Hello, lovelies. Here’s my favorites post for February. I hope you enjoy. I read a lot of books and watched a bunch of movies this month.
Related – January 2018 Favorites (Books, Movies, Music, Etc.)
Disclosure – This post contains affiliate links.
//Books
The Curious Incident Of A Dog In The Night-Time by Mark Haddon – My friend Stellah recommended this book to me almost a year ago and I finally got around to reading it. It’s about a teenager with autism trying to solve the murder of a dog after being accused of being the murderer. The way the book was written was so smart because it sounded like someone with autism wrote it based on the speech and thought process. The part that really resonated with me was when the main character was having a breakdown at a train station. He was describing all the sounds and vibrations in so much detail. I was riding the subway at the time and I could imagine how overwhelming that must have been for the character.
It’s a bit of a difficult read because of the writing style, but you can get past it. It took me longer to read this than the other books.
Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets by J.K Rowling – I forgot how annoying Lockhart was in this book. As you already know, I’m listening to the Harry Potter series in my car while I drive. I’ve forgotten a lot of the details because I haven’t reread it since middle school, so I wanted to see if it was as good as I remember.
Love, Hate & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed – My friend Shounima reviewed this book on her blog, and I ordered it from the library after reading two sentences. It’s about a Pakistani-American girl, Maya, living in metro-Chicago. The beginning of the story starts with her having typical Muslim girl problems: arranged marriage and convincing her parents that she doesn’t want to live at home or become a lawyer. After a terrorist attack in Illinois, she is subjected to a lot of discrimination.
I didn’t like this book as much as I thought I would (I still give it 4 stars) because I found it very predictable. I think that it’s mostly because I’ve been in her situation and could guess what was going to happen next (Like my parents have said the exact same things Maya’s parents said in the book), which kind of ruined the plot for me. I definitely recommend this book because it makes a lot of good points on Islamophobia in America and how terrorist attacks are only called terrorist attacks when committed by a brown person.
“These terrorists are the antithesis of Islam. They’re not Muslim. Violence has no place in religion, and teh terorists are responsible for thier own crimes, not the religion and not us.”
Words Deep In Blue by Cath Crowley – This is a cute contemporary romance novel about two childhood friends trying to pick up the pieces of their lives after big life changes. It’s adorable and I liked that there isn’t necessarily a happy ending.
They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera – I started this book once last semester but didn’t have time to finish it. I had to return it to the library for its due date. This is a sci-fi alternate reality book where a government corporation notifies people the day they are going to die. After getting the notification, two teenagers meet and spend the last day of their lives together. It’s a really good book and I like that it includes diverse characters without the plot being only about the fact that they are a minority. The author just mentions what countries they are from and moves on to the sci-fi plot.
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all” – Oscar Wilde
Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban by J.K Rowling – I finished this audiobook at the beginning of March, so I’m not sure it counts. This was my second favorite Harry Potter book as a kid, but I think it’s going to change now that I’m an adult. I’ll probably prefer the ones with more complex plots now, but it was nice to re-“read.” I’m glad I decided to reread Harry Potter again because I can remember how good it is.
//T.V. Shows
Make It Or Break It – I normally follow the Olympics, but I surprisingly didn’t this year. Anyway, Make It Or Break It came up on the Freeform website. It’s an old show about four gymnasts preparing for the 2012 Summer Olympics. I never really got into it when it was running, but I decided to give it a try. I ended up binge watching it for a week and wasted a lot of time. I stopped after around 40 episodes because I was getting bored. It’s good, but I wouldn’t recommend it. The Fosters and Switched at Birth are much better Freeform shows.
Liberty’s Kids – Do any of you remember this show? I haven’t watched it in years, but I rewatched the whole series (Over time, not binge watching) last month. It’s a children’s cartoon about three journalists during the Revolutionary War (who miraculously don’t age over 10 years. )You can find the entire series on YouTube because it was a PBS show. I recommend it. Especially if you’re a little rusty on U.S. history.
//Movies
Ella Enchanted – I just played this movie on a whim one day while eating dinner. I love Anne Hathaway, so I’ve watched this movie many times, but it’s been awhile. It’s about a girl who was cursed with obedience by a fairy and she’s forced to do horrible things beyond her control. It’s a satirical remake of Cinderella, so there’s a lot of goofy side stuff that makes up for that potentially dark premise.
The Little Prince – Netflix made an adaptation of this classic and it’s so good! I ordered the book from the library right after watching it because I loved the movie so much. I’ve read Everything Everything, so I already knew how the story ended, but it didn’t ruin it for me. The Little Prince is about a boy trying to return to his tiny planet to reunite with his Rose. The underlying message of the story is preserving childhood. If you have Netflix, I think you should give it a watch.
Captain America: The First Avenger – I watched this movie with my brother. It got me thinking that the Hulk gets the short end of the stick in the Avengers deal because no one favors him at all, while Captain America is beloved for being played by a young good-looking actor. When I was a kid, people didn’t care much about the Captain America comic books, but everyone knew who the Hulk was, but I digress. I prefer the Captain America trilogy over the Iron Man trilogy personally, so it was fun to watch on Freeform.
Jab We Met – This Hindi movie is a modern classic that I haven’t watched since middle school. It’s so much funnier now because I can understand all the adult humor. I laughed so many times. I forgot how good it was, but the subtitles bothered me because they sometimes didn’t match what they were saying (I can’t understand Hindi fluently, but I could tell when there were errors.) This movie is on Netflix. I recommend it.
Lady Bird – I watched this for free in my school’s theatre. Since it was nominated for an Oscar, I decided to give it a watch. It’s about a Catholic school girl’s senior year in high school. The main character is played by the same actress from The Host, which is why I watched the trailer in the first place. It was good, but I wouldn’t watch it again.
//Music
Jab We Met Songs – After watching that movie, I listened to all the songs on loop. I already had them downloaded to my phone thanks to my MP3 player from middle school. Here’s my favorite song from the movie.
//Live Shows
Rent – This show is pretty much on every Broadway Show Bucket List. It’s a classic, but I had no idea what it was about until I went to watch it. There’s that iconic song that everyone quotes, but no one ever talks about the plot. I went to the 20th Anniversary Show with my friends Kat and Andrew. After the first act, we had to look up the plot on Wikipedia because it was so fast-paced. After understanding the entire plot, we were able to enjoy it fully.
I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s basically about how a bunch of people with HIV spend the last years of their lives. (Sounds musical worthy, doesn’t it?) That’s all I’m going to tell you. It’s really good, but there is pretty much no dialogue. They sing the entire play, so I recommend reading a synopsis before watching so that you won’t miss important details.
//Priceless
Spring Weather – It became surprisingly warm in the month of February. All the trees were confused, so all the trees were filled with flowers. It’s been beautiful, but if there is another hard freeze, we won’t get as many pairs from the tree in our backyard. I hope it doesn’t get cold again suddenly, but Georgia has bipolar weather so it’s kind of inevitable. The weather has been beautiful though. There isn’t too much pollen, so I can actually enjoy it right now.
What books have you read recently? Have you started any new T.V. shows?