Books
Social distancing has given Batman and myself a lot of time for media! I’ll do a general roundup of what’s up on that front. I’m more of a reader than Batman but we both love TV. Most of our evenings are spent watching TV or a movie together. It’s honestly my favorite part of most days.
On the literary front, I got lost on Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha verse. I did it backwards, perhaps, starting off with the Six of Crows duology titled Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom consecutively. I loved these two books so much. They were my gateway into the world of Grisha. I then plowed through the Grisha trilogy: Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising. Although these latter three occur prior to the Six of Crows duology, they have little to do with one another, so luckily my reading order wasn’t too wackadoodle for me to thoroughly enjoy them.
Currently, I’m reading the first of the Nickolai duology that centers around one of my favorite characters from Grisha verse. It’s called King of Scars and I’m literally slugging my way through it. I’m not slow reading it because it’s bad. I’m slow reading it because the second book isn’t out yet and I’m loathe to leave this world that Leigh Bardugo has created. It’s so lovely and in-depth and well written. She’s become my second favorite author right behind Maggie Stiefvater.
I highly recommend all of these books.
Television
Hunters – Amazon Prime
Wow. What an intense first season. Husband and I went through it fairly quickly and we loved it. Well written and fantastic acting with a historical bent to it. This show is very graphic in some places, as it should be since it centers around Nazis and Holocaust survivors. It’s dark and twisted and occasionally heart warming. I think everyone should watch this show.
Mindhunter – Netflix
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this series, but for anyone who was a fan of Criminal Minds, who devours the psychological aspects of crazy and evil, this is basically the precursor to the creation of the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI. These are the guys who did the leg work to convince people that psychological profiles could play a big roll in hunting down criminals. It’s so interesting and also, at times, very dark because of the nature of the beast, but really well done as well. Also, it has Anna Torv in it, who I loved from the series Fringe back in the day.
I Am Not Okay with This – Netflix
This was surprisingly fun to watch. Again, it’s dark (I kind of have a theme going here, huh?), but also very light hearted. It’ll make you smile and laugh moments before landing a gut punch. In spite of the supernatural aspects of this show, the main character along with several others are very relatable in their every day lives and the problems they face. I love the ‘dear diary’ aspect of it where the main character gets to tell us how she really feels in almost every episode. I’m kind of a sucker for voice over commentary like Arrested Development or the original Roswell before they got away from that. This show has it in spades. And what a cliffhanger ending!
The Outsiders – HBO
Again with the dark, geeze I really have a genre. I expected this to be a crime drama, which it was. I did not expect this to have a supernatural bent to it, which it does. I love me some supernatural fantasy, so color me pleasantly surprised. This show was so engaging from the very first moments. I was righteously angry and then instantly sympathetic once certain truths were revealed. I’m not going to spoil anything but it’s super good and I wonder what they will do for season 2!
Wow. We watch a lot of TV cause I could keep going with things we’ve watched relatively recently. I guess you could call of TV-aholics.
There are certain shows I watch without Batman because… my husband is picky. The Young Pope and The New Pope on HBO were superb. Anne with an E on Netflix was a great spin on one of my favorite book series from when I was young. Mrs. Fletcher on HBO was so relatable and enjoyable.
Right now I’m working through the newest season of Outlander on Starz, which… sigh. It’s just still so good, even five seasons in. Sadly, I have yet to convince Batman that it’s worth watching. Re: see picky comment above.
Music
I have such varied taste in music. It makes my husband laugh and sometimes bang his head against a wall depending on the mood I’m in. Most recently, I’ve been addicted to these jams:
Albums
Taylor Swift – Lover
Avi Kaplan – I’ll Get By
Eminem – Music to be Murdered By
Hadestown – Broadway Cast
Singles
Nicki Minaj – Yikes
Lil Wayne – I Do It
Demi Lovato – Anyone
Meghan Tainor – Nice to Meet Ya
Todrick Hall – Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels
I mean, I could go on… and on… and on…
I hope all of you are okay out there as we social distance ourselves from one another.
If anyone wants to chat about anything mentioned in this mass media post, I will fangirl every single one of them. Have suggestions for things I should hear, watch, read? Music, TV, Books? What are your current obsessions in these arenas? Tell me about it!