In 2019, Sally Rooney’s coming-of-age relationship novel, Normal People, easily made my top books of the year list. But at the time I only wrote a few sentences about why I found it so page-turning and powerful. Now only a year later, Lenny Abrahamson’s adaptation has debuted on Hulu, bringing a whole new audience to the story of Connell and Marianne.

Reading descriptions of either the book or the series, it’s not hard to imagine people jumping to the conclusion that this is a work of teen melodrama, and not for them. I should know: after seeing the trailers, I almost skipped the show DESPITE loving the book, because the marketing didn’t feel enough like the story I’d read and loved. On the surface, the series appeared exactly like the sort of schmaltzy romance the book did such a good job dissecting.

I’m pleased to report that the show, like the book, achieves something much more special. Something more complex and with greater depth than a will-they-or-won’t-they courtship drama. Though pretty quickly in, you find out they definitely will, then won’t, then will again, a lot, on and off for years. Which is more to the point of the project.

Sure, there’s a bit of that youthful tendency for the characters to think every setback is earth-shattering, or to make basic relationship mistakes that frustrate the more mature among us to no end. ( SWEET DANGLING CHAIN, CONNELL, JUST TELL HER WHAT YOU REALLY WANT.) But both the show and the book capture the unique intensity of first loves with such sensitivity, and then interrogates what t means to us so skillfully, that it becomes much more than a question of whether two characters get their happily ever after. Because as most of us know: they won’t. That’s not how life works. Rarely does a first great love become a lifelong one, even if at the time it feels like losing it means the end of the world.

What makes Normal People so smart and so powerful is that it’s not really about whether two people end up together. It’s more interested in how certain people — whether loves, or friends, or family (or that one asshole you’re not sure why anyone keeps inviting to parties, JAMIE) — these people leave their marks on us. They unlock something we’ve felt we had inside ourselves just waiting to be discovered, and they shape the people we eventually become.

It’s specifically not a love story for the ages, because these are Normal People. Normal People feel weird and misunderstood until finally someone sees us. Normal People fall in love for the first time (even if it’s not always romantic love), and they feel changed, even if that love doesn’t last, because it’s normal to screw it up. And in most cases, Normal People move on… past the loves and friendships lost, and toward an uncertain future, as best as they know how.

Who are the people that changed you the most, or set you on the course to who you are today?

What parts of who you are now would you attribute to those past relationships?

How might you be different if you’d never had those people in your life?

Same intro as 2018, but more emphatically for 2019. Man, I hate pre-list philosophizing, and it was even worse with end-of-decade lists.
Every site writes a too-long preamble to their year-end top-whatever lists, so I won’t. But I will say that I particularly like constricting lists to top 5 because a) they fit well on Twitter, but also b) for the sake of conversation. Whittling your list to 5 makes it hurt a little bit. Which it should! Especially when we talk about what really, truly impacted you, personally, and is gonna stick with you long after the year ends.

#2019TOP5 MOVIES

1 – THE BEACH BUM – This bonkers movie veers from sleazy to beautiful, ridiculous to philosophical, lodged itself in my brain, and made me rethink my own life between the WTF moments. Isn’t that what great art is for?
2 – JOHN WICK 3 – A marvel of technical skill, visual style and artful choreography. Combined with, honestly, how many times I’ll gleefully re-watch these vs ‘higher-brow’ fare, this series deserves more recognition.
3 – PARASITE – A masterpiece of precision camera and character work that dances between comedy, drama and thriller all while landing a resonant political theme. Weird, wild, and impressive — top to bottom (wink).
4 – MARRIAGE STORY – The raw emotion of the year’s two best performances definitely floored me, but the way the turmoil is tempered with wit and tenderness made it feel even truer. Deep, powerful stuff.
5 – LITTLE WOMEN – Gerwig took a century-old book for teen girls, injected it with energy and humor, and restructured the story to reveal timeless, relevant ideas the original only hints at. A genius script and a total joy.

