The Dig List: December 2024
The year women decided they were over it. Let's end it with a bunch of banger books, a playlist, and more.
This year had a not-so-subtle brand of what I guess we could call female rage, although that sounds reductive. It’s like a majority swath of Gen-X women looked around in the past few years and collectively went, Well, *that* was a total pile of garbage we were sold lolol, and then, instead of continuing to stiff-upper-lip it for another day or year or decade, turned on their heel and walked out of the proverbial room for good.
Luckily, much art has been created in the process.
Turning forty-seven, hitting perimenopause, and going through a significant breakup this year thrust me squarely into the vortex, but it’s undoubtedly a cultural moment, and I am—as they say—here for it.
What’s The Dig List?
Sharing stuff I love is my favorite thing, so instead of trying to squeeze recommendations into the other newsletters, I started a series called The Dig List. It’s a monthly roundup of things I’m digging: books, podcasts, music, cultural moments, art, products. Read past ones here.
This edition is a mix of an annual roundup and December-specific digs.
The Dig List: December 2024
Shows
Landman is surprisingly great. I say surprisingly because I didn’t think I’d be into a lot of time with Billy Bob Thornton, who plays the main character. Turns out, he’s perfect. Plus: John Hamm always in everything forever amen.
Bad Sisters is back for Season 2 and even darker than before. I liked the first season better, but it’s still worth watching.
And Shrinking totally delivered in Season 2, but you probably already knew that. What a show.
Books
I lost out on a lot of reading time this year because of grief brain, but I still managed to fit in some bangers, and this month’s reads have been one treasure after the next.
I have two favorite books this year. The first is Liars by Sarah Manguso. Yes, it’s technically a novel, but I still can’t get my brain to believe that (and she’s called it autofiction herself, so). When I read it back in August, I wrote this: “I haven’t been this impacted by a book since Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. I won’t be the same writer after reading it, or the same woman, or the same ex-wife, or the same ex-fiancé, or the same mother, or the same anything. Absolutely stunning. Sarah Manguso explained experiences that only lived wordlessly in my body until I read this. What a work of art.”
Every heterosexual woman I know who read it has reported back one of three things: 1) It was traumatizing because it perfectly described their former marriage; 2) It hit a little too close to the bone on their current marriage; 3) It made them run and thank their husband because, thank god, he’s not like that.
The second is The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. I saw this one floating around on bestseller lists all year but kept ignoring it (I think because of the cover) and then, for some reason, picked it up this month. It’s historical fiction, set in New England in the 1970s, about a midwife named Martha Ballard. Perfectly written, captivating, inspiring, enraging story of a true feminist hero. I canceled plans to keep reading it and was so sad when it ended. Grab this one, friends.
I tried to read Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors earlier this year, but my brain couldn’t do it. I picked it up again this week after another nudge from a reader friend, and I am so glad I did. It’s told from the perspective of three sisters in the year following the death of their fourth. Smart, emotional, unflinching, tender. Strong themes of addiction, which I thought she wrote well (the author is sober) overall.
Speaking of terrible men, The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty by Valerie Bauerlein is wild. I knew nothing about this story, so I went in cold. The reporting is impressive, and it’s very well written.
Last, I got an early copy of Bitter Sweet by Hattie Williams, and oh my god, this book—so many feelingssss. It’s not out until July, and I’m sorry about that, but I swear if you order this now, when it comes to your house in July, you’ll thank your past self. It’s about a young book publicist who gets tangled up with a much older, very famous author, set in current-day London. It brought up every tender, insecure, desperate, grief-filled, elated, naive feeling I’ve ever had about myself and love, and it was so, so good. I highlighted so many passages, which is rare for a novel.
For all my book lists, visit my Bookshop.org storefront.
Links and Other Stuff
To my point re: women turning on their heels and leaving the room, All* of my friends are ending their marriages by
.The men who like women and the men who don’t. Yes we can tell by
snapped something into place for me.This video of a mom and son covering Creep by Radiohead is whoa.
I made us a Spotify playlist. My 2024 in music.
If you’re considering getting into strength training in 2025, which I cannot recommend enough (and literally saved me this year), I wrote about how I got started and what it’s looked like here and here.
Last, the pieces you dug most this year were, in order:
See you next year, friends!
xo,
Laura
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You are reading Love Story, a weekly newsletter about relationships, recovery, and writing from Laura McKowen. Laura is the founder of The Luckiest Club, an international sobriety support community, and the bestselling author of two books, We Are The Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life and Push Off from Here: 9 Essential Truths to Get You Through Sobriety (and Everything Else).
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On the book Liars, I'll roll the husband dice and recommend to my wife! And check it out myself too. Thanks for the suggestions Laura.
The podcast by Mandy Matney on the Alex Murdaugh story was very well done, IMO. Was hooked for weeks. She was present and persistent throughout the process. Great journalism, if you want to dive further in, although that man and that world is A LOT to digest.