It seems like every time I hear a guest appear on a podcast to promote a new book, the author makes some comment along the lines of, "You get on Amazon, or at your local bookstore if you can actually find one of those anymore." That perplexes me, because from where I'm sitting, bookstores seem to be alive and well. Maybe those of us living in Minnesota are spoiled, but physical bookstores are still very much a going concern here. I probably wouldn't have discovered my favorite recent short story collection if not for the carefully curated selection at St. Paul's Black Garnet Books. Do yourself a favor and go hit up your local bookseller to dig into some of our picks for the year's finest literature.
Podcasts are in here too, but those live in your phone. You know how to find them. — Editor Ira
Books
Ira’s Picks
"What We Fed to the Manticore" by Talia Lakshmi Kolluri is a singular piece of work, a collection of short stories all told from the perspective of animals. It's moving, introspective, elegantly voiced stuff told with a confidence and sturdiness that makes these feel like time-tested folk tales and bracing contemporary fiction at the same time. The traumatized zoo donkeys, unmoored pigeons, and existentially challenged tigers who prowl Kolluri's debut collection will reside in my thoughts for a long while. – Editor Ira
Ruby’s Picks
I have three recommendations of recent books, but check out my review of every book I read this year.
"Promises Stronger than Darkness" by Charlie Jane Anders. This is the third book in the "Unstoppable" trilogy. Anders is hitting popular tropes in YA sci-fi, but she’s doing it better and more interestingly than anyone else. Read for a series that wrestles with the questions raised by teen books about meaning, identity, and what’s right. (And it’s gay and in space, my two favorite things.)
"How to Keep House While Drowning" by K.C. Davis. I am obsessed with this book. Most self-help books are bad. This one rules. It’s a tight 150 pages dealing with the emotional and practical factors that hold us back from making our spaces ones we want to live in. I am recommending this book to everyone I know.
"A Marvellous Light" by Freya Marske. Marske uses the rigid formality of a romance novel to play with a historical fantasy — the balance between the predetermined end-point of a romance novel and the excellent mystery of the rest of the plot is perfect. It’s deeply felt, creative, and satisfying, and there’s two sequels! – Editor Ruby
Brenna’s Picks
I don’t remember how I discovered Brandon Taylor, but I first read him on Twitter, then via Substack, and lastly his novel “The Late Americans.” It’s a literary story about a small, diverse group of friends in Iowa City, captured in photographic vignettes that present distinct people that still have echoing similarities in feeling isolated, ironic, and misidentified. If you want a gripping plot, you’ll be bored, but if you like exploring the challenges of modern life as told by Edith Wharton by way of a gay Black man, you’ll want to chew on this.
“A Whisker Behind”/The "Worlds Behind" Series by W.R. Gingell is urbane urban fantasy (and is much enhanced by, though a different narrative tone from, her "City Between" series, which is 11 books, but also so good). This new series follows Athelas, a complicated figure from the first series, as he goes to Korea to try to make amends for the past, and has to navigate some mysteries on the side. The writing is clever and quick-paced, but asks big questions about what the difference is between selfishness, kindness, and self-serving altruism. – EVP Brenna
Greg’s Picks
This year was big on anthologies for me. My partner and I read to each other before bed, and both “Never Whistle at Night” and “Out There Screaming” kept us up after storytime, compiling gripping and artful short horror tales from Indigenous and Black authors, respectively. Beloved podcaster and "Joe Pera Talks With You" co-star Jo Firestone self-published a delightful murder mystery novel about a hapless investigator getting to the bottom of a “Murder on Sex Island.” – Event Specialist Greg
Podcasts
Tony’s Picks
As someone who is about a decade behind in music and only got around to watching things like “The Sopranos” and “Terminator 2” this year, I spent a long while wondering if I had anything to recommend to you from the year 2023. Sure, I threw in a couple of video games, but do you need me to tell you to play “Tears of the Kingdom”? Probably not.
