posts tagged 'late antiquity'; somehow I thought there were more! Possibly, because I usually take longer to write those posts, they loom a bit larger in my mind. While I could, technically, still write seven more posts on late antiquity to produce twelve for the year, my other writing goals dump this one pretty firmly into the 'not happening' box.

What are your goals for the rest of the year?

Whatever they are, I hope they bring you joy and fulfillment, and that you go easy on yourself for anything you are not able to do.

Diptych for the Class of 2021

I read these two poems over the summer and they seemed to make a great pair of poems for graduates in the Year of Our Lord 2021. 

 

Not entirely comforting but what is these days.

A Dead Statesman

I could not dig: I dared not to rob:
Therefore I lied to please the mob.
Now all my lies are proved untrue
And I must face the men I slew.
What tale shall serve me here among
Mine angry and defrauded young?

 

~ Ruyard Kipling. Reprinted in the Zoo of the New, ed. Nick Laird and Don Paterson (London, 2017), p. 81

"spinnweben" by loop_oh is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Graduation

He told us, with the years, you will come
to love the world.
And we sat there with our souls in our laps,
and comforted them.

 

~ Dorothea Tanning. Reprinted in the Zoo of the New, ed. Nick Laird and Don Paterson (London, 2017), p. 125

The Barbarians Are Listening: Online Seminars and Events of Interest, Spring and Summer 2021

An unexpected silver lining of my pandemic has been attending talks and events on a huge range of subjects--from teaching webinars, to medieval studies and manuscript talks, to late antique, late Roman, and early medieval online seminars. In case it is useful or of interest to anyone else, in what follows I've curated a list of talks and events I have attended or plan to attend. I've also included a handful of links to asynchronous content--recordings or self-guided workshops--that are of interest to me as a teacher and scholar.

The social aspect of seminars and talks simply can't be replicated in an online space, but I for one have been exceptionally grateful for the move online. Under normal circumstances, the only way I could attend an event in London or Oxford or Princeton would be if I were a) speaking there and b) able to take time off work. Being able to tune in from the comfort of my own couch has been AMAZING. I hope that online workshops, seminars, and events will continue to be a part of the academic landscape for many years to come. 

This is definitely not a comprehensive list and there are surely many important and interesting events missing. If you'd like to copy, edit, or add to this list, the link to do so can be found here.

Let Evening Come

Sunset, 16 September 2019

Let the light of late afternoon
shine through chinks in the barn, moving
up the bales as the sun moves down.

Goals for 2021

 Gentle reader, how do you mark the new year? My family typically has a holiday dinner on New Year's Day, and we went to First Night celebrations when I was a child, but I don't usually do much in the way of celebrating. This year marks the first year I stayed up to see in the new year, and that was mostly because some people in my neighbourhood set off some midnight fireworks. 

Like a lot of people, I often mark the new year by writing a set of resolutions. I rarely check back on or revisit these once I've written them in my journal.