2019 Favourites

As well as a roundup of my year itself, I love writing a list in December of everything I enjoyed throughout the year. I did this in 2017 here, and in 2018 I did a list of my favourite books here. 

I won't be doing any big "best of the decade" roundups because honestly? They completely stress me out and 10 years is just such an overwhelmingly long stretch of time (I'm still working on a post of what I've learned in TEN YEARS of blogging and it's a lot!).

So here's what I loved in 2019...

Books I loved in 2019

I read 103 books in 2019 (a new record for me!). I read some absolutely amazing books, a lot of really great books, and a lot of not-so-great books. So here are the books I absolutely loved in 2019 (in reverse read order cause I got them all from my Goodreads...):

• Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout
• One True Thing by Anna Quindlen
• Miller's Valley by Anna Quindlen
• The Last Girlfriend on Earth by Simon Rich
• Girl Woman Other by Bernadine Evanisto
• The Confession by Jessie Burton
• Becoming by Michelle Obama
• The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
• The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
• How not to be a Boy by Robert Webb
• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins-Reid
• Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins-Reid
• Pet Sematary by Stephen King
• Invisible Women by Caroline Criado-Perez
• The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor
• Hydra - Matt Wesolowski
• A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irvine
• An American Marriage - Tayari Jones
• The Loyalties - Delphine de Vigan
• My Sister the Serial Killer- Oyinkan Braithwaite

(I've also included books I listened to on audio on this list - I have a separate section for podcasts but I thing the notion that listening to a book isn't reading it is so elitist and ableist, so I included all books I "consumed" this year, regardless of media.)

It was really hard to cut this list down to get a top 20! There are so many books in 2019 I really loved, especially Daisy Jones and the Six, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Pet Sematary, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Olive Again and Girl, Woman, Other being my top fiction picks.

I think my book of the year, though, was definitely Invisible Women. I've made everyone I know read it and I think I make references to it at least once a week. It's an absolutely fascinating read that I cannot recommend more. I'd definitely recommend reading this article for background first - the book is fascinating and shocking and depressing but incredibly eye-opening and important to men and women alike.

Films I loved in 2019 (cinema)

2019 has not been a strong year for me in terms of films at the cinema. Apart from my beloved Rocketman (my hands-down film of the year, which I saw twice at the cinema, have already watched again on DVD twice. Oh and all my Spotify top 10 most played songs were from the soundtrack) and Booksmart, which I loved, I haven't seen as many films which have completed blown me away this year. 

I went to the cinema 25 times in 2019 (thank you, Cineworld Unlimited card!). Here are my favourites:

• Rocketman (duh)
• The Favourite
• Midsommar
• John Wick 3
• Us
• Eighth Grade
• Booksmart
• Doctor Sleep 
• Le Mans 66
• Once upon a Time in Hollywood
• Little Women

Films I loved in 2019 (at home)

Blame the wedding planning, or the wedding, or the honeymoon, or just having too many early nights, but I don't feel like we've watched as many films at home this year either - it's been a busy year!

Of what we did watch, here's what I loved most edit: I don't count rewatches here - only films I saw for the first time in 2019:

• Call Me By Your Name
• 12 Angry Men
• Strangers on a Train
• Big Hero 6
• Wall-E
• Cabin in the Woods
• Paddington 1 and 2
• Singin' in the Rain
• Marriage Story
• Free Solo
• Muppet Christmas Carol
• What we do in the Shadows
• The Hours

TV I loved in 2019

This is barely even a category - we managed to watch 6 full TV seasons in 2019. We have such a huge list of TV shows we need to watch (we've managed 1.5 seasons of The Americans in 3 months) but we are terrible at watching TV shows. However, of the 6 things we did manage to watch, my favourites were:

• Chernobyl
• Big Little Lies season 2
• Mindhunter season 2

Podcasts I loved in 2019

Too many podcasts, not enough time! I feel like there are always so many podcasts I want to listen to, but along with my Audible subscription and audiobooks from the library, I find I don't have as much time to listen to as many as I would like (I'm genuinely really excited to start half marathon training again in a few weeks so I can catch up!).

Along with my usual favourite of What Page are You On? I discovered some great new-to-me podcasts this year:

• Films to be Buried With
• The High Low
• Chat 10 Looks 3
• Dolly Parton's America
• The Dream
• Gladiator
• Maddie

Recipe books I loved in 2019

So I don't like to add up how many recipe books I bought in 2019 (my justification is, well, if I got one or two good recipes out of them they're worth it and also one recipe books is the cost of like, a meal out for one person so shhhhh I'm not counting!) but there have been some absolute banging books this year. Most of these I have already reviewed, but the rest I hope to blog about in 2020:

• The Quick Roasting Tin by Rukmimi Iyer (reviewed here)
• Bish Bash Bosh by Henry Firth and Ian Theasby (reviewed here)
• Green by Elly Pear
• East by Meera Sodha (reviewed here)
• Leon Fast Vegan
• Carbs by Laura Goodman

Other things I loved in 2019

This is my miscellaneous category, like the section on The Sims with all the weird house stuff in, or the stuff Oprah puts on her end of year list. There are loads of other things I loved in 2019 I want to give a shout out to which don't fit neatly into the above categories, so these are the "other" things I loved in 2019:

• Midi skirts
• Cutting my hair
• Trainers
• Earrings
• Depop
• Phil's Nintendo switch, especially Overcooked
• Getting my nails done regularly
• National Trust membership
• Football
• Liverpool FC
• Borrow my Doggy
• My Audible Subscription
• Libraries (always)
• The Rocketman soundtrack
• Lizzo
• Making bread
• Packing cubes
• Second hand September
• Revolution eyeshadow palettes
• Luke Combs
• Reusable cotton wool pads
• Frank's Red Hot sauce

I have a huge reading list for 2020, a note in my phone of films to see at the cinema and I think my husband did a big eBay order of DVDs this week so I'm really excited for all the new things I'm going to read/watch/listen to in 2020!

Charlotte x