December 22, 2020

What I've Been Reading, Watching, and Listening To


I feel like I just wrote one of these posts, but I'm starting to lose track of my thoughts on each item, so I'm going to post them more frequently. These posts are actually helpful for me to remember things I've read or watched, because my memory is terrible!

The links to Amazon are affiliate links, meaning that if you buy them through the link, I may get a small commission. But check your library! I almost always get my books--ebooks and audio--free from my library.

Reading


I still haven't been doing much reading, but I am about 3/4 of the way done with a book right now. I made it a goal to read at least one book this month and I just picked a random one that was downloaded to my Kindle Paperwhite. I think it was a free First Reads book from Amazon. It's called 'One Last Second' by Sam Vickery.

Here is the synopsis from the publisher:

"When Madeline’s six-year-old daughter Tilly collapses one Sunday night, Madeline’s world is turned upside down. Racing to the hospital, she imagines the worst scenarios in her mind, but when they arrive the doctors say that Tilly is fine.

Madeline’s ex-husband Adam and her best friend Laura think Madeline is being overprotective, that Tilly fainted because of her fussy eating. But Madeline is sure something is seriously wrong with Tilly. She can feel it. And she believes that a mother’s instinct is never wrong.

Adam and Laura begin to believe that Tilly would be safer in their care, but Adam has no idea about the secret Laura has been hiding. And then Tilly’s symptoms worsen, and Madeline realizes that she may have to risk losing custody of Tilly to have any chance of saving her life…"

I'm not done with this one yet, so I really can't comment much on it. So far, though, it hasn't been a "can't put it down" type book (if it was, I would have finished it a couple of weeks ago). I feel like it's kind of dragging on--almost like reading the same chapter again and again.

However, it has really great reviews, so it's probably just not my type of read. It's kind of funny--I have been listening to nothing but psychological thriller audiobooks for months and now, reading this "women's literary fiction" book, I'm constantly theorizing about the whodunits and the plot twists that are yet to come. So I think I'm just expecting twists when there aren't any! Hahaha.

Watching

I've watched a few things lately that I made sure to note because I wanted to mention them here.

All the Bright Places - (Movie on Netflix) - (The link goes to the trailer on YouTube) A drama/romance about two teens who are kind of misfits for different emotional issues. Both are very likable, and it's such a feel-good story (but heart-breaking at the same time... I don't want to spoil it). I really liked this because it deals with mental health/illness (and I'm a sucker for teen drama/romance!). When I looked this up just now, I discovered that it's based on a book of the same name by Jennifer Niven



Recovery Boys - (Documentary on Netflix) - (The link goes to the trailer on YouTube) This was an interesting documentary about an unconventional drug/alcohol rehab center. There are four men that live and work on a farm while recovering from drug/alcohol abuse. This one really stabbed me in the heart--one of the guys' kids were taken from him and put into foster care, and just before leaving for rehab he learned that his three-year old daughter was molested while in foster care. He was really upset and angry (of course) and he blamed himself (...if he hadn't been doing drugs, she wouldn't have been put in foster care, and then it would have happened). I can't even imagine how helpless he must have felt upon learning that. Anyway, I really like documentaries about addiction (I love Intervention and shows like that) and this one was good!



Diagnosis - (Docuseries on Netflix) - (The link goes to the trailer on YouTube) This was SO interesting to me! Each episode focuses on someone who has some sort of illness that doctors haven't been able to diagnose or treat properly. They've all been to see numerous specialists who just can't give them answers. The host of the show (a medical doctor) posts their stories and asks for help with diagnoses through "crowdsourcing"--lots of specialists from around the world as well as regular people who may have similar/identical symptoms and have found answers. Finding people who have the same illness/symptoms can be a huge relief when people feel alone and like doctors aren't taking them seriously.



Cristina - (Short documentary on Netflix) - (The link goes to the film's website) This was only 40 minutes long, but it had such a big impact on me. A 37-year old woman is battling terminal cancer (while not giving up on being cured). Her love of life was overwhelming and it made me think of all the things I take for granted. It really made me want to change my way of looking at things and situations. 



Grey's Anatomy - TV show with ALL the seasons on Netflix - I've been watching Grey's since the first episode, and each season, I wonder why I am still watching it. It's a ridiculous show! But Jerry and I started rewatching it from season one a few months ago and I find that I'm liking it a lot more this time around. I really like some of the characters I couldn't stand when the show first started. And then I realized that I'm a completely different person than when I started watching the show--it was 2005!

I had a one year old baby, was the heaviest I'd been in my life and I hadn't yet gone through all of major life changes of my weight loss, my blog, my bipolar diagnosis, etc. It's funny how much my thoughts of the show have changed since then! But anyway, you've all seen or heard of the show. Just a medical drama--heavy on the drama--and lighthearted and fun to watch :) 

Listening To


Little Pretty Things - Lori Rader-Day audiobook - I really loved the narrator's voice of this book! I even searched out more books that she narrates after listening. I should mention, though, that I listen to books at 1.25x speed, so the voices may sound a little different than if I listened at 1.0x speed. Anyway, this was a good suspense book! I didn't write down any notes on this one, so I can't really remember my thoughts about it. The general synopsis is that a (very likable) woman working a dead-end job at a shady motel encounters her best friend/rival from high school, who she hadn't seen in 10 years, when her friend gets a room at the motel. The following morning, her friend is discovered to be murdered and she becomes a suspect in the murder. 



Tell No One - Harlan Coben audiobook - A man receives an email that appears to be from his wife who was kidnapped and murdered eight years earlier. It's written in a sort of code that only he would understand, so he begins a journey of trying to find out if she's somehow still alive (despite the fact that her body was found just days after she'd been kidnapped). The ending wasn't what I expected, and I always love that!



In The Blood - Lisa Unger audiobook - This book had the most shocking twist of any suspense book I've read/listened to in as long as I can remember. I don't want to spoil with much information, but I was guessing throughout the book about how the characters were somehow intertwined. I'm usually pretty good at guessing these things, but I did NOT see this one coming. (I believe it was about 8 hours into the audiobook.)



Confessions on the 7:45 - Lisa Unger audiobook - After reading the previous Lisa Unger book, I immediately downloaded this one. This one would have been much better for reading than for listening to. There are a lot of characters to keep track of and I found myself questioning who was who over and over again. There are three characters whose names I kept getting confused--Selena, Stella, and Geneva--so I would probably have to read or listen to the book again to truly put it all together. It was a good story, so I think that reading it would be the way to go versus the audiobook.


I'm going through audiobooks so quickly because of all of the walking I've been doing. I'd like to focus on reading a little more, though. I go through phases where I read all the time and then I won't read a book for months. Right now, I just haven't gotten into any books--I've started and stopped probably ten of them in the past two months!

Anyway, I'm still really loving the psychological thrillers :)


2 comments:

  1. Awesome podcast for your morning walk - I am not a Monster; put on by the producers of FrontLine; about a woman from OH and her kids who ends up in Syria when her husband joins ISIS. Her sister works with this journalist and the FBI to try to get her out... The first 4 episodes are out, I hate waiting weeks for the next...

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  2. Since you like the teen romance movies....have you seen "After" on Netflix? That's a good, juicy one! They just released a sequel too...although it's not on Netflix yet.

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