2024 Media Wrapped

Where I make lists of my favorite things of 2024!

New Year’s Eve/New Year’s is my favorite holiday because I get to make long lists of things about stuff I like. That’s what this whole post will be, so hopefully that’s as fun for you to read as it is for me to write!

Me at Giovanni’s Room bookstore in Philly. Photo taken by sweet friend Sarah Gordin.

Books

I went feral with books this year. As of my writing this, I’ve read 111 books. Granted, some of those were novellas, some were graphic novels, and some were children’s books. But at the end of the day, a book is a book and I read 111.¹

The General Stats

Fiction: 96 books
Nonfiction: 15 books
Top Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Fantasy
Format: 31% print books, 39% digital², 31% audiobooks

I had 14 five-star reads this year. That may seem like a lot, and I do think it is, but compared to 111 read books, it’s a pretty small percentage: 12.6% of all the books I read were identifiably masterpieces to me.

My Storygraph-made rating breakdown for 2024.

I’ll say it: I’m picky about my five-stars! In order to earn that rating, I have to believe the book will stay with me forever and/or has no flaws. Here are those that fit the bill in 2024, with a separate list for re-reads.

Five Stars, New to Me:

1. You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi (romance, literary fiction)

2. Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood (romance)

3. The Pairing by Casey McQuiston (romance)

4. Know My Name by Chanel Miller (memoir)

5. The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green (nonfiction essays)

6. PS: I Hate You by Lauren Connolly (romance)

7. Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas (fantasy)

8. Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas (fantasy)

9. Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas (fantasy)

Five Stars, Re-Reads:

1. The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan (fantasy)

2. The House of Hades by Rick Riordan (fantasy)

3. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton (literary fiction)

4. Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake (romance)

5. Iris Kelly Doesn’t Date by Ashley Herring Blake (romance)

It is so unbelievably hard to pick a favorite book of the year, but when considering books that I had to pause nearly every chapter and say “wow” aloud, it is a three-way tie between Know My Name, Not In Love, and The Pairing.

My top three books of the year

Why these three? Each of these three books knows exactly what it is and is entirely unafraid of it. Know My Name is Chanel Miller’s reclamation of voice and an unflinching excavation of sexual trauma and the justice system. Not In Love is a complex and erotic (in all senses of the word) love story about the intensity of romance. The Pairing is indulgent in every way possible; a story of two people who are older and pettier and more in love than their past selves ever could have imagined. All three of these books boast stunning writing and include sentences that slam into your heart alongside snort-worthy jokes.

This is just a brief overview of my book thoughts for the year. I’ve included an indulgent group of book lists in this post, too. If you have thoughts on these books, or reading or anything really, leave a comment!

TV

So many books read did come at the cost of shows watched. However, I found myself watching more TV than last year, and I enjoyed lots of it. Here’s a list of my favorite shows:

1. English Teacher, season 1

2. Heartstopper, season 3

3. Sex Lives of College Girls, seasons 1-2 (I’m still watching season 3 ok!!)

4. St. Denis Medical, season 1 (still airing)

5. Arcane, season 2

Still from English Teacher

Honestly, my favorite watch of the year was probably English Teacher. It’s a funny show that’s gay and makes me laugh out loud. Heartstopper was my favorite for all the opposite reasons (except the gay part): season three tore out my heart.

Movies

This was a year of successfully seeing more movies than last year! I watched 51 movies, which is a lot for me. I felt like I was more up to date with current films than I have been probably ever in my life. The issue with that: lots of movies are mid! This is true of all art I think, but I’m especially picky about movies—luckily, going to the movie theater is such a fun event in and of itself that I often don’t mind mediocre movies if I can sit in the loving embrace of the AMC.

That being said, I did see a lot of movies I liked. Most are new releases because I’m an AMC A-list member (brag), so to make the most of my subscription, I go out and see movies more than I stay in and see movies. Here were my favorites, in no particular order.

1. Scrambled

2. Poor Things

3. Kneecap

4. My Old Ass

5. Challengers

6. Turtles All the Way Down

7. We Live in Time

8. The Wild Robot

9. Wicked

10. The Menu

It’s hard to choose a favorite out of this list because I liked them all for different reasons (sounding a lot like the same issue I had with choosing favorite books…). But I do think Scrambled and Kneecap are the most underrated on this list, so I’m going to give them the spotlight.

