Year in Review | My Top Stories of 2024 (Editor)

An Arts, Culture & Community Editor Reflects on Her Favorite Stories of the Year

From left: Leslie Dinaberg; SOhO Restaurant & Music Club; Keith Puccinelli exhibit; Cheese tasting event

I wear a few different hats at the Santa Barbara Independent, as both a writer and as the editor of the Arts & Entertainment, Living, and Food & Drink sections of the paper.

Putting on my editor’s hat, here are a few of my favorite stories from this year:

Arts & Entertainment

It’s hard to stay in business in this town, and I loved the way Joe Woodard told the tale of SOhO’s 30 years in business: SOhO Goes the Big 3-0

Few wordsmiths can string together 26 letters with as much originality and punch as Nick Welsh can, and though he doesn’t write arts stories often, when he does, he’s pretty much guaranteed to knock them out of the park. Case(s) in point: The Brasscals Bring Honk to Santa Barbara and SBIFF Gives Fiesta 5 a New Lease on Life.

The late artist Keith Puccinelli was such a talented individual and Joe Woodard captures his quirky personality exceptionally well in this cover story: Art About Life, Death, and Clowning.

Speaking of capturing personalities, Roger Durling’s cover profile of Baret Boisson — The Accidental Artist-Activist — was one of my favorite features of the year, with vibrant, insightful writing (I’ve known Baret for years and learned a lot from the story), and particularly beautiful shots captured by Ingrid Bostrom.

Food & Drink

Matt Kettmann’s recent cover story — Santa Barbara’s Hospitality Game-Changers — was exceptionally well-researched and although it had a zillion moving parts, he managed to put it together elegantly and informatively, as well as entertainingly. He also, of course, writes quite eloquently and knowledgably about wine on a regular basis, but I was particularly intrigued by this story of How a Documentary About an Armenian Winemaker Created Iran’s First Wine in Decades.

I love a good literary pun as much as anybody who plays with words for a living, and George Yatchisin did himself proud with this take on Poe-tent Potables | The Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy. I also really enjoyed his take on how The Black Sheep Santa Barbara Brasserie Raises the Baa — including the headline, for which George deserves all the credit. No surprise, he’s also a poet!

When Michael Delgado first pitched me the concept for Cheese the Day — an ambitious cover story bringing wine, cheese and culinary experts together to sip, savor, and share their expertise —  I had some doubt that he could pull it off. But he did an incredible job on this one, and we got to enjoy the fruits, and the pairings, of his labor. We’ll be working with him again soon and I can’t wait. Keep an eye out for more information on an open-to-the-public Cheese the Day event you won’t want to miss out on.

Living

I’ve been reading John Zant’s sports reporting for as long as I can remember, and his story on Remembering OJ Simpson and the Dangers of “Godding Up Those Ball Players” was one of the standouts of the year.

I’m always happy to have Starshine Roshell in our pages, but her post-election column,  And So It Begins … Misogynists Are Already Crawling Outta Their Hovels, struck a particular chord with me. When something needs saying OUT LOUD in a crowded space, I’m so grateful to have her as the one who is willing, and oh-so-very able, to say it!

Victor Bryant’s story The Urzua Family Athletic Legacy Shines On at Bishop Diego hit the perfect sweet spot between sports and community. I loved learning more about this family.

While I’m on the subject of sports and family, Jim Buckley’s cover story Going for Gold … Times Three: Isla Vista’s Neushul Family Rides a Chlorine-Scented Wave All the Way to the Olympics was another favorite of the year.

And finally, in what was probably my favorite story of the year in an “only in the Santa Barbara Independent would you read this way,” was Callie Fausey’s Down the Rabbit Hole first-person trip into the world of ketamine therapy. Gutsy, specific, original, and compelling from start to finish.

Click here to read my own writing picks for 2024 as well.

