Quarterly Rewind

Quarterly Rewind (December ’22-March ’23)

iloveheartlandx4 Comments

Hi everyone! How is it time for the first quarterly rewind of 2023 already? This year so far definitely seems to have gone by in a bit of a blur. It’s been a fairly busy winter for me, between getting settled at my new job, quite a few theatre trips, a few book events and my evening Spanish classes but I’ve certainly had a lot of fun!

Anyway, Monday was the Spring Equinox, so the first official day of Spring (though I have to say, it certainly doesn’t feel like it here in the UK!). That means it’s time for another Quarterly Rewind, the feature where I wrap up the current season on the blog and look forward to what’s to come. Today I’ll be wrapping up winter and looking forward to what I have to come this spring (hopefully warmer weather!). This post will cover 22nd December-19th March:

Image From This Winter:

Is this a bit of a cheat because it was taken during Australian summer? Perhaps! But it was our first family Christmas photo for five years, so I couldn’t not share it!

Favourite Quote From A Book You Read This Winter:

“Sometimes we polish an experience to make facts line up more closely with feelings, or exaggerate moments to make a better dinner party tale. And sometimes, mercifully, details become blurry over time, maybe because the sharp reality is too painful to carry.” -Have I Told You This Already?, Lauren Graham

I could have gone with any number of incredibly hilarious quotes from this book, but there are some quite poignant moments in there too, and I thought I’d share one of those instead (since many of us already know that Lauren Graham is incredibly funny).

This Winter In One Word:

Busy!

Most Popular Review of Winter:

I will admit, I’m not as caught up on my remaining 2022 reviews as I would have liked to have been at this point in the year, I still have two left to write up from last year, and my first book of 2023 to review as well, so we’re not off to a great start in terms of actually keeping up with my reviews this year. Still I have published two reviews in the time frame this rewind covers, and the most popular of those was The Librarian Spy which I was pleasantly surprised by, although it was the newer of the two books I reviewed, I didn’t think Madeline Martin was as well known an author as Kate Atkinson, so I was expecting Life After Life to get more. Still The Librarian Spy was one of my favourite books of last year, so I’m glad you guys enjoyed my review of it (and hopefully it got some of you to read it!):

The Librarian Spy Review (Audiobook)

Top Two Books I Read This Winter:

In a reoccurring theme, I’ve not read as much as I’d have liked this winter, I read 2 and a bit books (finished one that I was about 3/4 of the way through when I wrote my last rewind) and 4 comics, which isn’t bad but I obviously always want to read more. Anyway in what I think will be a first for this feature, there’ll be one book and one comic here as the other book that I fully read in this rewind period, I didn’t really like enough to count as a favourite. Anyway, here they are:

  1. Have I Told You This Already?-Lauren Graham

I really enjoyed Lauren Graham’s last book of essays when I read it last year and this one was also really fun (if not quite as good as the first one). I’d read quite a lot of heavy books towards the end of last year, so this nice, quick, light and fun read was just what I needed to start the year off on a good note, and Graham tells a lot of hilarious stories that had me laughing all the way through.

2. Night of Knives #4 (Steel Prince #8)-VE Schwab

I binged my way through quite a few of VE Schwab’s Shades of Magic comics in order to meet my Goodreads Challenge goal at the end of last year, and this one was my favourite of the four. It provided a very exciting end to the second arc of the comic series, and definitely had me looking forward to how Schwab was going to wrap up Maxim’s adventures in the final arc (which I will probably finish this December when I am inevitably scrambling to meet my Goodreads goal at the end of the year-again!).

TV Shows I’m Looking Forward To This Spring:

Spring isn’t usually the best time for TV, but there are actually a few really exciting releases that have either come out recently or are coming up in the next few months that I’m really looking forward to:

  1. Shadow and Bone Season 2

We all knew that this was going to be the first one, didn’t we? I’m so ridiculously excited to see what adventures Alina and the Crows get up to in the new season (AND TO FINALLY MEET NIKOLAI), I have managed to avoid spoilers so far and I should hopefully be starting this one tomorrow.

2. Celebrity Bake-Off

Celebrity Bake-Off started back last night and it was brilliant and hilarious and had some of the best fails I’ve seen on Celebrity Bake-Off in a while! Plus, who wouldn’t want to watch David Schwimmer baking? I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what the next four episodes bring.

3. The Marvelous Mrs Maisel Season 5

The final season of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel starts in April and I’m SO EXCITED. I can’t wait to see how Midge’s journey wraps up and more importantly what fabulous outfits she gets to wear this season (I’m a feminist but though I do enjoy the plot and characters of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, Midge’s wardrobe is the biggest draw for me. I feel like Midge herself would agree with this though!).

4. Beyond Paradise

Okay so this Death In Paradise spin-off did technically start last month, but I only started watching it with my family a couple of weeks ago and the rest of the episodes will come out in this rewind period, so I’m saying it counts! I was a little sceptical about whether this would work without the Caribbean setting and whilst I won’t lie, I like the original show better, the spinoff has been much more fun than I thought it would be!

5. Ghosts (US)

The first season of the US remake of Ghosts came out in the UK at the end of last year, and my mum and I just started watching it last weekend. I was a little sceptical initially because I feel like aside from reality TV shows and The Office, US remakes of UK shows don’t generally go that well. However, it’s actually really fun and I’m enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. I still like the original better, but the US version is still very watchable.

Two New Obsessions This Winter:

  1. MickeyJoTheatre-MickeyJo is a theatre critic and YouTuber and he makes really fun theatre related content which I’ve been enjoying since the end of last year. Since we’ve moved to London and I’ve been trying to see more theatre, it’s been interesting to see what he’s been going to see and learn about shows I might not otherwise have heard of.
  2. Good Boy Tato-The owner of Good Boy Ollie, my favourite Instagram Labrador, got a yellow Labrador puppy called Tato at the end of last year and he’s just the most fun ball of chaos to watch, I now get double the serotonin from watching Ollie’s weekly activities as we now have Ollie and Tato!

Things I’m Looking Forward To This Spring:

  1. Going to lots of theatre

I have many theatre trips planned this spring, particularly in April which has somehow become the month of theatre for me, I’m going to see four shows, all of which I’m really excited for. I love being so close to theatre now, I mean it’s still not cheap but at least the huge cost of train travel to get in London is gone now!

2. My first press invite to a show

Agh I’m so excited for this, I got a press invite for a play called When We Died, which I wrote a news article about for The Indie and it’ll be my first ever time going to the theatre as press!

3. Badminton Horse Trials

We got an invite via my Dad’s work to go to Badminton Horse Trials this year which I’m so excited for as I’ve never been before! I’ve been to Burghley a couple of times in the past and it’s been really great, so I’m very excited to see what the Badminton cross country course is like.

4. Susan Dennard book event

Susan Dennard is doing a UK tour for The Luminaries at the end of May and I’ve booked a ticket for her London event. I’m really excited to hear her talk about The Luminaries in person as I’ve loved following along with the Sooz-your-own-adventures on Twitter in the past few years.

5. Independent bookshop tour day

I mentioned in a TTT post a couple of weeks back that I’m planning to do a little tour of independent bookshops in my area of London in April. I’ve just about decided which ones I’m going to go to and I think I’m going to do it the second weekend of April, probably the 8th.

Five Most Popular Blog Posts This Winter:

After a few Rewinds with a more varied bunch of posts, this time we’ve gone firmly back to the expected pattern of this section, with it being mostly dominated by Top Ten Tuesday posts. My Book Vs Movie post for My Sister’s Keeper has once again come out on top this time, and I’m not exactly sure why but I’m glad so many people seem to be consistently enjoying it!

  1. Book Vs Movie: My Sister’s Keeper

As I said, this one was out on top last time and it’s here again this time. For those of you who really like my Book Vs Movie posts, I have started doing them again, and they’re going to be monthly this year, so keep an eye out at the end of the month for my latest one and please keep supporting my new Book Vs Movie posts as well as loving the old ones!

Book Vs Movie: My Sister’s Keeper

2. Top Ten Tuesday #401

This was my first Top Ten Tuesday for 2023, where I shared my favourite books of 2022. I’m not surprised this one was a very popular one, it’s always a popular topic anyway and I was able to get around many more people’s blogs than I usually do as I was still on holiday at the time, which obviously meant more return visits. I’m glad you guys all enjoyed this one though, it’s always one of my favourite lists of the year to put together (and to visit because I love seeing what everyone else’s favourites are) so it’s nice to see it getting so much love.

Top Ten Tuesday #401

3. Top Ten Tuesday #404

This was another of the perennial annual favourites, the new-to-me-authors list of 2022. I split my list again this year into favourites of 2022 and ones I want to try in 2023, but as I’ve made it a goal for this year to try and read more new to me authors, maybe I’ll have enough for a full list of new favourites next year, we’ll see. I always love doing this one, as it’s fun to share my new faves and I love seeing who other people have discovered as well, so I’m glad you guys seemed to enjoy it as much as I did.

Top Ten Tuesday #404

4. Top Ten Tuesday #402

Another of the annual favourites, this was my anticipated releases for the first half of 2023 list. I always love these ones as I love seeing what everyone else is excited for and adding more books to my TBR, so I’m not surprised that this one has made an appearance here since it’s something I enjoy on other people’s blogs! I’m currently reading the first of my books from this list, The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi and hopefully I’ll be able to read more of them throughout the year.

Top Ten Tuesday #402

5. Top Ten Tuesday #403

It is just a coincidence that my four popular TTT posts are four consecutive ones, I think everyone always enjoys the start of the year TTT posts the most as it’s all the looking forward and looking back posts. This was my goals for 2023, and I think I have made some progress on some of these, thought there are others that I’ve not even cracked a dent in yet. I always enjoy making these lists though, even if I don’t complete all the goals, it’s nice to have something to work towards throughout the year!

Top Ten Tuesday #403

Three Posts I Enjoyed This Winter:

  1. Nadia Khomani did this great post for The Guardian about the increasing number of women opening independent bookshops with their friends and it was just such a lovely and wholesome article! One of my favourite independent bookshops in Scotland, The Book Nook, a second hand bookshop and cafe was opened by two women who were University of Stirling students (graduated a few years before I did) so it was fun to read the stories of other women who’ve also opened bookshops together.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/08/female-friends-opening-independent-bookshops-uk

2. Kate Padley did a really interesting piece on the legacy of Titanic for The Indiependent (a site I also write for) and the ethics of using the real life tragedy as the basis for a love story.

25 Years On: Should ‘Titanic’ Ever Have Been Made?

3. Rebecca Reid wrote this great piece for Glamour about the Channel 4 drama Consent, and the difficulties of navigating life as a modern day teenager. If you’re in the UK and you’ve not seen Consent, I highly recommend it, it’s a very well done drama and I have to admit, I agree with the author, when I was a teenager, social media was just starting to take off really, I’m very glad I didn’t have to navigate the same pressures at school as teenagers now do!

https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/consent-channel-4-think-piece

Five Shows I Enjoyed This Winter:

  1. Call The Midwife Series 12

January for me always means the return of Call The Midwife, and once again, they knocked it out of the park with this year’s series, it was as usual incredibly emotional and poignant and the finale was the best payoff for Trixie’s arc over the series thus far, it was so wonderful to see her find happiness with Matthew. I was also really glad that the show was back to normal in terms of social distancing this year, it was quite distracting in the previous two series and did take me out of the plot a little!

2. Death In Paradise Series 12

Death In Paradise is my go-to happy show during the winter months and this year’s series was fabulous as ever, I liked that they tried something a little more ambitious this series with a mystery that actually tied into multiple episodes, culminating in a two-part conclusion in episodes 6 & 7, it’s nice to see a long running show that tends to be incredibly formulaic, pushing the boundaries with the formula slightly whilst still being the same show we love. It was also nice to get a bit more of Naomi’s backstory this season too.

3. Emily In Paris Season 3

Yes, Emily In Paris is terrible, I know that it’s a very trashy show, but it’s also a lot of fun and brought a smile to my face in the cold depths of January! Not every show has to be high brow, serious drama, sometimes you want a frothy, silly, comedy that’s slightly ridiculous but very easy to watch. I look forward to seeing what ridiculous drama and ridiculous outfits Season 4 brings!

4. Wednesday Season 1

I’ve actually never watched any Addams Family stuff before, but I saw everyone talking about Wednesday on Netflix and I thought I’d give it a try. It was really fun, I enjoyed the characters and the story a lot and I look forward to the second season, whenever it comes out.

5. One of Us Is Lying Season 2

I was completely hooked by the second season of One of Us Is Lying, it was the kind of show where I was like “just one more episode” and before I knew it, I had finished the whole season. I’m so sad that it got cancelled because it left off on such a cliffhanger and I really wanted to know what happened to Bronwyn and where the whole graduation day mystery was going to go. Still unless it somehow gets picked up by another streaming service, I doubt we’ll ever know!

Three Things That Happened This Winter:

  1. I started Spanish evening classes here in London

I started Spanish evening classes back in January, and it’s been so much fun, and I really feel like my Spanish has improved a lot over the last ten weeks! I’m excited to continue on with the next course up (Pre-Intermediate 1) when it starts in a few weeks time.

2. I went to see a lot of theatre

I’ve been to quite a few shows over the past couple of months, I saw one right at the end of December (Newsies), three in February (Wicked, Dirty Dancing & Sylvia) and one in March (Choir of Man on Thursday) and I’ve got loads lined up for April that I’m really excited for. One of the best things about being back in London has been being so close to all the theatres and getting to go and see shows I want to see far more often than I was able to when I was living in Cambridge.

3. I went to a few book events

Again, living in London has meant I’ve been able to go to a lot more book events as pretty much every author doing a UK tour usually does a stop in London, and I only have to get the tube now rather than getting the train in from Cambridge. In just the last few months, I’ve been able to see Leigh Bardugo, Samantha Shannon & VE Schwab, three of my favourite authors! I’m also going to see Susan Dennard on her tour for The Luminaries in May.

Six Songs I Listened To Way Too Often This Winter

  1. (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life-Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes

I went to see Dirty Dancing last month and of course this song has been permanently stuck in my head since then.

2. Watch What Happens-Newsies

There are a lot of catchy songs in Newsies but this is the one that has been stuck in my head the most since I went to see it back in December.

3. If I Had My Time Again-Groundhog Day

Okay this one I’ve actually not listened to all the way through, but the ads for Groundhog Day at the Old Vic have been coming up whenever I’ve been watching YouTube videos and the chorus is very firmly (and rather annoyingly for a show I don’t imagine I’ll go and see) stuck in my head!

4. champagne problems-Taylor Swift

My favourite evermore song has been coming up on my shuffle a lot over the last few months and I’m not sad about it.

5. Mein Herr-Cabaret

Okay so after Helen & Gorka’s routine to this song on Strictly last year, I went down a little bit of a rabbit hole and found the Miscast video of Aaron Tveit doing this song and let’s just say I became a little obsessed……

6. You Belong With Me-Taylor Swift

Again another one that pops up pretty frequently when I put my iPod on shuffle.

