The Best Awards 2024
A made-up award ceremony for some of my favourite things from the past year
Hello!
I was hoping to add a voiceover for this post, but I have succumbed to yet another cold and almost lost my voice. I blame the children. I don’t have any children of my own, but I have been working in a school for the past few months providing supply for a woman on maternity leave, and so I am around children all day. But to be fair, there are plenty of adults sneezing and coughing over everything and everyone.
2024 has definitely been the year of the cold. And these are not just a few casual sniffles and sneezes, I am talking ones that have settled rather inconveniently on my chest and have required some form of medication (and I include hot toddies here as a form of medication).
Anyway, I said that last week’s post was going to be my last for 2024, but I decided to throw one out there.
In my final post of 2023, I wrote about some of my early experiences since having started this newsletter. And I ended that post with something a bit daft — The Best Book Awards! It consisted of a shortish list that highlighted some of my favourite reads of the year. Therefore, I have decided to do the daft thing again, but expand this to include some other stuff.
So welcome to second edition of The Best Awards - I hope that you like it.
I’d love to know what you have been reading/watching/listening to/just generally enjoying in 2024. Please let me know in the comments!
The Best Awards 2024
🎧 📺 📻 Podcasts/Radio
The episodes are lengthy and the introductions sometimes leave you wondering where is this going? but this podcast is one of the funniest and most enriching things that I have listened to about the worlds music and culture. The host, Rob Harvilla has me hooked with his storytelling.
Plus, now there is a ‘60 songs that explains the 2000s’. Brilliant.
I love the dynamics between Richard Osman and Marina Hyde, especially when one of them is particularly passionate and knowledgable about a topic. (For example, Hyde knows a lot about Steven Seagel). One of my go-to podcasts each week.
This has turned into another of my go-to podcasts to catch each week. The episodes are tightly researched, and there are usually a range of guests that support the discussions rather than detract from them. The topics do lean more towards ‘corporate life’ (I am not sure that teachers/ex-teachers were the producers key market for this podcast), but Isabel Berwick’s warm and inquisitive manner helps steer conversations in a direction that most people can access.
My favourite podcast. I do miss Jane Garvey and more recently Emma Barnett, but Anita Rani and Nuala McGovern are a fabulous podcasting team.
🎶🎤 Music
For anyone who has been following this newsletter for a while, you will know that I am not necessarily one for keeping up to date with the most recent music releases. I like what I like, and rarely deviate. Therefore, this list contains a handful of my most listened to albums from the past year, although some are newer than others!
Don’t Forget Me — Maggie Rogers
The Greatest Love - London Grammar
I Hear You - Peggy Gou
Black Sands - Bonobo
Midnights - Taylor Swift (in my view, this is much stronger album than her latest release)
Cowboy Carter - Beyoncé
Ok, not an album, but I saw this single release a few weeks ago. A classic house track, remixed.
📚 Books
This was a tough list to cut down, so I have just included five of my favourite books from this year. Again, a bit like with the music list, some of these books were not published in 2024.
It’s a story about the publishing world. It’s also about racism and envy, and it reads like a thriller. I couldn’t put it down.
Toxic examines celebrity culture in the 2000s from the perspective of nine female celebrities e.g., Aaliyah Haughton, Britney Spears, and Janet Jackson. These were the early days of the internet but at the time many print magazines were king, at least in the fat-shaming, slut-shaming, and generally hating on women sense. I turned 17 in early 2000 and, yes I bought many of these magazines myself.
However, now in the 2020s, I sometimes wonder if times have moved on from this type of the toxic commentary about the female body. But after seeing some stories examining Ariana Grande’s weight while she has been promoting Wicked, I realise that we (or parts of the world) haven’t, and simply that the commentary has moved mostly online.
The sheer amount of research required for this book must have been immense, but I really valued how Ditum weaves many of the themes across the chapters. If you get the chance to read it, you will know what I mean as there are certain individuals who crop up time and time again.
Ditum is a British journalist and you can find her newsletter here on Substack.
This felt like an unconventional love story in many ways, where I had to remind myself that it was a love story and not a parody of workplace culture in the UK civil service. Of course, it can be both of these things, but I did find parts of the book very funny, and other bits incredibly moving.
TMOT is not necessarily an easy read, but this was less to do with the story itself, and more related with how I kept putting the book down to search for some of the accompanying details while reading along!
This is probably on a lot of people’s favourite book lists from 2024. I don’t have much more to add to the positive reviews. I loved it, and check out Sweet Sorrow if you haven’t already.
I came across this book in 2020 (around the time I read Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber), but only borrowed it from the library a few months ago after hearing Marina Hyde reference it in TRIE (see above). 10 reasons is concise and often funny, but ultimately it’s a cautionary tale about technology and social media. But it feels very current given the going-on’s in the WORLD right now.
Thank you for the support this year!
Till next time,
Sarah
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Best,
Sarah
Sarah, all your lists are interesting. Some I know and others I will check out. I love it when people share what they have been upto. It gives one so much insight into the person as well😉