Year in Review | My Top Stories of 2024 (Writer)

From left: Leslie Dinaberg; RuPaul; Ty Warner tequila; Sofi Tukker

Here Are My Favorites Stories I Wrote This Year

I wear a few different hats at the Santa Barbara Independent, as both a writer and an editor. As for my own prose, I wrote more than 200 stories of various types over the last 12 months, which is similar to my 2023 tally. That sounds like a lot — and it is — but a good chunk of what I do is short and snappy, and a lot less time-consuming than the longer features my colleagues are able to devote themselves to.

That being said, some of my favorite stores are the ones I get to dig in more deeply on. Arts education is close to my heart and is something I’ve spent a lot of my volunteer time working on for many years. For a very long time, I have wanted to embed with a visiting artist and write about what it’s like not just to perform for UCSB Arts & Lectures, but to go all over town and teach and connect with people as part of their educational outreach. Hanging out for a few days with Lil Buck and Jon Boogz, and our fab photographer Ingrid Bostrom, was a dream come true. I couldn’t have asked for a nicer, more talented, and thoughtful group of artists to work with on this cover story.

Going behind the scenes to write about the AHA’s remarkable teen participants and their Sing It Out program was another cover story highlight for me, as was working with our team to organize the event and bring back the Annual Indy Awards for local theater in May (see story here). Working with Joe Woodard to put together our first full-blown Fall Arts Preview since the pre-COVID years was greatly satisfying as well.

Covering the Santa Barbara International Film Festival is always one of my favorite, immersive experiences, and one of my 2024 highlights was being just a few feet away from Brad Pitt as he sat in the audience waiting to present his pal Bradley Cooper with the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award. I also really enjoyed a Ken-tastic night with Ryan Gosling when he received the Kirk Douglas Award in January. Apparently I’m a bit of a sucker for a pretty face.

Arts Reviews 

Delving into reviews remains both challenging and fun for me. I do a little bit of theater and a little bit of dance and a little bit of comedy, but mostly I write about music. Other than Sting and Pearl Jam at the Ohana Festival — both of which were bucket list level incredible but outside of the 805 — my favorite show of the year was probably Cage the Elephant and Young the Giant at the Bowl: Two Ginormous Bands Unleash a Great Evening of Rock and Roll, and a Rocket! Other favorite Santa Barbara Bowl shows for me this year were Sofi Tukker and John Fogerty.

A few of my other highlights include:

Toad the Wet Sprocket at the Lobero: Too Good to Take for Granted.

The Lobero Block Party with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Ozomatli Taking it to the Streets.

An evening at the Arlington where RuPaul Shows He Was Born to Entertain.

Meow Meow’s unique brand of postmodern cabaret was definitely Wow Wow at the Lobero.

Lyle Lovett was fabulous and I also got to interview him before his Lobero show and meet him afterward. He’s every bit as nice as he is talented.

Finally, the toughest reviews to write are when you have mixed feelings about a show. I struggled with this one a bit, but was happy with the final results and got some good feedback from fellow fans: Indigo Girls Still Have Much to Teach Us.

Experiences

It’s not every day you tour a greenhouse and then sit in someone’s backyard smoking pot and getting a private poolside concert with Iration, but that’s what happened here at the Iration x Autumn Brands Launch Party.

I don’t usually breathe the same air as Kanye West, and there are very few go-go dancers in my orbit, but this Lavish Santa Barbara Soirée Toasts Ty Warner’s New Reserve Tequila was quite the shindig.

Escaping reality with a night at the Rosewood Miramar Beach was definitely a lovely way to snuff out the post-election stress.

Click here to read my editor’s picks for 2024 as well.

The Books of 2024

French Braid

So many books, so little time—part 18.

My son started keeping a reading list in third grade, so I did too. This is the 18th year I’ve done this. He still reads quite a lot, but I don’t think he catalogs it the way I do anymore. It’s been another really busy year, but I still managed to read a LOT, and listened to a number of audiobooks as well.

