Hello hello! Don’t ask me how many times I’ve watched this. Here’s a recap of my week:
Things I Read
Books
If you’re looking for a book to read, try this list of contemporary romance recs, this list of other fiction recs, or this list of non-fiction recs. I also track everything I read on Goodreads.
Meet the Benedettos by Katie Cotugno: I read Birds of California by Katie Cotugno a couple years ago and loved it, so when I saw the tagline for this book was “Pride & Prejudice meets The Kardashians” I was like yep, I’m in. This is about The Benedetto Family, five sisters and their parents, who are struggling to move forward after their reality show has ended. It loosely follows the storyline of P&P but is also full of so many pop culture references and fully feels like its own thing. This was just fun, I read it so quickly. It’s only 250 pages and I wish it had been longer! The ending was so fast and felt rushed, I absolutely would have read 100 more pages of this. I loved the main love story and I think this really captured the relationship between the sisters so well. I will pretty much read any Pride & Prejudice retelling but I think this would be enjoyable to anyone who likes a rom com. Big Katie Contugno fan, I want to read more of her books!
Articles
All Eyes on Lily Gladstone: To me one of the more exciting things coming out of this awards season is Lily Gladstone, who gives an absolutely incredible performance in Killers of the Flower Moon. The nature of this movie has meant she has moved through this whole awards circuit being asked difficult questions and she is just so incredible at both representing Indigenous communities while also being so clear about how they are not a monolith. She uses her platform to make space for others so well. It’s also been nice to watch Leonardo DiCaprio basically use all the attention he gets to force everyone to pay attention to her instead, and now I don’t think we’ll ever look away. I want to watch more of her work! I just think she is amazing, the movie is so good and she is so good in it, and I hope she wins.
Things I Watched
TV
If you’re looking for a show to watch, try this list.
Such Brave Girls (Hulu): I think the massive success of Fleabag has lead to a proliferation of weird British comedies led by women, a trend I love. This one is about two sisters and their single mother who are trying to piece their lives back together after their father/husband leaves. These three women are SUCH a mess, absolutely unhinged behavior, terrible decision after terrible decision being made at an alarming rate. None of them are particularly likable, each with their own insufferable intricacies, but somehow on the whole this worked for me. This has a similar tone to Derry Girls, but it is much weirder and much grosser (there’s some truly disgusting scenes involving bodily fluids in this). As much as this made me cringe in horror, it also made me LAUGH. I though this was so funny, and it’s a quick six episodes so I flew through it.
American Nightmare (Netflix): This is nuts. It’s a three part documentary series about a woman who got kidnapped, her boyfriend who became the main suspect, and what happened when she was found days later and the police decided that the two of them had made the whole thing up. This was rage inducing, watching the ways in which law enforcement just failed in every way and the media backed them up. There are some graphic descriptions of sexual assault in here (nothing visual), but if you’re up for it I found this very compelling and definitely think it’s worth a watch. There are two things I hope people who watch this take away from it. First, I think people watch documentaries like this and think these stories are anomalies, and I just cannot stress enough that this is the NORM. Police do not solve or investigate crimes, they find the easiest possible explanation for what could have happened and then absolutely refuse to look elsewhere, often in spite of the evidence in front of them. And the media often backs them up without any due diligence because we live in a society that reveres law enforcement to a frankly absurd extent. There may be a few people in these systems who are better than this, but on the whole this is just the reality of how these systems work. Anyone who has interacted with police in any meaningful capacity can tell you this. The second thing I hope people take away from this story is this: do not, under any circumstances, talk to cops. DO! NOT! TALK! TO! COPS! Say “I want a lawyer” and then shut the hell up.
Movies
Good Grief (Netflix): This was extremely mid. I’m not sure what the point was? Written, directed by, and starring Dan Levy (of Schitt’s Creek fame), it’s about a man whose husband dies and what happens in the year that follows. The best part of this is how its styled— every outfit is good and every room looks like it would fit in a Nancy Meyers movie. But like, what was the plot??? I was bored! In three weeks I will not be able to tell you a single thing about this movie, it has already mostly left by brain and I will probably never think about it again. Disappointing because this has a good premise and a great cast. Next.
One True Loves (Prime Video): Not to be rude or whatever but this is one of the worst movies I’ve watched in recent memory. It’s based on a Taylor Jenkins Reid novel that I read last year and did not particularly like, but I still felt inclined to watch this movie because I cannot help myself. The plot is truly absurd: a woman’s husband dies in a helicopter crash and five years later she has moved on and is engaged to someone else when she finds out that her husband actually survived and is coming home, so she has to decide which man to be with. Like….okay. Sure. Already starting at a deficit since I was skeptical of the plot, this still managed to not live up to my extremely low expectations of being a fine trash can movie. The acting is bad, the story is bad, this movie is bad!!! Two trash cans, skip.
Things I Bought
You can read about my full skincare routine and favorite products here. If you need a sunscreen recommendation, try this list.
Wireless charging pad: I fear I am about to sound like a Boomer as I rave about this piece of technology that has existed for literally years but I myself have just tried in the past couple of weeks for the first time, but here we go. I got a new phone a few weeks ago, and that meant I had to get all new chargers as the newest iPhone has a different plug than the old ones. So, since I was buying a bunch of new ones anyway I decided to get these wireless charging pads because, why not? Now I’m like, what the hell have I been doing plugging my phone in to charge it all this time??? This is so much better. I have one on my nightstand and one on my desk at work and it’s just exponentially more convenient. I feel dumb that I wasn’t using these until now.
One Last Thing…
I made these garlic twist buns last night and they were soooooo good. God I love bread.
That’s it for me! I hope you all have a good week.
TTYL,
Emily
I also watched American Nightmare last week and was blown away. I watch basically all true crime docs and it never ceases to amaze me how American law enforcement can still function as law enforcement. Shameful.