Stills from Scrambled and Kneecap

Scrambled is the story of a millennial woman deciding to freeze her eggs. It is a horribly good portrayal of being a woman and getting older and having to contend with heavy woman questions. The ending is cheesy, but whatever. Kneecap is based on a real-life Irish rap group called Kneecap, and the actors in the movie are the rappers themselves. It was a really fun movie and a really interesting look into decolonization/colonization of language.

Music

I finally cracked 100k minutes listened this year! I know what you’re thinking: Alison, how did you have time to read so many books and watch so many movies and listen to so much music? The answer is that I’m a loser! This is most of what I do with my time!³

BTS was once again my top artist of the year, which is extra impressive because they A) did not release any music as a group this year and B) all released solo stuff, so you’d think my listening to them as soloists would split the vote, but no. BTS as a group reign supreme. RM followed closely behind and that’s because he released the best album of the year and also just the best album period.

There was so much good music released this year it’s genuinely hard to comprehend. I will try to comprehend it below. I also did try to rank these in order, and it was a real challenge.

Favorite Albums:

1. Right Place, Wrong Person, RM

   1. Hard to explain just how good of an album this is. So sonically creative and lyrically interesting. I wrote about it in another blog post.

2. Alligator Bites Never Heal, Doechii

3. Happy, Jin

4. Vertigo, Griff

5. What A Devastating Turn of Events, Rachel Chinouriri

6. eternal sunshine, Ariana Grande

7. Hit Me Hard and Soft, Billie Eilish

8. Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé

9. The Great Impersonator, Halsey

10. Don’t Forget Me, Maggie Rogers

11. Brat, Charli XCX

12. Ate, Stray Kids

13. Haute Couture, MISAMO

14. God Said No, Omar Apollo

15. In Search of the Antidote, FLETCHER

Favorite Songs

These are not listed in a rank order because that would be too hard. But they are all 2024 releases.

1. Nuts, RM

2. Who, Jimin

3. LALALI, Seventeen

4. Good Luck, Babe!, Chappell Roan

5. Mood Swings, Little Simz

6. Nissan Altima, Doechii

7. Falling, Jin

8. Slim Pickins, Sabrina Carpenter

9. Domodachi (feat. Little Simz), RM

10. we can’t be friends (wait for your love), Ariana Grande

11. Never Let Go, Jungkook

12. Lithonia, Childish Gambino

13. Chk Chk Boom, Stray Kids

14. WORK, ATEEZ

15. Around the world in a day (feat. Moses Sumney), RM

16. SOMETHING AIN’T RIGHT, XG

17. Texas Hold ‘Em, Beyoncé

18. Killin’ It, P1Harmony

19. FRI(END)S, V

20. Coming Home Song, Sammy Rae & The Friends

21. APT., Rosé, Bruno Mars

22. Vertigo, Griff

23. Neva Play (feat. RM of BTS), Megan Thee Stallion

24. Ego, Halsey

25. Igloo, Kiss of Life

26. Drain Me!, Towa Bird

27. Genius, Ravyn Lenae

28. Mamushi (Remix) [feat. Twice], Megan Thee Stallion

29. Heart on the Window (with WENDY), Jin

30. Come back to me, RM

Live

My New Year’s resolution, as it so often is, is to try and see more live performances. I saw a handful of shows that reminded me that I love theatre and it’s worth spending money on. I didn’t go to that many concerts this year, but I already know next year will be different (everyone is touring, so that’s inevitable).

I also started going to author events this year. They’re so cool! Not sure why it took me so long to do this. It’s so fun to hear authors talk about their books and celebrate new releases with them.

Theatre

1. Gatsby, American Repertory Theater

2. Maybe Happy Ending, Broadway

3. Appropriate, Broadway

4. Romeo + Juliet, Broadway

5. In The Heights, Middlesex County Plays in the Park

6. Sapphest, NYC (my short play, green and blue!, was part of this inaugural festival!)

7. Ragtime, New York City Center Encores!

8. Cabaret, Broadway

My sisters with the Gatsby playbill. This is the only photo evidence I have since they put our phones in phone jail, but luckily I had a nifty film camera

My favorite show of the year was Gatsby, directed by Rachel Chavkin with music and lyrics by Florence Welch (of Florence + The Machine). Sometimes, you see a piece of theatre, and you think, like an old-timey arts patron, “ah yes this is why we have the theatre!” Sometimes theatre makes such a use of stage, choreography, blocking, acting, lyrics, costumes, etc. that you think yeah, this couldn’t be anything other than theatre. To me, this makes for the best performances and most rewarding theatre-going. Gatsby had this, and I’m dying for a cast recording. I went with my sisters to Boston just to see it, and it was so worth it.