I’m usually a completist when it comes to my reading — when I find an author I like I try to read everything they’ve ever written and have to really force myself to read other things in between each book so I can savor them a little longer. I did that with Anne Tyler’s early work many years ago, and I loved The Accidental Tourist, Celestial Navigation, Breathing Lessons, The Amateur Marriage, which are just a few of her many, many excellent titles.  For some unexplainable reason she slipped off my radar in the past few years and I only recently picked up her 2022 title, French Braid. She’s 83 years old now but I’m happy to report that Anne Tyler hasn’t missed a beat.

The Winners

This novel — a multigenerational story set in Baltimore, which could describe every one of her books — is a beautifully written, slyly subversive character study in the hands of a master. It doesn’t really matter what happens. Plot is almost beside the point with characters so real and vivid. This was definitely one of my favorite books of the year.

I also really enjoyed two Fredrik Backman titles: The Winners, and Us Against You, which both are continuations of his excellent Beartown series. Set in rural Sweden in a hockey town with as much commitment to the sport as the Friday Night Lights of Texas, I thought this intensely gripping series was excellent. Fair warning it is pretty graphic and can be quite brutal at times (I gave it to my dad for Father’s Day and he hated it), but to me the violence was warranted and true to the characters. And the books are hard to put down.

The Rom-Commers

On the lighter side, also on my list for this year are three titles from Emily Henry: Happy Place, Book Lovers, and Funny Story all of which are romantic and funny.
A really good romantic comedy by Katherine Center was The Rom-Commers, about an aspiring screenwriter who is hired to help a big name writer write a romantic movie, even though he despises the genre. If you groan at that premise you might like the one for Alison Espach’s The Wedding People a

The Wedding People

little better: a newly divorced, suicidal woman decides to splurge on a ridiculously luxurious hotel as a place to commit suicide, only to find that she’s the only person there who’s not affiliated with a wedding party that’s bought out the place, and preventing her from ruining the  picture perfect celebration becomes the bride’s mission.

Other favorites this year were Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason, about a woman who suffers from X (a non-specified mental illness), and how she learns to cope; an adult book called In the Unlikely Event, by my beloved Judy Blume of Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret fame; and Alice Sadie Celine by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright, a great story about a young woman who has an affair with her best friend’s mom.

Alice Sadie Celine

A few of my other most liked from this year’s list were books I read in order to prepare for speakers that came to town via UCSB Arts & Lectures. These included the wonderful The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (read my story about the lecture here, Oprah liked this book too), and two books by Xochitl Gonzalez, Olga Dies of Dreaming and Anita De Monte Laughs Last (read my interview with her here and report on her lecture here).

I’d love to hear what everyone else enjoyed. Here’s my 2024 list:

