List #98: Fourteen Things I Liked in 2021

Reading

1. Thus Was Adonis Murdered, The Shortest Way to Hades, The Sirens Sang of Murder, The Sibyl in Her Grave - by Sarah Caudwell

2. Gourmet Hound (Rec. #894)

3. The Thursday Murder Club (Rec. #898), The Man Who Died Twice - by Richard Osman

4. Moira Donegan on Twitter (@MoiraDonegan)

Watching

5. Kajillionaire (Rec. #891)

6. The Party

7. Good Timing with Jo Firestone

8. Feel Good (Rec. #890)

9. Dog House UK (Rec. #897)

10. Taskmaster NZ (Rec. #900)

11. Pretend It's a City (Rec. #885)

12. Vinny Thomas on Twitter (@vinn_ayy)

Listening

13. Victoriocity

14. Off Menu (Rec. #878)

Also I watched Knives Out for the 5th (?) time.

Rec. #898: The Thursday Murder Club

 

What: This mystery novel is clever enough to function above and beyond its almost-twee high-concept premise --- a group of residents in a retirement village investigates a murder.

It's so clever and accomplished that Kate Atkinson herself blurbed it.

Comparable to: Tone-wise, it's not unlike Knives Out.

Representative quotes: 

"I would never have therapy, because who wants to unravel all that knitting?"

"That would be like looking for a needle in a haystack made entirely of needles."

"He’s all the things that can go wrong with men if you leave them to their own devices."

How to get it: The Thursday Murder Club has been a critical and commercial success and is widely available. At least two sequels are planned. Steven Spielberg's production company bought the film rights.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Author Richard Osman was on the second series of Taskmaster (see List #97). Knives Out was Rec. #856: Best Time at the Movie Theater. 

Rec. #889: Convenience Store Woman

What: Nearly every review of Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman mentions that it's difficult to describe, so I won't. I will say that your mileage may vary with this one. 

For example, they say: "uncanny and depraved" (The New Yorker) and "sublimely weird" (The Guardian). I say: very relatable, richly distilled slice of one woman's interior life.

Representative quote: "Before me now was a human male, mindlessly hoping that one of the same species was going to breed."

How to get it: This slim novel, the first of Murata's to be translated into English, is everywhere. It is both popular and critically acclaimed.

Connection to previous Wreckage: Convenience Store Woman was part of List #96: Things to Read from 2020 That You Might Have Missed While Sitting in the Abyss.

List #96: Things to Read from 2020 that You Might Have Missed While Sitting in the Abyss

Convenience Store Woman, Sayaka Murata

I probably shouldn't remark on how relatable I found this.

Culture Warlords, Talia Lavin (see also List #93)

Lavin catfishes white supremacists.

Giant Days (the end), John Allison and Max Sarin (see also Rec. #711)

The much-beloved long-running series finally winds up as our heroines graduate.

Gravity Is the Thing, Jaclyn Moriarty (see also Rec. #235)

Kind of a cheat (published in 2019), but at least the paperback edition was published this year.

Hiding in Plain Sight, Sarah Kendzior (see also List #93)

It's no surprise that Kendzior, who has been consistently right about our broken democracy for more than four years, has another book where she's right a lot. But, bonus, it's also very beautifully written!

I Like to Watch, Emily Nussbaum (see also List #93)

TV! She like to watch TV!

Nothing Is Wrong and Here Is Why, Alexandra Petri (see also List #93)

If you're going to reflect back on the past four years, this is definitely the way to do it.

Solutions and Other Problems, Allie Brosh (see also Rec. #801)

Brosh breaks our hearts all over again.

Trick Mirror, Jia Tolentino (see also List #93)

Essays on the way we live now.

Also, I'd like to state for the record that my List #66 (aka "Follow These Women on Twitter") pretty much became my List #93 (aka "These Women Have Books Now"). 

So I clearly have my finger on the pulse of ... something. And it'd be great if someone would be into paying me for that.

Rec. #881: Quote from a Fictional Character #105

"I see everyone's point of view, which is very confusing. Seeing everyone's point of view is like mixing your drinks."