I’ll also add that Maybe Happy Ending made me feel this way as well. And that one you can still go see, so run to NYC to do so!

Author Events

The author events I attended were for authors who I’ve been following for awhile. I wish I lived closer to NYC so I could more easily go to debut author events and discover more authors this way, but alas, NJ Transit has failed me one too many times.

1. Tessa Bailey, book launch for The Au Pair Affair

2. Ashley Herring Blake, book launch for Make The Season Bright

3. Rainbow Rowell, book launch for Slow Dance

   1. Side note is that Rainbow Rowell is the author of Eleanor & Park, a YA romance novel that, to this day, is my favorite book. It’s so special to me and is the only book I ever finished and then flipped right back to the beginning to read again. I finally got that same copy signed by Rainbow Rowell this summer, ten years later, and it felt very full circle.

4. Alice Oseman, discussion about Heartstopper season three and all of Alice’s work

At the Heartstopper/Alice Oseman event

Concerts

One of my slowest years for concerts, but all the ones I went to slapped. A win is a win!

1. Chappell Roan, Boston Calling Music Festival

2. Renee Rapp, Boston Calling Music Festival

3. Megan Thee Stallion, Boston Calling Music Festival

4. Hozier, Unreal Unearth Tour

5. Maggie Rogers, The Don’t Forget Me Tour

6. Seventeen (nights 1 and 2), Seventeen [Right Here] World Tour in U.S.

7. Sammy Rae & The Friends, Camp: The Tour

Film image of Chappell Roan at Boston Calling

In Conclusion

2024 was a busy year! I think I can safely say that I’m settling into adulthood (finally). This is the first year since I graduated college that I haven’t switched jobs or been trying to change my job. It’s the first year I haven’t moved or had any plans to move. Essentially, I’ve let myself be content with where I’m at. It’s quite refreshing. I get why people enjoy consistency in life!

The first half of the year was much more successful for my writing. I finished a big project and started taking it to the next steps. I had a short play put on at a queer festival! I won the staff essay award at Princeton! And then I got some strange variation of writer’s block in September that I’ve been unable to escape since. I don’t have motivation to write; I think I’m daunted by the idea of starting a new big project that will take years to create. But I just have to do it, so here’s hoping 2025 will be the year I do.

In reflecting on 2024, I reread my 2023 Media Wrapped where I thought about 2024. At the end of the post, I said: “At the very least, I can guarantee I’ll read a book that makes me cry and listen to a song that will become one of my new favorites. That much I’m sure of.” And I did, and that makes me very happy. I knew I said I was sure of it, but it’s fun to be on the other side of it now, knowing what those songs and books are.

I think this is what I hope for 2025, too. It’s so genuinely cool to me that every year brings new music and new books, or even things that have existed for years that I’ve never been aware of, that will make me love being alive.

That’s really all I want for 2025. I want to listen to music that makes me head-bang, see theatre that makes me cry, read books that make me clutch my chest, see movies that make me laugh. The older I get, the more I realize that’s really what it’s all about for me.

I love that these activities are so often communal, too. I go to concerts with friends, invite people to the movies, go to NYC with my family and see shows, call long-distance friends to gab about recent reads, play my new favorite songs in cars on road trips, join book clubs to read entire series’ of books with people I love.

Here’s to 2025! The years just keep getting better, and I have a hunch 2025 will rule even more than I can imagine.

1. A few people have asked how I manage to read this many books. The easiest answer I can give: audiobooks! This just allows reading to be more accessible, letting me listen just about anywhere any time. The second answer is that I do it a lot. I spend most weeknights reading anywhere from 30 mins to 3 hours. It’s my favorite activity!

2. One of the best things that happened to me this year was buying myself a Kobo e-reader. I did the math, and I have saved hundreds of dollars by using my library card and e-reader rather than buying books. If you’re looking for an e-reader and don’t want to support Amazon by buying a Kindle (please join me in hating Amazon and their stance on reading!!), I really recommend a Kobo.

3. The other answer is that I listen to music most of the day. I listen while I read, and I listen during work, which means I almost always have a backing track.