I read 8 books this month, all were audiobooks, though I am still making my way through several physical books.
January 2023 Monthly Round-up
They were:
- The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult
- How to be Sad by Helen Russell
- The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
- The No-Spend Year by Michelle Mcgagh
- Dear Dolly by Dolly Alderton
- The Vaccine by Joe Miller
- Write it all Down by Cathy Rentzenbrink
- The Other Bennett Sister by Janice Hadlow
My favourite books this month were: The Book of Two Ways and The Vaccine.
The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Piccoult is a fiction story about a woman who survives a plane crash and her life sort of splits in two, and you see the two avenues that her life could take, one with her husband and daughter in New York as a Death Doula (ya ha that’s a job apparently) and her other life as an Egyptologist with her first love in (yep you guessed it) Egypt. It is a complex story, but on audio it was great.
The Vaccine by Joe Miller is a non-fiction account of how BioNTech created the BioNTech Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine. It is very scientific but an inspirational story of how two Turkish immigrants living in Germany find each other and develop one of the vaccines that saves millions of lives all over the world. This married couple are amazing, and I loved hearing their story.
My least favourite book of the month was Dear Dolly by Dolly Alderton, not because it is a bad book, it’s just not aimed at me. I am a married lady who is 39 and 13 months old (Thank you Monica) with two kids, most of her advice columns (it is a book of advice columns) are aimed at young single women. So if you are, you will probably enjoy this book as she does give great advice.
What I’ve been Watching
At the cinema
I Wanna Dance with Somebody – I love Whitney Houston, she was my idol growing up, I love all her albums, especially ‘My Love is Your Love’ that album came out when I was 17 and it was my album! Anyway, the movie was so good I watched it three times. Naomi Ackie (a British actor) was so good, she had all her mannerisms down and she sang the first song in the movie – the rest is Whitney (you can hear it), but that’s okay, no-one can sing that good right? I thought Stanley Tucci was very likeable as her manager (Clive Davis) too.
A Man Called Otto – Tom Hanks, he is loveable, less so in this movie (at least at the beginning) as he is a grumpy-a$$ed old man, but wow what a great movie. Tom Hanks played the grump Otto perfectly; Tom Hank’s son played a young version of Otto, he was so good and he is not even an actor. But the person I loved most was Mariana Trevino who played Marisol, Otto’s neighbour who opens his grumpy heart. Yes it is somewhat predictable, but it is beautiful story nonetheless and yes you will cry. Also, this movie is based on the book A Man Called Ove, which is now on my TBR.
At Home
Marvel Universe (Disney Plus) – My 11 year old son and I are making our way through every single Marvel Universe movie in storyline order, we are about 10 movies in (there are about 42 in total), it’s great watching it in order as the stories all make more sense, plus I am watching Marvels that I missed out the first time. This month we watched Thor: The Dark World (definitely not my fave), The Hulk (even though it is not Mark Ruffalo, did you know he hasn’t made an actual Hulk movie), Iron Man 3 (yipee my favourite Marvel) Captain America: The Winter Soldier (much better than the first movie), Both Guardians of the Galaxy movies (I love baby Groot). Next we are both excited to watch Avengers 2 (we both really love the Avengers movies, though he has only seen the first one, I’ve seen them all).
Breakpoint (Netflix) – A sort of documentary series showing young tennis players making their way through the tennis season. I am not a tennis fan (though my husband is) but I loved these shows. Currently there are 5 episodes, but more are coming later in the year.
Firefly Lane (Netflix) – Season 2 was just released, I love this show as it is based on a book I enjoyed by one of my favourite authors – Kristin Hannah. The first season is based on the book, the second season goes a bit off-piste, but the storyline was great nonetheless and left us on a great cliffhanger. The story is about two girls who become best friends when they are about 14 years old, and remain friends all their lives (mostly), they are an unlikely pair with one being glamorous, and the other being dorky with huge glasses. One becomes a famous journalist and the other a housewife.
Reading with Kat 