Monthly Media Favs January 2020

Can you believe the first month of the year is over?? It just flew by waving it’s snowy, icy hand(at least in Wisconsin) and has been replaced by more ice and snow. I personally love the winter(gives you an actual excuse to stay inside) but then again my commute consists of ten steps from the basement to the first floor. So I would say I should probably not have an opinion on this.

TV Shows/Series

  • Gotham- This show has the vibe of GOT but with Batman! Or at least my opinion.
  • La Mantas- Yes it’s a French show, but it’s about a woman serial killer, her cop son and the detective who captured her working together to find a copycat killer, who is recreating her crimes. So far so interesting.

Movies

  • Little Women- I was on the fence about this movie. Mainly because there are so many adaptations of it and very few great adaptations of it. Either they make Jo so feminist and angry and too flighty, missing to capture her tenderness and frankly fragility. Or they make Amy(my favorite character and probably the one I relate most too… if mixed a bit with Beth) a villain and her so vain and selfish you don’t care what happens to her. Yeah they don’t do that in this film. I have been to see it twice, which is a hallmark for how much I like it. The way it’s paced and flies from the past to the present. The chemistry between the actors, the breathtaking landscape and score. Ah it’s so good! It gives me the feels of the Joe Wright’s Pride&Prejudice with the simplistic elegance of filming.
  • 1917- Okay enough about Little Women that’s talk about the greatest movie of the year and the greatest movie I have seen in a really, really long time. Again I was on the fence about this one. In fact I probably wouldn’t have seen it if my friend didn’t want to go. Not that I don’t like war films. I do, I just bawl like a baby throughout them. This one was no exception, but the acting(George Mackay is my new favorite actor) and the way it’s shot- It takes you to another world it so visually stunning. It makes you feel like you’re actually there with the soldiers. Another thing I adored about this movie is how realistic it was. The walk across no man’s land is appalling and your mind just wants to believe that that never happened… but it did and it looked exactly like that… At the end of the film when the credits rolled the packed theater just sat there in silence for a good ten minutes.

Music

  • Black Magic– I have been on a Little Mix kick ever since watching their journey on the X Factor on YouTube. I don’t like all of their songs but this one and the one below are my two favs.
  • Secret Love Song– see above.
  • I Fall For You– So I watched a movie called Not Another Happy Ending. (Mainly because it had Ian Deceaser from Agents of Shield in it) The movie had okay moments and then not so okay moments, it dragged at times, however the colorful wardrobe and scenery was whimsical and the scoring was great. I found this song and the one below because of the film. I like the songs themselves but Linda Thom, who sings them… let’s just say I am as of right now listening to her other songs to find new favs. Don’t you love it when you find a new artist?
  • Not Another Happy Ending- see above.

Books

  • A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell- So I purchased this book last summer on my yearly work trip to Pittsburgh and have devoured it this month. It’s the true story of an American woman turned British, who basically set up the French resistance in WWII. With little to know trying in spy-craft and a very vague mission to cause the Germans and French police as much trouble as possible Virginia Hall almost single handled led the British intelligence coming out of occupied France. A really inspiring and amazing story.
  • Craft Coffee: A Manual by Jessica Easto- If you follow my Instagram account, or if you saw last week’s post about coffee than you know I absolutely love this book!! A perfect gift for the coffee lover in your life or for your own coffee loving self. Fair warning though, you’ll never make coffee the same way again.
  • The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton- Recommended to me by a friend I really liked this book. But even more so when I learned more about the author behind it. Daring from her experiences growing up S.E. Hinton wrote this while she was in high school and one of her own friends(a greaser) has been killed. Following the story of a greaser gang and family the story is told from the prospective of the youngest member, Pony Boy. Gripping from the start I highly recommend this book.
  • Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte- For those of you who read my reading list for 2020 you’ll know to reread one of my favorite books of all time was on there. Well I did it and it is still amazing. I don’t think there are many people who haven’t read this gothic tale but if you haven’t do it! And yes it is three thousand times better then the movies.

Podcasts

  • No podcasts again this month… but I want to get back into them. I was listening to podcasts when I was wrapping Christmas presents so I need find something else to do while I listen to my stories.