Peek Inside My 2024 Pop Culture Diary
(I've never shown it to anyone before!)
It’s that time of year: Best-of lists, holiday gift guides, Spotify Wrapped. We’re all looking back as we move forward to a new year.
I can’t resist joining in, especially since I keep a detailed pop culture diary of everything I read and watch and have done so for the past five years.
If I think about free happiness, fulfilling this daily ritual fits that category. I never show it to anyone; it’s just my way of keeping a record of the past twelve months. But since I have this newsletter, I thought it would be fun to show a little of it here.
Here are some of the pop culture highlights of the year, accompanied by a peek inside my diary. (If you’d like to keep one too, I follow the same format as Steven Soderbergh’s. But the word count and step counts are my own quirks.)
Most satisfying communal experience, part one (Hint: It wasn’t Feud)
If you’re a Real Housewives fan, then you know (and might be tired of) the RHOSLC quote “Receipts, timeline, screenshots” that lit up social media at the start of 2024. But for me, it was former Real Housewife Phaedra Parks taking down Dan Gheesling on Season 2 of The Traitors that made for incredible TV viewing, especially when accompanied by everyone’s reactions and running commentary on what used to be known as Twitter. Having quit the bird app, I’m not sure if we’ll ever recapture that kind of real-time online watercooler conversation again. So I’m really glad to have that experience one last time with this fun and twisty reality show.
Most satisfying communal experience, part two
It’s not often I get the chance to a see something that has already attained legendary status as it is still happening. But as a Sondheim fan I was beyond excited to see the Broadway revival of Merrily We Roll Along a few days before it ended its run. It was truly special, and experiencing this with an enthusiastic (and at times emotional) audience was one of my happiest pop culture moments of the year.
(I wrote about my other happiest pop culture moment here, which insanely and wonderfully resulted in this.)
The book that convinced me I could read novels as audiobooks
I had a goal of upping the number of books I read this year compared to last year, and I think I’ll do so, but barely. Audiobooks have helped me with my goal, specifically Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Malibu Rising. There is a reason that Julia Whelan is considered the “Adele of audiobooks.” My attention can easily wander, but Whelan kept me riveted the entire time. And now I’m open to listening to more novels in the future. (Note: I also enjoyed Anamely Salgado Reyes’ debut novel My Mother Cursed My Name, and blurbed it too.)
The TV show I rewatched that helped me revise my novel
And when I say “helped,” I mean that it kept me company while I worked. My upcoming novel The Other Lata is set in 2013 in New York City, and fashion and Fashion Week figure into my story’s plot. I first watched The Rachel Zoe Project when it originally aired in the early 2010s, so it was the ideal show to have on in the background during revisions. Rachel Zoe, the show and the person, is a perfect time capsule of fashion and celebrity culture of that era (so many oversized belts and leather leggings!). In particular, the Oscars episodes are worth watching to see all the work and accompanying drama that goes into dressing celebs for award shows.
Plane movie double feature that had me 😂 then😭
I read this list of the best plane movies with great interest, because of the two films I watched back to back on a cross-country flight this summer: Wicked Little Lies made me giggle into my complimentary peanuts (Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley are great, but We Are Lady Parts star Anjana Vasan steals the whole thing) while the Reading Rainbow documentary Butterfly in the Sky had me close to bawling from the moment I heard the theme song and was transported back to my childhood, watching LeVar Burton1 warmly talk about books with the his trademark smile.
The day my pop culture consumption was most thematically aligned
The ☠️ of it all didn’t occur to me at the time! But despite their dark themes, Only Murders in the Building, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone and Death, Let Me Do My Special all made me laugh too. (It just occurred to me that a metaphorical kind of slaying happens on The Anonymous and Real Housewives of New York City, since reality people are constantly throwing each other under the bus.)
The novel that introduced me to a wondrous work of art
As many of are wont to do as the year comes to end, I’m trying to squeeze some books in before the New Year by reading shorter books. This includes Orbital, about six astronauts experiencing the profundity and mundanity of living on an international space station orbiting Earth. It is a lovely and sometime haunting reflection on humanity and mortality, written with some of the most beautiful and stirring language I have ever read. It won the Booker Prize for a reason! Beyond that, Orbital also introduced me to Diego Velazquez’s Las Meninas, an incredible painting that takes on subjectivity and perspective in such an inventive way. I just keep staring at it, marveling at what Velazquez created.
My favorite television shows of the year
This is one of the most popular things I’ve ever tweeted (threaded?) in a long time, and I’m really glad it resonated. All of these shows can be found in my pop culture diary, as well as Bad Sisters (which inspired this tweet/thread that I’m also glad is connecting). I am going to miss Somebody Somewhere SO much but am so glad we had three seasons of it. Same with Girls5Eva2. On the other hand, it has been wonderful to see that the other shows in this post are enjoying success this year, demonstrating there is a big audience for these types of series. Hopefully it means we will get more shows like this in the future (and with more diverse representation too.)
As this is my final newsletter of the year, I just wanted to share that I also have another Substack that I cofounded with my friends, Ministry of Pop Culture. We launched in August and were thrilled to recently be named a Featured Publication! Also really proud of the two stories I published there recently (and show that crying and pop culture are two ongoing themes in my life):
And lastly, my third novel The Other Lata comes out April 1, and if you are so inclined, it would mean a great deal if you preordered it or requested it at your local library.
Wishing you a festive and/or restful holiday season (as everyone’s preferences are different or can differ on the day!) and thanks so much for reading. 💖
I met LeVar Burton at a gala last year and cried after saying only a few words to him. 🤦🏽♀️
Anytime I think of this show, the theme song never fails to get stuck in my brain. Especially “What are you waiting five?”
Like minds!!!
I really liked “Orbital” also, and just went back and read her earlier novel “The Western Wind,” which was COMPLETELY different.