But even as a failed podcaster, I still retain my intense devotion to the medium, and as for recommendations? I can help you there. I’m not here to give you podcast recommendations as a whole, but to sort the wheat from the chaff that I listened to and give you the very best of what I listened to this year. Here are my four favorite episodes of the year (none of which you’d probably want to listen to with your kids, just a heads up):
Guys: A Podcast About Guys; “Pastafarians”
“Guys” is a weekly deep-dive into subcultures of various types of guys, and the Pastafarians are in the lead for being the most cringe-inducing type of guy. Find out how a kinda-funny, well-intentioned challenge to a Kansas school board is trying to morph into a religion with the trappings its secular origins tried to reject.
Lions Led By Donkeys; “The Night Witches of WWII”
We just talked about Guys, so let’s follow it up with a discussion about Witches. “Lions Led By Donkeys” is usually a show about how poorly-run militaries create disasters for their troops. This one subverts the formula by discussing a unit of women pilots that succeeded in spite of (and in some cases, because of) lackluster equipment, almost non-existent training, and risky orders. Those orders? Terrorize Nazis, which they did well enough to earn the “Night Witches” moniker.
Remember Shuffle; “Master and Commander: The Naval Gaze”
We’re gonna continue going down the History Dad route and go to a 2000s nostalgia podcast’s look at the 2003 historical fiction film and why it didn’t take off. To give context on the portrayal of the newly-created battlefields of the oceans of 1805, they bring in Napoleon expert Everett Rummage. Find out how accurate the portrayal of a British ship taking down a bigger, faster foe is, and join me in being convinced to watch a movie about Dudes Rocking on the high seas. And now I gotta learn more about Trafalgar, too. Being an aspiring History Dad means no rest.
Kill James Bond; “Austin Powers”
Having gone through the James Bond catalog and giving him “the socialist, feminist upcoming he so richly deserves,” the KJB crew takes on a new nemesis in an International Man of Mystery. Turns out: the film holds up and isn’t problematic at all.
Just kidding. Experience the revulsion the Brits experience learning that Mike Myers is a Canadian, more revulsion at the film simply repeating the tropes it wants to poke fun at, and who (probably) saved this movie featuring Will Ferrell in brownface being much worse than what we ended up seeing. The only thing funnier than their dunking on the film is their dread at having to follow it up with two more episodes to close out the trilogy. – Content Creator Tony
Greg’s Picks
I finally got into Defector’s “Normal Gossip” podcast. I’ve learned that what sets host Kelsey McKinney apart is the way she turns to her guests with Choose-Your-Own-Adventure questions frequently throughout the story, allowing them to inject unexpected energy into the stories. The December 20 episode about a pet mayoral race is a particular delight.
Other favorites this year included "Big Game Hunger," a show hosted by former Polygon-er Jenna Stoeber that tasks her guests with conceptualizing new video games according to randomly generated dice rolls. Lastly, I’ve sung the filthy shanties of (loose) D&D actual-play podcast “Rude Tales of Magic” in this space in past years, and they’ve just concluded their Class Dismissed arc with trademark flair. It’s now time for Weird Times in Piss Harbor, a serialized 1980’s-TV-inflected story with regular guest stars. They’re only two episodes into that as I write this, so it’s the perfect time to hop aboard with the Rude crew. – Event Specialist Greg
Ira’s Picks
I listened to an embarrassing number of hours of comedy podcasting this year, as per my usual. It was a bounceback year for a lot of stalwart favorites, notably "Hollywood Handbook," various Big Grande releases, Improv 4 Humans, and the entire Comedy Bang Bang universe, but no new podcast got me more than "The Rodge Tapes." Ben Rodgers' stone-faced deep dives into forgotten VHS-era trash movies (all of which are being made up on the spot) might as well have been developed with me and only me in mind. – Editor Ira
Those are all the words that are fit to print and/or pod in our estimation. Join us tomorrow for the gripping conclusion of our look back at 2023, as Trivia Mafia goes to the movies!
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