Books of the Year 2022

As ever, I’ve listed below everything I’ve read this year — with the long overdue return to real life, there are fewer books here than in previous locked-down years. Those that surpassed my expectations are marked with *, and those that really disappointed me are marked with !

A Most Wanted Man, John le Carré

Current Intelligence, David Charlwood

The Mission House, Carys Davies

The Shelf, Helly Acton*

The Shack, William P Young

Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman

Bitter Orange, Claire Fuller

Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Demain, Guillaume Musso

Magpie, Elizabeth Day

The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober, Catherine Gray* (again!)

The Guest of Night, Lucy Underwood-Healy

Fatherland, Robert Harris*

The Party Crasher, Sophie Kinsella

The Instant, Amy Liptrot

Couples, John Updike

A Severed Head, Iris Murdoch

Open Water, Caleb Azumah Nelson

Exciting Times, Naoise Dolan

After I Left You, Alison Mercer

Treachery, S J Parris

The Ramage Hawk, John Pilkington

The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker

Death in the Andes, Mario Vargas Llosa !

When I Hit You, Meena Kandasamy

The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles

The Passion, Jeanette Winterson

The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey

Suez Crisis 1956, David Charlwood

The Woman in the Window, A J Finn

The Silver Thread, Kylie Fitzpatrick

The Yacoubian Building, Alaa Al-Aswany (in translation) !

Death on the Nile, Agatha Christie

The Couple at the Table, Sophie Hannah

Slow Horses, Mick Herron*

On Writing, Stephen King

The Liar’s Dictionary, Eley Williams

A Ruinous Wind, John Pilkington

Shows of the Year 2022

As is tradition, listed below are all the films and TV shows I’ve watched this year.  The ones that surpassed my expectations are marked with *, and any that I thought were overrated with !

Standalone films

Elvis

KungFu Panda

Four Lions*

Sorry We Missed You

Encanto

Stuck Together

Still Life*

West Side Story

House of Gucci

The Thirteenth Floor

Death on the Nile

The Most Unknown

TV series

Dead to Me, season 1

Happy Valley, seasons 1 and 2*

Harry & Meghan

Agatha Christie, Lucy Worsley

The Capture, season 2*

We Were Four

Love is Blind

The Crown, season 5

Unsolved Mysteries, season 3

KaDaWe

Inside Man

Never Have I Ever, season 3*

Le Bureau, season 1*

Tehran, season 1

Slow Horses, season 1*

Stalking Pete Doherty

Ozark, seasons 1-4*

Three Identical Strangers

The Pursuit of Love*

Chernobyl*

The Split

7Up: Millennials

House of Maxwell

Prisoners of War, season 1

Our House

Blackfish*

Ridley Road

Steps of Freedom

Jeremy Kyle: Death on Daytime

Married at First Sight Australia, season 9

Britain’s Forgotten Wars

Young Wallander, season 2

Carmel: Who Killed Maria Marta?

Caroline: The Murder that Fooled the World

Puppet Master

Chloe*

Showtrial

The Apprentice 2022

The English Game

Alice in Borderland, season 1

The Tinder Swindler

Challenger: The Final Flight*

Trigger Point

The Detectorists, seasons 1, 2, 3

The Pharmacist

The Tourist

House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths

Podcasts

The Lady Vanishes*

Up and Vanished

Paradise

Shows and films of 2021

I think I can fairly say I spent most of 2021 watching TV shows, with relatively few books and films thrown in. As before, anything particularly outstanding is rated with * and anything particularly woeful with !

Emily in Paris, seasons 1 and 2, 2021, Darren Star

The Girl Before, 2021, J P Delaney

Married at First Sight Australia, Season 8, 2020*

Squid Game, 1 season 2021*

Atypical, seasons 1-4, 2017-2021*

Vigil, one season, 2021

The IT Crowd, all 4 seasons, 2006-2010*

Motherland, seasons 1-3, 2017-2020*

Starstruck, 2021

Unsolved Mysteries, Netflix version, seasons 1 and 2, 2015, 2020*

The Investigator: a British crime story, season 1, 2016 !

Murder among the Mormons, 2021, Jared Hess

The Keepers, 2017, Ryan White*

Sophie: A Murder in West Cork, 2021, John Dover*

The Staircase, 2018, Jean-Xavier de Lestrade*

Never Have I Ever, 2020, Season 2*

This Way Up, 2019-2020, Seasons 1, 2*

Good Trouble, 2020, Season 3*

If I hadn’t met you, 2018 (one season)

10% (Call My Agent), Seasons 1, 2,  3, 4*

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, seasons 1, 2, 3, 4*

Fringe, Season 1

Line of Duty, season 6

El Desorden que Dejas, (The Mess You Leave Behind), 2020, Roger Gual

Crashing

The Circle UK, season 3*

The Circle UK celebrity

Money Heist/La Casa de Papel, seasons 1-4 of 4,  2017-2020, Jésus Colmenar

The Lost DNA

Lupin, season 1

The Vanishing at the Hotel Cecil

An American Murder*

A Teacher

The Secrets She Keeps

The Circle USA, season 1*

RuPaul’s UK Drag Race, season 1*

Bridgerton, season 1

How to Get Away with Murder, seasons 1 and 2

Surviving Death

 

Films:

 

The Holiday, 2006, Nancy Meyers !