So there we go, that was Winter! It’s been pretty busy but really fun, and I have so much that I’m looking forward to doing in the next few months which is really great. What have you enjoyed most on my blog this Winter (or Summer for my Southern Hemisphere readers)? What have you been up to? Let me know in the comments!

Quarterly Rewind (September-December ’22 edition)

iloveheartlandx3 Comments

Hey all! We’re onto our final quarterly rewind of 2022, that doesn’t seem right, this year has gone way too quickly! It’s been a much slower autumn than the summer was, but I’ve still managed to do some fun things: a couple of theatre trips, I got a new job which is very exciting and of course my current ongoing holiday in Australia (though it’s summer here so it feels weird counting it!).

Anyway, yesterday was the Winter Solstice (or I guess Summer Solstice here in Australia, but since I will be back in the Northern Hemisphere by the time of the next Rewind, I’ll be continuing with the seasons as I normally would at home!). This means it’s time for another Quarterly Rewind, the feature where I wrap up the current season on my blog and take a look forward at what’s to come. Today I will be wrapping up autumn and looking forward to what I have to come this winter. This post will cover 23rd September-21st December:

Image From This Autumn

This is from last weekend when we went to the wineries, this is me, my mum and my sister at the Curly Flat vineyard.

Favourite Quote From A Book You Read This Autumn:

“Do not mistake your humanity for weakness. It is, unfortunately, a common misconception.” -Looking For Jane, Heather Marshall

This is one of those times where I kind of wish I’d read the physical copy of the book because there were so many great lines in this one and it would have been a lot easier to go back and find them with a physical copy than with an audiobook. Still, this is one I remember liking, it’s a rare moment of vulnerability for Evelyn, and a nice moment between her and the author’s fictionalised version of Henry Morgentaler.

This Autumn In One Word:

Warm (though it looks like we’re in for a bitterly cold winter, so I’m enjoying the Australian sun whilst I can!).

Most Popular Review of Autumn:

Okay, so in a not great first for this feature, I’m so behind on my reviews that I’ve not published any new ones since August! So instead, I’m just going to share the review with the most number of views across the September-December period rather than limiting it to those published within that time frame. My most viewed review across that period was oddly, my review of Unsouled, the third book in the Unwind series which seems to be a perennially popular one, so I’ll share that here:

Unsouled (Unwind Quartet 3) Review

Top Two Books I Read This Autumn:

Once again, I’ve really not read as much as I’d have liked to this autumn, I only finished one full book and made it most of the way through a second. Still that does make it very easy to do this bit as I’ll just share them both here (luckily I did like them both, or at least I like the one I’m currently reading so far and I’m only ten chapters from the end so it would take a lot to make me dislike it at this point!):

  1. Looking For Jane-Heather Marshall

This was a bit of a heavy one given the subject matter (reproductive rights, forced adoptions, underground abortion networks etc) but I found it a super timely and really emotional read. I loved learning more about the history of a country that I really don’t know enough about (Canada) and I really loved the women at the centre of this book, especially Nancy and Evelyn, they were so well drawn and I really felt for them and their stories. This is a book I will definitely be thrusting in the hands of anyone who asks me why reproductive rights are so important because I think it emphasises the importance of choice so well.

2. The Mad Girls of New York-Maya Rodale

I’m about 75% of the way through this one, and I’ve been really enjoying it. It was a bit of a slow starter, but things have really picked up since Nellie got to the asylum. I love Nellie Bly so much, she’s the kind of woman that I reckon I would have loved to meet if we’d been alive at the same time, such a brave, feisty woman and I so admire what she did. I definitely would not have been brave enough to go undercover at a place like Blackwell’s!

TV Shows I’m Looking Forward To This Winter:

I may as well just admit that this is now a regular part of this feature for me, even though it was originally just meant to be a temporary gap filler when I wasn’t doing much over the Covid lockdowns. I just enjoy sharing what TV I’m looking forward to with you guys too much!

  1. Call The Midwife Season 12

January always means one thing for me, and that’s the return of Call The Midwife. I’m not going to be able to watch the Christmas special this year because I’m in Australia but I plan on catching up on it when I return home, ready for the new series to start on New Year’s Day.

2. Death In Paradise Season 12

Again, January also means the return to Saint Marie, and my weekly fix of winter sunshine with Death In Paradise. Granted I’ve had actual winter sun this year, but I’m no less excited!

3. One of Us Is Lying Season 2

I started watching this on Netflix just before I left the UK, but it’s not on Netflix here in Australia, so I’ll have to wait till I’m back to continue. Luckily I’d only watched the first episode, so I hadn’t got anywhere critically exciting to have to wait two weeks before I could return to it.

4. Emily In Paris Season 3

Yes I am aware that Emily In Paris is absolute trash. But it’s also fun and lighthearted and easy to watch and sometimes you just need that.

5. You Season 4

I enjoyed the third season of You way more than I did the second season, so I’m excited to see what the next season has in store now that Joe has moved across to the UK. I’m also super excited for this new season because Charlotte Ritchie is in it and I love her!

Two New Obsessions This Autumn:

  1. Good Boy Ollie-This is an Instagram account, Ollie is a Chocolate Labrador and his owner makes these great reels of him being super adorable doing different activities. Her current advent calendar series where Ollie does a different Christmas themed activity every day is the greatest burst of daily serotonin I think I’ve ever had!
  2. Sooz Your Own Adventure-Okay, so it’s not exactly a new obsession, since I followed Susan Dennard when she did the original Luminaries Sooz Your Own Adventure back in 2019, but she’s been doing a new one since October, and it’s reminded me of how much fun I had the first time and I’ve been excitedly voting along with the daily polls and seeing how much chaos Hivemind Winnie can cause (it’s a lot!). It’s really made me want to read the book, but sadly, it’s not released till the end of January in the UK.

Things I’m Looking Forward To This Winter:

  1. Leigh Bardugo Book Event

IT’S FINALLY HAPPENING! After kicking myself for turning down the opportunity to meet Leigh with my friend Nicola back in 2016 because I hadn’t read any of her books yet (and then promptly reading Six of Crows in 2017, loving it and realising my huge mistake), and missing out on her Ninth House event in 2019 due to work, I got a ticket for her London Hell Bent tour stop in January. I’m probably going to make a ridiculous fool out of myself when I meet her because I’ll be overexcited but I can’t wait.

2. Starting evening Spanish classes

I’ve signed up for a 10-week course of evening Spanish classes which runs through March and after doing the intensive distance course last year, I’m excited to hopefully improve my Spanish even more and maybe make some friends in London through the classes.

3. Going to the theatre

I’ve already got a couple of theatre trips planned for the New Year, both in February, courtesy of Official London Theatre’s big sale. If I’d known they did this every year, I would have got onto it long ago! I managed to get a stall ticket for Wicked for £20, which will be my third time seeing the show and the closest I’ve ever been to the stage. I’m also going to Dirty Dancing with my family (stalls tickets for £30! If you like theatre, really jump on this sale, it’s so good!) which should be really fun, I’ve seen it once before when I was in Germany, but obviously that was in German, so I followed it well enough because I’d seen the film but I didn’t really understand much of what was being said. It will be great to understand it all this time!

4. Samantha Shannon book event

Yes, another book event, though they’re well spread apart, this one is at the end of February. I’ve met Samantha a few times, and she’s always lovely, so it will be nice to go to another one of her events and after enjoying Priory, I’m really interested to hear about A Day of Fallen Night. I will however once again be obtaining the hardcover for the aesthetics, and promptly reading the book via audio because it’s just way too big to cart around everywhere.

5. Christmas!

Naturally had to include this as it’s only a few days away now! It’s our first full family Christmas in five years (ie with my sister) so I’m really excited that we’re all together for it this year.

Five Most Popular Blog Posts This Autumn:

Another interesting mix of posts this time, with a Book Vs Movie, a discussion post, a review and a couple of Top Ten Tuesdays, so we have posts from all across the spectrum! I’m loving that this section has become more varied over the past couple of years and seeing some of my non-TTT posts getting some love too. I will admit, I’m never quite sure of the logic behind the choices that end up coming out on top in this section as all the posts aside from the TTTs are quite old but I’m definitely not complaining that my older posts are getting some love too!

  1. Book Vs Movie: My Sister’s Keeper

This was also my top viewed post from the last Rewind period, so it’s obviously one that’s gained some traction as it had by far and away the most views of any post this time around. I really should get back to doing these kinds of posts more regularly as it’s obvious you guys like them-maybe that’s a goal for next year!

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2019/11/28/book-vs-movie-my-sisters-keeper/

2. Jo Talks Books: Can Reading Be An Addiction? Is That Necessarily A Bad Thing?

Sticking in at number two this time is another returning post from the last rewind period. Once again, I don’t know why this one seems to have gained so much popular momentum, but I always find that my discussion posts get less love than some of my other posts on here so it’s nice to see that this one seems to have really resonated with people.

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/20/jo-talks-books-can-reading-be-an-addiction-is-that-necessarily-a-bad-thing/

3. A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder Review

After taking a break in the last Rewind period, this review is back in the Top 5 this time around. Again I’m not quite sure what’s made it so popular again, as the series is now finished and I’ve put reading the sequel on hold, maybe the announcement of the TV show in September coincided with an increase of people looking to see what the book was about? Anyway, it’s good to know you guys are still loving this one: I really need to get my act together and finally finish reading the rest of the series!

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2020/09/16/a-good-girls-guide-to-murder-a-good-girls-guide-to-murder-1/

4. Top Ten Tuesday #395

This was our annual Thanksgiving freebie, and this year I shared all the things I was grateful to be able to do again since the Covid restrictions were lifted, so it’s good to know that it’s one that resonated with people and I loved seeing in the comments all the things that you guys had been excited for since your countries came out of their respective lockdowns too.

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2022/11/22/top-ten-tuesday-395/

5. Top Ten Tuesday #392

This one is from back at the beginning of November where I shared Unlikeable Characters I Can’t Help But Love, and I’m not surprised that this one was a popular one, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about the book blogging community after all these years it’s that we all love a villain/anti-hero/morally grey character!

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2022/11/01/top-ten-tuesday-392/

Four Posts I Enjoyed This Autumn:

  1. Sophia Smith Galer did this really interesting (and quite infuriating) article for Vice World News about women in the UK who have been denied certain kinds of healthcare (in this instance, trans-vaginal ultrasounds) due to their never being sexually active. It’s completely ridiculous that anyone would be denied necessary healthcare for that reason, and reading the article definitely had me quite angry that medical sexism is still alive and well.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7v8j8/women-virgins-uk-ultrasounds

2. Rachel Charlton-Dailey did this great and really nuanced piece for Glamour about late term abortions in cases where the foetus is disabled and how despite being pro-choice, she struggles with the aspect of the abortion law in the UK which allows for later-term abortions in cases where the foetus would be severely disabled. It was a really interesting and nuanced piece, like Rachel, I still ultimately come down on the side of pro-choice for everyone no matter what, but it certainly gave me a lot to think about.

https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/heidi-crowter-court-of-appeal-verdict-opinion

3. Jameela Jamil did a really interesting piece for Paper about the return of 90s fashion trends and the dangerous “Heroin Chic” diets in Hollywood. I have to admit the whole thing was a little before my time, but it’s a really powerful piece arguing for the fight back against eating disorder culture which is definitely something I can get behind!

https://www.papermag.com/the-hunger-game-jameela-jamil-2658618118.html

4. Rachel Conolly did this fantastic piece for The Cut about growing up under the restrictive abortion ban in Northern Ireland and how that shaped her childhood and her views on sex and sexuality. It was a really beautiful and thought provoking piece and I highly recommend it.

https://www.thecut.com/2022/10/childhood-abortion-ban-ireland.html

Five Shows I Enjoyed This Autumn:

  1. Dead To Me Season 3

I just finished the last season of Dead To Me before I came out to Australia, and it was FANTASTIC. It’s one of those rare shows where I’d say there’s no bad seasons, it’s high quality all the way through and I love that the show creator clearly had a plan for the show and executed it the whole way through, it felt like the show had come to its natural end. Christina Applegate in particular is incredible in the final season, even without considering how much more difficult it was for her due to her MS.

2. Resident Alien (Season 2, Part 2)

I loved the rest of the new season of Resident Alien, it was so much fun! I can’t wait to see where Season 3 takes us and I hope we don’t have to wait too long for it in the UK!

3. The Crown Season 5

Controversial I know, but I actually enjoyed the new season of The Crown. I can understand why many people didn’t, but I guess because I wasn’t born when all of this stuff was happening, my knowledge of it is mainly through documentaries and news and that kind of thing, so I didn’t feel as close to it as people who remember all of it happening in their own lifetimes. Obviously there’s a lot of dramatic licence used, but I thought that new cast was great and I thoroughly enjoyed the episodes.

4. All Creatures Great and Small Season 3

As always, the new season of All Creatures Great and Small arrived just in time to bring some warmth into the cold, winter nights. I actually think this season was my favourite so far, and I’m so happy that it’s already been renewed for Season 4. I can’t wait to catch up on the Christmas special when I get back from Australia.

5. Ghosts Season 4

I love Ghosts so much, it’s such a fun, silly show and this series was really great. Again, I’m really looking forward to catching up on the Christmas special when I get back (I swear, my first week back home is just going to be me catching up on all the British Christmas TV I missed whilst here in Australia).

Things That Happened This Autumn:

  1. I saw Moulin Rouge on stage

Yes, I mentioned in my last Rewind post that I was going to see Moulin Rouge the Musical at the end of September and I did, and it was just as fabulous as I’d hoped it would be. I will definitely be going back to see it again (probably more than once!).

2. I saw Come From Away

Another theatre show I saw in the last couple of months, I went to see Come From Away at the end of November. It’s such a lovely show, really heart-warming and yet very emotional all at the same time.

3. I went to my mum’s graduation

Last month I went to my mum’s graduation in Dundee and though it was a very cold, wet day, it was still lovely getting to see her receive the French Diploma that she spent the last two years working for.

4. Going to Australia for the first time

I’m very much enjoying my first trip to Australia, and definitely wishing that I’d been able to stay for longer! Hopefully next time I come to visit my sister, I’ll be able to stay for a little more time.

5. I got a new job

I got a new job at the end of November, which was incredibly exciting since if you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ll know I’ve been job hunting for a while. I’ll be starting back after my holiday in January and I have to admit I’m slightly worried I’ll have forgotten everything I learned before I left!

Six Songs I Listened To Way Too Often This Autumn:

  1. Somewhere In The Middle of Nowhere-Come From Away

Okay so I haven’t exactly listened to it often, only when I went to see the show, but it’s been stuck in my head ever since!

2. Mein Herr-Cabaret

Ever since Helen Skelton did her Couple’s Choice dance to this on Strictly a few weeks back, it has been very firmly stuck in my head and I can’t seem to be able to get it out!