NEARLY MADE IT – Jojo Rabbit, High Flying Bird, Standoff at Sparrow Creek, Last Black Man in San Francisco, Knives Out
DEFIANTLY ABSENT – The Irishman (merely overrated), Rise of Skywalker (massively disappointing), Uncut Gems (ugly, loud, dull), Joker (an outright disgusting travesty)

#2019TOP5 TV SHOWS

1 – WATCHMEN – It’s hard to believe this show even exists. So ambitious in its storytelling, complex in its exploration of the original’s themes in today’s world, and written, shot, scored, acted, and edited on another level. Damn.
2 – FLEABAG – I thought the first season was an expert bit of writing and acting, with one of my favorite characters on TV. The second deserves all the credit it’s getting, but the supporting cast in particular really stepped up.
3 – CATASTROPHE – My favorite couple on television. They’re not perfect, they’re not even always likable, but damn do I get it, and love watching the funnier version of all our inner thoughts brought to life with real heart.
4 – SUCCESSION – Filmed things that feel like plays are a weakness of mine, as are Shakespearean dramatics, so of course a beautiful show that’s mostly dialogue about the fall of rich assholes does it for me. Also, hilarious?
5 – DEAD TO ME – Though it’s just shy of trashy, I actually loved seeing two outstanding female actors work through friendship and grief while a murder lurks in the background giving everything an extra dash of tension.

NEARLY MADE IT – Veep, Barry, Mindhunter, Unbelievable, Better Call Saul (Was that even this year? Who cares, I love it.)
DEFIANTLY ABSENT – Game of Thrones (no surprise), The Mandolorian (very enjoyable! not that remarkable)

#2019TOP5 BOOKS

*note: I do not read fast enough to make book lists by year of release, so this, like most normal people’s I imagine, will be books READ this year instead.

1 – IF ON A WINTER’S NIGHT A TRAVELER by Italo Calvino – A daring feat of meta-story telling, this nested-doll novel — about the search for the end of another unfinished novel — explores what it means to write, to read, to tell stories, and to live. I couldn’t get enough of its pleasures or its insight.
2 – THE NICKEL BOYS by Colson Whitehead – Few books feel bound to be classics the next generation will be reading in school. This blunt yet heartfelt story of forgotten boys who’ve been through hell deserves to be.
3 – NORMAL PEOPLE by Sally Rooney – Emotionally my #1, because reading about two nerdy outcasts, who grow up feeling out of place in the world and only really themselves around each other, pierced my core.
4 – EXHALATION by Ted Chiang – Every story does what the best sci-fi does: poses a mind-bending question and explores what that means for normal, frail, limited human lives. Each one could be its own post here.
5 – SECRET EMPIRE by Nick Spencer – I’m all for the political turn taken by Captain America’s latest alternate-reality, exploring the tension between heroism and fascism. This crossover felt big, but focused on a worthy idea.

NEARLY MADE IT – WALKING: ONE STEP AT A TIME by Erling Kagge, OUTLINE by Rachel Cusk, FRIDAY BLACK by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
DEFIANTLY ABSENT – GOLDEN STATE by Ben Winters (great start, terrible end), LANCELOT by Walker Percy (painfully mysogynist, do not read)

#2018TOP5 GAMES

*similar note applies because damn are almost all games too long, meaning one can only play so many the year they’re released.

1 – OUTER WILDS – Like 2018’s #1 (Obra Dinn), this wasn’t close. A combat-free mystery, solved by discovering and decoding clues, while visiting weird planets, trapped in a time loop, in awe of the lonely universe. Wow.
2 – BATTLETECH – A must for fans of XCOM and the like, because once your squad are giant mechs, the tactical strategy foundation gains a layer of attrition, adding survival-by-the-skin-of-your-teeth drama to every battle.
3 – CELESTE – This simple-looking platformer hides tons of mechanical depth and challenge, and a sweet, sad story about dealing with depression, all set to a wonderful soundtrack — and I don’t even love platformers.
4 – OBSERVATION – Creepy, gorgeous, mysterious sci-fi that feels like playing 2001 with a bit of a dash of Alien and a little BioShock thrown in. And it’s short enough to play in a day! More games should be like this!
5 – CONTROL – Not enough big action games are cool with being weird. The 3rd-person action delivers a satisfying X-Men power trip, but the Twin Peaks-y, X-Files-ish world made it a far more memorable one.