Don’t Look Up, 2021, Adam McKay

Man Up, 2015, Ben Palmer

Nobody, 2021, Ilya Naishuller

The Tomorrow War, 2021, Chris McKay

The Settlers, 2021, Wyatt Rockefeller

Eli, 2019, Ciaran Foy

Minimalism: Less is Now (2021) !

Casting JonBenet, 2017, Kitty Green

Saint Frances, 2019, Alex Thompson

Fatima, 2020, Marco Pontecorvo

Sixty Six, 2006, Paul Weiland

Belle, 2013, Amma Asante

Exam, 2009, Stuart Hazeldine

The Gentlemen, 2020, Guy Ritchie

Pleasantville, 1998, Gary Ross

Flying Blind, 2012, Katarzyna Klimkiewicz

Circle, 2015 (Aaron Hann, Mario Miscione)

Eurovision: The Story of Fire Saga, 2020, Will Ferrell !

Idiocracy, 2006, Mike Judge

Tenet, 2020, Christopher Nolan

The Lobster, 2015, Yorgos Lanthimos*

White Tiger, 2021, Rahmin Bahrani

Vivarium, 2019, Finnegan and Garrett Shanley

7500, 2019, Patrick Vollrath

What Happened to Monday?, 2017, Tommy Wirkola

2067, 2020, Seth Larney

Books of the Year 2021

As ever, I’ve listed below everything I’ve read in reverse chronological order. Those that surpassed my expectations are marked with *, and those that really disappointed me are marked with ! (though there are far fewer of them this year!)

Silence of the Lambs, Thomas Harris*
Middle England, Jonathan Coe
Capital, John Lanchester
Ordinary People, Diana Evans
The Beekeeper of Aleppo, Christy Lefteri
The List and The Drop, Mick Herron*
Begotten, Not Made, Pat Higgins*
The Blue Castle, L M Montgomery
Property, Valerie Martin
Spook Street, Mick Herron*
Luster, Raven Leilani
The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman
Her, Harriet Lane
I Think I Might Be Autistic, Cynthia Kim
The Woman Next Door, Cass Green
Hold Your Tongue, Deborah Masson
He Said/She Said, Erin Kelly*
Becoming Strangers, Louise Dean*
Written in Blood, Diane Fanning
It’s Not Always Depression, Hilary Jacobs Hendel
The Perfect Marriage, Jeneva Rose!
The Source, Sarah Sultoon
The Shallows, Nicholas Carr*
Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg
The Ikigai Journey, Hector Garcia
Developing Your Intuition: A Guide to Reflective Practice, Talula Cartwright
How Women Rise, Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith*
Love Your Impostor, Rita Clifton
The Sleep Revolution, Arianna Huffington
Time to Think: Listening to Ignite the Human Mind, Nancy Kline*
Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman
Christmas Days, Jeannette Winterson
Deep Work, Cal Newport*
Grit, Angela Duckworth*
Cultural Misunderstandings, Raymonde Caroll
The Islandman, Tomas O Crohan
Ordinary Men, Christopher Browning
The Lost Man, Jane Harper*

Midwinter Music

The long Christmas break was the ideal time to quietly put together a short album of related songs on a wintry theme. Here is album #11, the last creative project of the unsettling and unprecedented year that was 2020.

Shows of the Year 2020

As is becoming usual, listed below are all the films and TV shows I’ve watched this year.  The ones that surpassed my expectations are marked with *, and any that I thought were overrated with !

Standalone films

  • The Hunt, Craig Zobel
  • Inheritance, Vaughn Stein
  • Serenity, Steven Knight
  • Yesterday, Danny Boyle
  • Contratiempo, Oriol Paulo
  • A Suitable Girl, Sarita Khurana and Smriti Mundhra*
  • First They Killed My Father, Angelina Jolie
  • Birdbox, Susanne Bier
  • The Platform, Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
  • The Proposal, Anne Fletcher
  • Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Céline Sciamma*
  • Two States, Abhishek Varman
  • The Two Popes, Fernando Meirelles
  • Aurore (I Got Life), Blandine Lenoir*
  • Sir, Rohena Gara*
  • Badla, Sujoy Ghosh
  • Judy, Rupert Goold
  • Contagion, Steven Soderbergh
  • American Woman, Jake Scott
  • Ad Astra, James Gray
  • Knives Out, Rian Johnson !

