Top 5s

As a way of ensuring I update this website at least once a year, I'm planning on using this page to list a series of 5 things I like (mainly related to media consumption) each calendar year. None of these lists are ranked. If you find yourself on this page and think there's something I should listen to/read/watch, let me know via the email listed on the home page.

2024 top 5s


Albums

Cindy Lee- Diamond Jubilee

Los Campesinos!- All Hell

Laura Marling- Patterns in Repeat

Mdou Moctar- Funeral for Justice

Trust Fund- Has it Been a While?


Gigs

Los Campesinos! at the Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, 16 February

Mitski at the Hammersmith Apollo, London, 11 May

Marked Men at the Lexington Arms, London, 31 October

John Francis Flynn at the Junction, Cambridge, 26 October

Mdou Moctar at Electric Brixton, London, 3 July


Books I read for work

Agnes Smedley- Battle Hymn of China (1943)

Tara Zahra- Against the World: Anti-Globalism and Mass Politics Between the World Wars (2023)

Sam Lebovic- State of Silence: The Espionage Act and the Rise of America's Secrecy Regime (2023)

Andrew Bacevich- America’s War for the Greater Middle East (2016)

Felicity Barnes- Selling Britishness: Commodity Culture, the Dominions, and Empire (2022)


Books I read not for work

Shirley Collins- America Over the Water (2004)

Georgi Gospodinov- Time Shelter (2020)

Herman Melville- Moby Dick (1851)

Robert Danton- the Revolutionary Temper: Paris, 1748-1789 (2023)

Mark O’Connell- A Thread of Violence (2023)


Pubs I went to for the first time (one per city)

Whistler on the Green in Glasgow 

Quinns in Kentish Town, London

Highbury Vaults in Bristol

Osteria Il Vicoletto in Taormina

The Belgian Monk in Norwich


Memorable things I did: 

I got engaged!

I was best man at my brother's wedding!

I saw England beat the Netherlands in the Euro 2024 semi final in Dortmund  

I got to see my fiancée get better at a sport she loves (roller derby)

I started a postdoc and was able to spend much more time doing research


NB: I didn't watch many films or TV shows this year. I may decide to cheat and watch some 2024 big hitters in January and update here. 

2023 Top 5s


Albums

Lankum- False Lankum

Home Front- Games of Power

Ratboys- The Window

John Francis Flynn- Look Over the Wall, See the Sky

Joanna Sternbeg- I've Got Me


Gigs

Lankum at the Barbican, London 4 May

Pavement at the Big Top, Galway, 24 July 

Wednesday at the Black Cat, Washington DC, 18 June

HellCity, The Six Six, Cambridge, 13 August

Mitski, Union Chapel, London, 11 October


Films

Return to Seoul (Chou)

Reality (Satter)

Bottoms (Seligman)

How to Have Sex (Walker)

Killers of the Flower Moon (Scorcese)


Books I read for work

Greg Mitman, Empire of Rubber: Firestone's Scramble for Land and Power in Liberia (2021)

Brooke Blower, Americans in a World at War: Intimate Histories from the Crash of Pan Am's Yankee Clipper (2023)

Tamson Pietsch, The Floating University: Experience, Empire, and the Politics of Knowledge (2023)

Lisa Lindsay, Atlantic Bonds: A Nineteenth-Century Odyssey from America to Africa (2016)

Michael Denning, Noise Uprising: The Audiopolitics of a World Music Revolution (2015)


Books I read not for work

Irene Solà, When I Sing, Mountains Dance (2022)

Dan Charnas, Dilla Time (2020)

C Pam Zhang, How Much of These Hills are Gold (2020)

Seamas O'Reilly, Did ye Hear Mammy Died (2020)

Amia Srinivasan, The Right to Sex (2021)


Pubs I went to for the first time (one per city)

Cafe de Bonte Koe, Leiden

Locus Publicus, Delft

Lamb & Flag, Oxford

Salisbury Arms, Cambridge

Hi B, Cork

Bonus answer: Managed to get to Robert's Western World for a drink and a dance during a four hour layover in Nashville


Memorable things I did:

Designed and taught my first Master's course

Stroked a Capybara

Had my heart broken by Millwall (missed out on playoffs on last day of the season) and Bohs (lost the cup final) again

Returned to the podcast I started and once hosted, this time as a guest!

Took a train into the Pyrenees mountains


2022 Top 5s


Albums:

CMAT- If My Wife New I’d be Dead

Little Simz- NO THANK YOU

MJ Lenderman- Boat Songs

Billy Woods- Aethiopes 

Ye Vagabonds- Nine Waves 


Gigs:

The Scratch at The Underworld, London, 17 March

Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram at Cambridge Folk Fest, 31 July

The Mary Wallopers at The Portland Arms, Cambridge, 2 November

Martha at The Exchange, Bristol, 26 November

Paul Heaton and band (Jacqui Abbott was ill) at Sheffield Arena, 9 December

bonus answer: Chain Whip, Home Front and High Vis at New Cross Inn, London, 8 September (all three bands were great, significance of occasion intensified by events beyond the control of the performers)


Films:

Jackass Forever (Tremaine)

Licorice Pizza (Anderson)

North Circular (McManus)

Parallel Mothers (Almóldovar)

RRR (Rajamouli)


TV Shows: 

Barry

Big Boys

The Rehearsal

Top Boy

Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty


Books I read for work:

Terence Dooley, Burning the Big House: The Story of the Irish Country House in a Time of War and Revolution

Leigh Gardner, Sovereignty Without Power: Liberia in the Age of Empires, 1822-1980

Gary Gerstle, The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order

Kojo Koram, Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire

Sam Lebovic, A Righteous Smokescreen: Postwar America and the Politics of Cultural Globalization

bonus answer: Katherine Moran, the Imperial Church: Catholic Founding Fathers and United States Empire (this was published in 2020 but I only became aware of it this year, and wanted to give it a shout-out here because it's fantastic!)


Books I read not for work (I didn't read many books from 2022, I need to do better next year!):

Elizabeth Boyle, Fierce Appetites (2022)

Eamon Dunphy, Only a Game? (1976)

Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings (2014)

James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)

Olga Ravn, the Employees (2020)


Pubs I went to for the first time (one per city)

Six Bells, Cambridge 

Walsh’s, Stoneybatter, Dublin

Brothers III Lounge, New Orleans

Tig Cóilí, Galway

Crowleys, Kenmare


Memorable things I did:

Finished my first academic year of full time university teaching (loved it!)

Saw Bohemian and Millwall play home and away multiple times (overall win ratio for games I went to this year: 25%)

Visited the landing site of the first transatlantic telegraph cable in Valentia, Co Kerry

Revisited the Isle of Wight sand museum for the first time since I was 4

Graduated from my PhD  

bonus answer: got zoom bombed while giving a paper.