Tag Archives: recaps

RECAP: Reading | Watching | Loving – June 2021

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First thing’s first. Let’s all agree that it’s perfectly flipping bonkers to be six months into twenty-bloody-twenty-one. It seems like only a handful of weeks ago we were toasting to the demise of 2020, gleeful at the prospect of a better year and all that Auld Lang Syne-y jazz.

And look at us.

Just LOOK at us.

Half the country in lockdown thanks to the Covid Delta strain running rampant from coast to coast . We’re pretty lucky here in Adelaide, but restrictions are back, interstate borders are closed and yesterday I got my face mask all tangled in my earrings while my glasses fogged up like it was 2020 all over again, so yeah. Pandemic times, they sure do go on.

Now we’ve dispensed with the obligatory ‘march of time’ sentiment that accompanies the EOFY so nicely and rued the relentlessness of corona-times, let’s review the heck out of June and it’s delightfully mask-free happenings…

READING

I’m feeling like I’m back to my bookish best after a slight reading slump. A good day spent sipping coffee and rummaging through a bunch of local secondhand bookstores with a friend was a welcome treat, and winter weather is just built for hibernation with a book in hand and a cat on lap.

  • Snow – Gina Inverarity (5 stars)
  • Artemis – Andy Weir (2 stars)
  • The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires – Grady Hendrix (4.5 stars)
  • Jonathan Unleashed – Meg Rosoff (3 stars)
  • There Was Still Love – Favel Parrett (3 star)
  • If You’re Reading This I’m Already Dead – Andrew Nicoll (2 stars)

WATCHING

  • Friends: The Reunion. This was 100% not what I was expecting. More tellingly, it’s not what I wanted. Is that because I actually didn’t want it at all?
  • The Mandalorian, S1. Yes, I’m horribly late to the party on this because I was adamant that I wasn’t forking out for yet another streaming service but I finally made it, you guys! Gosh, it’s a bit spaghetti western meets Star Wars and I ain’t mad about it at all. Delightful.
  • Superstore, S6. There’s a challenge for any show that has a ‘lead + ensemble’ cast to turn it into a genuine ensemble when the lead leaves. Sure, New Girl was a far better show for that chunk of time without Zooey Deschanel (fight me) but without Amy’s character bringing a sense of normality and balance to Superstore’s cast of madcaps, there’s just something missing. It’s still good, but not as good. All the feels for the last ep though. All of them!
  • Inexplicably, a bunch of Hugh Grant movies. I can’t even begin to explain this but I have a new fascination with how Hughey G is making some smart choices when it comes to transitioning his particular schtick into some surprisingly age-appropriate and marginally decent roles. More on this later, probably.

LOVING

I don’t know my neighbours very well but this sweet little system has come about where we trade cat food that we’ve tried our (apparently very fussy) cats on unsuccessfully. Waste not, want not and all that. It would be nice to have this little bit of community at any time but it seems especially nice during the pandemic when people are feeling more isolated than ever. Having had some very awful neighbours, this is just lovely and goes to prove: cat people are the best people.

‘Til next time,

RECAP: Reading | Watching | Loving – May 2021

Posted in General, Reading, Watching by

Something something, back from the dead… I know, folks. I KNOW. A solid year and then some, and here we are like nothing ever happened. My sweet zombie blog is back, limping its awkward shuffle, looking a little less fleshy and a bit green around the edges. Nice to see you, to see you nice.

I’ve had an inkling to resurrect this little old thing for some time. Let’s start gently with a little recap of the month that was…

READING
Technically this list is for both April and May, but I make the rules here so them’s the breaks. This delish little pile featured teen saviours turned mixed up adults thrust back into the world-saving business, women shaping the first dictionary, familial mystery and obsession, parallel universes, books that felt like a big, warm hug and a borrowed book that had a lot of potential but, for me, didn’t deliver.

A stack of books read during April and May.
  • The Amber Amulet – Craig Silvey (3 stars)
  • Jitterbug Perfume – Tom Robbins (2 stars)
  • Chosen Ones – Veronica Roth (3.5 stars)
  • Last Night in Montreal – Emily St John Mandel (3 stars)
  • The Dictionary of Lost Words – Pip Williams (4 stars)
  • The Midnight Library – Matt Haig (4 stars)

WATCHING
As someone who spends a considerable amount of time on their couch, I’m always binging two or three shows at a time. In a global pandemic world, I’ve been most enjoying easy-watch, no-fuss viewing, opting to comfort and familiarity over anything too confronting or challenging. What can I say? The world is confronting and challenging enough right now.