Shows/series

  • The Queen’s Gambit*
  • Journey with my Daughter
  • Utopia: season 1
  • The Man in the High Castle: seasons 1 and 2
  • Get Organized with The Home Edit
  • The Crown: seasons 1 to 3.5
  • Masaba masaba
  • Good Trouble: seasons 1 and 2*
  • Sex and Love around the World
  • Bandersnatch
  • We Are The Wave
  • A Suitable Boy
  • Normal People
  • Never Have I Ever*
  • Tiger King
  • When the Boat Comes in: seasons 1 and 2
  • The Inventor Out For Blood
  • Fall Cabal
  • Indian Matchmaking
  • I May Destroy You*
  • Line of Duty: seasons 1 to 5*
  • Killing Eve: season 3
  • After Life: season 2
  • Killing Eve: season 2
  • The Island !
  • The Messiah
  • Devs
  • Dr Foster: season 2
  • Dr Foster: season 1*
  • Orange is the New Black: season 1
  • After Life: season 1

Books of the Year 2020

As usual, I’ve listed below all the books I’ve read this year.

I choose books mainly based on recommendations from friends, followed by recommendations from reviews in the papers and on the radio, and then from suggestions on my Kindle and on sites like GoodReads.

Here’s the list in (reverse) chronological order. I’ve marked the ones that surpassed my expectations with *, and any that I thought were overrated with !

  • The Secret Within, AnneMarie Postma
  • The One, John Marrs
  • Love Your Life, Sophie Kinsella
  • House of Correction, Nicci French
  • The Easy Way for Women to Lose Weight, Allen Carr
  • The Casual Vacancy, J K Rowling
  • Fracture, Andrés Neumann
  • The Silent Patient, Alex Michaelides
  • My Dark Vanessa, Kate Elizabeth Russell
  • The 5 Love Languages: Singles Edition, Gary Chapman
  • The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas
  • The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron*
  • The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney, Okechukwu Nzeiu
  • Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert
  • Burnt Shadows, Kamila Shamsie
  • The Midnight Library, Matt Haig
  • The Guest List, Lucy Foley
  • The Hunting Party, Lucy Foley
  • The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
  • The Unexpected Joy of the Ordinary, Catherine Gray
  • Sofia Khan is Not Obliged, Ayesha Malik*
  • The Unexpected Joy of being Sober, Catherine Gray*
  • The Starless Sea, Erin Morgenstern !
  • Boundaries, Henry Cloud and John Townsend
  • The Panopticon, Jenni Flagan
  • I Choose Elena, Lucia Osborne-Crawley
  • Sharp Objects, Gillian Flynn
  • Forbidden, Tabitha Suzuma
  • Plague, Jean Ure
  • Strange Weather in Tokyo, Hirami Kawakami
  • Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo
  • Haven’t They Grown? Sophie Hannah
  • Unsheltered, Barbara Kingsolver
  • Ask Again Yes, Mary Beth Keane
  • Non-bullshit Innovation, David Rowan

Joanna Rubery: prize-winning writer

Read my prize-winning short stories, travel writing, and articles on language (for the OxfordWords blog). I’m also a songwriter and pianist.

Short stories and microfiction

Right of Way (first prize, 1000 Word Challenge) (“a beautifully-written story, focusing on the relationship between a driving instructor and his pupil. The characters are skilfully built, with genuine ambiguity.”)

Date with a Sociopath (published as a Narrative magazine iStory)

Fallout (finalist, Gotham Writers ‘Be a Hero’ competition)

The Photograph (highly placed, Grindstone Literary Academy) (“you tread that fine line between vagueness and giving just enough away to piece together a backstory. My first reactions were very strong for this piece and I championed it”)

Trapped (shortlisted for Writers Online)

Rewired (shortlisted for the Limnisa Short Short Competition)

Gooseberry (longlisted for the Irish Fish Flash Fiction Prize)

Travel writing

Europe

Lost in Translation…so I was: adventures in Irish English (published in New Zealand’s Christchurch Press)

Is Polish the most difficult European language to learn? (published on the OxfordWords blog)

Zucchini Flowers (Greece)

Fallen Angel (Belgium)

Why learn Italian? (published on the OxfordWords blog)

Jèrriais, the language of Jersey (published on the OxfordWords blog)

Paris in the spring? (published on the OxfordWords blog)

Americas

Loving Latin (Peru, Chile, Bolivia) (published on the OxfordWords blog)

Peruvian Blues

Niagara Flaws (Canada)

Asia

Vis-à-visa (published in Wanderlust magazine) (Cambodia)

Stranded in Sihanoukville (Cambodia)

Pacific

The First Tomorrow (New Zealand)

Articles on language (for the OxfordWords blog) include:

Foreign languages

Let’s just “call a cat a cat”: cat idioms in foreign languages

Can the Académie française stop the rise of Anglicisms in French?

From pralines to pasteurized milk: everyday things named after French people

From silhouette to leotard: more everyday things named after French people

This blog is a he: gender in foreign languages

TEFL and EFL ((Teaching) English as a Foreign Language)

 

10 British animal idioms and expressions (Advanced/Proficient)

10 common mistakes with prepositions made by learners of English (Beginner/Elementary)

10 mistakes made by learners of English (for teachers)

Other articles include

Flash fiction: short stories with a long lifespan

From room to zoom: a short history of the camera

Chasing the rainbow connection

The language of leap years

Relational language: the language of cousins

Songs

Favourites (Best of 2015-2019)

Latest album: Glass Heart (2020)