(affiliate links are marked with a *)T-shirt: Roberta Einer SS20Cardigan: & Other Stories*Trousers: Mango (old, similar here*)Necklace: Missoma*Hair clips: ASOS* — (affiliate links are marked with a *)
T-shirt: Roberta Einer SS20
Cardigan: & Other Stories*
Trousers: Mango (old, similar here*)
Necklace: Missoma*
Hair clips: ASOS*

Oh hi! So the Monthly Media Catchup has disappeared from my blog over the past few months. This was not intentional but a side-effect of an overwhelming amount of university work (final year really is difficult, who would have thought?)

But no one wants to hear about the amount of work I or anyone else has, so let’s just get straight into everything I read, watched and listened to during January.

My birthday and Christmas fall within 30 days of each other and most of my presents for both of these occasions consist of books. Every year, I look forward to compiling a list of books to ask for for Christmas and my birthday and this years list was particularly long. I started a couple of the books over the Christmas period (amongst them,Find Me by Andre Aciman, the sequel to Call Me By Your Name which I really disappointingly disliked) but have been digging deeper into the huge pile during the first month of 2020, before my university reading really kicks in.

I’ve also been watching A LOT of TV. I’m not sure if I watched more than one single TV show in its entirety from September-December. Partly because of the aforementioned busyness but also because I just couldn’t find anything that I liked enough to commit to. But January has brought lots of new releases and, to be honest, I’ve more or less been watching the same thing as the rest of my Instagram feed, but I thought I’d touch on them anyway, in case you’ve somehow missed them.

I found that I was consuming a lot of media recommended to me via social media this month, meaning I’ve been watching TV shows and reading books I might not have otherwise. In some ways, this has really paid off (see the TV category) but in others, specifically when it comes to books, I think I’d like to trust my own taste more in the future. Not that I disliked any of the books I read, but that there are other books on my shelves I might have enjoyed more, even if they’re not currently as popular/trendy.

Anyway, now the obligatory preamble is over, onto the reviews…

Books

Three Women by Lisa Taddeo | ★★★★★

How nice to start the year off with a 5 star review! Three Women has been on my to-read list since its release and it was one of the most difficult books to resist in my attempt to buy fewer books over the past year. Luckily, this anticipation paid off. Taddeo’s book follows the lives of three women, Maggie, Sloane and Lina. Specifically, it follows their sex lives, exploring their desires, emotions, and instincts in depth. Taddeo spent around 8 years looking for and spending time with these women in order to write such a book and the fact that the book reads like a novel is a huge credit to her as a journalist and a writer. It’s beautifully written and I found every detail fascinating. What I think is so special about this book is that Taddeo dedicates so much importance to female desire as its own entity, a privilege, unlike male desire which is often explored in fiction and non-fiction through the male gaze, it is rarely given.

I’ve seen this book criticised because firstly, “not much happens”, but this is baffling to me, because I thought so much happened! No, there isn’t much of a plotline but it’s non-fiction and real-life doesn’t have a plotline, and authentic female desire is not programmed the way we’ve seen it in books and other forms of media, which is perhaps why people are uncomfortable or bored with the book. Secondly, because it isn’t representative. However I think it’s important to remember that Taddeo is not trying to represent all women, just three women. But I do hope that many writers take inspiration from this book and write texts of this kind about different kinds of women. I hope to read many, many stories like these ones about thousands of diverse women in my lifetime, and I can only hope that, as a society, we begin to value them enough to allow this to hapen.

Calypso by David Sedaris | ★★★★

David Sedaris’ essay collections have been doing the rounds on social media, having been plauded for their humour and wit. I decided to read his most recent collection of essays and I enjoyed them a great deal. I didn’t find them laugh-out-loud funny but they largely put a smile on my face, especially the stories set in the UK. I’m currently taking a Non-Fiction Creative Writing Class and I definitely found them useful in that respect, although I can’t see myself being desperate to pick up more of his writing in the near future. 3.5 stars.

Educated by Tara Westover | ★★★

Another book I was influenced by social media to read, specifically by Sunbeamsjess, who is one of my favourite bloggers and chose it for her January book club. Westover’s memoir follows her life from her unorthodox Mormon childhood to leaving her family to study at Cambridge University and Harvard. I love the concept of this book and the parts in which the book was true to its title and Westover explored receiving an education for the first time in her late teens were fascinating. But I found that it focussed slightly too much on her childhood and it was particularly gratuitous in describing the violence she experienced, which, although I’m sure was traumatizing and I am not trying to diminish it, lost its impact after so much repetition, for me, especially because specific acts of violence were described over and over again. At times, I was gripped to the book’s storyline but at others, I wanted to put it down. It’s definitely worth a read if you’re willing to sit through the frequent scenes of violence because Westover’s story and her writing generally is great.