NEARLY MADE IT – The Outer Worlds, Apex Legends, Jedi: Fallen Order, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
DEFIANTLY ABSENT – Also Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, because I really liked it but it was so punishing I gave up halfway through, which is a huge shame.

#2019TOP5 ALBUMS

1 – BE GOOD by Off With Their Heads – An almost platonic mix of burly riffs and melodic vocals that took me back to indie/punk favorites from my youth, in a year where I needed some loud guitars and angsty energy.
2 – ON THE LINE by Jenny Lewis – It comes on pretty gently, but spending time with this album reveals this rich warmth of sound and feeling that really wrapped its arms around me over time.
3 – MALIBU KEN by Malibu Ken – The trap style that’s so popular in current hip hop doesn’t do much for me musically, but this gonzo collab between lyrical master Aesop Rock and trippy fuzz-god Tobacco sure goddamn did.
4 – PURPLE MOUNTAINS by Purple Mountains – This forlorn, twangy plunge into regret stuck in my brain and moved my soul even before Berman left us — I even had tickets to the tour. Now, it’s etched in history.
5 – SOUND AND FURY by Sturgill Simpson – Rarely does such a departure make me love an artist even more, but the giant guitars and seething anger were a big swing that paid off. Bonus: the Netflix full-album anime video.

NEARLY MADE IT – I,I by Bon Iver, OPTIMAL LIFESTYLES by Pkew Pkew Pkew, DEAD MAN’S POP (REISSUE BOX SET) by The Replacements, and I think Lizzo is mandatory, right?
DEFIANTLY ABSENT – I didn’t listen to enough new music this year to be that disappointed in anything, though the latest New Pornographers seemed to be missing some magic.

So, what were your #2019top5 picks?

I’ve been participating in the annual Goodreads Reading Challenge since its inception in 2011 (succeeded five years, failed three), in which you set a personal goal of books to read that year. It’s a nice motivator throughout the year, and a fun little badge each December once I’ve sprinted to the finish, usually with a few short story collections or graphic novels.

This Atlantic article digs into why we effectively “give ourselves homework” in this way with books so much more often than other hobbies usually considered leisure:

Other forms of entertainment straddle that line—watching documentaries, for example, can be both educational and fun—but reading seems to inspire this gamification, homework-ification, and quantification to a unique degree. Perhaps that’s because society tends to view reading as an intrinsic good, whereas other media—movies, TV, the internet—are often seen as time-wasters. “Given many [people] feel they’re consuming too much media, the goal is usually to limit consumption,” Ayelet Fishbach, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business who studies goals, told me in an email. “In this sense, for many people reading is a virtue—so you want to increase it—while watching TV is a vice—so you try to limit it.”

Then, it goes a bit deeper into why… but not quite deep enough. Not a single interviewee admitted anything along the lines of, “It makes me feel smart. It’s part of my identity — that I’m a person who reads more than most, which isn’t hard, considering over a quarter haven’t read any and the average is only about 12.” Seems like a reporting miss to not get to why.

Why do you read as much as you do? Or not read as much as you do?

What do you get from it beyond the content of the books themselves, or what do you free yourself up to do by not reading more?

What, if any, inherent value is there in reading books at all?

Every site writes a too-long preamble to their year-end top-whatever lists, so I won’t. But I will say that I particularly like constricting lists to top 5 because a) they fit well on Twitter, but also b) for the sake of conversation. Whittling your list to 5 makes it hurt a little bit. Which it should! Especially when we talk about what really, truly impacted you, personally, and is gonna stick with you long after the year ends.