3. Anti-Hero-Taylor Swift

I’ve been listening to this one quite a bit ever since Midnights was released back in October.

4. no body, no crime-Taylor Swift

This one just seems to have come up a lot on my shuffle the last few months!

5. Shivers-Ed Sheeran

Again, one that just very consistently comes up in the rotation on my shuffle.

6. Still Hurting-The Last Five Years

Another one that frequently pops up on my iPOd.

So that’s it, that was my autumn! It’s been a bit of a whirlwind to be honest, and I can’t believe we’re almost at the end of the year already. I swear it gets to December and I feel like I’m never ready for the year to actually end, like I need another month to prepare because it always feels like such a rush at this time of year! What have you enjoyed most on my blog this Autumn (or Spring for my Southern Hemisphere readers?) What have you been up to? Let me know in the comments!

Quarterly Rewind (June-September ’22 edition)

iloveheartlandx4 Comments

Hi everyone! We’re already on to our third quarterly rewind of the year, WHAT? I’ve had an incredibly busy summer, what with moving house, my sister coming over to visit from Australia and various events, along with of course, my seemingly never ending job search.

Anyway, today is the autumn equinox, the first official day of autumn (though for me Autumn begins on the 1st September because I refuse to be a summer baby, I am so much more of an autumn person!). That means it’s time for another Quarterly Rewind, the feature where I wrap up the current season on my blog, and take a look forward to what’s to come. Today I will be wrapping up summer, and looking forward to what I have to come this autumn. This post will cover 21st June-22nd September:

Image From This Summer

This is a recent picture, from my birthday last week when mum and I went on a spa day at the Harbour House Hotel in Richmond.

Favourite Quote From A Book You Read This Summer:

“Perhaps that is the draw of books…..to show us the way even when we think the path is too dark to see.” -The Librarian Spy, Madeline Martin

There are so many wonderful (and honestly also quite harrowing), moments in this book and this one was one of my favourites.

This Summer In One Word:

Busy!

Most Popular Review(s) of Summer:

I’m a little behind on my reviews (Quelle Surprise), and actually haven’t reviewed any of the books I read over the summer yet as I still need to catch up on them. In a first for this feature, both reviews I posted over the summer of books I read back in May and June had the same number of views, so I’ll be sharing my reviews of both Portrait of A Thief and When Women Were Dragons here:

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2022/08/25/portrait-of-a-thief-review-audiobook/
https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2022/08/26/when-women-were-dragons-review-audiobook/

Top Two Books I’ve Read This Summer:

I’ve not read as much as I would have liked this summer, usually summer is my best reading time but being between jobs and not having the commute to work means that I’ve just not read as much as I was reading back in January/February when I was commuting to work almost every day. This does mean though that it was fairly easy to pick my two favourites of the summer as there were two I liked better than the other one I read:

  1. Talking As Fast As I Can-Lauren Graham

I’ve been meaning to read Lauren Graham’s memoir for years and just never got around to it, but after my most recent Gilmore Girls rewatch this summer (yes I know, I did it in summer, not Autumn, I’m a rebel!), I felt in the mood for it. I definitely recommend it if you’re a Gilmore Girls fan, it’s super funny and gives a lot of insight into what it was like filming both the original series, and the Netflix revival.

2. The Librarian Spy-Madeline Martin

This was one of my most anticipated releases for this year, so I’m happy to say that it lived up to expectations! Madeline Martin is definitely one of my new favourite authors and I’m so excited for her next book, in what seems to be a niche of “WWII book-themed historical fiction”.

TV Shows I’m Looking Forward To This Autumn:

Autumn is the best time for TV, so I couldn’t very well leave this section out! All my favourite shows have either already returned or are returning this week, so I’m very happy!

  1. The Great British Bake-Off

Okay so this started last week but I had to include it because IT’S BAKE OFF SEASON. The time of year when we gleefully watch lovely people getting very stressed over cake. It’s the kind of low stakes drama that I thrive on and it’s just such lovely, cosy autumn TV.

2. Strictly Come Dancing

YES STRICTLY IS BACK TONIGHT! There’s nothing that brings joy to the cold autumn and winter evenings like the glittery warm hug that is Strictly and I can’t wait for it to get started again.

3. All Creatures Great and Small

Another one of those shows that feels like a warm hug, this started back up again last week and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the season has in store for the residents of Skeldale House.

4. Ghosts

I’m talking about the original British show here, not the American remake. I have heard that the American one is quite good, but I’m generally not a lover of American remakes of British shows, so I’m not sure if it’s one I’m ever going to watch. Anyway, that was a complete sidetrack, point is, I’m super excited to see what shenanigans the ghosts get up to in the new series!

5. Resident Alien

WE FINALLY HAVE AN AIRDATE FOR PART TWO OF SEASON 2! I’m so excited, my mum and I finished watching the most recent episodes back in June, so we’ve been waiting a while to find out what happens next and it finished on quite a big cliffhanger.

Two New Obsessions This Summer:

  1. Agatha Raisin-I watched all four seasons of Agatha Raisin at the end of August/early September and it’s safe to say I’m completely invested in Agatha and all of her escapades. I really hope there’s a Season 5 because I need more!
  2. House of The Dragon-Like many, many people, I’ve been watching House of The Dragon since it started back at the end of August and I’ve been very gripped. I’m very interested to see how the story moves forward from the next episode with the older actors playing Rhaenyra and Alicent.

Three Things I’m Looking Forward To This Autumn:

Slightly less things on here than I had for the summer, but they are three very exciting things!

  1. Seeing Moulin Rouge on stage

YES IT’S FINALLY HAPPENING. I’m going to see Moulin Rouge at the theatre next week, and I can’t wait. I’ve been wanting to see this ever since they announced the production was coming to the West End and I just really hope that it’s as good as I’ve been picturing in my head!

2. Going to Australia

My family are spending Christmas in Australia this year for the first time (but I arrive in the period this quarter covers, so I wanted to include it here), and I’m really excited. I’m dreading the long flight, but we haven’t all spent Christmas together since before my sister moved out there, so it should be really lovely.

3. Jodi Picoult book event

Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan are coming to the UK for a tour supporting their new book Mad Honey, and I’m super excited because I’ve not been to a Jodi Picoult book event since her one in Glasgow for Small Great Things (I guess she didn’t come to Scotland on her tour for A Spark of Light or I would have gone!), and that was back in 2016, so I’m super excited as her events are always so great, she’s such a great speaker and she always has such cool stories to tell about the research she did for her book.

Five Most Popular Blog Posts This Summer:

Another mixed bag of posts this time and the first time my review of Addie LaRue has been out of the top five since last year! We’re back to the list being mostly Top Ten Tuesdays after a top five without them last time, but we also have a discussion post and a Book Vs Movie, which feels great as those posts don’t always get as much love as I would like them to!

  1. Book Vs Movie-My Sister’s Keeper

I have to admit, I’m kind of stumped as to why this one is my most popular this time around, it’s a fairly old post back from when I first started doing Book Vs Movie in 2019, the only thing I can’t think of is that I may have mentioned how much I hated the movie when talking about My Sister’s Keeper when I did the Banned Books post for Top Ten Tuesday a few weeks ago and that led people to seeking it out? Anyway, I’m glad there are lots of other people out there also furious with how dirty they did My Sister’s Keeper with the movie.

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2019/11/28/book-vs-movie-my-sisters-keeper/

2. Jo Talks Books: Can Reading Be An Addiction? Is That Necessarily A Bad Thing?

This one was on my top five list in my last Quarterly Rewind, and it seems to have maintained the popular momentum, and even gained more as its moved up! I still don’t really know what’s made it so popular, I’ve not linked to it in any recent posts, but I’m glad that it’s getting the love!

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/20/jo-talks-books-can-reading-be-an-addiction-is-that-necessarily-a-bad-thing/

3. Top Ten Tuesday #376

This Top Ten Tuesday is back from July, and it was when I shared a Summery Book Covers list. No surprise that this one did really well, my cover posts are always super popular, which I do appreciate as it takes so much longer to do image posts with the new Block Editor on WordPress than it did before!

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2022/07/12/top-ten-tuesday-376/

4. Top Ten Tuesday #380

This is a post from back in August, where I shared some more of my favourite Funny Percy Jackson Chapter Titles (my spin on Humourous Book Titles) and it was such a fun list to put together, so I was so pleased that so many of you seemed to love it as much as I did!

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2022/08/09/top-ten-tuesday-380/

5. Top Ten Tuesday #381

This is a post from last month where I talked about Books I Love That Are Over Ten Years Old. It was a mammoth list that took a long time to put together, but I was so pleased by the feedback I got on it, and it was so great to share the love for some of my favourite older books, so I’m glad that you all seemed to enjoy it so much!

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2022/08/16/top-ten-tuesday-381/

Three Posts I Enjoyed This Summer:

I have to admit, I totally flaked on bookmarking any posts from other blogs to share in this Rewind, so this section is going to be taking a break this time around, and hopefully when I do this feature again in December, I will have something to share with you guys!

Five Shows I Enjoyed This Summer:

  1. Agatha Raisin

I mentioned this show up in the “New Obsessions” section of this Rewind, so of course it’s in this part too. Agatha Raisin is just such a fun, cosy, brilliant show and I hope it continues for many years to come as I so enjoy seeing what mad adventures Agatha and the gang get up to with each new case!

2. House of The Dragon

Again, I mentioned this one earlier, but I’ve been really enjoying the prequel series to Game of Thrones over the last month, definitely more so than the latter series of Game of Thrones. We’ve got 5 episodes left, and we already know there’s a Season 2 coming, so I’m interested to see where this season leaves off, and what more there may be to come in the future.

3. Everything I Know About Love

I had vaguely heard of Dolly Alderton’s memoir, but never read it, but I heard such good things about the show that I had to watch it. AND I LOVED IT. I loved that this show put friendship front and centre in a way that most shows don’t, and it was so painful watching Maggie and Birdy grow apart. I really hope there is a Season 2 because it can’t end like that!

4. Only Murders In The Building

I rewatched Season One of this before diving into Season Two a couple of days ago, and a) Season One was just as good as I remembered, but also b) Season Two was EXCELLENT. I just love this show so much, it ticks so many of my boxes: quirky, funny, charming and the mysteries are great, I’m so happy that there’s going to be another season.

5. Love, Victor

I watched the final season yesterday, and though I will say that it felt like kind of a rushed ending, I do appreciate that it didn’t try to keep running past its expiration date like a lot of high school set shows and I’m glad things ended in a satisfying way for all the characters.

Five Things That Happened This Summer

I had a very busy summer, so I definitely couldn’t stick to just two or three this time!

  1. YALC

Yes, YALC was back in person after two years of being online due to the pandemic and it was so, so great! It was so lovely to be there again and I made a great new friend, got lots of books and naturally made a fool of myself in front of authors I like because before this year, I hadn’t been to an author event in three years and so I’m back to square one of being nervous and awkward! I will say that I massively missed having Hannah there this year though and it wasn’t quite the same without her, so I’m obviously hoping she’ll be back next year.

2. My sister visiting from Australia

It was so lovely to have my sister back in the UK for a few weeks, and I can’t wait to be out in Australia with her, her partner and my parents over Christmas.

3. Commonwealth Games

I really loved seeing the Gymnastics at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, even if we missed the start because of issues with the queue and had to leave before we got to see Team England on the final rotation, it was still a fun evening out.

4. Theatre trips

I’m combining two in one here as I’ve been to see two great shows in September: the first was Jack Absolute Flies Again at The National Theatre, which is definitely one of the best last-minute theatre ticket decisions I’ve ever made, it was so much fun and my mum and I had a fantastic night. The second was Grease last Saturday to celebrate my birthday which was also a brilliant night, and shout out to Cameron from the Champagne Bar, who is definitely not reading this (and I did thank him in person at the time) because he was so lovely and left a little birthday note for me with our drinks.

5. My birthday spa trip

I had such a lovely birthday this year, my mum and I’s trip to the Richmond Harbour Hotel and Spa was really lovely and I had such a great day, if you’re in or around Richmond and looking for a day trip for a birthday or other special event, I really recommend them because it was a lovely day out.

Six Songs I Listened To Way Too Often This Summer:

  1. All Too Well (10 Minute Version)-Taylor Swift

I didn’t think this song could ever be topped, and then she released the long version!

2. El Tango De Roxanne-Moulin Rouge

Every time I watch this film (which is a lot, it’s one of my favourites), this is the song that gets stuck in my head, particularly the part Ewan McGregor sings as he’s walking out of the hall of dancers (yes, I’ve seen it that many times I can name the specific part).

3. Shivers-Ed Sheeran

This one comes up on my iPod shuffle a lot.

4. Your Song-Moulin Rouge version

Another one that comes up on my iPod a lot, and one I just like to listen to, I now have three different versions, the one from the movie, and the two from the stage show!

5. Can’t Take My Eyes Off You-Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons

This is one I always love listening to because it reminds me of my favourite part of 10 Things I Hate About You.

6. We Go Together-Grease

Honestly, since I saw the show last week, this is the song that’s been stuck in my head, which I wasn’t really expecting!

So there we go, that was my summer! It’s been a bit of a manic one, but I’ve been having a great time being back in London, and definitely appreciate it here more now than I did when we moved, since I was only seven! What have you enjoyed most on my blog this summer (or winter for my Southern Hemisphere readers!)? What have you been up to? Let me know in the comments!

Quarterly Rewind (March-June ’22 edition)

iloveheartlandx2 Comments

Hi all! It’s time for our second quarterly rewind of the year already, how did that happen? Spring has been a bit busier than winter was, my family is preparing to move soon, so we’ve been very busy with packing, I had quite a lot of shifts at the vaccine centre through April and May, though sadly that’s now fallen off again now which wasn’t great timing so I’m sort of in a weird in-between limbo phase with work right now as I’m not getting any shifts from my current job but I haven’t yet got a job in London yet either for after we move. Hopefully things pick up in that department soon! On the brighter side of things, I have been able to do a lot of riding this spring which has been lovely.

Anyway, yesterday was the summer solstice, the first official day of summer, so that means it’s time for another Quarterly Rewind, the feature where I wrap up the current season on my blog, and take a look towards what’s to come. Today, I will be wrapping up spring, and looking forward to all the exciting stuff I have to come this summer (and there’s a lot!). This post will cover 20th March-20th June:

Image From This Spring:

This is actually the only picture I have from the entire Spring, I didn’t really go out on a lot of fancy things (which is when I usually take pictures), so there wasn’t much to choose from. This is me and my mum when we went out for lunch for Mother’s Day back in March.

Favourite Quote From A Book You Read This Spring:

“Life isn’t always going to be war….and you’ll do yourself a grave disservice if you live your every moment-not just your wartime moments but your gentler ones-by a standard as harsh as never miss.” -The Diamond Eye, Kate Quinn

This is one of my absolute favourite moments in a book filled with so many great moments, where Eleanor and Mila have a heart to heart about the pressure on women to always succeed.

