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The holidays are upon us, and even though 2020 was a year most of us would like to forget, here at the Avenue Property Group we’re excited to put together and share our Best of 2020 list. Just as in year’s past, our list includes our favorite stories, books, podcasts, music, movies, shows, and products of the year.
In a year where this list could easily have been the ‘Worst of 2020’, we’d like to encourage you to contribute. We’re interested to hear what you think of the list, and how yours would differ from ours. So we’re leaving commenting turned on below. So let us have it!
Happy Holidays!
– Brian.
Our Favorite Articles
The Real Lord of the Flies
When a group of schoolboys were marooned on an island in 1965, it turned out very differently from William Golding’s bestseller, writes Rutger Bregman.
You’re Showering Too Much
“I say to them, ‘How do you shower?’ ” she told me. “They take the squeegee thing and wash their whole body with some sort of men’s body wash. They’re showering twice a day because they’re working out. As soon as I get them to stop doing that and just wash their bits, they’re totally fine.”
The Spooky, Loosely Regulated World of Online Therapy
Starting treatment with Better Help, one of the most prominent “therapy-on-demand” apps to launch over the last few years, is easy, which is more or less the point. Like many of the businesses offering therapy online, the service promotes itself as a seamless way to access mental health services.
36,000 Feet Under the Sea
Sea level—perpetual flux. There is a micromillimetre on the surface of the ocean that moves between sea and sky and is simultaneously both and neither. Every known life-form exists in relation to this layer. Above it, the world of land, air, sunlight, and lungs. Below it, the world of water, depth, and pressure. The deeper you go, the darker, the more hostile, the less familiar, the less measured, the less known.
Un-Adopted
“This is by far the hardest video James and I have ever publicly had to make,” said Myka. Wearing white shirts that matched the linens on the bed where they sat, the Stauffers revealed that they had placed Huxley, their then almost 5-year-old autistic son from China – whose adoption process and life they had documented for more than three years — with “his now new forever family.”
Our Favorite Reads
Care to Lead
Alec McGalliard is here to help. With his new book, CARE to Lead: How to Master and Implement Four Keys to Leadership: Communication, Accountability, Relationships and Example of Excellence, he offers practical skills and repeatable tools you can use to improve stat, all in one slim volume that won’t break your brain.
Choose Wonder over Worry
Let’s be real. Life is filled with twists and turns, fears and doubts, messy and magical moments. Without a “rule book” for how to thrive in today’s world, it leaves many of us feeling all the feels without having a clear sense of direction. Research even shows that the average adult spends 80% of their time with regret about the past or anxiety about the future.
Greenlights
Discover the life-changing memoir that has inspired millions of readers through the Academy Award®–winning actor’s unflinching honesty, unconventional wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction.
Hustle Believe Receive
As a single mom living on food stamps, Sarah completely changed her life of poverty to enable her to live her dream in just eighteen months. Sarah discovered the tools to change her life after her husband abandoned her and their three small children in 2008. Her story has impacted hundreds of thousands worldwide through her simple eight-step plan for achieving success known as the #HBRMethod.
Edison
Although Thomas Alva Edison was the most famous American of his time, and remains an international name today, he is mostly remembered only for the gift of universal electric light. His invention of the first practical incandescent lamp 140 years ago so dazzled the world—already reeling from his invention of the phonograph and dozens of other revolutionary devices—that it cast a shadow over his later achievements.
Our Favorite Podcasts
Casefile
Casefile is an award-winning true-crime podcast that presents unforgettable stories in a professionally produced audio format. Their episodes delve deep into the circumstances, investigations and trials of both solved and unsolved cases from all over the world. Discover why everyone from Rolling Stone to Time magazine is calling it a must-listen experience.
Win Make Give
In this podcast, business builder, real estate investor, and nice guy – Ben Kinney shares proven models and systems around health, wealth, leadership, and legacy. If you would like to WIN, MAKE, GIVE, and do GOOD, then sit back enjoy his coaching and training excerpts, explanations of his models, and thought provoking powerful interviews with some of the world’s greatest minds in both life and business.
LORE
Lore is an award-winning, critically-acclaimed podcast about true life scary stories. Lore exposes the darker side of history, exploring the creatures, people, and places of our wildest nightmares. Because sometimes the truth is more frightening than fiction.
Empire Building
It’s no secret that business owners face a unique set of challenges, often juggling marriage, parenthood, and career aspirations. Empire Building brings together four influential women who are unapologetic in their goals to build big businesses and live big lives. Another common goal? Helping others do the same.
