The Ministry of Time, Big Mood, and The Last Stop in Yuma County.
Week 188.
Hello hello! This week I heard that Donald Sutherland died and then immediately went to watch this five times in a row. One of the best parts of my favorite movie!!! “I’m quite at my leisure” makes me cry every time. 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.
Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan: This is my third Annabel Monaghan book and I have loved them all. This one is about Ali, who is two years out from her mom dying and one year out from her husband leaving her. She meets a cute man, Ethan, at the dog park one day and decides its the perfect opportunity to have a summer fling. This was so good! I read it so fast. Lots of good stuff in here about finding yourself and choosing the life you want. I loved Ethan, and this takes place in a small beach town that was such a nice setting. A perfect beach book. I really recommend this author, and will also say her books have very little spice if that’s your vibe.
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley: This is unlike any other book I’ve ever read. The main character is a woman who works for a government agency, the titular Ministry, that has figured out time travel and has gone back in time to bring several historical figures into present day. She gets paired with one of them, a Navy Commander from the 1800s, and is tasked with teaching him how to exist in the present day. This is such a unique premise and it’s written in such an interesting way. I admittedly got a little lost in the last third of the book, but I still found this fairly compelling and I loved the writing style. Overall I would recommend this. It’s getting a miniseries adaptation by A24 and I think it will work so well on screen.
Articles
The American Novel Has a Major Problem With Fat People: Really liked this essay about the pervasiveness of fatphobia in fiction writing. This is something I notice quite a lot in the romance novels I read, sometimes in just passing comments but sometimes so aggressively that it ruins the entire reading experience for me. The examples in this article are so bad, and a lot of them come from extremely popular novels from the past decade. It is very refreshing to me when I read a book that has a fat character whose entire storyline and/or personality does not revolve around the fact that they are fat (off the top of my head, one that I remember doing this very well is Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon). As this article points out, “thinness is routinely associated with morality and fatness with immorality.” “Bad” characters are fat and self-loathing and “good” characters are skinny and hot. This is dumb and annoying and simply an inaccurate way to write about people! Everyone listen to Maintenance Phase and stop doing this, please.
Things I Watched
TV
If you’re looking for a show to watch, try this list.
Big Mood (Tubi): Post Bridgerton I’m really obsessed with Nicola Coughlan, so I was excited to watch this other new show of hers. She plays a woman living with Bipolar disorder, and the show mainly focuses on her relationship with her best friend. It’s a quick six episodes and I liked it! It’s very funny and I think it’s also a really good portrayal of living with this type of mental illness. I really do love Nicola, and this is SO different from what she does in Bridgerton (which is particularly amazing because she filmed both at the same time). This is quite weird at times, it reminded me of shows like Such Brave Girls and Fleabag. Tubi is free!
Movies
The Last Stop in Yuma County (rented): This random little movie was so good! It’s about a guy who stops for gas in a tiny town, and then has to wait in a nearby diner for the fuel truck to arrive. While there he gets caught up in a bad situation, and then things escalate. This is a tight 90 minutes and had me on the edge of my seat!! I have never in my life seen anyone who is in this movie in anything else (except for one of the more minor side characters) and that made this so much more immersive. This is so well paced and I was so invested, just a good little thriller.
Things I Bought
You can read about my full skincare routine and favorite products here. If you need a sunscreen recommendation, try this list.
Juicer: My new hyper-fixation is juice!!! I got this juicer a few weeks ago and I’m obsessed with it. I’ve been making a big batch of green juice on the weekends to drink throughout the week, and it’s been fun to add new things each time. I also juiced an entire Costco sized bag of limes and made incredible margaritas, and I’ve been making fresh orange juice in the mornings, too. Next I want to make ginger shots! This specific juicer was the Wirecutter budget recommendation, and while I have nothing to compare it to, I have no complaints.
One Last Thing…
Loved this episode of the NPR podcast Code Switch, about the word “felon” and what it means and if/how/when we should use it. It features Josie Duffy Rice, who is one of my favorite journalists who writes about and talks about the criminal legal system. Language is important and we should be more careful with it. Full list of podcasts I recommend here.
That’s it for me! This week I’m going to watch the new Netflix show about the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and try not to die in the heat. I hope you all have a good week.
TTYL,
Emily