The best of 2021, according to... me
A small collection of things I fell in love with this year.
2021 has been a blur.
I wish I could say we were all ending the year on a high note but, you know, things have been better! To keep this newsletter as COVID-free as I hope to remain, I’ve decided to finish 2021 by rounding up a few of my favourite things from the year. Maybe you’ll be reminded of something you also loved this year, or discover something new to bring you a hint of joy over the holiday break.
I also want to take a very self-indulgent moment to say thank you for reading this year.
When I revived She’ll Be Right in August, I was looking for somewhere to write about how I was feeling and talk about the things I like. And while that’s exactly what I’ve been able to do here, I never really considered the opposite side of the exchange—that there would be people who actually read this and look forward to it. I hadn’t comprehended just how much that would mean to me. But it means a lot. So, thank you.
Now, without further ado, here’s a non-exhaustive list of things I loved in 2021.
The Best Book I Read This Year
If you’ve been reading She’ll Be Right for a while, it will come as no surprise that my favourite book of the year was Meg Mason’s Sorrow and Bliss, which I read in January. I didn’t read a ton in 2021 (my brain is made of foam now) but this was one the best fiction books I’ve read in years. If you haven’t picked it up already, just do it!
The Feature, Essay, And Interview I Read Then Never Stopped Thinking About
I read so many clever, moving, and funny things this year, I have no doubt that as soon as I hit publish on this newsletter I’ll remember a bunch of incredible stories I’ve forgotten—so, consider this just a small sample of good things I read, then thought about a lot.
To Be Happy, Hide From the Spotlight, The Atlantic
This feature isn’t particular long or particular ground-breaking, but it made me consider the little ways we’re all chasing some kind of fame. In particular, the notes on the way we perform on social media—and how it generally results in people liking us less, not more—stuck in my mind for months.
Seeking out fame is a glitch in the happiness matrix: an urge that promises contentment and delivers the opposite. To defeat it, we need to be aware of our impulses and committed to countering them.
Trying to Keep Up With Grandma’s Love Life, The New York Times
Published in the Times’ ‘Modern Love’ column, this is an essay about relationships starting and ending at the opposite times people expect them to, and the things we can learn from people living completely different lives to ours.
For their first dance, Gert and Bill did a polka. While they bounced, unsteady and arthritic, Annie wept small tears. My sister, tipsy from the airplane bottles of liquor she had brought in her purse, said, “Do you see the way he looks at her? Just like he’s always going to take care of her.”
There was something about the idea that irked me. Is this why people get married? To have someone to take care of them? I wondered if some people just couldn’t be alone, not realizing that I was the hypothetical person in my mind.
'We found a baby on the subway - now he's our son', BBC
This is just a really special story!!!
"The baby squeezed my finger with his entire hand so hard," says Pete. "He was just staring up at me and I was just looking at him, and it was almost like he found a pressure point in my finger that just opened up my heart to my head and showed me in that moment that I could be one of his parents, one of his dads."
The TV Shows I’d Rewatch In A Heartbeat
It’s A Sin, Feel Good, and The White Lotus are all very different shows that I loved for very different reasons. It’s A Sin broke my heart. Feel Good was so watchable I’m still saving the last couple of episodes of Season 2 simply because I don’t want it to be over (flawed logic, I know). And The White Lotus was worth watching for the soundtrack alone.
It should also go without saying that Succession would be on this list if I considered it a 2021 watch, but IDK, it feels like more of an evergreen love.
The Best Things I Cooked For The First Time This Year
Dan Dan Noodles, Taste
A very late entry for a Best of 2021 award, but an undeniable one. As I said when I first mentioned these noodles in my newsletter, they’re the perfect 20-minute Sunday night dinner—a spag bol and ramen hybrid that I’ve made three weeks in a row.
Orzo with prawns, tomato and marinated feta, Simple by Ottolenghi
Simple was a lockdown purchase and this was the first recipe I cooked from it. The prawns and tomato make it feel summery while still being incredibly wholesome, and a lot of the meal can be prepped ahead of time, which makes it perfect for having people over.
And The Best Thing I Ate In A Restaurant
This was an easy pick: it was the clam pizza from Bella Brutta in Newtown, Sydney. I moved to Newtown in March and had this pizza recommended to me by so many people. With surf clam, pecorino, chilli, garlic, and parsley it’s one of the best pizzas I’ve had (though I’d trade it for a slice of Scarr’s cheese pizza in a second, naturally).
The Best Thing I Smelled In 2021 (Aside From The Jasmine I Planted In My Front Yard)
I bought D.S. & DURGA’s Wild Brooklyn Lavender Candle in February as a gift for myself with money some friends in New York has Venmo’d me for my 30th birthday with the instructions to ‘buy something nice’. I cannot overstate how good it smells with suede and ashfelt (AKA what I actually remember Brooklyn smelling like, among other things) offsetting the sweetness of the lavender.
The Song I Had On Repeat All Year
I am nothing if not consistent, so Modest Mouse were once again in my Spotify top artists. My top song of the year was ‘We Are Between’ from their 2021 album The Golden Casket. I couldn’t really tell you why it was this song I happened to play the most through the year, but here we are (as the song goes).
The Beauty Products My Face Loved This Year
ILIA Super Serum Skin Tint
Again, I’ve written before about how this skin tint actually lived up to the hype. It’s the perfect ‘I want my skin to look like my skin, only better’ product that comes in a shitload of different shades. You can get it from Mecca or Ilia Beauty.
Etude House Therapy Air Mask (Collagen)
I added a few of these $2.50 Korean sheet masks onto an order I placed mid-lockdown and was genuinely shocked but how good my skin looked after using them. You can find them at Keoji or on Amazon.
And The Single Best Thing That Happened To Me In 2021
Well, it’s Paddington, of course! Bless this dog.
That’s everything for this year. Please stay safe, rest, and make space for joy over the holiday break. I’ll be back in a few weeks!
Gyan x
Your newsletter helped me go trough this year! Thank you <3