How I Built This
Guy Raz interviews the world’s best-known entrepreneurs to learn how they built their iconic brands. In each episode, founders share intimate moments of doubt and failure, and insights on their eventual success. How I Built This is a master-class on innovation, creativity, leadership and how to navigate challenges of all kinds.
Our Favorite Music
Reunions
The alt-country singer-songwriter’s new album moves steadily and carefully, lingering on the conflicted emotions of his finely-etched tales and the band’s textured, elegant understatement.
The Highwomen
The Highwomen is an American country music supergroup composed of Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris, and Amanda Shires. Formed in 2019, the group’s self-titled debut album was released on September 6 of the same year by Elektra Records and was produced by Dave Cobb.
Starting Over
Starting Over is the fourth studio album by American musician Chris Stapleton. The album was released on November 13, 2020, by Mercury Nashville. At the 64th Grammy Awards it won the award for Best Country Album.
Listening to the Music
“Perfection” is a very hard metric to measure when it comes to music. As a subjective art form, what is perfect for some and what falls short for others is often in the eye of the beholder. Country music is no Chinese piano box, or acrobatics routine. But if your measure of perfection is how well you re-interpret and reinvigorate the classic styles of country music from its bygone Golden era, then Zephaniah OHora’s second record—similar to his first one—scores a 10.0.
The Problem
In “The Problem,” songwriting wife-husband duo Amanda Shires and Jason Isbell show the weight of unconditional support in four words.
“I’m on your side,” they sing.
Our Favorite Movies
Invisible Man
When Cecilia’s abusive ex takes his own life and leaves her his fortune, she suspects his death was a hoax. As a series of coincidences turn lethal, Cecilia works to prove that she is being hunted by someone nobody can see.
Athlete A
Maggie Nichols devoted most of her life to being on the national gymnastics team. Like other Olympic hopefuls, she’d given up almost everything to achieve this goal. She was on the road to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. But her dream was shattered after she reported being sexually abused by USA Gymnastics (USAG) team doctor Larry Nassar, the allegedly caring physician and pillar of his suburban community.
Unhinged
Rachel is a single mother whose bad day gets even worse when she beeps her horn at a fellow driver during rush-hour traffic. After an exchange of words, she soon realizes that the mysterious man is following her and her young son in his truck. The initial case of road rage quickly escalates into full-blown terror as Rachel discovers the psychopath’s sinister plan for revenge.
The Call of the Wild
Buck is a big-hearted dog whose blissful domestic life gets turned upside down when he is suddenly uprooted from his California home and transplanted to the exotic wilds of the Alaskan Yukon in the 1890s. As the newest rookie on a mail-delivery dog sled team, Buck experiences the adventure of a lifetime as he ultimately finds his true place in the world.
The Way Back
Jack Cunningham was a high school basketball phenom who walked away from the game, forfeiting his future. Years later, when he reluctantly accepts a coaching job at his alma mater, he may get one last shot at redemption.
Our Favorite Shows
The Crown
Based on an award-winning play (“The Audience”), this lavish, Netflix-original drama chronicles the life of Queen Elizabeth II from the 1940s to modern times. The series begins with an inside look at the early reign of the queen, who ascended the throne at age 25 after the death of her father, King George VI. As the decades pass, personal intrigues, romances, and political rivalries are revealed that played a big role in events that shaped the later years of the 20th century.
Ozark
This drama series stars Jason Bateman as Marty Byrde, a financial planner who relocates his family from Chicago to a summer resort community in the Ozarks. With wife Wendy and their two kids in tow, Marty is on the move after a money-laundering scheme goes wrong, forcing him to pay off a substantial debt to a Mexican drug lord in order to keep his family safe. While the Byrdes’ fate hangs in the balance, the dire circumstances force the fractured family to reconnect.
Shameless
Oscar-nominated actor William H. Macy stars as Frank Gallagher, a single father of six who spends much of his free time drinking at bars. The Gallagher children — led by oldest daughter Fiona, who takes on much of the child-rearing responsibility due to her mother’s absence — manage to raise themselves in spite of Frank’s lack of parenting and unusual parenting style when he does choose to act like a father.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
It’s the late 1950s and Miriam “Midge” Maisel has everything she has ever wanted — the perfect husband, two kids and an elegant apartment on New York’s Upper West Side. Her seemingly idyllic life takes a surprising turn when she discovers a hidden talent she didn’t previously know she had — stand-up comedy.
Better Call Saul
He wasn’t always Saul Goodman, ace attorney for chemist-turned-meth dealer Walter White. Six years before he begins to represent Albuquerque’s most notorious criminal, Goodman is Jimmy McGill, a small-time attorney hustling to make a name for himself. He’s a forceful champion for his low-income clients, an underdog whose morals and ambitions often clash.