This Spring In One Word:

Hayfever (it’s been really bad this year!)

Most Popular Review of Spring:

I’m a little behind on my reviews, though nowhere near as bad as I was last year, so I still haven’t reviewed my two most recent reads. Of the three reviews I’ve posted in this period, the most popular one was of The Diamond Eye, which is pretty much what I expected, it’s a high profile 2022 release and the most recent of my reviews:

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2022/05/29/the-diamond-eye-review-audiobook/

Top Two Books I’ve Read This Spring:

This Spring was a bit of a mixed bag, with many of my reads falling below expectations, so it was actually fairly easy to pick out my two favourites as two easily stood out above the rest:

  1. The Diamond Eye-Kate Quinn

As expected, I loved Kate Quinn’s most recent release, one of my favourite books of the year so far easily. Mila was just as brilliant and badass as I expected and I really enjoyed reading about her time on the frontline and how she became “Lady Death”, as well as her lovely friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

2. The River of Silver: Tales From The Daevabad Trilogy-SA Chakraborty

I was delighted when I saw that we were getting a collection of Daevabad short stories, and whilst yes, I did like some better than others, it was such a treat to be back in Daevabad. Plus that last Nahri story…..*heart eyes*

TV Shows I’m Looking Forward To This Summer:

I actually have quite a lot on this summer, but I’ve got used to doing this section, and I quite like talking about the TV I’m excited for, so I thought I’d keep on sharing it. Summer always tends to be a bit of lull time for TV, but thankfully there does seem to be plenty I’m excited for to keep me going:

  1. First Kill

Yes, I’ve not watched it yet! I’m not usually a big vampire person, but since VE Schwab wrote the short story it was based on, of course I want to support it.

2. Resident Alien S2 (part 2)

My mum and I recently got into this show and we caught up with the latest episodes back at the beginning of the month, so now naturally we are not so patiently waiting for the rest of the season to drop. There’s not been any release date given yet, but the latest promo said Summer 2022, so hopefully it will not be too long to wait.

3. Only Murders In The Building

I will briefly be returning to Disney+ so I can watch this and the next show on my list, it doesn’t really offer me enough to want to keep up a long term subscription but I will get it for the odd month or so when stuff I want to watch comes on. I really enjoyed this quirky mystery show when I watched the first season last December and I look forward to seeing where this next season takes us.

4. Love, Victor

The final series of Love, Victor just dropped on Disney+ last week, and after really enjoying the first two series last year, I’m looking forward to seeing how Victor’s story wraps up in this final series.

5. Gaslit

This actually started a couple of months ago but I wanted to wait till the full series was out to watch it, which it now is, so it’s probably something I’ll be watching in the next few weeks or so.

Two New Obsessions This Spring:

  1. Resident Alien-I know I mentioned this above, but hey it makes sense that I’m super excited for the second half of a new season of a TV series that I’m super invested in! Like I said, this my mum and I’s new show, we did Lucifer in 2020 and 2021 and now we have Resident Alien.
  2. Taylor Swift Instrumentals-I think I may actually have discovered these in the period of the last rewind, but oh well, I’m including it here. I found instrumental versions of Taylor Swift’s songs on YouTube and they’re super helpful for if I want some background music, but don’t want to get distracted by singing along to the lyrics.

Five Things I’m Looking Forward To This Summer

I couldn’t narrow down to two because this summer is a stacked one and I can’t wait!

  1. Seeing my sister again after almost four years

My sister is finally coming back from Australia for a visit, and I’ve not seen her in person since she left almost four years ago, so naturally I’m super excited for this!

2. YALC!!!!

It’s been almost three years since the last YALC, and I have so much pent up fangirling energy, I’m probably going to make a ridiculous fool of myself in front of the authors but I don’t care. I’m so excited to finally be able to go back to YALC with Hannah and have our usual fangirling and sugar fuelled weekend of bookish fun!

3. Moving house

Okay, so I’m not looking forward to the actual moving process, because packing sucks, but I am very happy to be going back to London, it’s been almost two years since we actually should have moved (we were meant to move Summer 2020) so this has been a long time coming.

4. Commonwealth Games

We’re going to see the Gymnastics at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham at the end of July and I’m really looking forward to it, we had such a good time when we last went to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014 (we saw the Athletics then), so I’m sure this will be just as fun.

Five Most Popular Blog Posts This Spring:

This Rewind’s most popular posts has to be the strangest mix of posts I’ve ever had for this, but it is nice to see a wider variety of posts getting some love. For the first time, I think ever, there are no Top Ten Tuesdays in this part of the list. We have 3 reviews (all making repeat appearances here), a Book Vs Movie post and a discussion post for the first time in a long time, I think it’s been years since I last had a discussion post as one of my most popular.

  1. A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder Review

Making a repeat appearance after its first appearance on the list during the last rewind period, but this time as my most popular post. I’m not quite sure what it is that seems to have got everyone on the A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder train, maybe the fact that I’m currently reading the sequel has people who follow me on Goodreads interested in what I thought about the first book? Anyway, nice to see it continuing getting the love anyway!

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2020/09/16/a-good-girls-guide-to-murder-a-good-girls-guide-to-murder-1/

2. Unsouled Review

After a brief stint away from the list, Unsouled is back in the top five! Neal Shusterman has been announced as one of the guests at YALC this year, so maybe that has more people interested in the Unwind series, or people who had started wanting to finish before the summer? Either way, I’m always very happy when my reviews help point people towards this series!

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2014/09/08/unsouled-unwind-quartet-3-review/

3. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue Review

There’s just no stopping Addie, she’s now four for four! I can definitely understand this one though Addie LaRue seems to have blown up since it was published two years ago, even more so than a lot of VE Schwab’s incredibly popular other books, so I expect I’ll probably be seeing this review in this section of my Quarterly Rewinds for many more posts to come!

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2020/11/09/the-invisible-life-of-addie-larue/

4. Book Vs Movie: Between Shades of Gray/Ashes In The Snow

I have to admit, this post’s appearance on this list stumped me slightly, as it wasn’t that popular when it first came out almost three years ago. Maybe current events in Ukraine have people more interested in Soviet Union era history? Though this book is about Lithuania not Ukraine so that seems like a bit of a tenuous connection. Anyway, I’m very happy to see one of my Book Vs Movie posts getting some love, they never seem to be up there with my top viewed posts, so clearly something about this one must have resonated.

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2019/07/20/book-vs-movie-between-shades-of-gray-ashes-in-the-snow/

5. Jo Talks Books: Can Reading Be An Addiction? Is This Necessarily A Bad Thing?

Okay, this one really took me by surprise, it’s a really old post and was moderately successful when it first went out, but nothing major. However for some reason over the past few months it seems to have really blown up and I have to admit, I don’t really know why! I always love it when my discussion posts are well received though, as they do take me a long time to write, so it’s nice to know that even the older ones are being appreciated.

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/20/jo-talks-books-can-reading-be-an-addiction-is-that-necessarily-a-bad-thing/

Five Posts I Enjoyed This Spring:

I have to admit, I’ve not been all that great at keeping track of what I’ve been reading, and a lot of it has kind of been on a theme (since the draft opinion on overturning Roe V Wade was leaked, I’ve been reading a lot of news stories about abortion) and I do like to try and get some variety in the articles I share:

  1. Hannah Robinson, one of my fellow writers at The Indiependent did this great post about splitting the burden of birth control and how women are currently still responsible for the majority of this burden due to limited male birth control options:
Splitting The Burden Of Birth Control

2. Hannah Devlin did this great article for The Guardian about the orgasm gap between women and men and how cliched and often inaccurate Hollywood sex scenes play into this.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jun/11/orgasm-gap-how-hollywood-and-science-neglected-female-pleasure

3. Rhiannon Lucy Coslett also did a great column for The Guardian about the role of cis men in the fight for abortion rights and how pro-choice cis men need to become stronger allies for us in a time where abortion rights are under attack.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/13/men-allies-reproductive-rights-abortion-woman-autonomy

4. Laura Bates wrote about how the increasing cost of childcare is forcing women out of the workplace once again in her most recent Guardian column (I swear, I do read other news sites, it just happens that there have been a lot of Guardian articles I’ve liked recently!):

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/15/childcare-costs-women-britain-work-mothers

5. Poppy Wood wrote this really interesting piece about how anti-choice groups in the UK almost managed to derail the campaign to allow at-home abortions (a change introduced during the pandemic) permanently.

https://inews.co.uk/news/health/at-home-abortions-england-catholic-church-right-to-life-1549790

Five Shows I Enjoyed This Spring:

  1. Resident Alien

I’ve already covered this quite a bit in previous sections so I won’t go into anymore detail here, it just had to be included as it’s one of my favourite shows I’ve watched this year.

2. Derry Girls Series 3

The final series of Derry Girls finished in May and it was just the perfect ending to the series. Derry Girls is one of those rare shows that has kept up a high standard throughout, every episode from beginning to end was brilliant and the final episode was just *perfection*.

3. Anatomy of A Scandal

I know there were a lot of mixed opinions on this one, but I found it very bingeable, and really enjoyed seeing the mystery unravel.

4. The Flight Attendant

I watched the first season back in April/May sometime, and I really enjoyed it, it was a very addictive mystery and I always love shows with complicated and flawed female characters at the centre. I’m currently watching the second season, which I don’t think is quite as good as the first, but I’m still enjoying it.

5. Gentleman Jack

The second season of Gentleman Jack just finished here in the UK a few weeks back, and it was just as good as the first one, with even more drama this time around. It ended in a way that wrapped things up quite well if there weren’t to be anymore series, but obviously I really hope there are as it’s a great show and there’s still plenty to explore if it did go on.

Two Things That Happened This Spring

I did go to a couple of cool things that I wanted to share on here:

  1. I went to the Breaking The News exhibition at the British Library, a really cool exhibition about the history of the news in Britain over the last 500 years, it had some AMAZING exhibits, like papers from the time of the Jack The Ripper murders.
  2. My mum and I went to the Queen + Adam Lambert concert at the O2 last night and I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s the best concert I’ve ever been to! I’ve been to some really great shows before and have been lucky to see quite a few singers I really like live, but I have to admit that this was something else! The music (obviously), the production, the lighting, everything was next level amazing.

Six Songs I Listened To Way Too Often This Spring

  1. Shivers-Ed Sheeran

It’s come up on my iPod quite a lot this Spring and it’s also been played on the radio a lot at work so naturally I’ve been hearing it a lot.

2. You’re The One That I Want-Grease

This is on the radio all the time at work, and I have to admit, even though I do enjoy Grease, I would not have willingly chosen to listen to this song as much as I have over the last few months.

3. (I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life-Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes

Much the same as above, it’s been on the radio a lot at work, and whilst I do like it, it’s not a song I would have chosen to listen to so much!

4. Where You Lead-Carole King

I’m currently doing my annual rewatch of Gilmore Girls and Gilmore Girls is one of those shows where the intro is unskippable (it’s just iconic!) so I’ve been listening to the theme song a lot!

5. Holy Ground-Taylor Swift

It’s one of those Red songs that has definitely grown on me over the years, and definitely an underappreciated song from that album!

6. Mr Perfectly Fine-Taylor Swift

This song is just a bop. That’s all.

So there we go, that was my Spring. A fairly quiet one, but that’s probably a good thing considering that my summer is definitely going to be quite manic! What have you enjoyed most on my blog this Spring (or Autumn for my southern hemisphere readers?) What have you been up to? Let me know in the comments!

Quarterly Rewind (December ’21-March ’22)

iloveheartlandx2 Comments

Hi everyone! So here we are, our first quarterly rewind of the year and I know I say this all the time but I can’t believe how quickly it came around. This winter has been fairly quiet for me, with Omicron at its height early in the year, I didn’t do as much as I’d been planning to in January and though I did get around to doing the things I’d pushed back in February, work has been a lot quieter recently and I’ve not been getting as many shifts, which has meant a lot of time at home over the past couple of weeks! I’m hoping that things will start to pick up again soon though as we have new cohorts coming in to be vaccinated, as honestly, I’ve been a little bored!

Anyway, yesterday was the Spring Equinox, the first official day of Spring (and we are finally starting to get some nice weather here in the U.K.!) so that means it’s once again time for another Quarterly Rewind, the feature where I wrap up the current season on my blog and look forward to what’s to come. So today, I will be wrapping up Winter and looking forward to Spring. This post will cover 21st December-19th March:

Image From This Winter:

I will admit, I haven’t taken a huge number of pictures this Winter, just because I’ve not really been going anywhere! However, I did take this one when I was on a run last month and wanted to share it as I thought the rainbow was really pretty.

Favourite Quote From A Book You Read This Winter:

“My pain was never more valuable than his potential.” -Chanel Miller, Know My Name

I could have picked any number of lines from Chanel Miller’s extremely powerful memoir, but this is one that has really stuck with me since reading it.

This Winter In One Word:

Quiet.

Most Popular Review of Winter:

I’ve finally managed to get back on track with my reviews after the disaster that was last year, and I intend to keep it that way (though those may be famous last words). Of the eight reviews that I’ve posted between the end of December and now, the most popular one was of The Nobleman’s Guide To Scandal and Shipwrecks, not too surprising as it is the series finale of a popular series:

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2021/12/29/the-noblemans-guide-to-scandal-and-shipwrecks-montague-siblings-3-review-audiobook/

Top Two Books I’ve Read This Winter:

I’m still firmly on the audiobook train, though I suspect that with the weather getting warmer and the lure of reading outside on the horizon, I will probably get back into physical books more over the Spring and Summer. This winter was apparently all about the memoirs as my top two favourites, both five star reads, were both memoirs. I’ve been really getting into memoirs recently so I suspect there will be a few more on my 2022 reading list, but these were my two favourites from this Winter:

  1. Born A Crime-Trevor Noah

Trevor Noah’s memoir was my last read of 2021 and what a read to end on! It was equal parts funny and touching and I liked the non-traditional structure. Noah is a brilliant and engaging narrator, and I hope he writes more books because I would definitely listen to the audio!

2. Know My Name-Chanel Miller

I read this one last month, and it’s one of the most beautiful, powerful and emotional memoirs I’ve ever read. I don’t often say that everyone should read anything, but this is one of those books that I would be very tempted to say that about, because everyone needs to understand the way the criminal justice system re-traumatizes rape survivors so that they will never again say “Why didn’t she report it?”.

TV Shows I’m Looking Forward To This Spring

Honestly I just don’t have many plans for Spring yet, my family is going to be moving to London sometime in May, but other that that, I’ve really just not planned much, so I figured I would have more to say about TV I’m excited for.

  1. The Great British Bake Off Celebrity Specials

BAKE OFF IS BACK! As usual in the Spring, we get the Stand Up To Cancer specials where celebrities bake for charity, and it’s always so hilarious because half of them cannot bake at all. It definitely helps having this series early on in the year to break up the wait for the main series to return in the autumn.

