December Monthly Roundup

Featuring books, family game recs, and other distractions for the end of the year

Welcome to the final monthly roundup of 2024!

I hope this email finds you cocooning at home, on vacation, or perhaps doesn’t find you for a while.

This month, I’m sharing some distractions for the last week of the year, during which you hopefully have a little more time for them.

Next month I’ll be running a 5-day one funny line challenge where we write one funny line a day together. This can be a good writing warm-up, a way to inject some humor into your writing, or may spark ideas for the new year.

If you want to do it and haven’t already opted into the “humor challenge” emails, you can do that here under “Notifications.”

-JV

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Books

Goodreads tells me I’ve read 38 books so far this year but this is not a final number! I am almost done with a couple of books so I will probably get some more in by the end of the year. However, I’m rounding up some I enjoyed in a few categories below.

Favorite audiobook

I tend to listen to a lot of books on audio due to an overall lack of time. My favorite audiobook listen was Ina Garten’s memoir. I listened to it at normal speed (the highest honor an audiobook can receive from me) and it was a comforting listen about food and her life.

I also want to buy one of her cookbooks now — let me know if you have a rec for which one.

Craft books

I read (or am reading) a few craft books this year that had helpful tips:

• Your Caption has Been Selected: A book all about writing captions for the New Yorker Caption Contest written by Lawrence Wood, who has won it several times. It has some interesting tips and insights on the contest but also some good line-level humor writing techniques. This one might be particularly good reading in advance of the One Funny Line challenge.

• Reimagining Your Nonfiction Picture Book: I checked this out from the library but quickly realized I wanted to own a copy of it for future reference. It’s focused on revision, but I think helpful to read before you start writing a nonfiction picture book too because it talks about some basic structures. Side note: One of my 2025 goals is to work on some picture book drafts so I also think I am going to do Story Storm, a daily idea generation challenge in January. I did it once several years ago and found it useful/not overwhelming to keep up with.

• Blueprint for a Book: This one might be helpful if you are working on a novel. I worked my way through some of the exercises in it this year but then realized I probably need to backburner my idea for a bit to think about it more. But I do think the exercises can help you flesh out or revise your book idea.

Unusual format books with humor elements

I am interested in trying to write a book in an unusual format at some point so I’ve been reading some of what is already out there. Some of my favorites included:

• Several People Are Typing: A book written entirely in Slack messages. It was funny but also an interesting commentary on work and the digital world that felt especially relevant in the age of AI. Because of the format, I don’t know how well this one would work on audio though (I read it on an e-reader).

• Heating & Cooling: A collection of witty and moving micro memoirs (I realized I had seen this one from the book on social media previously too). I also enjoyed listening to Beth Anne Fennelly talk about writing the collection on the Freelance Writing Direct podcast as I was curious how it came together.

• Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life: This is a memoir told in a series of micro entries from A to Z. I thought the format helped hold the collection together well and I really like Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s humor and how she plays with form.

• Attachments: An epistolary novel told mostly in emails. I enjoyed the humor and character development and had some good 1999/Y2K nostalgia. I’m looking to read more funny epistolary novels so if you’ve got any recs in that department, let me know.

Funny TV

I recently enjoyed A Man on the Inside on Netflix, which stars Ted Danson as a man who goes undercover in a retirement community. This was a mostly lighter comedy (although did have some storylines about heavier things like grieving and dementia). It made me laugh and I had recently re-watched The Good Place with my kids so I appreciated seeing some of the same cast pop up in it.

I also recently finished Bad Monkey on Apple, which is a darker comedy starring Vince Vaughn as a detective in the Florida Keys. I hadn’t watched anything with Vince Vaughn in it in a while, but his vibe/humor seemed to work well for this role.

Short Humor

End-of-year humor lists always have great stuff in them. Here are some that have already come out:

• Instagram’s Favorite New Yorker Cartoons of the Year

• Points in Case’s People’s Favorites

• The McSweeney’s most-read pieces countdown is also on.

Other Distractions

• If you are looking for an easy meal, this Sheet Pan Sausage went over well at my house. I think it can be made with meat or veggie sausage and I cooked the sausage on a separate sheet pan from the veggies to make it more kid-friendly.

• If you want to bake something, I also made these Pecan Pie Bars and they came out well. Interestingly, I’m not a huge fan of pecan pie because it feels a little too rich, but I like the bars because they are thinner and can be cut smaller.

• This fall my husband informed me that Nerds Gummy clusters were having a moment and I have proceeded to eat a lot of them. I think that the holiday Frosty flavor is the best one so if you see those on clearance this week, pick some up.

• If you are looking for a board game this week we got this Blokus game last year and it has been one of my favorite family games. It has Tetris-like tiles and involves strategizing patterns to use the most tiles and does not go on for hours and hours (I’m looking at you, Risk).

• Finally, we’ve also been playing the Nintendo Switch game Overcooked 2 as a family and it’s one of my favorite co-op games to play with my 10 and 13-year-old. It involves working in a restaurant kitchen to get orders out together. I read on Reddit that the game works best if someone acts like Gordon Ramsay and that seems to maybe be true.

That’s it for this month, I hope you have a restful end of the year!

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Thanks for reading Humor Me, a newsletter featuring funny stuff and writing tips. In case you’re new here — I’m a humor writer and freelancer whose work has appeared in New Yorker Shouts, McSweeney’s, Real Simple, and more.

I’m also the author of a humorous advice book for introverted parents that would make a great gift for the new or expecting parent in your life. Find out more about me at julievick.com.

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