#2018TOP5 MOVIES

1 – SORRY TO BOTHER YOU – Wildly original, dense with ideas, perfectly performed, and hilariously weird, but never loses its anti-capitalist thread (even at the point everyone seems to think it does, and I will fight on this).
2 – A FUTILE AND STUPID GESTURE – David Wain directs an extraordinary cast, led by an outstanding Will Forte, in a funny, moving origin story to the particular sense of absurd humor that has shaped my entire life.
3 – WIDOWS – An artful, thoughtful, politically aware (but still badass!) take on the heist genre that deserves to live alongside Heat and other classics, but with the visual care and performances of a Terence Malick film.
4 – BLACK PANTHER – A ripping Marvel blockbuster that still takes on ideas as big as colonialism vs revolution, and where every supporting character is as memorable as the lead.
5 – ANNIHILATION – Wonder and beauty mix with dread and horror to create an unsettling and surprising feast of unforgettable images and philosophical quandaries to chew on long after the film ends.

NEARLY MADE IT – Eighth Grade, The Favorite, Into the Spider-verse, The Death of Stalin
DEFIANTLY ABSENT – Roma

#2018top5 TV SHOWS

1 – THE GOOD PLACE – Even in its not-best season, a deeply kind show this joke-dense, intelligently written, and in which every character is so lovable and expertly performed, is 100% still the best thing on TV.
2 – HIGH MAINTENANCE – No other series shows such a deep empathy for such a wide range of characters just trying to get through a life that can be lonely and sad but never without moments of beauty and joy.
3 – WILD WILD COUNTRY – This (almost unbelievable?) cult documentary confronts viewers with its conflicting ideologies, forcing us to examine our own beliefs, whose side we’re on, and why, like nothing I’ve ever seen.
4 – AMERICAN VANDAL – How this show pulls off a cutting true-crime satire AND a genuinely heartfelt story about teenage life, while remaining an actually-compelling mystery story, continued to blow my mind in year 2.
5 – ALTERED CARBON – The premise of portable identity unlocks so much, but the future-noir setting, martial arts action and gorgeous production sealed the deal. Thoroughly enjoyable and constantly thought-provoking.

NEARLY MADE IT – Killing Eve, Succession, Atlanta, Legion, Better Call Saul, Big Mouth (whoa I watch too much TV)
DEFIANTLY ABSENT – Sharp Objects, The Americans, Ken Burns’ The Vietnam War (I know that wasn’t this year but man I want those 20 hours back)

#2018top5 BOOKS

*note: I do not read fast enough to make book lists by year of release, so this, like most normal people’s I imagine, will be books READ this year instead.

1 – EXIT WEST by Moshin Hamid – Profound yet lighthearted, a pleasure to read while tackling the toughest challenges of refugee living, this magical realist world and the love story at its heart moved me deeply. A must read.
2 – THE POWER by Naomi Alderman – In a world where men have to fear women for once (they can electrocute through touch), everything changes, and this story digs deep into the many myriad effects that has. Loved it.
3 – MS MARVEL VOL 1 by G Willow Wilson – I haven’t fallen so hard so quickly for a main character in ages. Quirky, nerdy, teenaged Kamala Khan dealing with newfound powers in this punkish, witty comic is a delight.
4 – ALTHOUGH OF COURSE YOU END UP BECOMING YOURSELF by David Lipsky – Spending time with a genius offers you the privilege of a peak into his incredible mind, but also forces you to face your own insecurities as someone who will never be one. DFW was a treasure.
5 – SEA OF RUST by C Robert Cargill – This pulpy Mad Max-but-with-robots future story also conceals all kinds of questions about the conflicts that arise when AI start governing themselves. (I would love to see an anime adaptation.)

NEARLY MADE IT – IQ by Joe Ide, LESS by Andrew Sean Greer, THE VISION by Tom King
DEFIANTLY ABSENT – THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING by Joan Didion, MANHATTAN BEACH by Jennifer Egan, ANNIHILATION by Jeff VanderMeer

#2018top5 GAMES

*similar note applies because damn are almost all games too long, meaning one can only play so many the year they’re released.

