What I've Been Watching Recently Part 2

Before Christmas I shared all of the Netflix TV shows and movies I had been watching over the few months I had been neglecting this blog. I said a part 2 was coming, in which I would talk about what I had been watching from other platforms and, despite being much later than I had anticipated, here it is. So this is everything, or everything I can remember, that I watched between April and November 2019 on everything other than Netflix.

Parks & Recreation Season 1 - This was a really random pick for me but I had heard so many good things about it over the years that I decided to check it out. It's a comedy following employees in the Parks & Recreation department in a small town. I thought it was really easy watching that I didn't have to concentrate on, which I always like, but the first season was pretty short so it was hard to form much of an opinion. 

Chasing Happiness - This is the Jonas Brothers documentary which, as someone who loves the Jonas Brothers, I really enjoyed. It was so well done and I found it really interesting to get an insight into how things were behind the scenes and some of the things they had to put up with or were struggling with back in the day. Some parts were hard to watch and I did get a bit emotional, but I thought it was great.

UnReal Season 1 - This was another random pick but one that I very quickly became completely obsessed with. This is a drama following the behind the scenes of a fictional Bachelor-type reality show. I was hooked from the very first episode and was living for all the drama and mayhem that went on. I also really love Shiri Appleby, who plays the main character in the show, so that definitely made me love it more.

The Sun Is Also A Star - I really wasn't a fan of this book so I don't know why I thought I would feel differently about the movie. It is about two teenagers who meet the day before one of them is being deported and they spend her last day together. Everything I disliked about the book - the boring characters, the instalove - were still a part of the film. However, the things I enjoyed about the book, such as the formatting and different POV's, were obviously not. This one wasn't for me.

Toy Story 4 - I was so sceptical going into this as I felt that the third movie left things where they needed to be, I didn't want another movie to ruin things. Luckily, I did end up really enjoying it. I thought the whole film was just a sweet as I have come to expect from these movies, but also action-packed enough to keep you interested. They really are great movies for both children and adults, and there were a lot of things I think adults in particular would appreciate in this movie. However, the ending made me angry and now I'm bitter.

Yesterday - As someone who has never had any interest in The Beatles in any way, I wasn't sure if I would enjoy this film. However, after seeing the trailer I thought it sounded so interesting that I was desperate to give it a go. It follows a struggling singer/songwriter who wakes up after an accident to discover that no-one else has ever heard of The Beatles or any of their songs. I ended up really enjoying it. I thought the story was great, it was hilarious at parts but also had some great touching moments, and the cast were all incredible. I would highly recommend this film, even if your not a fan of The Beatles.

Chicago Fire Season 7 - This was one of my favourite shows for a while but I'm starting to feel like it's going downhill a bit. Season 7 brought out the whole 'someone is against our firehouse' storyline again and I'm starting to get bored of the same story being changed slightly and then repeated again. I love these characters and their relationships but they need better storylines.

Chicago Med Seasons 3 & 4 - This isn't my favourite medical series but I still like watching it. Both of these seasons were fine but nothing all that stand out, in fact I can't really remember then very well. I do remember in Season 4 they started borrowing Chicago Fire's favourite 'someone is against us' story line, which I am hoping won't be a common feature. This is just an average so for me, but I do like the crossover episodes so I keep watching it.

911 Seasons 1 & 2 - This show is anything but average. I watch a lot of emergency services/medical shows so it takes a lot to impress me, but this had me hooked straight away. This show has some of the craziest story lines and some of the situations will blow your mind. I find it so much fun and so enthralling, I couldn't stop watching. I also really like all of the characters and loved finding out all about their backstories. This is a really great show.

Manifest Season 1 - This is easily my favourite show on this entire list. As soon as I saw the trailer that seemed to go viral, I knew I wanted to watch this show. It finally came to the UK in the Summer of 2019 and I was hooked. It is about a plane full of people who reappear five years after the disappearance of the their flight. I absolutely devoured this season as quickly as I possibly could and loved it so much. It's not something I would usually gravitate towards and unlike anything I have watched before but I thought the story was amazing, it has so many twists and turns that I could never guess where things were going and the cast are amazing. I can't wait for the second season to come to the UK.

That was part 2 of basically all of the things I watched in 2019. What shows or movies should I watch next?