2. Dynasties II

The new David Attenborough series started last night and I’m so happy! This is the follow up to the 2018 series Dynasties which follows a family of animals as they raise their young. Last night’s puma cubs were so cute!

3. Heartland Season 15

This is cheating slightly because I started watching it yesterday and I’m already halfway through, but I’m just so glad that the newest series of Heartland finally arrived on Netflix yesterday as we’ve been waiting months to get it here in the U.K.

4. Heartstopper

I will admit to not having read Alice Oseman’s graphic novels, but to be honest, it seems like more of the kind of thing I would enjoy as a TV series anyway. I saw the trailer when it came out last week, and it looked really cute, so I’m looking forward to watching the series when it comes out next month (I will admit, I was sold when I saw there was a cute dog in the production photos on Twitter).

5. Killing Eve Season 4

This actually started a couple of weeks ago but I didn’t include it in my Autumn roundup as it didn’t have a release date then, so I’m including it here. I’m really excited to see how Eve and Villanelle’s story wraps up.

Three New Obsessions This Winter:

  1. Wordle-Yes, I hopped on board the Wordle train and yes I’m as obsessed as everyone else is. It’s just strangely fun getting stupidly frustrated trying to work out a new five letter word every day, and massively satisfying when you do! I also have several spin-off versions, Taylordle (for Taylor Swift themed words), Hogwartle (Harry Potter) and Friendle (Friends)!
  2. This Is Going To Hurt-I’ve been watching the BBC drama adaptation of Adam Kay’s junior doctor diaries over the past month, I just finished it last week and I am BROKEN by episode 6, but thoroughly obsessed. I hope they do a Season 2!
  3. Inventing Anna-Yes okay, another one where I jumped on the bandwagon, but Inventing Anna was just such a fun watch, I blazed through it in less than a week.

Five Most Popular Blog Posts This Winter:

As has become common for this section I’ve got a mix of older reviews and Top Ten Tuesday posts, it’s definitely nice to see my reviews still getting some love a year or so after they first went out.

  1. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue Review

Addie LaRue is becoming a permanent feature in this section it seems! This is its fourth appearance in as many Quarterly Rewind posts. I’m glad to see more and more people keep finding this review and hopefully VE Schwab through it (not that she isn’t already massively popular!).

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2020/11/09/the-invisible-life-of-addie-larue/

2. A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder Review

I was quite surprised to see this one pop up on my most popular list for this Rewind as it’s a fairly old review, back from 2020, but I guess the final book did come out last year and maybe people were looking for it as a way to refresh their memories as to what happened in the first book? I don’t know, but I’m always glad to see my older reviews getting some love!

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2020/09/16/a-good-girls-guide-to-murder-a-good-girls-guide-to-murder-1/

3. Top Ten Tuesday #350

This Top Ten Tuesday was back from the beginning of January, where I was talking about my Reading/Blogging/Writing Goals for 2022. You’ll find out how I’m doing on those when I do my mid-year check in post sometime in June/July, but in the meantime, I’m really happy that this post got so much love. Even if I don’t always achieve all my goals, I really like drawing them up at the beginning of each year, I like having something to aim towards.

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2022/01/11/top-ten-tuesday-350/

4. Top Ten Tuesday #359

My Top Ten Tuesday post from last week. My seasonal TBRs are always well loved, so I’m glad to see that you guys were as excited for my Spring TBR as I am.

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2022/03/15/top-ten-tuesday-359/

5. Top Ten Tuesday #358

Another recent Top Ten Tuesday post, from two weeks ago, this was one where I talked about books with one of my favourite tropes, Found Family, so I’m glad to see that you guys love found family books as much as I do.

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2022/03/08/top-ten-tuesday-358/

Three Posts I Enjoyed This Winter:

I’m still massively horrible at keeping track of articles and posts that I enjoy, but I did manage to find three for you this time:

  1. Maya Oppenheim did this great piece for The Independent about her experience of having an abortion and how the UK government is, surprise, surprise failing women when it comes to being able to access abortion services.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/what-is-having-abortion-like-b2018502.html?r=88425&r=17653
2. Charlie Martina, a fellow writer for the Indie did this really great piece about one of my favourite TV shows, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and how she saw herself in Rebecca Bunch and appreciated the nuanced portrayal of Borderline Personality Disorder:
“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” – Exploring the Most Misunderstood Mental Health Condition

3. Jonn Elledge did this really great piece for The New Statesman about basically how ridiculous the question about why the birth rate is declining is. Now I’m not someone who wants to have kids anyway, but I loved this piece because I find all those think-pieces worrying about the birth rate declining so ridiculous: it’s quite obvious to anyone who cares to look, people can’t afford to have kids and if they do, they worry about bringing them into a world of war, pandemics and potential looming disaster from climate change. Pretty simple really!

The mystery isn’t why the birth rate is falling – it’s why anyone has kids at all

Five Shows That I Enjoyed This Winter:

  1. Death In Paradise Series 11

I loved the latest series of Death In Paradise when it aired this winter, the dose of winter sun never fails to cheer me up, and I was so happy that they did a Christmas special last year! I’m even more happy that they’re going to do another one this year.

2. Call The Midwife Series 11

I’m still not over the last couple of episodes of this series to be honest. The wait between episode 7 & episode 8 felt like the longest wait for anything ever. Call The Midwife is still going strong even this far into its run, and I was glad to have it back in its usual winter time slot this year. I was also really glad that the social distancing was less distractingly obvious in this series than it was in the last one!

3. This Is Going To Hurt

I mentioned this earlier on in the post, but I watched This Is Going To Hurt over the past month and just finished the last two episodes last week (I couldn’t wait another week to watch episode 7 after the ending of episode 6). It’s quite a tough watch, so I would say really not a binger, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I will also be forever broken after Episode 6.

4. The Marvelous Mrs Maisel Season 4

I finished the last two episodes of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel last Sunday, and I was just so happy to have it back! Midge’s wardrobe is better than ever, and we got a lot of stand-up this series which I was really pleased about.

5. This Is Us Season 6

The final season of This Is Us is making my Thursday nights at the moment. I’m so glad that this series it seems like we’re finally going to see how Rebecca and Miguel got together as that is something I’ve been wanting to know for ages!

Two Things That Happened This Winter

I know I said I didn’t do much this winter, but there are a couple of things I did that I wanted to share:

  1. I went to an exhibition about Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots at the British Library last month which was really cool. They had so many really awesome documents and artefacts that I’d never seen before, including a replica of the “Gallows Letter” which incriminated Mary and led to her execution!
  2. I went to see Operation Mincemeat at the Southwark Playhouse and it was probably the most I’ve laughed at any musical ever! It’s such a clever and well done production, the five actors play multiple different parts, the music is awesome, it’s ridiculously funny….and it’s based on a real WWII operation! It’s running again at Riverside Studios from 28th April-9th July so if you’re looking for something to do in London, I highly recommend!

Six Songs I’ve Listened To Way Too Often This Winter

  1. Shivers-Ed Sheeran

It’s come up a lot on my iPod this winter, and it’s probably my favourite song from Ed’s most recent album, so I’m definitely not complaining about that.

2. I’ll Be There For You-The Rembrandts

I just finished my rewatch of Friends, so yeah….I was listening to this a lot.

3. The Lucky One-Taylor Swift

This one seems to have come up a few times on my shuffle recently and it’s one of my favourite songs from Red (and a vastly underappreciated one I think!).

4-6. Taylor Swift Instrumentals

I’m grouping the last three into one because back in February I found Taylor Swift instrumentals on Youtube and I am in love (pardon the pun!). They were really great for when I was working on job applications and needed background noise but no words!

So there we go, that was my Winter! A really quiet one, I’m hoping that Spring will bring a little more excitement, and an uptick in my work. What have you enjoyed the most on my blog this Winter (or Summer if you’re a southern hemisphere reader)? What have you been up to? Let me know in the comments!

Quarterly Rewind (September-December ’21 edition)

iloveheartlandx5 Comments

Hi everyone! We made it, our final quarterly rewind of the year. The autumn has been reasonably good for me, we’ve been massively busy at the vaccine centre of course and it looks like it’s going to remain that way through the beginning of next year. I’ve been able to see my friends quite a bit which has been lovely, including our annual Christmas meetup which I so missed last year and I’ve been riding regularly which I’ve loved. I’m not going to lie though, I’m feeling pretty down about the potential for more restrictions post Christmas though, it felt like things were finally looking up and this year had been so much better than last, and now…..well it feels like we could be going back to the start again and it’s all just very frustrating.

Anyway, enough of my depressing ramblings, yesterday was the Winter Solstice, the first official day of Winter, and that means the final Quarterly Rewind of the year, the feature where I wrap up the current season on my blog, and look forward to the new one. So today I will be wrapping up Autumn and looking forward to Winter. This post will cover 22nd September-20th December:

Image From This Autumn:

Okay so full disclosure, I actually took this picture on my birthday in September which came under the last Rewind period, but I’ve just not taken many pictures in the last few months so this was the best I could do! Plus I really like this picture and wanted to share it.

Favourite Quote From A Book You Read This Autumn:

“We realize the importance of our voices only when we are silenced.” -I Am Malala, Malala Yousafzai

I could have picked any number of inspirational quotes from I Am Malala but I thought this one summed up the book pretty well.

This Autumn In One Word:

Tiring!

Most Popular Review of Autumn:

I’ve finally just about caught up on all my reviews, I have two reviews left to post this year but they are from November and this month, so I don’t have a massive backlog anymore! Of the mammoth TWELVE reviews I’ve posted in this period, the most popular was my review of The Song of Achilles, which isn’t too surprising as that book is much beloved (sadly not by me though!):

The Song of Achilles Review (Audiobook)

Top Two Books I’ve Read This Autumn:

Again, I’ve largely been reading audiobooks this autumn, and they’ve been a bit of a mixed bag, but there are definitely two that stand out above the others, which makes this part easier:

  1. I Am Malala-Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb

I read Malala’s memoir last month, and it was brilliant, such an inspiring read and I learned so much about Pakistan’s culture and history that I didn’t know before.

2. The Nobleman’s Guide To Scandal and Shipwrecks-Mackenzi Lee

I just finished the final Montague siblings book on Monday, and it was so great, it was a lot of fun just like the other two, but Adrian’s mental health journey was so beautifully and sensitively handled as well, and I really loved him, plus getting to see all three siblings together was a real treat!

TV Shows I’m Looking Forward To This Winter:

I was going to do a “Things I’m Looking Forward To This Winter” section, but I’m not actually sure if any of my January plans will end up going ahead due to all the uncertainty around the Omicron variant so I’m going to once again skip that section as it would be a massive bummer to include the things I’m excited to do this winter here and then have them not happen. I hope they will still go ahead obviously, but sharing the TV Shows I’m excited for just seems much safer!

  1. Call The Midwife Series 11

I’m so glad that Call The Midwife is back in its usual January-March slot, much as I appreciate that we even got a series this year, it did feel a little weird watching it in the Spring! This series is going to be an exciting one since it’s set in 1967, and the Abortion Act was passed that year, so it will be interesting to see how the show handles the legalisation of abortion in the UK.

2. Death In Paradise Series 11

My other January staple! Death In Paradise was such a tonic this January with the lockdown, an hour of escapism to the beautiful Caribbean was exactly what I needed during a cold winter stuck inside, and since Omicron is making it look like this winter is going to be almost as miserable as last, I could definitely use my helping of Thursday night escapism!

3. The Marvelous Mrs Maisel Season 4

I’M SO EXCITED FOR THE MARVELOUS MRS MAISEL. S3 came out in 2019, so it has been AGES, and I may need to do a rewatch before S4 comes out in February. I’m so excited to see what Midge gets up to next (and to see what fabulous outfits she wears whilst doing it!).

4. This Is Us Season 6

The final season of This Is Us starts in January and I cannot wait to see how the Pearson family’s story is going to end. I’m really glad that it’s going to air uninterrupted this time because whilst I know the constant stopping and starting last series couldn’t be helped, it got a little hard to keep track of when it was on!

5. Outlander Season 6

I’m a little miffed that I’m going to have to pay extra to watch Outlander on StarzPlay, as Amazon Prime is already expensive enough, but oh well, I’m still excited to see where Jamie and Claire’s story takes them next when the show finally returns in March.

Two New Obsessions This Autumn:

I really tried to think of three, but I could only think of two! I’ve been massively busy with work over the autumn so I just haven’t had as much time for other stuff as I’d have liked:

  1. Only Murders In The Building-I just finished this series on Disney+ yesterday, and it was such a fun watch, I was so glad when I looked up if there was going to be a Season 2 to see that it had already been renewed! If you’ve not seen it yet, I highly recommend it, it’s about three neighbours in apartment building in New York who are all true crime fans and team up to solve a fellow neighbour’s murder.
  2. Red (Taylor’s Version)-Red is one of my favourite Taylor Swift albums, so I was naturally super hyped when her rerecorded version came out last month! My favourites on it are definitely I Bet You Think About Me and All Too Well (10 Minute Version).

Five Most Popular Blog Posts This Autumn:

Oddly for this section, three of my five most popular posts this Autumn were older reviews, which I really appreciate because it does often feel like no one ever reads my reviews!

  1. Unsouled (Unwind #3) Review

I’m consistently surprised by the continued popularity of this review, as its the third book in a series that isn’t really talked about all that much online (largely because it’s older) but I love this series so if I’m in any way helping new people to find it then that makes me very happy!

Unsouled (Unwind Quartet 3) Review

2. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue Review

Continuing its streak of being included on this list, we have The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue making its third appearance in this section in as many Quarterly Rewind posts! I know Addie LaRue is massively popular anyway, but if anyone finds VE Schwab books through my blog that makes me very happy as I love her work so much.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue Review (e-ARC)

3. Top Ten Tuesday #346

Last week’s Top Ten Tuesday was a reader favourite, my seasonal TBR posts always seem to do really well, so it’s no surprise that this, my Winter TBR post made it in my top five topics for this Rewind. I just hope that I manage to do better on this TBR than I’ve done on any of my others this year!

Top Ten Tuesday #346

4. Top Ten Tuesday #336

This Top Ten Tuesday is from way back in October, and it was me talking about my Reader Frustrations, basically the things that annoy me as a reader. I should definitely do more of these salty TTT lists because they always seem to be very popular when I do them!

Top Ten Tuesday #336

5. The Silvered Serpents (The Gilded Wolves #2) Review

I was surprised to see this one on here, because sequel reviews don’t usually do as well for me as the first book, but given that the third and final book in the trilogy came out in September and that coincided with the increased popularity of this review, I’m guessing a lot of people were looking at it to remind themselves of what happened before reading the third book….which fair play, I do that often too!

