That title seems clunky. Anyone else have trouble with blog post titles? Or is it just me? Maybe I should stick to the basics like the name of this category: Books and TV Shows. Anyway, I thought a long holiday weekend (Monday is President’s Day) might be a good time to share what I’ve been reading and watching lately.
Books
I recently read two very good books right in a row! They were very different types of books though both extremely well-written. Made the book I read after them both stand out for its glaring mediocrity.
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
The first book, I somehow had mistakenly thought was going to be a comedic book. It was not. AT ALL. This was the heartbreaking memoir of the actress who played Sam on the show, iCarly. G used to watch that show when he was in middle school, I think.
Sometimes when I read memoirs, I question the claims of the author. She wrote this in a way that I didn’t do that. What I did question was how so many adults could fail her. Basically this is a story of child abuse. She spends so much time trying to please her mentally unstable mother that she loses herself, to a career she never wanted, to eating disorders (her mother basically teaches her to be anorexic!), and the wrong relationships. There are adults in this book who notice but then, seem to do nothing. It is truly heartbreaking but not without hope as by the end of the book she’s beginning to find her voice and her calling as a (clearly very talented) writer. Worth your time.
Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
I’ve been a fan of Celeste Ng since first reading Little Fires Everywhere. By the way, I never could make it through the Hulu series despite loving the book. Not sure why. Her newest book, does not move at a fast pace. Honestly, the beginning is a bit slow, considering this is a Dystopian novel of sorts. In this story, a law passed by congress after a “crisis” makes it possible to remove children from parents who are suspected of working against the government.
It focuses on a young Asian boy and the disappearance of his mother after her poem is used in several protests. Is his mother a traitor? The law in the book is used and abused to discriminate again mostly Asian families. It’s hard to give a proper plot summary without spoilers but while the book could feel a bit political yet doesn’t, it seems a lot more chillingly possible than the likes of something like The Hunger Games. Even the ending felt realistic to me. If you are looking for a work of fiction that makes you think with well-developed characters, this is it. Each character made me consider how I would want to react to things vs. how I would actually react to the things happening in the book.
I do suggest having a good light romantic comedy or something funny lined up as your next read as both the books I mentioned here were pretty intense. I just finished Smells of Tween Spirit by Laurie Gelman (#4 in a series) which while not her best had just enough sarcasm and snark to balance out some of the heaviness of my last few reads.
Or just plan to move on and watch some TV instead.
My TV Viewing Lately
Did you know the Amazon fire stick doesn’t work if it’s super outdated? We had to get a new one! Annoying but at least now we have special buttons to go right to Netflix or Disney.
Streaming Shows:
My oldest is happy because I finally started watching You over on Netflix. Somebody, please tell me why I am cheering for a psychopath stalker over here? What is wrong with me?
Still watching the one episode a week of the David Tennant era of Doctor Who.
And I started casually re-watching my favorite show of all time, Fringe over on HBO Max.
Regular TV Shows
The Masked Singer is back! So excited to be watching that one again. That said, I do wish they’d go back to the format where they only did one unmasking a show. I’m kind of over the whole battle royale set-up of it all.
I also enjoy Next Level Kitchen though I missed most of the season premiere of it for some reason.
Things I don’t go out of my way to watch but will sit and watch if they happen to be on when I have time to watch: Just Call Me Kat, The Rookie: Feds, Whose Line Is It Anyway, the new Night Court one. Random PBS documentaries.
If my husband has the remote, he’s usually watching either Forged in Fire, Pawn Stars, Swamp People, the Tree Logging one (that one really annoys me!), or one of the bazillion seasons of Top Chef. And I’m reading one of my books.
What are you reading and/or watching lately?
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day 48/365
I just finished reading Verity by Colleen Hoover. It was a book that my coworker let me borrow. It is a suspense book- the kind that you want to scream for the main character to not do what she is doing, to leave the house, but you keep reading and can’t put it down and then in the end you are like “what the heck did I just read?” and it leaves you with more questions and questioning everything you just read. Needless to say it was very good.
The only show that I have watched recently is The Masked Singer, which we record on Hulu and then watch on the weekend as a family. I am with you though, I wish they would bring back the single elimination.
My son read that one for a book club. Funny we were just talking about it (I’ve not read it yet). He told me it reminded him of a worse version of the book, You. Guess I’ll have to read them both and see what I think. Hoping The Masked Singer is going to be a good one this season! Glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t really like the double eliminations.