Hey, guys. Here’s the first “Favorites” post of 2018. I hope you enjoy.
Disclosure – This post contains affiliate links.
//Books
Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy – This is such a good book. I highly recommend it. It’s about a girl in Mississippi who is a lesbian. She starts questioning her sexuality when she becomes attracted to a boy. I liked that this book explored pansexuality/bisexuality because that topic is not explored enough. This was just a subplot in the book. The story was more about Ramona’s duty to her family and the mess that comes with her life. I really related to her. (I also love the fact that the book had diverse characters.)
Cultivate by Lara Casey – Non-fiction isn’t really my cup of tea, but I’ve been reading Lara’s blog for a few months and purchased her Powersheets Goal Planner and got interested in her books. I ordered them from the library and this one came in first. It’s a book about intentional living and balancing your life. It uses gardening as a metaphor for life’s seasons, how we need time to rest and time to work. It’s good, but you have to be okay with reading some Bible and religious stuff because there is a lot of it in the book. I think the messages are really good. This quote really resonated with me:
“I don’t have to do it all. Done is better than perfect and good enough is good.”
Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling – I’m in the process of rereading Harry Potter by listening to audiobooks in my car. I finished the first novel last month.
(I also read two very long fan-fictions that may as well have been books, but I guess I can’t count those in this section.)
//Movies
Wonder Woman – I actually watched this twice last month: once on the plane from London to Atlanta and once with my brother and dad. It was so good. I see what the hype was all about. It almost became my favorite superhero movie, but I’m pretty sure my favorite will always be the original Spiderman movie with Tobey Maguire.
Deadpool – My cousin Adit said that this is his favorite superhero movie and convinced me to watch it. (He brought it up a lot) And I must say that it’s hilarious and was a big surprise. I didn’t know what to expect when I started, but I truly didn’t expect that. Deadpool truly has the most horrific backstory of all the supers. It’s insane. It’s not my favorite superhero movie, but I liked that it was different.
Baby Driver – This movie was a huge surprise. When I first saw the trailer for this movie, I thought it was the stupidest thing ever, but it got a 93% rotten tomato rating. That’s crazy high! And I understand why now. I watched it on the plane and was blown away by everything. The symbolism, the music, the action shots…you could tell that a lot of thought was put into filming this. I recommend it.
Mini Rant – There a lot of books and movies taking place in Atlanta now and this was one of them. I would like to say that OUR ACCENTS DON’T SOUND LIKE THAT. Atlanta is a big city, meaning that a lot of people come from different places to be here. The typical southern accent was lost up here so it’s not as deep as it is in the rest of Georgia. We have a slight southern accent. Barely noticeable in the South. The Baby Driver movie took place entirely in Atlanta, but all of them had the deepest and fakest southern accents I have ever heard.
Okay. I’m done.
//Music
I’m going to post my travel playlist in the next few weeks because I listened to a lot of songs on my last three trips and putting them all here is too much.
//T.V. Shows
Avatar The Last Airbender – After coming back from Bangladesh, I decided to rewatch this show. This was (and honestly still is) my favorite T.V. show as a kid and it’s been awhile since I’ve rewatched it. If you haven’t heard of this show, you’ve been living under a rock. Don’t watch the movie. Go straight to the t.v show because it is truly a masterpiece.
Riverdale – I downloaded the first season of Riverdale on my tablet to watch on the plane. The movies on Qatar Airlines was terrible (but their food was delicious), so I didn’t spend much time watching their screens. Riverdale is really good, but I don’t think I’ll get that into season 2 now that the first mystery has been solved. Cole Sprouse is a really good actor. He’s not just one of those child actors who lean on their previous success. That was nice to see.
End Of The F***ing World – This was my favorite show I binged this month. Just watch the trailer. You’ll see why.
Grace & Frankie Season 4 – I finished this over the weekend it came out. It’s a fun show and it portrays what the elderly go through in a very comedic way.
One Day At A Time Season 2 – I was so excited about this season. I binged the season in one day. It lived up to my expectations. I want season 3 already. It’s a sitcom about a military Cuban American family.
//Live Shows
The Lion King On Broadway – The Lion King On Broadway came to Atlanta last month. I had never seen it before and was highly anticipating it. The costumes were amazing and the way the performers moved made the “animals” come to life. I would be lying if I said it was my favorite because I’ve definitely seen better, but I really enjoyed it. (All Broadway shows are breathtaking in my opinion)
//Priceless
Coming Home – I came home the night of January 5th. I was exhausted after 3 flights in 2 days, but happy to see my family. It was great to sleep in my own bed and take long hot showers. My mom fed me all my favorite American foods the first few weeks of me being home because I had been eating Bengali food for the last month. It was great!
Snow Days – I am so thankful for these. Classes were to start two days after I got back from Bangladesh, but school was closed that Monday because of the ice on the roads. That gave me an extra day to get over the jetlag. There were also two snow days the week of MLK day, so I only had one day of class that week. That messed up my routine by a lot, but I was able to catch up on rest.
Missing Everyone – Half the people I spent time with in Bangladesh were people I’ve never met. I’m a child of immigrants, so I understand the feeling of loving someone you’ve never met. That just comes with the deal. A lot of people come to America and never go back to their home countries, so their kids’ only relationship with their family is through phone calls and face time.
When I was leaving Chittagong, I was surprised at how much I was going to miss everyone. There was a huge difference between my reaction to leaving my family in Chittagong and in Dhaka. I grew up with or have met my family in Dhaka before. I knew what it was like to miss them, but I had never felt that before with my family in Chittagong because I had never met them in person before. It was very emotional, but it’s priceless to have the ability to miss them.
I will talk about all the travel stuff soon. I promise. Until next time, lovelies.
What books did you read last month? What movies or T.V. shows did you watch?