The Silvered Serpents (The Gilded Wolves #2) Review

Two Posts I Enjoyed This Autumn:

I am so horrible at keeping track of the posts I read on other people’s blogs, so I only managed to find two this time:

  1. One of my favourite journalists Rose Stokes, did this really awesome piece about the Morning After Pill and how it was initially meant to be used as a form of regular contraception rather than emergency contraception but that changed due to morality views which date back to VICTORIAN TIMES. It’s actually ridiculous how much of our reproductive rights framework still hinges on laws decided in the 1860s.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/d3a99m/morning-after-pill-plan-b-history-morality-emergency

2. Rayne Fisher-Quinn did this great article for Next Mag about Taylor Swift and the double standards she has faced in her relationships with older men.

Why Didn’t We Think She Was Too Young?

Five Shows That I Enjoyed This Autumn:

  1. The Great British Bake-Off

Bake-Off never fails to delight, and as always brightened up the dark autumn evenings this year, though I still maintain that Jurgen was robbed from being in the final, and the nation was robbed of the Jurgen vs Giuseppe match that we truly craved.

2. Strictly Come Dancing

Strictly is a mainstay of Autumn TV and much like last year, they delivered a truly lovely, uplifting series just when the country needed it the most! I’m so thrilled that Rose won as well, I was rooting for her the entire series.

3. All Creatures Great and Small Season 2

There’s kind of a theme here in the warm, cosy, comforting shows being my favourites this Autumn, but what can I tell you? When in a pandemic, you find these shows and you clutch onto them with both hands! In all seriousness though, the latest season of All Creatures Great and Small was everything I wanted and I can’t wait to see the Christmas special on Friday!

4. Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist Season 2

I watched the first series of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist back in the summer and I LOVED IT SO MUCH and have been very impatiently waiting for the second series to be shown on UK TV. It finally has been this past month or so, and whilst I still have the final two episodes to go, I’ve really loved it and can’t wait to watch the Christmas film. I seriously hope that somewhere in the US picks it up for a third season because it’s filling the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend shape hole in my heart (not that the shows are all that similar aside from being musicals).

5. Only Murders In The Building

As I mentioned earlier in my post, I’ve binged Only Murders In The Building over the past couple of days and it was such an unexpectedly delightful watch, who knew Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez would make such a great team?

Three Things That Happened This Autumn:

Yes I am returning this section, at least for this quarter’s post because I did do quite a few fun things that I wanted to share:

  1. I went to see the new musical of Indecent Proposal in London last month and it was really fun! I love the Southwark Playhouse and hope I get to go back there soon (pandemic permitting obviously).
  2. I went on a spa weekend holiday with my friends back in October and had the best time! We also met up for our first Christmas celebration together in two years at the beginning of December and I’m so happy we were able to do it because I really missed it last year.
  3. I went to see the new play The Shark Is Broken about the making of Jaws, also in London, last month and that was really fun.

Six Songs I’ve Listened To Way Too Often This Autumn

  1. All Too Well (Ten Minute Version)-Taylor Swift

Yes, naturally I’ve listened to this song over, and over and over again. Now when I listen to the original version (I bought the album back when it came out in 2012, I’m not streaming it and giving the men who stole Taylor’s music more money guys I promise!), it does feel like it’s missing something!

2. champagne problems-Taylor Swift

I swear, I don’t just listen to Taylor Swift, it just seems like I do. champagne problems is one of my top three songs from evermore, so I listen to it a LOT.

3. Shivers-Ed Sheeran

I’ve been obsessed with this song since Rose and Giovanni did their tango to it on Strictly in Halloween week, so I’ve listened to it a lot since.

4. I Can Do Better Than That-The Last Five Years

This song from The Last Five Years seems to come up a lot on my Shuffle and I’m not complaining because I love it!

5. no body, no crime-Taylor Swift

Another of my favourite evermore songs, when it was first released I would’ve said it was my outright favourite, but honestly in the year since, it and champagne problems have definitely been tussling for the top spot.

6. I Bet You Think About Me-Taylor Swift

Possibly my favourite song from Red (Taylor’s Version)? It’s just so sassy and I love Country Taylor so much!

So there we go, that was my autumn! Largely filled with work, but I did manage to have some fun amongst that, which I’m quite glad about given that it looks like we may be faced with more restrictions soon. What have you enjoyed most on my blog this Autumn (or Spring for any Southern hemisphere readers!)? What have you been up to? Let me know in the comments!

Quarterly Rewind (June-September ’21 edition)

iloveheartlandx2 Comments

Hi everyone! It’s that time again, I swear these seem to come around faster and faster every time I do them, can’t believe that we only have one quarter left of this year. Aside from the weather (which has been awful), this summer has been really great for me! I’ve been at my job at the vaccine centre for about three months now, and it definitely seems as if it’s going to last through the end of the year, so that’s great. I’ve been seeing my friends, I’ve been riding fairly regularly, I’ve got to go back to the theatre which has been amazing, I’ve been back in London, I’m fully vaccinated and unlike last summer where it all felt a bit too good to be true, I’m feeling cautiously optimistic that lockdown is a thing of the past.

Anyway, Wednesday was the Autumn Equinox, the first official day of Autumn (though really, I personally always count the beginning of the month when the seasons change as the start of the new season) and that means it’s time for another Quarterly Rewind, the feature where I wrap up each season on the blog and look forward to the next one. So today I will be wrapping up Summer and looking forward to Autumn. This post will cover 21st June-21st September:

Image from this Summer:

Again I’ve not been taking a lot of pictures this summer, I have been going out more, but I’ve also been working a lot, so there’s not been much to take pictures of! This one is from when we went to see Hairspray last month, I meant to take a picture in the theatre, but I totally forgot, so instead, I took one on the bus home so I at least had something to document my first trip to the theatre post-lockdown!

Favourite Quote From A Book You Read This Summer:

“It’s going somewhere without ever taking a train or ship, an unveiling of new incredible worlds. It’s living a life you weren’t born into and a chance to see everything coloured by someone else’s perspective. It’s learning without having to face the consequences of failures, and how best to succeed….I think that within all of us, there is a void, a gap waiting to be filled by something. For me, that something is books….and all their proffered experiences.” -The Last Bookshop In London, Madeline Martin

A bit of a lengthy one I know, but you kind of need the full quote to get the whole effect. This part of the book is where George (Grace’s romantic interest) explains to her why he loves reading so much, and it just really resonated with me as a reader, because it’s all true for me too.

This Summer In One Word:

Fun!

Most Popular Review of Summer:

I am so behind on my reviews, the last ones I posted were in July and I’ve read a lot more books since then, I’m fully intending on trying to catch up on my days off, but it might take a while! Of the two reviews that I posted in this period, my review of The Unbound was the most popular, which makes sense as my VE Schwab reviews are always quite popular:

The Unbound (The Archived #2) Review

Top Two Books I’ve Read This Summer:

I’ve mostly been reading audiobooks this summer, and they’ve been a bit of a mixed bag, but there were two that I definitely enjoyed above the others:

  1. The Alice Network-Kate Quinn

After loving The Rose Code, I moved onto one of Kate Quinn’s backlist books, and I really loved it. Female spies have always been right up my alley and I loved learning about a part of WWI that I’d not really heard of before (and desperately want to read more about Louise De Bettignies now). Eve was fantastic, Charlie really grew on me and the story definitely packed an emotional punch!

2. The Last Bookshop In London-Madeline Martin

Apparently this year has been the year of WWII fiction for me, for some reason I’ve been massively in the mood for it! Slice of life WWII isn’t something you come across much, so it was nice to see a book which focused on everyday peoples’ experiences rather than spies, or pilots or soldiers. It was a really charming story and though obviously there were harsher aspects due to the war setting, it feels like a warm hug. Both of my favourites from this period were narrated by Saskia Maarleveld as well, who has fast become my favourite audiobook narrator!

Two Things I’m Looking Forward To This Autumn:

  1. Holiday with friends

I’m going on a long weekend spa break with my friends at the end of October and I’m so excited for it. We haven’t been on holiday together since before the pandemic, and I’ve never been to a spa before, so I am fully prepared to be pampered into oblivion.

2. Indecent Proposal musical

Apparently this is the year of 80s and 90s film to musical adaptations because we’re going to see yet another one in November, this time at the Southwark Playhouse. I’m super excited to go back there as I had such a great time at The Last Five Years last year, and it will be great to experience the theatre sans pandemic restrictions! I will need to actually watch the film before I go though, as I’ve not seen it.

TV Shows I’m Looking Forward To This Autumn:

Yes, Autumn is here and that means the start of all the great TV!

  1. The Great British Bake-Off

Agh Bake-Off how I’ve missed you. There’s nothing like watching a group of lovely people get incredibly stressed about cake and bread and biscuits to brighten up your Autumn evenings!

2. All Creatures Great and Small Season 2

One of my favourite shows of last year, All Creatures Great and Small is back, and I’m so happy because it’s basically like a warm hug in a TV show. I’m also happy that they’ve moved it to Thursday nights this year because now it doesn’t clash with Bake-Off!

3. Strictly Come Dancing

Strictly is back! That’s how you really know Autumn has started, when Strictly waltzes its way back onto our screens. I’m really excited for this year’s group as judging from the little that we saw in the launch show it seems like all the celebrities are on a fairly even playing field, so it should be pretty exciting.

4. Travels With My Father Season 5

The last series of Jack Whitehall’s travel series with his dad is now on Netflix and I’m looking forward to seeing what they got up to in their last series of adventures!

5. You Season 3

I have to admit, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Season 2, and I don’t remember much aside from the big reveals in the last episode, but the trailer for Season 3 looks really exciting, so I’ll probably still check it out.

Two New Obsessions This Summer:

I couldn’t think of three, so I just kept to two this time!

  1. Modern Love-I found this series on Amazon over the summer, and I love it, the amount of character development they are able to get into each thirty minute episode is amazing and I love that no two episodes are the same. It also had me addicted to looking up where the real people who wrote the essays that the episodes are based on are now!
  2. West End Understudies-Bit of a strange one, but I started following the @WestEndCovers account on Twitter and it’s super fun seeing all of the swings and understudies for West End shows getting well deserved praise and shout outs, some of my favourite theatre experiences have been performances where the understudy has been on, so I love that this account exists.

Five Most Popular Blog Posts This Summer:

We’ve got a mix of reviews and Top Ten Tuesday posts this time which is nice, my Top Ten Tuesday posts always get a lot of love, so it’s nice to see that people actually do see some of my other posts!

  1. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue Review

The resurgence of this review continues as it was my most popular review last time I did one of these roundups as well. I’m happy that my scheme to push VE Schwab books on all of my blog readers is potentially working!

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue Review (e-ARC)

2. Top Ten Tuesday #323

This Top Ten Tuesday was my take on Most Unique Books I’ve Ever Read, and I’m glad this one got a lot of love as it was a fun challenge to try and come up with ten books that I felt had an original concept, or twist or took old tropes and twisted them in a fun way.

Top Ten Tuesday #323

3. Unsouled Review

Speaking of, this is the sequel to Unwind, one of the books featured in the post I talked about in No.2, so kind of related to that post! I’m always really surprised when I see this one crop up in this section because it’s a very old review, and it’s a sequel, not a first book in a series, which aren’t usually as popular for me.

Unsouled (Unwind Quartet 3) Review

4. Top Ten Tuesday #325

This one was my take on books I read in one sitting, which I twisted to be Books I Read In Less Than Two Weeks as that suited my slower reading pace better. It was nice to bond with my fellow slower readers on this one!

Top Ten Tuesday #325

5. Top Ten Tuesday #326

This one was Books I’d Want With Me Whilst Stranded On A Desert Island, and though I’d rather be somewhere a bit colder, as I’m not a sun worshipper, I did enjoy thinking about the books that I’d want with me if I was going to be stranded somewhere for an extended period of time. In a surprise to no one, VE Schwab and Rick Riordan featured multiple times.

Four Posts I Enjoyed This Summer:

I’m awful at keeping track of these, but I did manage to find a few:

  1. Dvora Meyers did this great article for Business Insider about men’s gymnastics and why the dance elements that you see in women’s gymnastics aren’t seen in men’s gymnastics (yes, it’s sexism, it’s always sexism).
https://www.businessinsider.com/why-dont-men-do-leaps-2021-8?r=US&IR=T

2. One of my favourite freelance journalists, Rose Stokes, did a really great piece on Britney Spears and the issue of reproductive control, which given the recent passing of the horrific Texas abortion law, is even more pertinent now, as controlling women’s bodies isn’t just restricting access to abortion, it’s also preventing women from getting pregnant if they want to by forcing them to use contraception, the two things are very much linked. Rose’s piece is as always passionate and thoughtful so definitely worth a read if you have a few minutes!

https://graziadaily.co.uk/life/in-the-news/britney-spears-fertility-control-iud/

3. Stephanie Yeboah wrote this really beautiful piece about her worries over infertility and how a fertility test allowed her peace of mind.

How Getting a Fertility Test Allowed Me To Be Kinder to Myself

4. Olivia Petter did this amazing article for The Times about her experience of being “stealthed” (removing a condom without consent during sex) and how it had helped other women realise that the same thing had happened to them. It was obviously horrible (but not surprising) to see that this was an experience so many women shared, and I think it shows how lacking so much of our sex education was at school: I don’t remember consent ever being talked about, and there certainly wasn’t any mention of stealthing, what it is or that it’s a form of sexual assault. The first I heard of stealthing was when I watched I May Destroy You, and that was only last year!

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-saw-the-condom-on-the-floor-and-i-realised-id-been-stealthed-6ssfmrgmf

Five Shows I Enjoyed This Summer:

  1. Lucifer Season 6

I binged Lucifer Season 6 the weekend it came out and what a way to the end the series! I’m so glad they got their final victory lap and were able to say goodbye on their own terms.

2. Sex Education Season 3

Again I binged this last Friday and Saturday, and I swear this show gets better and better with each series! However I will admit to being emotionally destroyed by that ending, and could I demand Season 4 now?

3. Modern Love

I mentioned this in one of the sections above, but I really enjoyed watching this anthology romance series over the summer. It’s really hard to pick favourite stories, but I think mine were: from Season One, the second episode with the app developer Joshua and his missed chance with his first love Emma and from Season Two, the third episode where the two strangers meet on the train on their way home at the beginning of Covid and their chance to meet again is scuppered by the lockdown.

4. Heartland Season 14

It was heart-breaking of course (those who know, know, I won’t spoil for anyone) but I was actually pleasantly surprised by how well they handled the big change this season and being such a long running show, I think it’s allowed them a bit of a refresh and a chance to tell some new stories, which I really enjoyed.

5. Ghosts Season 3

Ghosts remains one of my favourite comedy shows ever, it’s just so much fun and it’s so brilliantly written and acted, and ah just a joy to watch! Long may it continue!

Six Songs I’ve Listened To Way Too Often This Summer

  1. I Know Where I’ve Been-Hairspray

I’ve been listening to this one a lot since I saw Hairspray last month, it’s such a beautiful song and seeing it performed live is just something else (especially because Marisha Wallace is INCREDIBLE).