--- Annie, Doctors of Philosophy,

Muriel Spark, 1962

(See List #58)

Rec. #879: Diary of a Provincial Lady

What: A closed society on the break of great financial uncertainty -- sound relatable? But make it funny.

A chatty semi-autobiographical narrator bridges the gap between 1930 and us. Perhaps the gap never was that big in the first place.

Representative quote: “Realise that this mis-statement should be corrected at once, but omit to do so, and later find myself involved in entirely unintentional web of falsehood. Should like to work out how far morally to blame for this state of things, but have not time.”

How to get it: E.M. Delafield's Diary of a Provincial Lady has never been out of print, but you can also get the ebook.

List #95: Pop Culture Wish List, part 7

While we're in the zone of fulfilling my pop culture requests, I would like to put forward some additional items for consideration.

See Part 1 here.
See Part 2 here.
See Part 3 here.
See Part 4 here.
See Part 5 here.

See Part 6 here.

Item 13: The Psmith stories transposed to contemporary NYC and starring Natasha Lyonne

P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves stories are iconic and the recent series adaptation of the Blandings stories is quite good fun (Rec. #379, Rec. #431). The Psmith stories, however, are largely an untapped resource frankly crying out for a modern take. Example: Psmith, Journalist (Rec. #289).

And who better to be unruffled, game for anything, and quick with a sardonic takedown than Natasha Lyonne? Dooooo iiiiiiiit.

Item 14: A book from Kashana Cauley

Kashana Cauley has written so much, in so many places! (New York Times! Rolling Stone! The Believer! Slate!) The time has come for a book, please. A collection of essays? All the cool Twitter people are doing it!

And Cauley is indeed a cool Twitter person. See: List #66, Rec. #662.

List #95: Pop Culture Wish List, part 5

While we're in the zone of fulfilling my pop culture requests, I would like to put forward some additional items for consideration.

See Part 1 here.
See Part 2 here.
See Part 3 here.
See Part 4 here.

Item 9: A remake of You Can't Take It With You directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu

The film Birdman had its flaws (I would have appreciated a content warning about the attempted rape scene!), but one thing it did well was show that director Alejandro González Iñárritu would be able to direct farce. People in general aren't good at directing screwball anymore, so that was an exciting discovery!

You Can't Take It With You is just begging for a modern remake. I'm thinking along the lines of Awkwafina, Maria Bamford, Susan Blackwell, Ana de Armas, William Jackson Harper, Aasif Mandvi, Melissa McCarthy, Lee Pace, Maya Rudolph ...

Connections to previous Wreckage: I extolled the wonders of screwball comedy in a three part series.

Item 10: A new book from Kira Henehan

I loved Orion You Came and You Took All My Marbles (Rec. #195, QfFC #75). I would very much like another novel by Kira Henehan, please.

List #95: Pop Culture Wish List, part 3

While we're in the zone of fulfilling my pop culture requests, I would like to put forward some additional items for consideration.

See Part 1 here. See Part 2 here.

Item 5: A musical about the life of James Baldwin

In the life story of novelist-poet-playwright-essayist-activist James Baldwin, we've got a fraught upbringing and teenage ministry and life in Paris. We've got Richard Avedon, Sidney Poitier, and Marlon Brando. We have queer life and Black life and French life. We've got civil rights activism and even FBI surveillance.

We also have music. Jazz in France with Nina Simone, Miles Davis, Ray Charles, and Josephine Baker.

In 2016, Meshell Ndegeocello created a musical/theatrical tribute to Baldwin (Can I Get a Witness?), but I'm thinking something less ... churchy.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Rec. #23 and Quote for These Times #2

Item 6: Helen Zaltzman as host of The Great British Bake Off

With Sandi Toksvig departing as co-host of the current iteration of The Great British Bake Off, it's very fun to imagine new possibilities. Helen Zaltzman would be great! She is an adept podcast host (List #92 and Rec. #773) and could definitely transition to wacky banter with Noel Fielding.

Zaltzman herself is willing (see above)!

List #95: Pop Culture Wish List, part 2

While we're in the zone of fulfilling my pop culture requests, I would like to put forward some additional items for consideration.

See Part 1 here.

