Though many people will be grappling with how to celebrate New Year’s Eve without getting dressed up for a fancy party to toast the occasion with a dozen or so friends, who are instead forced to sit at home for the holiday for the first time, let me be the first to say: It’s great. Never one for a crowded bar or being in a room full of people who’ve decided to go out and/or drink for the first time in a while, I always spend New Year’s Eve at home . alone . and it’s highly underrated. You drink exactly what you want, refills are easy to come by, and all the food you want is at your disposal when the pangs hit no having to subject your sober friend or Uber driver to having to drive you to a fast-food spot that’s open at 3 a.m. Oh, and sweatpants.
Enter email address You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
This morning we’ll be sharing our compendium of some of the best California writing of 2020.
California contains multitudes. This is a state of 40 million people a place so big that there have been
at least 220 recorded attempts to break it up. Which is all to say that even a hundred stories couldn’t capture the entirety of the California experience during this historic year.
Advertisement
But these were 30 of our favorite stories published in 2020, from The Times and beyond.
Together, they’ll take you up and down the coast, into the desert and through the Central Valley. There are narratives, investigations, news stories, essays and personal histories. You’ll meet nurses, linebackers, strawberry growers, a Qatari sheikh, a homeless 7-year-old, an iconoclastic federal judge and a devoted mail carrier, to name a few.
Amina Khan, and it’s
Wednesday, Dec. 23. This newsletter will be taking the rest of the week off for the holidays, so here’s the latest on the pandemic, plus some of the week’s best stories to take you through the long weekend.
Newsletter
Get our free Coronavirus Today newsletter
Sign up for the latest news, best stories and what they mean for you, plus answers to your questions.
Enter email address You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
As coronavirus cases continue to spread like wildfire across the state, millions of Californians have been asked to remain home instead of visiting friends and family for the holidays. That hasn’t stopped people from