Sophie :)

Series I Need To Finish

If you've seen my 2020 goals post, you'll know that I am wanting to prioritise finishing some series in 2020. I am terrible at finishing series! I always pick up the first book with great intentions and then take forever to carry on with the series. I've made a list of a few series that are at the top of my priority list.

1. Unwind series by Neal Shusterman
This is a dystopian series involving a world in which parents of children aged 13-18 can send them to be 'unwound', meaning every part of their body is harvested for transplant. I read the first two books in this series years ago but, for whatever reason, never carried on. I was being put off continuing this series by the fact I knew I would need to reread the first two before getting to the third, which just seemed like so much effort. However, I did manage to reread the first two books in January, so hopefully that means I can get this one finished soon!

2. Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants series by Ann Brashares
The movie adaptation of this series was one of my favourite movies growing up, so a few years ago I decided to give the books a go. This series follows a group of friends, who have always been inseparable, as they navigate summers apart. I have read the first two books and really enjoyed them so I would love to at least continue on with this series this year, probably in the summer.

3. The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare
How many times can I mention finishing this series? I have been reading this series for 3 or 4 years now and I just never seem to keep going with it, despite the fact that I have really enjoyed every one of the books I have read so far. I am making it my mission for 2020 to reread the first 3 books in the series and then continue with both this series and the Infernal Devices series in publication order and get them all read by the end of the year! I realise I say this every year but I am determined to make this the year I finally succeed.

4. Pivot Point duology by Kasie West
This is a kind of paranormal duology about a girl who has the ability to see both potential outcomes in the future when faced with a choice. In the first book she must decide which of her parents to live with following their divorce, and so both potential outcomes play out. I read the first book at the beginning of last year and thought it was pretty interesting. I'm hoping I can get to the second book at some point this year.

5. The Potion Diaries by Amy Alward
As far as I know, this series isn't actually finished yet, but I'm still putting it on this list. The first book in this series, which was my first read of 2019, is about a princess who accidentally drinks a love potion she made and so falls in love with herself. A competition then begins to find an cure. I thought the first book in the series was so much fun and I can't wait to see how the series continues.

I really am so bad at finishing series. I made a list of series I need to finish back in 2018 and, embarrassingly, a few of the series mentioned in this list were also featured on that one. Hopefully I can do better with reading series in 2020 and get some of these books off of my TBR shelf.

Which series on the list do I need to prioritise first?

Sophie :)

January 2020 Wrap Up

I read some books in January! It's looking that I might hopefully now be out of this reading slump that I was in for the second half of last year. I didn't quite read as much as I would have liked, but I did manage to red 6 books in January.

Patient Care: Death and Life in the Emergency Room by Paul Seward -

This is a memoir of an ER doctor who shares many interesting, and sometimes amusing, stories of the things he has seen throughout his time as a doctor. I've mentioned many times before that I really enjoy reading these kinds of books. I have read quite a few medical memoirs in recent years and this is one of the more average ones I have picked up. I have noticed recently that I tend to enjoy these kinds of memoirs more if they are set in the UK, probably as I know that system pretty well and know how things work, and this was set in the US. Other than that aspect, which I knew going into the book anyway, I found myself getting bored while reading this and I wasn't fully invested in all of the stories. While the stories were interesting, especially to someone with some medical knowledge who loves to hear about unusual cases, there wasn't any kind of reasoning to their order and this made the book seem kind of thrown together. I did enjoy it and was able to learn some interesting things from the stories told, but it wasn't as good as some of the other medical memoirs I have read.
Rating: 3/5

Unwind by Neal Shusterman -
Oh yes, I finally started my reread of this series! I read the first two books in the series years ago and have been wanting to reread them in order to finish the series for the longest time. I finally picked Unwind up again at the beginning of the year and I am making it a goal for 2020 to finish this series. This is the first book in a dystopian series in which children between the ages of 13 and 18 can be sent by their parents to be 'unwound' meaning every part of their body is obtained for transplant. The first book follows three unwinds who have run away and have to try to survive while being hunted down. I absolutely loved the first book in this series on first read but found on reread that I didn't enjoy it as much. I think this is just down to the fact that I have read a lot more books now and so have a lot more to compare it to. I still enjoyed it, I think the concept is really clever and the story is incredibly well-written, and at some times a bit too vivid. However, I just wasn't as invested in the characters this time around and didn't find the story quite as engaging.
Rating: 3.5/5

