December links roundup

Including books I read this year, a humor essay contest, and a new resource for paid subscribers

This is me at the end of December. Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash

Welcome to the last monthly links roundup of 2023, where I highlight funny stuff and other links of interest.

Hopefully, you are enjoying some time off this week or it is quiet if you are at work. When I worked in offices I would often end up working some of the days between Christmas and New Year’s and it was honestly kind of nice to be in a quiet office catching up on stuff at the end of the year (my dream introvert work environment!).

But I’m guessing many of you are at home and perhaps have some more time for reading or binge-watching reality TV, so I am including some recommendations for things I’ve enjoyed this year.

I also finished a new paid subscriber benefit that gives some submission guidelines and tips from me. This is a work in progress that I will continue to add to, but it’s a start! You can find it here.

End-of-year distractions

• If you are a parent worn out from the holidays and in need of a quick laugh, watch this short SNL clip.

• If you are anyone in need of a quick laugh, The end-of-year roundup of Instagram’s favorite New Yorker cartoons always has some good ones.

• If you are looking to submit a short humorous essay, the Erma Bombeck contest closes January 8th. I think they are looking for a particular voice with this so reading some of the past examples of winning entries before submitting is a good idea.

• If you are looking for something funny to watch, Season 2 of Fisk is on my to-watch list since I enjoyed Season 1. I’ve also been looking for more standup specials to check out — let me know if you have one to recommend.

• If you are looking for something to watch that isn’t necessarily funny, I think one of my favorite shows of the year was season 2 of The Bear. I liked it better than season 1! I appreciated the character development and enjoyed the behind-the-scenes look at the restaurant world.

If you are looking for things to distract your kids over winter break:

• Books: My kids are 9 and 12 and some of the books they were most into this year included the Olympians and Hazardous Tales graphic novels. They have also been working their way through a lot of the Calvin and Hobbes and Peanuts comics via our local library. And they really like the Greeking Out podcast and the Big Nate and Wimpy Kid audiobooks.

• Screens: The movie Netflix on Leo recently made my kids laugh (and the depiction of kindergartners on it made me laugh too).

End-of-year reading report

I’m including a list of what I read this year (in random order). Goodreads tells me I read 42 books so far and I’m guessing I might finish a couple more by the end of the year. (Although my reading goal hack is to be partway through several books at the start of the year so I can get a jumpstart on next year’s reading list).

I thought about trying to list favorites but had trouble choosing so I’m going to list them all and you can let me know if you have questions about any.

It looks like the majority of the books were comedic essay collections or romance, so I guess I am into escapism these days! I also think those formats work well on audio, which is how I am doing most of my reading these days due to a perennial lack of time.

A lot of these had some element of humor — I can elaborate on that more if you have questions about a specific book.

I should have more time to read (both with my eyes and ears) in the next week or two — so please recommend any books you enjoyed this year to me in the comments or by replying to this email!

Nonfiction I read:

• You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith

• 7 Figure Fiction by T. Taylor

• Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris

• Mom Rage by Minna Dubin

• I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley

• Is it Hot in Here (Or Am I Suffering for All Eternity for the Sins I Committed on Earth)? by Zack Zimmerman

• Unreliable Narrator by Aparna Nancherla

• Not Funny by Jena Friedman

• Growing Up in Public by Devorah Heitner

• Nothing is Wrong and Here is Why by Alexandra Petri

• Enchantment by Katharine May

• I’m Wearing Tunics Now by Wendi Aarons

• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson

• How to Be Perfect by Michael Schur

• I’ll Show Myself Out by Jessi Klein

• I Love(ish) NYC by Ali Solomon

• Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama by Bob Odenkirk

• The Hidden Tools of Comedy By Steve Kaplan

Fiction I read:

• The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue

• Business or Pleasure by Rachel Lynn Solomon

• Once More with Feeling by Elissa Sussman

• The American Roommate Experiment by Elena Armas

• The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw

• Act Your Age Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert

• Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

• The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling

• Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

• Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

• This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

• Loathe to Love You by Ali Hazelwood

• Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman

• The Miniscule Mansion of Myra Malone by Audrey Burges

• Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

• Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson

• Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon

• Now is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson

• The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

• Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano

• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

• The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon

• The Guncle by Steven Rowley

News from me

• Interview with me: I had fun talking to fellow hilarious mom

  Janine Annett
  for her Substack Mom Jokes. Also, thank you Janine for referring to me as one of the nation’s top fruit humorists.

• Writing report: In case you missed it, I rounded up my year in writing in this post.

• A low-commitment writing challenge: The humor writing challenge I’m running will start on January 8th. There are so many great prompts lined up for it and you can feel free to adapt it to any kind of writing you want.

• My most-read Substack posts of the year: This post on writing and funny personal essays looks like it was my most viewed Substack post of the year and it was followed closely behind by this one about balancing parenting and writing.

That’s it for this month — hope you have a restful end to the year!

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