Happy Sunday! Sundays and Mondays are two days that are just mentally exhausting to endure. I always say that my real week starts on Tuesday because Sundays are the day I procrastinate everything and lazy around and Mondays are the days I pay for my Sunday procrastination.
Sunday evenings are usually when I start to get a bit reflective of the week that’s just wrapped up and the week ahead. I usually journal my goals for the week ahead but I realized that I don’t really go into depth on the content I consumed or the stuff that I’ve done. This new weekly post addition is inspired by a couple of people:
- Bad on Paper Podcast – I love how the hosts start off each episode with their weekly highs and lows and end the episodes with their latest obsessions and the books they’ve read. I always am adding things to my TBR or to watch list from these segments.
- Evelyn Reads and Read & Wright – I love how Evelyn and Phoebe also do this on their blogs. It’s such a fun way to catch people up and also recap on posts and content that was published. Again, I’m a sucker for reading up on what people are reading and watching so I really appreciate their weekly recaps on what they’ve watched, read, or even about their recent purchases.
What I Read
Every Summer After by Carley Fortune
This book is the perfect summer book full of nostalgic summers and young love. It was messy but I really loved it and really enjoyed the writing as well. Can’t wait to read more from the author.
My Darling Duke by Stacy Reid
This book was so hyped for me and I’m sad to say that I didn’t love it. It wasn’t bad by any means, I did enjoy it but I was a bit disappointed that it didn’t end up the five star read I was hoping it would be. I loved the nod to beauty and the beast and loved reading about a male love interest who uses a cane and wheelchair.
If Ever I Should Love You by Cathy Maxwell
This was a historical romance that packed in a lot of depth and had this mellow, somber undertone. Major trigger warnings for rape, PTSD, and alcoholism. I’m not exactly sure how I feel about certain aspects of this book, such as how the discussion around recovery from alcoholism was conducted. I’m going to have to sit on this one for a bit because I definitely understand that it’s hard to accomplish a full length discussion about alcoholism in a short, historical romance novel.
The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian
This book is a historical fiction thriller, featuring some of 1960’s Hollywood’s actors, actresses, and film industry people enjoying a vacation in the Serengeti and suddenly getting wrapped up in dangers of not only the animalistic kind but also the human kind. There’s a kidnapping, murder, death, Russians, and discussions of colonialism and civil unrest in Africa and the treatment of Black people in 1960’s America, especially, 1960’s Hollywood. This is a new release and I’m really glad I picked it up. I tabbed so many historical facts and snippets the author indulged us with about 1960’s American and Russian involvement in Africa. I can’t wait to spend an entire weekend researching more about this time period and locations that I’m shameful to say I don’t know much about.
Winter in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand
I have no idea why I started this book. Well I mean, I do but I don’t know why I thought I’d enjoy it lol. This book, this author specifically, is a well loved author by one of the hosts on the “Bad on Paper” podcast. I wanted to see what the hype’s about. I’m only 100 pages in but so far it’s reading like a Lifetime/Hallmark movie with a cast of extremely rich people who wear calf skin gloves, have amethyst parlors and husbands who surprisingly own property on islands they didn’t know they frequented.
What I Watched
Stranger Things Season 3
I absolutely loved Season 3 of Stranger Things. I was pretty bored after Season 2 but Season 3 takes me back to the summers where I was in Middle School, running around in the mall or movie theaters with my friends. It’s so much more action packed and I spent a lot less time hating Nancy Wheeler. Don’t get me wrong, she pissed me off in this season to but far less than in other seasons.
Our Father [Netflix Documentary Movie]
This documentary came out in such a relevant time where women all around the country are under threat of losing full ownership of their reproductive rights. I’m halfway through this documentary and am planning to finish it tonight. This documentary is about a woman who finds out that she was conceived via assistance from an infertility clinic. When she decides to dig into her DNA to see if she has any siblings, she finds out something horrifying… a doctor at that clinic has been inserting his semen into a multitude of unaware women resulting in the birth of many children. Many of these children who are living their lives blissfully unaware that the kid sitting next to them in class may very well be their half sibling. Obvious trigger warnings for this show.
New TBR Additions
- This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
- Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult
- A Proposal They Can’t Refuse by Natalie Caña
- Love in The Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson
- Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian
- The Magic of Found Objects by Maddie Dawson
- The Love of My Life by Rose Walsh
Post Wrap Up
- May Releases
- Review: Woman on Fire by Lisa Barr
- Monthly Intentions: May
- Latest Obsessions
- Monthly Wrap Up: April
What did you read and watch this week?