Best of the year (2018)

Best ofBooks

1 Jan

(Newsletter sent January 2019)

Hey friends,

One of the best things I did in 2018 was quit social media almost entirely. It's one of the best things I’ve ever done for my brain. That said, I do miss feeling connected with friends and readers who don’t live in Dublin or who I don’t get to see very often. So, I’m dusting off the old newsletter. I just double checked and I started this account way back in November 2011. My life has changed enormously since then. Writing is probably the only thing that has remained consistent.

This year, I published a bunch of pieces which you can find here. If you read just one, make it this piece. It’s about the New York Review of Book’s decision to fire their editor after he made some very poor #MeToo related editorial decisions.

Mostly though, I wanted to use this edition of the newsletter to recommend a few of my favourite things from 2018. This time of year, the internet is brimming with ‘best of’ lists. I always find the best content via friends and colleagues who read widely. So much of our internet consumption habits are dictated by algorithms, but there’s still nothing like the curatorial skills of an inquisitive mind at work. So, here are my recommendations. I’m limiting myself to 3 in each section, with a few ‘also rans’. Otherwise, we’d be here all day.

PODCASTS:

Esther Perel’s ‘Where should we begin?’ - recordings of actual couples therapy sessions.
Longform, an interview series with writers. Favourites episodes: Elif Batuman and Rebecca Traister
Death, Sex and Money, especially their ‘Manhood Now’ episode and this episode on friendship and infertility.

Also: Slow Burn, The Wilderness, this podcast on dying, Articles of Interest, The Cut on Tuesdays, Zig Zag, A few things, Ezra Klein (start with this episode on media), Layers, Last Seen.

FILM/TV:

Killing Eve. So good I watched it twice.
The final series of The Americans
Zootopia which is a kids film, but I loved it.

Also: This is us. The Fourth Estate. OITNB. The Intervention. Chapelle. Nanette. Disobedience. A Star is Born.

BOOKS:

The Recovering by Leslie Jamison
On Being Raped by Raymond M Douglas
The Believers by Rebecca Makkai

I read 51 books this year, most of which I loved.

ARTICLES:

What are your simple pleasures?
Style is an algorithm.
7,000 words on stinkbugs (trust me)
The legal crucification of Joanne Hayes (behind a paywall, unfortunately)
My first year sober - an illustrated personal essay
45 things I learned in the gulag
“It’s nothing like a broken leg” - on how we talk about mental health
Cliff Huxtable was Bill Cosby’s Sickest Joke
The family that build an empire of pain
Are we ready for robot sex?
His greatest masterpiece. Powerful piece from Irish writer Roe McDermott - published in 2015, but I read it this year.
And a controversial one: Junot Diaz on childhood trauma and, for context, Lili Loofbourow’s piece on the male self pardon.