My Favourites of 2020

It's the end of 2020! In some ways, this year has flown in but then in some ways it's gone so slowly but in all ways, it's been a bit of a weird one. I started the year as a uni student and ended it a graduate. We started it with large gatherings and ended it in quarantine, all in all, it's been a funny one. One thing that has been constant though is my love of media so I thought it would be fun to share some of my faves from the year so I've compiled a little list of my favourite books, tv shows and songs from the year as a fun little recap. I've done a cuople of favourites posts this year (two to be exact) but I always love to read these kinds of posts. I'd also love to know what things were keeping you sane while we were stuck inside so make sure to leave your faves in the comment section below!

Top Books of 2020

Last year I set myself the goal to read at least one book every month and oh boy did I exceed that! Usually, I set a target of 20 books and this was the first year I actually managed to meet it and I actually ended up finishing in excess of 50 books this year which is absolute madness for me! This obviously meant that I had a lot of varying opinions about the books that I read but here are my top three! You can follow me on Goodreads if you want to see more about what I'm getting up to reading-wise.

Salt To The Sea

Ruta Sepetys

I'd been meaning to read this book for a while since my Mum and Sister both read it last year and I'm so glad I picked it up. It follows four young people fleeing Prussia at the end of the second world war and it truly heartbreaking, but also so full of love and warmth. The characters are amazing and Ruta Sepetys writing just transports you to the setting. This is the book I think that really showed me how much I truly love historical fiction

Before The Devil Breaks You

Libba Bray

I mean it's no secret that I absolutely adored and devoured The Diviners series by Libba Bray this year (I wrote a whole post on it) and my absolute favourite of the series was the third book Before The Devil Breaks You. I enjoyed the series a lot before this point but this was the book that really solidified The Diviners as my favourite series of all time! It follows Evie O'Neill who after being kicked out of her home in Ohio is sent to live with her uncle in New York City where she discovers a whole new world of flappers and speakeasies and even some ghosts! She also discovers herself and a whole new group of friends and perhaps they're not quite as normal as first appearances may suggest. I love this series and I will continue to talk about it forever!

Daisy Jones and The Six

Taylor Jenkins Reid

This was my first five-star read of the year and remains one of my favourites! It follows the fictional 70s band on their rise and fall from fame and is told in an interview transcript. My mum read this also this year but didn't enjoy it as much so I guess it's subjective but I loved it a lot and definitely sobbed at the end. It's funny though because before this year I wouldn't have rated historical fiction as a top genre for me at all but somehow all three of these books are historical!

Top TV Shows of 2020

I'm not really much of a movie watcher (unless of course, it's Christmas movies) but one thing that I do love is a bit of a Netflix binge. I love consuming content in one go with no breaks, is it healthy, probably not, but at least I avoid spoilers! As I'm writing this post I'm currently watching Bridgerton on Netflix which I can just tell I'm about to become obsessed with as well!

Money Heist

I had seen Money Heist before this year but with season four coming out this year I had to include it! Money Heist, or La Casa De Papel, follows a group of misfit robbers as they prepare and carry out the greatest heist of all time, robbing the Royal Mint of Spain. I truly believe that this is one of the greatest shows ever made and it truly deserves the following that it has. I originally watched this on a recommendation from a friend and take this as my recommendation to you, if you haven't watched this show yet, GET ON IT!

Alta Mar

Again it wouldn't be me if I wasn't talking about Alta Mar - again I first discovered this show last year but the final season came out in 2020 and it absolutely BROKE me so it gets to make a special appearance. Alta Mar, or High Seas (yes both of these first two shows are Spanish but I have a type) follows passengers on board a luxury cruise liner just after the second world war but things start to go wrong and people are murdered and there's a whole load of mystery. It's super melodramatic and I just love it so much!

New Girl

I had seen New Girl before up until the final season (I watched season one in Copenhagen) but since it was on Netflix finally I decided a rewatch was due and it is the best comedy series of all time and that is the hill I am willing to die on. If by chance you're unfamiliar with New Girl it follows Jess Day who after breaking up with her boyfriend ends up moving into an apartment with three male roommates and obviously, chaos ensues.

High School Musical: The Musical: The Series

This is hands down my favourite thing I watched this year (which will become apparent when you discover my top songs). At twenty-two I'm probably not the target demographic for this show but alas here I am being the biggest hsmtmts stan ever. This show follows fictional students of the school where High School Musical was filmed as they put on a production of High School Musical. It's very meta and very wonderful. Each episode has a high school musical cover and an original song, two of the cast members even wrote songs for it and when I first watched it I don't think I shut about it for a month. I'm so excited for season two which is hopefully coming out soon!

Top Songs of 2020

This is the moment that I'm super thankful for Spotify Wrapped (although not super thankful that I'm not a student anymore os premium now costs me £9.99 a month!) because it means I had less work to do to pick my top songs. So here are my top 5 most listened to songs from my Spotify Wrapped.

Wondering

Julia Lester and Olivia Rodrigo

I told you that you'd see HSMTMTS featured again. This is quite frankly one of my favourite songs of all time! I first heard it before I'd even seen the show when it popped up on my Spotify discovery playlist while I was in the library and I SOBBED!

Think About Things

Dađi Freyr

Amidst everything else that was going on in 2020, Eurovision also got cancelled but that didn't stop me from listening to all the songs on repeat including this bop that went viral and rightly so! I'm such a fan of Eurovision and I'm excited that Dađi Freyr is back next year so I can't wait to see what he and the rest of the contestants come up with! I made a post earlier this year about some songs from this year's contest that I think you should listen to and this one featured!)

All I Want

Olivia Rodrigo

I truly believe that Olivia Rodrigo is going to change the music industry when she starts to put out her original music. This is one that she wrote for High School Musical: The Musical: The Series when she was SIXTEEN! The hsmtmts soundtrack may have taken up 18 places on my top 100 but these two songs are so deserving of their place here.

The Road

Starry Company

2020 also came with the resurgence of my love for Starkid and rekindled my love for Dylan Saunders and then remembered that he was in a Van Gogh inspired musical so spent a large portion of my time listening to the soundtrack for that because if there are two things I love it's musical theatre and Vincent Van Gogh (it's fairly obvious why show tunes was my top genre of the year isn't it?). This whole cast album is great but I'm particularly a fan of The Road, it has a key change at the end which just gives me so much life.

All Too Well

Taylor Swift

Yes I know, in a year where Taylor Swift released both folklore AND evermore my top listened song was All Too Well but honestly, is there ever a bad time to listen to All Too Well? This is semi due to the fact that it reminds me a lot of my favourite couple from The Diviners so I had a lot of feelings this year. But even so, I think this will always be my favourite Taylor song, it just hits differently!

So those are my top Books, TV Shows, and Songs of the year - are you familiar with any of these? What were your favourites of the year, let me know below because I'm always on the lookout for some new discoveries.