Girl Made Of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake -
After seeing so many rave reviews of this book, I finally decided to pick it up for myself. It follows a girl who's twin brother is accused of rape by one of her best friends and while she knows her friend would never lie about it, she struggles with the idea that her brother could ever do something like that. This book was a lot! Obviously from the topic I knew it would be a tough read, but this was so raw and honest that it was heartbreaking. I will say I didn't love this book quite as much as everyone else seems to have, which makes me sad. I found the main character to be really annoying at times and thought the relationship drama between Mara and Charlie was a little unnecessary, or at least it could have taken more of a back seat as I felt at times that their relationship was more of a focus than her friend being sexually assaulted. Those problems aside, I thought this book was incredibly well written, with the topic of rape handled well. I was also very impressed with how Mara's unimaginably hard situation was written as her struggle is portrayed so vividly that I was almost feeling her inner turmoil right there with her. This is not a book for everyone, there is definitely a risk to those who are sensitive to or triggered by such topics, but it is definitely one I would recommend to anyone who feels they can read it.
Rating: 4/5

Our Stop by Laura Jane Williams -
Sadly, this was my biggest disappointment of the month. This follows a man and woman who regularly take the same train and one day the man decides to put a missed connections note in the paper for the woman, which of course starts a near miss love story developed through notes in the paper. I would have put much more effort into that synopsis if I had actually like this book but just thinking about it makes me disappointed. I really wanted to love this book! It sounded like a super cute rom-com style book, which was exactly what I was in the mood for. It turns out I should have just DNFed it when I first wanted to. I found the characters incredibly annoying, with many of the side characters seeming totally irrelevant and as though they didn't actually need to be there. I think the idea could have been cute but I found the fact Daniel actually knew a bit about Nadia while she didn't even know who the notes were from just made it a little creepy. However, my main problem with this book was how long the 'near miss' aspect was dragged out for. I fully understand that with a plot like this you are going to have that almost meeting but just getting somewhere too late or similar scenarios, but it just went on for far too long. I found that it stopped becoming frustrating but cute and just turned into plain boring. The end was okay and redeemed it for me slightly but I guess this book just wasn't for me.
Rating: 2/5

UnWholly by Neal Shusterman -
This is book two in the Unwind series and my second reread of the month. I really wanted to carry on with this series while the previous book was still fresh in my mind since I am terrible at remembering the plot of books. I liked this a lot less than the first book when I first read the series and my thoughts for this one were pretty similar the second time around. This was a reread but it felt like I was reading it for the first time, there was maybe two things in the whole book that I remembered, which I think is what made it a more enjoyable experience than rereading book one. This book had a whole different vibe to the first, new characters were introduced and we got their perspectives, and our main characters from the first book are in much different situations than those they were in during book one. I still really enjoyed the writing and found the plot to be engaging, it definitely has a plot of it's own rather than just setting up the next book. I'm excited to carry on with the series, especially now that I have reached the books I have not already read before.
Rating: 3/5

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty -
I have had this book on my shelf for years and have borrowed the audiobook from the library at least 4 times, but I have finally gotten around to reading this book. From the synopsis, this is about a woman who finds a letter from her husband for her to open in the event of his death, but while he is still alive. While that is the focus of the main plot twist or conflict, this book is actually a lot more than that. It focuses on three women, each with something big happening in their own lives, whose paths cross and lives become intertwined. I really love the way Liane Moriarty writes so cleverly that the mysteries in her books become like a quiet background while the characters lives are in the forefront, until suddenly the mystery seeps through and affects everything. They're almost like slice of life stories with a little extra something going on. That is exactly how this book was written and it was done brilliantly. I really enjoyed all three women and their stories. They were all such different characters and were each dealing with their life situations in their own ways that just seemed so fitting to their personalities. I also found the mystery to be quite interesting and though it wasn't a bit shocking moment, it wasn't something I had guessed, and the way it was resolved was quite unique. My only issues with this book were that I got bit bored in the middle so would have liked the pacing to be a bit better and I would have liked the twist to have been a bit more shocking.
Rating: 3/5

Those were the six books I read in January. No 5 star ratings, but looking back I think I've been pretty harsh with my ratings last month. Maybe I'll find a new favourite read in February.

What was the best book you read in January?

Sophie :)