Item 3: An adaptation of To Say Nothing of the Dog by Tarsem Singh

To Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis, is perhaps my favorite book of all time (Rec. #100). I have hand-picked Tarsem Singh for an adaptation based on his direction of the insanely beautiful and surreal The Fall (Rec. #49).

Someone else might try to make To Say of the Dog twee. It is not twee. It is epic and deserves to be treated as such.

Item 4: New original songs from Nellie McKay

I adore singer-songwriter/activist Nellie McKay (Rec. #608, Rec. #667, Rec. #695, Rec. #777), and I was lucky enough to see her perform last year.

For the past decade or so, she's mainly been doing collections of nostalgic covers, which are great! But I long for the creative highs of her early original albums, like Get Away from Me (Rec. #206), Pretty Little Head (Rec. #320), and Obligatory Villagers. More, please.

List #95: Pop Culture Wish List, part 1

The success of Knives Out means that Rian Johnson is going to make more Benoit Blanc content. This is good! I approve.

Several female writers whose work I follow closely have new books (see List #93). This is also excellent!

Parasite was the surprise winner of the Best Picture award at the Oscars last night. Good job, everyone!


While we're in the zone of fulfilling my pop culture requests, I would like to put forward some additional items for consideration.

This list will likely occupy us for a few weeks, at least.

Item 1: Richard Ayoade and Aisling Bea in a romantic comedy

Last year was a big one for Aisling Bea! She mainstreamed it alongside Paul Rudd in a Netflix series and, more delightfully, created and starred in her own brilliant show (Rec. #831). Richard Ayoade is a perennial favorite of mine (List #63).

They've demonstrated ample chemistry together in an episode of Ayoade's Travel Man series (Rec. #396). More of that, please!

Item 2: Sled Dog stories from Blair Braverman as a series of children's books

The content for this one pretty much already exists as Twitter threads. It just needs a publishing deal!

Dogsledder Blair Braverman is already a published author, and she puts her words to excellent use when sharing tales of puppies learning to run, field trips off the farm, and messages from the pack. See Rec. #609 for direct links to even more examples of Sled Dog Story Time, and get ready to Feel Things.

Rec. #877: Castle Waiting

What: Castle Waiting is a graphic novel series set at an isolated, abandoned castle. The stories mix fable and mythology and irony and (points up) this guy! What's not to love?

Representative panel:

Connections to previous Wreckage: Other graphic novels or graphic memoirs I have recommended are Tamara Drewe (Rec. #271), Fun Home (Rec. #612), and Be Prepared (Rec. #826).

Rec. #874: Quote from a Fictional Character #104

"Burglary or pick-pocketing, that needs an apprenticeship. Not so murder -- we're all of us up to that."

--- Mr. Inspector, Our Mutual Friend,

Charles Dickens, 1864

(Rec. #88)

(See also QfFC #21 and List #13)

List #94: Best of 2019

The Allusionist: Best Language About Language, Rec. #855

The Art of Process: Best Art About Art, Rec. #863

Be Prepared: Best Reason to Stay Indoors, Rec. #851

Come From Away: Best Reminder That Not All of Humanity Is Terrible, Rec. #852

 
David Tennant Does a Podcast With ...: Best Listener, Rec. #847

The Guardian Blind Date: Best Vicarious Dating, Rec. #865

Knives Out: Best Time at the Movie Theater, Rec. #856

Nothing Like a Dame / Tea with the Dames: Best Overheard Conversations, Rec. #860

Alexandra Petri: Best Way to Reflect on the Year, Rec. #866

"Quite Good, Considering [Rosalind's a Nightmare]": Best Earworm, Rec. #858

Russian Doll: Best Worst Day, Rec. #846

Simone (The Good Place): Best Outfit for Any Situation, Rec. #854 

Superstore: Best Season-5-and-Going-Strong, Rec. #848

This Way Up: Best Depictions of Relatable Human Emotions, Rec. #862

Three Identical Strangers: Best Ripped-from-the-Headlines, Rec. #864

Alie Ward: Best Campaign Promise, Rec. #859

Wine Country: Best New Endless Rewatch Potential, Rec. #850