2. Summer In Ohio-The Last Five Years

I love The Last Five Years soundtrack and this one of the songs that comes up a lot on my shuffle, which is perfectly fine by me as it’s one of my favourite songs in the show.

3. august-Taylor Swift

It’s literally in the title of the song, I think you’re doing August wrong if you don’t listen to august a lot during it right?

4. tolerate it-Taylor Swift

This one’s been coming up on my shuffle quite a bit lately. One of the only downsides to Taylor Swift having released so much music in the past year, is that I’ve not managed to learn all the words to all the songs as quickly as I usually do, but never fear, I plan to rectify that.

5. Goodbye Until Tomorrow/I Could Never Rescue You-The Last Five Years

Another Last Five Years song that comes up on my shuffle a lot.

6. long story short-Taylor Swift

An emerging new favourite from evermore. I always find my favourites change the more I listen to Taylor Swift albums and long story short has been creeping up on subsequent listens.

So there we go, that was my summer! Fairly busy, happily taking advantage of all the things we’re now allowed to do again but a lot colder and wetter than any of us would have liked! Autumn is my favourite season though, so let’s hope it brings good things! What have you enjoyed most on my blog this Summer (or Winter for my Southern hemisphere readers)? What have you been up to? Let me know in the comments!

Quarterly Rewind (March-June ’21 edition)

iloveheartlandxLeave a comment

Hi everyone! I can’t believe it’s almost the end of June, this year seems to be flying by, I swear I blinked and we were halfway through the year. This Spring has definitely been much better than the beginning of the year when we were all in lockdown, I’ve been able to see friends, I’ve been on holiday with my family, I’ve been back at riding, I got my first vaccine dose last week, so all in all things are definitely looking up! Anyway, today is the Summer Solstice, the first official day of Summer, which means it’s time for another Quarterly Rewind, the feature where I wrap up each season on the blog and look forward to the next one. So today I will be wrapping up Spring and looking forward to Summer. This post will cover 20th March-20th June:

Image From Spring:

I’ve not taken a massive amount of pictures this Spring, because even though we’ve been opening up more, I just haven’t been taking all that many pictures! Still I thought this one of a sunset we had whilst I was up in Stirling was a nice one to share.

Favourite Quote From A Book You Read This Spring:

“The funny thing about armor is that it doesn’t just keep other people out. It keeps us in. We build it up around us, not realizing that we’re trapping ourselves.” -The Unbound, Victoria Schwab

I wasn’t the biggest fan of The Unbound, but being a Victoria Schwab book, it still had lots of eminently quotable lines, so I thought I’d share this one as I really liked it.

This Spring in One Word:

Wet! (the weather in the UK has been terrible for most of Spring!).

Most Popular Review of Spring:

I’m super behind in my reviews and I’ve been in a bit of a slump, I’ve only read four books in the period that this Rewind covers and I’ve only reviewed one, I still have a lot of reviews to catch up on! So by default my most popular review of Spring has to be the only book I’ve reviewed and that’s Lore, Alexandra Bracken’s latest release:

Lore Review (Audiobook)
Top Two Books I’ve Read This Spring:

Once again, I’ve had a fairly mixed Spring as I’ve been in a reading slump the whole year, but there were two books that I really enjoyed:

  1. Olive, Mabel & Me-Andrew Cotter

Andrew Cotter’s memoir about his two labradors Olive and Mabel was highly entertaining and endlessly funny, so if you love dogs, I highly recommend the audiobook of this one (for the full experience).

2. The Rose Code-Kate Quinn

Once again the narration of this one was brilliant, Saskia Maarleveld really brought this story to life, and it was such a brilliant one, following three female codebreakers at Bletchley Park in WWII. I love historical fiction that focuses on women, particularly female friendships and this one had that in abundance.

Two Things I’m Looking Forward To This Summer:

YES! I FINALLY HAVE THINGS I CAN PUT IN THIS SECTION AGAIN, BECAUSE I ACTUALLY HAVE THINGS COMING UP.

  1. Hairspray

We were meant to go and see Hairspray in London last August, but naturally it was cancelled because of the pandemic. However a year later and Hairspray finally opens today and we have rescheduled tickets to go and see it in August, I think exactly a year from the date that we first had tickets. I’m so excited to see it, not just because we’ve been waiting so long, but also because it will be my first show back in a big West End theatre since lockdown and I CANNOT WAIT. Also I love Hairspray, I saw it on tour back in 2017 and it was so much fun, so I’m super excited to see it again.

2. Back To The Future

Yes, another musical, I’m really making the most of theatre of being back, because I have missed it so much! We have tickets to go see this the week after Hairspray and it sounds really fun, though I do need to actually watch the movie before I go, because believe it or not, I’ve never seen it!

TV Shows I’m Looking Forward To Watching This Summer

Yes, I do still want to keep this section of the post because I’ve had fun talking to you guys about the shows I’m looking forward watching over the past few months, it’s nice to talk about that as well as books because a lot of the time I’m not reading is spent watching TV:

  1. Heartland Season 14-The new series of Heartland comes out on Netflix tomorrow and I’m super excited because we’ve been waiting since it first aired in Canada in January to get it in the UK and it’s one of my favourite shows.
  2. Lupin-The new series of Lupin landed on Netflix a couple of weeks ago, and I’m excited to see how Assane’s adventures turn out in this next part.
  3. The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4-The new series of The Handmaid’s Tale finally arrived in the UK yesterday, the first new series that has aired since I binged watched Series 1-3 over lockdown, so I’m excited to see where June goes next and how the revolution against Gilead unfolds.
  4. Breaking The Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet-I always enjoy David Attenborough’s documentaries, so I’m looking forward to watching his new one.
  5. Riverdale S5 (B)-The rest of Riverdale Season 5 is back in August. Is it terrible? Yes. Is it addictive? Also yes. Will I be watching? Of course.

Three New Obsessions This Spring:

  1. Shadow and Bone (Netflix series)-I loved the Shadow and Bone series on Netflix this April, and I’m so excited that they are coming back for S2 (WE GET NIKOLAI EVERYONE!).
  2. Fearless (Taylor’s Version)-I don’t know if this really counts as a new obsession since I’ve loved Fearless for over a decade and I only downloaded the new “From The Vault” songs but I still really love them and I’m super excited to hear Red (Taylor’s Version) later this year. WE’RE GETTING THE TEN MINUTE VERSION OF ALL TOO WELL PEOPLE.
  3. Swab Dogs Of Instagram-Okay, an Instagram account on here is a little bit of a strange one for me, but some of the volunteers at a COVID-testing site in Melbourne, Australia have been taking photos of the dogs of people who come in for testing and made an Instagram account of it and it’s just one of the best things I’ve found this year, seeing pictures of people’s cute dogs just makes me smile!

Five Most Popular Blog Posts This Spring:

In a surprising turn, almost all of my most popular blog posts of this Spring were old reviews of mine, which is really heartening to see, it often feels like my review posts don’t get much love so it’s nice to see that you guys are reading them!

  1. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue Review

I’m not sure why the sudden resurgence of interest in this review since I posted it in November of last year and my reviews tend to have a fairly short shelf life, but I’m pleased that you guys have kept finding this one as I’m always happy to push VE Schwab books on people.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue Review (e-ARC)

2. Crooked Kingdom Review

I’m not surprised that there has been a resurgence of interest in my Leigh Bardugo reviews following the Shadow & Bone release on Netflix, though weirdly it hasn’t been in my review of Shadow & Bone but other books in the Grishaverse but then I suppose people have been catching up with other books in the Grishaverse too.

Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows #2) Review

3. Ruin and Rising Review

You guys seem to have jumped straight from Book One to Book Three! Either a lot of people wanted spoilers following Shadow and Bone on Netflix as to what might happen in future seasons, or there were a lot of people finally finishing the trilogy in the run up to the show.

Ruin & Rising Review

4. Queen of Volts Review

My review of Queen of Volts had a fairly small response when I first published it but it seems to have seen a renewed interest in the past few months, which I’m super happy about if it means that more people have been finding and loving the Shadow Game trilogy.

Queen of Volts (The Shadow Game #3) Review (e-ARC)

5. Top Ten Tuesday #311

In a Quarterly Rewind first, this is my only Top Ten Tuesday post featured in my most popular list. This one was my Spring Book Covers post, which was a super fun one to compile, so I’m glad that you guys seemed to enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed putting it together.

Top Ten Tuesday #311
Four Posts I Enjoyed This Spring:

I’m always terrible at keeping track of these but here are a few that I enjoyed:

  1. Journalist Lynn Enright wrote this really interesting article for The Independent about the risks of blood clots linked to the Pill and why comparisons to the blood clots potentially linked to the Astra-Zeneca vaccine might not be entirely comparing like with like. I found this super interesting because I don’t feel like the risks surrounding the Pill are really talked about enough and this article did a great job putting that into context.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/astrazeneca-blood-clots-contraceptive-pill-b1834001.html?r=45747#comments-area

2. Jack Rear did an article for The Telegraph on what people wish they had learned in sex ed growing up and I could definitely relate because my sex ed at school definitely left A LOT out. It’s behind a paywall so you’d have to get a free trial to read it, but it’s definitely worth the read.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/relationships/wish-known-sex-growing/

3. This is kind of an old one that Diane Anderson-Mishall wrote for The Advocate but I found it after watching It’s A Sin, it’s about a biography of Freddie Mercury which tracked a biography of his life alongside the history of HIV. It was really interesting and definitely worth a read.

https://www.advocate.com/hiv/2016/11/23/freddie-mercurys-life-story-hiv-bisexuality-and-queer-identity

4. This is also kind of an old one that I found after watching a TV show, Marcie Bianco and Merryn Johns wrote this really interesting piece about how old Hollywood would get secret abortions for their female stars in the 30s-50s, whether they wanted them or not.

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/07/classic-hollywood-abortion

Five Shows I Enjoyed This Spring:

  1. Shadow and Bone

As I mentioned earlier on in this post, I really enjoyed the Netflix adaptation of Shadow and Bone when it came on the platform back in April. Combining it with Six of Crows was definitely a smart move because it managed to take a book I wasn’t actually all that bothered by when I read it and make me really enjoy the adaptation. I’m really looking forward to Season 2, whenever we get that!

2. Lucifer Season 5 Part 2

We finally got the second part of Lucifer Season 5 and it was SO WORTH THE WAIT. I’m still in shock and awe over that ending to be honest and I really cannot wait for the final season to come out, whenever that happens (but also I can because I really don’t want this show to be over).

3. Superstore Season 6

The final season of Superstore arrived in the UK in May, and it was such a lovely end to the series, though I really do wish it had been able to go out on a non-pandemic related series, they did a great job with what they had to work with.

4. Mare of Easttown

Everyone was talking about this show, so I got a trial of NowTV to see what all the fuss was about, and I can definitely see it now. Such a well put together mystery, I really had no idea who the murderer was going to be until about the second to last episode and everyone was brilliant in it, especially Kate Winslet.

5. It’s A Sin

Again following all the hype about it earlier in the year, I finally checked it out in May and WOW. What a beautiful, sad and yet joyous at the same time show.

Six songs I’ve Listened To Way Too Often This Spring:

  1. Mr Perfectly Fine-Taylor Swift

My favourite of the “From The Vault” songs from Fearless, how ridiculous is it that this one didn’t make the original Fearless? SUCH A TUNE.

2. You Belong With Me-Taylor Swift

Yes, I’ve had this one stuck in my head a lot since the release of Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and I’m not sad about it.

3. You Matter To Me-Waitress

One of my favourite songs from the soundtrack, so I listen to it a lot.

4. no body, no crime-Taylor Swift

Hands down my favourite song on evermore.

5. Your Song-Moulin Rouge (original movie soundtrack)

Around the 20th anniversary of the movie coming out, I was listening to the soundtrack quite a lot.

6. That’s When-Taylor Swift

The other Fearless “From The Vault” track that seems to make a lot of appearances on my shuffle.

So there we go, that was my Spring! All in all much better than Winter was, and here’s hoping for an even brighter summer (with more reading hopefully). What have you enjoyed most on my blog this Spring (or Autumn if you’re in the southern hemisphere)? What have you been up to? Let me know in the comments!

Quarterly Rewind (December ’20-March ’21 edition)

iloveheartlandx4 Comments

Hi everyone! I can’t believe that it’s almost the end of March already, despite having been in lockdown for the entirety of 2021 so far, this year seems to have gone quite quickly (which is only fair considering that 2020 crawled by). This winter has been well…..pretty awful with the third lockdown in the UK, but things look as if they might be turning a corner, with lockdown starting to be eased more in the next few months. Anyway, it was the Spring Equinox on Saturday, which means it’s time for another Quarterly Rewind, the feature where I wrap up each season on the blog and look forward to the next one. So today, naturally I will be wrapping up Winter and looking forward to hopefully better times in Spring. This post will cover 21st December-19th March:

Image from Winter:

Me on Christmas Day 2020, one of the only new photos I have from this period as lockdown is not really conducive to getting lots of good pictures!

Favourite Quote From A Book You Read This Winter:

“Life is cruel, and often without cake.” -The Silvered Serpents, Roshani Chokshi

Okay, I could have gone with any number of gorgeous and lovely quotes from The Silvered Serpents because Roshani Chokshi is a beautiful writer, but laughs have been in short supply in lockdown, so I thought I’d rather share one of the funny ones, because it made me smile, in a year where there has yet to be much to smile about!

This Winter In One Word:

Lockdown 😦

Most Popular Review of The Winter:

I’ve only read four books in the period that this Rewind covers because I’ve been in a bit of a slump, but I have reviewed all of them. The most popular of these was Kingdom of The Wicked, Keri Maniscalco’s newest book, which was fairly hyped, so it tracks that the review would be quite popular:

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2021/01/09/kingdom-of-the-wicked-kingdom-of-the-wicked-1-review-e-arc/

Top Two Books I Read This Winter:

I’ve had a fairly mixed Winter as I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump, so I didn’t find any particular favourites, but these were the books I liked the best:

  1. The Silvered Serpents-Roshani Chokshi

The second book in The Gilded Wolves series, it did suffer a little from middle book syndrome and I didn’t love it as much as the first book but the characters are still great and that definitely carried the book in places where it felt like the plot wasn’t as strong as The Gilded Wolves.

2. The Midnight Library-Matt Haig

The narration definitely made this one for me, I loved Carey Mulligan’s narration. It was definitely a fun concept and overall well done, even if it felt a little bloated and slightly preachy in places.

