On the final Friday of each month, I take a look back at all the things I loved and put together this list of recommendations for you: the Friday Finale. It might include the best book I read, a particularly impressive recipe I tried, or the best thing I streamed this month. I hope these standout moments from my month inspire you to make some time for yourself looking forward!
Any other heroines out there feeling like 2021 is starting out in a less-than-ideal way? There are so many things that I wanted to jumpstart here in the new year, and I’ve been completely unmotivated to do anything. I’m trying to give myself grace because, you know, we’re still in the middle of a pandemic and I’ve been staying home for nearly a year now and the wintery, cold weather means I’m not getting enough time outside.
Basically, what I’m saying is January has not been great for my New Year’s resolutions, but I do have a number of books and shows to share with you! Everything below helped me get through the month without the urge to hide my head under the covers and stay in bed every morning.
When I say I became obsessed with the All Souls trilogy two weeks ago, I am not exaggerating! I read the first book, A Discovery of Witches, without knowing a single thing about the story, and that’s honestly probably a good thing. It’s set in a modern-ish day world where there are humans and then there are creatures: Daemons, Vampires, and Witches. And of course, one witch ends up falling in love with a vampire, kicking off a very forbidden romance!
The author is a historian, and her knowledge of everything from the Salem witch trials to the history of alchemy to old manuscripts is apparent on every page. I loved the way she wove the story using what she knew, and I also appreciated that the romance felt more equal than that other vampire love series we all read in middle school. 😉
I’ve since finished all three books in the series (all got ★★★★☆ from me!) and absolutely devoured the first season of the show, which you can find on Amazon Prime. The second season is out now, but it’s airing week by week, and I’ll probably wait until it’s all out so I can binge it!
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Oh look! Another book-series-turned-TV-show that I obsessed over this month. Along with the rest of the world, I binged and adored Bridgerton on Netflix. Then, I ended up reading six of eight books from Julia Quinn’s series. While I’m not normally a fan of straight-up romance, I have zero regrets.
There are many reasons to recommend Bridgerton. The cast is so fun, the show is delightfully smutty with just a hint of the Regency charm you’d expect from a Jane Austen novel, and the costume and set design is exactly what you’d expect from a grand Netflix baby.
But the thing that has most helped me get through January? The orchestral covers of pop music that featured during the show! Girls Like You, Wildest Dreams, In My Blood… I loved every single one! You can find the songs from Bridgerton as an album on Spotify, but I would also recommend taking a look at the featured songs from Vitamin String Quartet and Duomo. There are so many more choices, and they’re great working music. I’d also just like to say that I used the covers as pre-webinar music three times this month and got compliments every single time!
My brother celebrated his 22nd birthday with us here in Cincinnati, and despite the pandemic craziness, Spencer and I wanted to give Ian a full birthday experience. We’ve been sticking to home, only eating takeout, etc., so I wanted to be sure that if we did something, it would be safe and fun and make us all feel okay to leave home.
The Cincinnati Zoo answered the call and then some! Not only is the zoo almost completely outdoors, but it also only allows a certain number of people to arrive at one time. The ticket process was touch-free, and the limited number of guests meant we were easily able to socially distance ourselves from other groups.
Through the end of February, they’re celebrating Penguin Days! As long as the temperature doesn’t get above 50 degrees, they do parades with their King Penguins, and it was such a cool experience. As you can see in the photo at the top of the page, we were only yards away from their penguins who all have very distinct little personalities. We got to learn about the penguins from their zoo keepers, and overall it was a lovely, safe way to spend our MLK Day holiday!
We watched two international Netflix shows this month, and I have to say I love that Netflix makes foreign language shows available to its users. The first was Alice in Borderland, a Japanese show that is based on a manga. (My brother has actually read it since and highly recommends it!)
It’s the story of Arisu, who gets stuck in a dystopian Tokyo where he and his friends have to play games to survive. And by “games,” I mean “choose a door before the room combusts and we all die” and “tag but with bullets.” The players who survive collect cards, and when they aren’t playing for their lives, they’re trying to figure out where the game makers came from and where all of the millions of people in Tokyo disappeared to. We watched it with subtitles, but I believe it’s also available dubbed.
We just finished this limited series (only five episodes!), so I had to include it in my January wrap up. If you like heist films, complex mysteries, and underdog stories, you will enjoy Lupin on Netflix. This one is in French and tells the story of Assane Diop, the son of a Senegalese immigrant who is accused of stealing a priceless diamond necklace from his employer.
The show does a really nice job of weaving Assane’s story as a child with his current life as an estranged husband and father living in Paris. It also does a superb job of incorporating the secrets behind each episode’s mystery aspect in an artful way. We also watched this one with subtitles and would recommend it, too!
How was your January? I hope you found books and shows to obsess over, even if productivity wasn’t quite within reach!
P.S. If you’re looking for books post-Bridgerton, I have so many Pride and Prejudice adaptations to share!
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