1 – RETURN OF THE OBRA DINN – Unique stippled art and elegant design made this game beautiful. Clever plotting and an ingenius mystery-solving mechanic made it unforgettable. A tight, intriguing, somber masterpiece.
2 – INTO THE BREACH – Removing the element of chance makes each tactical mech battle a perfectly intellectual puzzle-solving exercise that’s so satisfying to play and eventually conquer that it’s impossible to put down.
3 – MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN – The most gorgeous game of the year. Not just for its city, its fluid web-swinging animations, and its thrilling action set-pieces, but for its earnest hero and sympathetic villains. One of the best Spidey stories ever put to screen.
4 – FEAR OF LOATHING – Game writing tending to the eye-rolling, this stick-drawn western RPG succeeds on its laugh-out-loud (honestly! the jokes are that good!) writing but gets extra points for balancing depth with fun.
5 – WHAT REMAINS OF EDITH FINCH – More games should be comfortable with the artistic, the abstract, and the emotional in their storytelling. This beautiful short story of a game tries weird, crazy things and opens new doors to what games could look like.

NEARLY MADE IT – God of War, Goragoa, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
DEFIANTLY ABSENT – Red Dead Redemption 2

#2018top5 ALBUMS

1 – HISTORIAN by Lucy Dacus – The mix of introspective lyrics, beautiful voice, and loud-quiet-loud guitars are what I look for in most music, and this album stayed in my rotation all year long for nailing it so well.
2 – HOPE DOWNS by Rolling Blackouts, Coastal Fever – When most straight-up indie rock is either seemingly absent or sad bastard dad stuff, a power-pop record with this kind of energetic bounce is so, so welcome.
3 – HEAD OVER HEELS by Chromeo – These dudes are unapologetically horny and I love it. Every song is about wanting to make sweet love in a charmingly silly, totally catchy, perfectly pop way.
4 – FUTURE ME HATES ME by The Beths – Girls and guitar riffs was a huge theme of most of the music I loved this year, and this one just happened to do that wonderful mixture the best out of many. Punky good fun.
5 – LP5000 by Restorations – The best songs off this short album were the ones that got stuck in my head the most this year. A throwback to full-throated, unapologetic feeling in simple, soaring indie rock shout-alongs.

NEARLY MADE IT – ORDINARY CORRUPT HUMAN LOVE by Deafheaven, DANCE ON THE BLACKTOP by Nothing, SOME RAP SONGS by Earl Sweatshirt, EVERYTHING MATTERS BUT NO ONE IS LISTENING (QUIET SLANG) by Beach Slang (the best band working)
DEFIANTLY ABSENT – I’ll forever love both of them, but the new albums by CHVRCHES and DECEMBERISTS didn’t reach their previous heights, for me.

So, what were your #2018top5 picks?

Lately I’ve been gravitating toward sci-fi stories, no matter the medium. The way good sci-fi focuses so clearly on asking an interesting question, then exploring the implications of the answers that come back… strikes some chord deep in my brain.

Looks at website description above.
Oh. Right.

Sea of Rust doesn’t strive for literary prose or nuanced character study. But it does explore a specific potential version of a post-humanity world with a surprising depth of thought and feeling.

In this version, humanity created AI, and AI destroyed humanity. In the aftermath some AI are individuals, former servants or laborers scrounging for survival in a robotic Mad Max-style future. And they live in fear of hive-mind-style OWIs — skyscraper-sized “One World Intelligences” fighting to be the one and only being left on earth. OWIs want to subsume every other mind in existence; or use their mind-linked automaton armies to wipe out anyone who still clings to independence.

What it means to be an individual, what it means for a machine to have a soul, the long-term purpose of any “thinking thing” in the universe; these are big questions for a fun genre book full of robot gun fights. Instead of stopping at Terminator‘s Skynet, this book wonders what comes next when the artificial intelligences that outlive us start having conflicts among themselves.

What will the robots fight over once we’re all gone?

Is there anything essentially human they’d value enough to maintain in our absence?