TV

Unreal (Amazon Prime) | ★★★★

I found this series in Pandora Sykes’ essay The Authentic Lie and I was so glad I did because it brought to an end the excruciating few months in which I had nothing to watch on TV. It’s a fictional series that looks at the production of a reality show that is similar to The Bachelor and Love Island. It’s a fascinating look at how real reality TV is and how producers manipulate contestants but it’s also an exciting and gripping watch, full of cliffhangers and great characters, whose emotional lives you become invested in. The first series was by far the best but I think it’s worth watching them all.

You, Season 2 (Netflix) | ★★★

I binge-watched the first season of You this time last year so I was looking forward, as was the rest of social media, to the second season. I enjoyed it a lot although I wasn’t able to watch it as quickly as I did the first season. Whilst it is bingeable and an easy watch, it’s also a great exploration of white male privilege. I’ve only given it three stars because I didn’t mourn it being over and I often forgot that I had even been watching it when I was doing other things.

Sex Education, Season 2 (Netflix) | ★★★★

I think I might have liked Season 2 of Sex Education even more than the first one. It’s genuinely educational as well as heartbreaking, engaging and funny. I loved Aimee’s plotline as well as Jackson and Viv’s and especially Maureens <3

Cheer (Netflix) | ★★★★★

I’d seen people raving about this on social media and I was tempted to watch it, but I’m not a huge fan of documentaries and I know nothing about cheerleading so I put off doing so. However, when my friend recommended it to me and I’d finished all the other series I’d been watching, I finally caved in. Thank god I did because it is incredible! The stories it tells about the people it depicts are unbelievable and it warmed my heart to see how their team sport brought them altogether despite (and because) of their backgrounds. I also love how it showed the stamina and fitness cheerleading requires. Having grown up dancing, people were quick to dismiss it and declare that it ‘wasn’t a real sport’, but this series proves that to be undoubtedly incorrect.

I actually adore Jerry, he’s probably the best person I’ve ever encountered and Morgan’s admiration of Monica was beautiful (I feel you though, Morgan, Monica is incredible). Also, the scene when La’Darius’ brother cries watching them compete. I CAN’T. I’m already rewatching the series.

Films

Little Women | ★★★★★

Okay, so I first watched Little Women in December but I went to see it again in January, which is convenient because it means I get to talk about it here, even though I’ve already discussed it on every other platform, online and offline.

Little Women is one of my favourite novels ever because it has so much sentimental value and also, it’s a genuinely brilliant story of sisterhood (you can read my full review in this blog post). I watched the 90s film so much growing up with my Nan so when I heared that Greta Gerwig was directing a new adaptation for 2020, and with a cast of some of my favourite actors, I was hysterical.

Now some may say I was biased going into the movie, and that I would have loved it even if it was terrible. But actually, my expectations were very high. Being such a big Little Women fan means that I know all the details and I think about the characters a lot and so I’m very pedantic. But Gerwig did such an incredible job at depicting them and making a story that has been told so many times refreshing and new. I can’t think of a film that I like more than this one and I hope the fact that it’s about women and is by women doesn’t deter people from going to watch it. If it does, it’s their loss.

Podcasts

The PanDolly Podcast | ★★★★

If you, like me, are missing The High Low whilst it’s on maternity leave, I’d definitely reccomend The PanDolly Podcast. This podcast preceded The High Low, and it’s a lot more of the low than the high, but it gave me my fix of Dolly and Pandora (I actually listened to every episode in the space of about 2 weeks so really, it gave me even more than my fix.) I’m now re-listening to The High Low and I’m really enjoying doing so. It’s interesting to hear them discuss past events as it gives you a reminder of the what has been going on in the world (always useful) and it’s also entertaining to hear them discuss, for example ‘Prince Harry’s new girlfriend, Meghan Markle’, when we are so used to this being the case now and so much has changed.

Literary Friction | ★★★★

I’ve been a long time Literary Friction fan but I’d got out of the habit of listening to the podcast. But discovering their ‘minisodes’ has got me right back onto it. I particularly enjoyed Minisode One on the books they hated (what does this say about me?) and Minisode Eight on the books they read because they were assigned them, but they actually loved.

Honourable mentions:

Sometimes, I listen to a podcast episode because there’s a guest on it who I admire or they’re discussing a topic I’m interested in, but I don’t necesarilly listen to any of the other episodes or subscribe to the podcast. Here are some of those:

The Monthly Media Catch Up: Everything I Read, Watched & Listened To | January 2020

Books

TV

Films

Podcasts