Turn of the Key Ruth Ware
It Starts With Us Colleen Hoover
The Lying Game Ruth Ware
Lost and Found in Paris Lian Dolan
How to be Perfect Michael Schur
In a Dark, Dark Wood Ruth Ware
It Ends With Us Colleen Hoover
Bright Young Women Jessica Knoll
Bad Summer People Emma Rosenblum
A Long Petal of the Sea Isabel Allende
The Covenant of Water Abraham Verghese
Fellowship Point Alice Elliott Dark
November 9 Colleen Hoover
First Lie Wins Ashley Elston
Maybe Not Colleen Hoover
Poor Ghost David Starkey
Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone Benjamin Stevenson
Maybe Someday Colleen Hoover
Maybe Now Colleen Hoover
Without Merit Colleen Hoover
All Your Perfects Colleen Hoover
Float Neal Rabin
Confess Colleen Hoover
This Bird Has Flown Susannah Hoffs
Losing Hope Colleen Hoover
Happy Place Emily Henry
The American Roomate Experiment Elena Armas
Ugly Love Colleen Hoover
Slammed Colleen Hoover
Finding Cinderella Colleen Hoover
Big Swiss Jen Beagin
Anita De Monte Laughs Last Xochitl Gonzalez
Olga Dies Dreaming Xochitl Gonzalez
Book Lovers Emily Henry
Blue Skies T.C. Boyle
Spoiler Alert Olivia Dade
You, Again Kate Goldbeck
Love, Theoretically Ali Hazelwood
Beware the Woman Megan Abbott
Us Against You Frederik Backman
What Happened to Ruthy Ramiriez Claire Jimenez
The Boyfriend Candidate Ashley Winstead
Nothing Special Nicole Flattery
Moonglow Michael Chabon
Come and Get It Kiley Reid
Never Ever Getting Back Together Sophie Gonzales
With a Kiss We Die L.R. Dorn
Hypnotized by Love Sariah Wilson
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers Jesse Q. Sutanto
How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water Angie Cruz
Everything Nothing Someone Alice Carriere
The True Love Experiment Christina Lauren
Mrs. Caliban Rachel Ingalls
Didn’t See That Coming Jesse Q. Sutanto
Dial A for Aunties Jesse Q. Sutanto
The Winners Fredrik Backman
Funny Story Emily Henry
The Graham Effect Elle Kennedy
The Rewind Allison Wiin Scotch
Pachinko Min Jin Lee
Point of Retreat Colleen Hoover
Practice Makes Perfect Sarah Adams
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store James McBride
The Lonely Hearts Book Club Lucy Gilmore
The Magician Rebecca Searle
Slow Dance Rainbow Rowell
Demon Copperhead Barbara Kingsolver
Fourteen Days Margaret Atwood
Expiration Dates Rebecca Searle
Margo’s Got Money Troubles Rufi Thorpe
Cancer Moon Jenna Tico
This Time Tomorrow Emma Straud
Reunion Beach Elin Hilderbrand, Adriana Trigiani, Patti Callahan, Mary Alice Monroe
Four Aunties and a Wedding Jesse Q. Sutanto
Husbands Holly Gramazio
The Five-Star Weekend Elin Hilderbrand
The Seven Year Slip Ashley Poston
The Love of my After Life Kirsty Greenwood
Housemoms Jen Lancaster
The Garden of Small Beginings Abbi Waxman
Head Over Heels Hannah Orenstein
Society of Lies Lauren Ling Brown
The Fake Zoe Whittall
The Good, the Bad, and the Aunties Jesse Q. Sutanto
The Turn of the Screw Henry James
One Italian Summer Rebecca Searle
French Braid Anne Tyler
Zero Days Ruth Ware
Always Only You Chloe Liese
Transcendent Kingdom Yaa Gyasi
Before the Coffee Gets Cold Toshikazu Kawaguchi
The Divorcees Rowan Beaird
The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise Colleen Oakley
How to End a Love Story Yulin Kuang
The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife Anna Johnston
Just for the Summer Abby Jimenez
The Rom-Commers Katherine Center
Meet Me in the Margins Melissa Ferguson
Be Ready When the Luck Happens Ina Garten
None of This is True Lisa Jewell
Sorrow and Bliss Meg Mason
Here One Moment Liane Moriarty
Stuck with You Ali Hazelwood
Under One Roof Ali Hazelwood
You Have Arrived at Your Destination Amor Towles
Night Music JoJo Moyes
The Friend Zone Abby Jimenez
The Name of This Band is R.E.M. Peter Ames Carlin
Check & Mate Ali Hazelwood
From Here to the Great Unknown: A Memoir Lisa Marie Presley & Riley Keough
In the Unlikely Event Judy Blume
Yours Truly Abby Jimenez
The Wedding People Alison Espach
City of Night Birds Juhea Kim
Alice Sadie Celine Sarah Blakley-Cartwright
Our Beautiful Boys Sameer Pandya
Awake Forever in a Sweet Unrest Chuck Rosenthal
How to Age Dis-Grace-Fully Clare

Previous Book Lists

The Books of 2023

The Books of 2022

The Books of 2021

The Books of 2020

The Books of 2019

The Books of 2018

The Books of 2017

The Books of 2016

The Books of 2015

The Books of 2014

The Books of 2013

The Books of 2012

The Books of 2011

The Books of 2010

The Books of 2009

The Books of 2008

The Books of 2007