  • Girls5eva, from creator Meredith Scardino (of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt fame) was an unexpected, hilarious delight. The cast is very good and the writing solid. I ate up all 8 eps in a flash.
  • Always a sucker for an underdog story and a fan of America Ferrera, Ugly Betty made for a good 4 season binge. It hasn’t aged well in some regards (particularly its take on transgender storylines) but broadly it’s quite a fun time. Where it succeeds is in its balance of convoluted telenovela plotting with a thoughtful treatment of familial relationships within Betty’s own family. Certainly a precursor to Jane the Virgin (which probably did these things much better but without the fabulous outfits).
  • Younger S4. Meh. Time to wrap this one up for sure. That said I am enjoying seeing how many ways they try to hide Hilary Duff’s very obvious pregnancy (holding big things, mostly).
  • After revisiting the low-budget/high-fun OG Buffy movie recently, I decided to give Buffy S1 a rewatch and one thing’s for sure – it’s been too long. Mad props for the early eps laying such a strong foundation of Angel’s storyline so early and special mention to Giles’s scarves. (Also RIP low-waisted jeans – let’s hope the current 90s inspired fashion trends don’t bring this back).
Scarf game strong. Source

LOVING
May always feels like one of those awkward, in-between months, but there were certainly some highlights. I flew on a plane for the first time in over a year, celebrated a milestone birthday (not mine) with the fam for a delightfully wintery beach holiday, got excited about hat weather (berets are back, you guys!) and dead set LOVED all the things in the Princess Highway AW21 collection. Really I should be diverting a portion of my salary there every fortnight. Send help.

‘Til next time,

2019 in Books

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In 2019, I read some very fine books and a handful I thoroughly disliked. I joined a book club (briefly). I made a real effort to do #nonfictionnovember and even remembered to Instagram my reads every month. Look, I made them into a flashy gif:

20191231_083427

(Don’t look at it too long, it might give you a seizure).

Here are some statistics, because statistics can be fun…

  • I read 20,320 pages over 65 books.
  • The shortest was a book of poetry by Mary Oliver (Blue Horses), clocking in at just 83 pages.
  • The longest was Hanya Yanagihara’s heart-wrenching A Little Life (720 pages). 
  • 68% (44 books) were written by women.
  • 15% (10 books) were written by Australian women.
  • 15% (10 books) were non-fiction.
  • I am notoriously tough with my 5 star ratings, giving them to only 12% (8 books).
  • 29% (19 books) rated 4 stars.
  • 9% (6 books) rated 2 stars or below.

Here’s the full 65, with the books I rated as 5 Star Reads in bold:

  1. All the Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr
  2. How to Be a Woman – Caitlin Moran
  3. Miss Kopp Just Won’t Quit – Amy Stewart
  4. Eleven Hours – Paullina Simons
  5. City of the Beasts – Isabel Allende
  6. Burial Rites – Hannah Kent
  7. The Museum of Modern Love – Heather Rose
  8. All the Anxious Girls on Earth – Zsuzsi Gartner
  9. The Boy on the Bridge – M.R. Carey
  10. Lola Bensky – Lily Brett
  11. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves – Karen Joy Fowler
  12. The Dry – Jane Harper
  13. The Big Sleep – Raymond Chandler
  14. See What I Have Done – Sarah Schmidt
  15. I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive – Steve Earle
  16. Daring Greatly – Brene Brown
  17. The Crow Road – Iain Banks
  18. Room – Emma Donoghue
  19. War Storm – Victoria Aveyard
  20. Pink Mountain on Locust Island – Jamie Marina Lau
  21. All the Birds, Singing – Evie Wyld
  22. Black Swan Green – David Mitchell
  23. A Little Life – Hanya Yanagihara
  24. Blue Horses – Mary Oliver
  25. The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy – Tim Burton
  26. The Natural Way of Things – Charlotte Wood
  27. First, We Make the Beast Beautiful – Sarah Wilson
  28. The Midwich Cuckoos – John Wyndham
  29. Daisy Jones & The Six – Taylor Jenkins Reid
  30. Looking for Alaska – John Green
  31. Play It As It Lays – Joan Didion
  32. I Love Dick – Chris Kraus
  33. Congo –  Michael Crichton
  34. Normal People – Sally Rooney
  35. Only the Animals – Ceridwen Dovey
  36. Juliet, Naked – Nick Hornby
  37. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
  38. The Silence of the Girls – Pat Barker
  39. The Boneless Mercies – April Genevieve Tucholke
  40. Fleishman is in Trouble – Taffy Brodesser-Akner
  41. Lies Sleeping – Ben Aaronovitch
  42. The Furthest Station – Ben Aaronovitch
  43. Write Away – Elizabeth George
  44. Beloved – Toni Morrison
  45. Big Little Lies – Liane Moriarty
  46. The Miracle at Speedy Motors – Alexander McCall Smith
  47. Ancillary Justice – Ann Leckie
  48. Life After Life – Kate Atkinson
  49. The Time Machine – H.G. Wells
  50. Tell-All – Chuck Palahniuk
  51. Autumn – Ali Smith
  52. Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love Notes and Heartbreak in the Stacks – Annie Spence
  53. Ghost Wall – Sarah Moss
  54. Bel Canto – Ann Patchett
  55. The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson
  56. A Complicated Kindness – Miriam Toews
  57. Kopp Sisters on the March – Amy Stewart
  58. Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men – Caroline Criado-Perez
  59. A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons – Ben Folds
  60. The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself – Michael A Singer
  61. Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls – David Sedaris
  62. Quiet Girls Can Run The World: The Beta Woman’s Guide to the Modern Workplace – Rebecca Holman
  63. Native Tongue – Suzette Haden Elgin
  64. Dracul – Dacre Stoker & J.D. Barker
  65. Eleanor & Park – Rainbow Rowell