TV/Films I’m Looking Forward To Watching This Spring

I’m still not anticipating being able to do a massive amount this Spring, as we’re still going to be fairly locked down (though I am super excited to be able to see my friends and go riding again) so I’m once again going to share the TV I’m looking forward to watching. I’m so excited for when I’m finally doing enough to fill up the normal Things I’m Excited To Do section of this post!:

  1. Shadow and Bone-Obviously, I am massively excited for the Grisha series to finally hit Netflix, like many other bookworms. The trailer looked so cool and I can’t wait to see the series in full on 23rd April!
  2. The Great Stand Up To Cancer Bakeoff-The Celebrity Bakeoff for Stand Up To Cancer started a couple of weeks ago, and I’m so happy! I love Bake-off and it’s just the slice of joy that we need in lockdown! Plus it’s for a really good cause.
  3. Moxie-Okay this is a film not a TV show, but I really enjoyed the book, and I’m looking forward to watching the film. It’s a very timely film given the discussions going on about sexual harassment in the UK at the moment (I know it’s a US based film, but sexual harassment is an unfortunately relevant topic in all societies).
  4. WandaVision-I know, I know, I’m super behind having not yet seen this, but I’m planning on finally getting around to it soon after seeing how excited everyone has been about it.
  5. It’s A Sin-Again, I know, I’m super behind, but it’s definitely one that’s high on my priority list to get around to when I’ve finished watching The West Wing.
  6. Behind Her Eyes-I’ve heard really good things about this one too, so I’m looking forward to checking it out.

Three New Obsessions This Winter:

I’ve hardly left my house, so I’ve not exactly been able to develop many new obsessions, at least not beyond TV shows:

  1. Superstore-I got through all five seasons of Superstore that were available on Netflix in February, and I really loved it. I can’t wait for the final season to be added, whenever that is.
  2. The West Wing-I started watching The West Wing at the beginning of March, I’m just up to Season 3 now and really enjoying it. Yes I know, I’m super far behind, but I was too young to watch it when it originally aired!
  3. Call My Agent-I’ve been watching this with my Mum, and really enjoyed it, despite knowing fairly little French.

Five Most Popular Blog Posts This Winter:

My most popular blog posts were again largely TTT posts, but surprisingly, my review of Ninth House was actually by far my most popular post this winter, it’s a fairly old one, so I wasn’t expecting so much interest!

  1. Ninth House Review

This is the fourth time that this review has appeared in my most popular posts in a Quarterly Rewind, you guys really seem to like this one, which is very heartening as I often find my reviews struggle to get views compared to my other posts.

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2019/11/27/ninth-house-alex-stern-1-review/

2. Top Ten Tuesday #298

This was one of my first Top Ten Tuesdays of 2021, where I talked about my Goals For 2021. I always love doing these as it’s fun to set goals for the year ahead, so it’s nice to see you guys enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it.

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2021/01/12/top-ten-tuesday-298/

3. Top Ten Tuesday #306

This was my Top Ten Tuesday from last week where I talked about Books That I Was Considering Removing From My Goodreads TBR. Thanks to you guys, my Goodreads TBR shrunk by 9 books, so I would consider that a job well done!

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2021/03/09/top-ten-tuesday-306/

4. Top Ten Tuesday #299

This was my annual list of shame, where I shared the 2020 releases I missed out on and was planning to catch up on this year. I think these kinds of lists are always popular because we all have our own lists of shame!

Top Ten Tuesday #299

5. Top Ten Tuesday #300

Top Ten Tuesday #300

This one was my New To Me authors list, which is one I always love doing, as I enjoy sharing new to me authors that I’ve found and loved with all of you so I’m glad to see that you guys also enjoyed it.

Four Posts I Enjoyed On Other Blogs This Winter:

I’m never massively good at keeping track of these, but I did manage to find some for you:

  1. Maggie Stiefvater did this really great post about readers’ responsibilities to authors and authors responsibilities to readers. It was a super interesting read and something I hadn’t really thought about.
On Author-Reader-Author-Reader Responsibility

2. Monica Lewinsky interviewed Roxane Gay on how to write trauma for Vanity Fair and I found it a really insightful and interesting interview.

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2021/02/roxane-gay-on-how-to-write-about-trauma

3. Asiya Iftikhar wrote this really great post about positive relationships between POC mothers and their LGBTQIA+ daughters.

A love letter to the TV mothers who love their queer daughters

4. I’m cheating slightly here because this is an article that I contributed to, but it’s a really important article so I wanted to share: I, along with many other of the Indiependent’s female & non-binary contributors wrote about our experiences of sexual harassment and assault following Sarah Everard’s murder.

https://www.indiependent.co.uk/yes-all-women/

Five Shows I Enjoyed This Winter:

  1. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Okay, so this was technically a rewatch, but Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and its catchy musical numbers provided just the right amount of serotonin during the early days of the UK’s third lockdown.

2. Death In Paradise Series 10

The latest series of Death In Paradise hit screens in the UK just as we went into our third lockdown, and I definitely needed all the sun soaked vistas of Guadeloupe and the cosy murder mysteries that this show provides in the dark days of January even more than usual this year.

3. Superstore

Again during lockdown 3, comedy was exactly what I needed and I flew through all five seasons available of NBC’s hit comedy when it hit Netflix in the UK last month.

4. This Is Us Series 5

Though the constant stop-start and long breaks between episodes have been mildly annoying (though of course understandable), I have been enjoying the latest series of This Is Us.

5. The West Wing

Like I said, I’ve finally been watching The West Wing this March and I’ve been really enjoying it.

Six Songs I’ve Listened To Way Too Often This Winter:

  1. champagne problems-Taylor Swift

I love champagne problems so much! It’s such a beautiful, heart-breaking song and probably one of my favourites that Taylor has ever written.

2. Without A Believer-Sara Barielles

Weirdly this may be the song from Waitress that I’m most obsessed with, and IT’S NOT ACTUALLY IN THE SHOW, it’s one of the deep cuts from the Lost Songs album!

3. Chandelier-Moulin Rouge Original Broadway Cast Recording

Genuinely like this cover better than the original song!

4. the last great american dynasty-Taylor Swift

One of my favourites from folklore, so naturally it comes up on my shuffle quite often.

5. Moving Too Fast-The Last Five Years

One of my favourite songs from the show so I listen to it quite a lot.

6. The Negative-Waitress

The Waitress cast recording is in constant rotation on my iPod and this is one of the songs that seems to come up the most.

So there we go, that was my Winter! All in all a fairly bleak one, so I seriously hope that Spring is better and that I get more books read! What have you enjoyed most on my blog this Winter (or summer if you’re in the southern hemisphere)? What have you been up to? Let me know in the comments!

Quarterly Rewind (September-December ’20 edition)

iloveheartlandx1 Comment

Hi everyone! So we’ve almost made it to the end of 2020, and I think I can speak for everyone when I say that I will not be sorry to see the back of it. This autumn has been……well mixed to say the least. I did have some good things happen, I got to go and see an actual show in an actual theatre, I got to do some riding and I did get to see a friend once before everything went to hell again but aside from that, it’s been a pretty bleak Autumn. Anyway, it’s the Winter Solstice today, which means it’s time to wrap up Autumn on the blog and look ahead (I’m not going to say look forward because we all know this Winter is going to suck) to Winter. This post will cover 22nd September-20th December:

Image From The Autumn:

I took this a couple of weeks ago when we had snow on the hills in Stirling, one of very few new photos I have from the past few months, since I’m not really doing much that’s worth taking pictures of these days.

Favourite Quote From A Book You Read This Autumn:

“History is something you look back on, not something you really feel at the time. In the moment, you’re just….living” -The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, VE Schwab

Honestly I could have picked any of a thousand lines from this book because VE Schwab’s writing is so stunning, but this one really resonated with me when I read it, in a way it probably wouldn’t have in any year other than this one. Something about reading this in the midst of a global pandemic….yeah it hit hard.

This Autumn In One Word:

Stressful (and that’s just the past week!)

Most Popular Review of The Autumn:

I’ve read 9 books this Autumn and reviewed 8 of them. I was surprised given the immense hype around it that Addie LaRue wasn’t my most popular review of this Autumn, but it was actually Queen of Volts, the Shadow Game trilogy finale:

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2020/09/24/queen-of-volts-the-shadow-game-3/

Top Two Books I Read This Autumn:

I’ve had a fairly mixed Autumn of books, but there were definitely two that stood out above the rest, so it was actually pretty easy to choose this time:

  1. Men Who Hate Women-Laura Bates

Laura Bates’ most recent book, Men Who Hate Women explores the world of online misogyny. It’s definitely highly disturbing, if not entirely surprising some of the things that these extreme misogynists get up to on the internet, and I definitely learned a lot from reading it.

2. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue-VE Schwab

My most anticipated read of the year definitely did not disappoint, it was beautifully written, incredibly emotional and definitely not a story I’m going to forget in a hurry!

TV I’m Looking Forward To Watching This Winter:

I’ve literally got nothing planned this winter and given that another lockdown is probably looming, that’s a good thing, so once again, I’m going to share the TV that I’m planning on watching over the next few months (I will know this pandemic is over when I’m finally able to share things I’m looking forward to doing for this section again):

  1. The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 4-The final episodes of Sabrina arrive on Netflix on New Years Eve and I’m really looking forward to seeing how the Spellmans’ stories are wrapped up.
  2. Death In Paradise Series 10-After this year, I think the sunny escape to Saint Marie in January is pretty much everything I need! I may not be able to travel, but at least I can live vicariously through this show.
  3. This Is Us Series 5-The new series of This Is Us returns after its Christmas break in January and I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens next.
  4. Staged Series 2-The second series of Michael Sheen and David Tennant’s lockdown comedy starts in January, and honestly right now, I could use all the laughs I can get!

Three New Obsessions This Autumn:

I mean it’s kind of difficult to develop new obsessions when you barely leave your house, but I do try!

  1. evermore-I haven’t listened to Taylor Swift’s latest lockdown offering as much as I would have liked yet, but I’ve listened enough to have become decidedly obsessed, specifically with no body no crime, which I often find myself randomly singing.
  2. Carrie Hope Fletcher-I saw an encore performance of her London Coliseum show a few weeks ago, and I absolutely loved it, definitely want to see more things with her in, I hope she does some more streaming stuff soon!
  3. Chocolate Orange Buttons-I recently found a chocolate orange version of Cadbury’s Giant Buttons (though giant is misleading) and I loved them!

Five Most Popular Blog Posts This Autumn:

My two most popular blog posts this time were again reviews, it’s super nice to see a renewed interest in some of my older reviews:

  1. Ninth House Review

There seems to have been a lot of interest in this one over the past year as this is the third time it has appeared in my most popular posts in a Quarterly Rewind.

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2019/11/27/ninth-house-alex-stern-1-review/

2. Unsouled (Unwind #3) Review

This one is one of my earlier reviews from my first year of blogging, so I’m always surprised when people find it after all this time!

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2014/09/08/unsouled-unwind-quartet-3-review/

3. Top Ten Tuesday #290

One of my Top Ten Tuesdays from last month, this one was where I talked about Book Characters I’d Name A Pet After. It was a super fun one to do, so I’m glad you all seemed to enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

4. Top Ten Tuesday #288

This one was actually a non-bookish Top Ten Tuesday, in which I talked about the hobbies I have outside of reading and book blogging and it was really fun to talk to everyone about the things I love outside of books and to find out more about everyone else as well.

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2020/11/03/top-ten-tuesday-288/

5. Top Ten Tuesday #286

My final most popular post for this Rewind period was this one from October, where I talked about some of the great book recommendations I’ve been given from other people over the years.

https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2020/10/20/top-ten-tuesday-286/

Four Posts I Enjoyed On Other Blogs This Autumn:

I haven’t been great at keeping track of these, I have to admit, but I did manage to find a few for you guys:

  1. This is one from last year but I only found it after I finished the book this November, it’s an essay that Christine Lynn Herman wrote about her struggles with anxiety and depression and how it influenced her debut novel.

https://www.powells.com/post/original-essays/into-the-gray

2. Morgan Hartley, a fellow writer for the Indiependent (an online news platform that I write for), wrote this great piece about platonic relationships and how her friends and family have enriched her life.

Platonic Love Can Be The Greatest Love Of All

3. Catherine Renton did this really great article for Vogue about toxic positivity which is something I’ve struggled with over the course of this pandemic because I feel like a lot of this has been going around social media during the pandemic, and especially during the first lockdown, it made it hard for me to really grapple with the more negative emotions I was feeling because everyone was constantly being like “we’re all in this together” and “this too shall pass” and everyone passing around the good vibes was actually making me feel much worse, so this article really resonated with me.

https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/toxic-positivity

4. Emily Burack did this great article about the myth of Judeo-Christianity and why it’s not a thing, and I found it really insightful and interesting read.

https://www.heyalma.com/the-myth-of-judeo-christianity-explained/

Five Shows That I Enjoyed This Autumn:

  1. Strictly Come Dancing

I’m so so glad that we got a series of Strictly this year because I can 100% say that my Autumn would have been a heck of a lot bleaker without it. Having this one glorious shred of normality, even if the show itself was a little different was definitely a lifesaver, especially the final over the weekend, the way that they pulled that off and brought a little joy for a couple of hours after the Government’s terrible announcement was amazing.

2. The Great British Bake Off

My other lifesaver show this Autumn, if there was ever a year that needed the glorious comfort watch that is Bakeoff, it was 2020. I nearly cried at the final episode, it was super emotional!

3. The Crown Season 4

I tore through The Crown Season 4 in 3 days when it arrived in November, it was thoroughly addictive drama and though I’m looking forward to seeing the new cast, I’m definitely going to miss the outgoing lot!

4. folklore: the long pond studio sessions

The Taylor Swift surprises have been thick and fast this year and I loved getting to see her perform all the songs from folklore, watching this special definitely gave me a new appreciation for songs on folklore that I hadn’t necessarily listened to as much.

5. Ghosts

I’ve needed all the humour I could get over the past few months, so this BBC sitcom was definitely very welcome! I’m really looking forward to seeing the Christmas special on Wednesday night.

Six Songs I’ve Listened To Way Too Often This Autumn:

  1. A Miracle Would Happen/When You Come Home To Me-The Last Five Years

After seeing The Last Five Years at the Southwark Playhouse in October, I definitely became next level obsessed with the soundtrack (I have the movie one with Jeremy Jordan and Anna Kendrick) and this one is one that’s been coming up a lot on shuffle.

2. august-Taylor Swift

The latest tune from folklore that has been cropping up a lot!

3. no body no crime-Taylor Swift

Okay, granted the new album has only been out for just under two weeks, but I’ve listened to no body no crime more than any other song from evermore in that time.

4. A Summer In Ohio-The Last Five Years

Another of The Last Five Years songs that has been stuck in my head since the seeing the show, Molly Lynch’s performance of this was fantastic.

5. The Room Where It Happens-Hamilton

This one comes up on my shuffle pretty frequently!

6. Nobody Needs To Know-The Last Five Years

Another of the songs from the show that has been stuck in my head since seeing it, Oli Higginson did a fabulous job with this song.

So there we go, that was my Autumn! What have you enjoyed most on my blog this Autumn (or Spring for my Southern Hemisphere followers)? What have you been up to, if anything? Let me know in the comments!