Monthly Recommendations: January 2021

I missed talking about the things I love on a regular basis, so these rec posts are back for 2021! The content in them may vary on what I’ve been doing for the past month but they’ll always be some combination of book, TV, movie, and music recs that have gotten my attention in the past month. But these aren’t just about me, I also want to know what things you’re currently loving and we can all share our interests and have even more fun with them.

Book Title: Queen Move

Author: Kennedy Ryan

Genre: Contemporary Romance

I’m pretty sure this book ended up on a lot of Best of 2020 lists and no matter how many it was on, it still wouldn’t be enough. This is one of the most gorgeously written romance books I have ever read. It’s my first by Kennedy Ryan and I was blown away at her poetic language and the yearning she infused in the whole story. It’s a childhood friends-to-lovers, second chance romance and the emotional grounding in these characters is the feature at every step of the way. We get Kimba and Ezra’s story from their first meeting when they were babies to their first kiss and separation to their reunion as adults and it is as magnetic for the reader as their bond is for them. You cannot help but invest in their story, the love between them is so special and rare that through everything that happens, there’s faith that it will survive because something like that can’t just disappear. I cannot recommend it enough and I will leave you with this gorgeous phrasing because it blew me away when I read it, “She was there for my scaffolding – there when my flesh was knit over my bones. And if love is not an emotion, but a type of eternity, an infinity that lives in our hearts, then we have always been in love.”

Show Title: Run BTS

Episodes: 126 (at time of posting)

Where to Watch: vlive/weverse

I am still struggling to watch much scripted TV so I’m not even managing to keep up with returning shows let alone start many new things. And to be honest, my fandom brain space is probably about 75% BTS at the moment anyway so it does not leave much room for content that isn’t related to them. But fortunately for me, they have not one but three different shows to enjoy (so don’t be surprised if Bon Voyage or In the Soop make an appearance in a later monthly rec post) so I still have something to watch when nothing else is working for me. Run BTS is a weekly variety web show that features the group doing a variety of challenges or playing games. I’ve seen about half the show so far and in that time, they’ve gone bungee jumping, done cooking challenges, acted in skits, visited Niagara Falls and so much more. It’s a chance for them to try new things and sometimes get pushed out of their comfort zone (more so for some members than others) while being silly and competitive with each other. One of the biggest draws of the group (other than the fact that they are extremely talented performers) is their chemistry and ease with each other and that’s on full display in each episode. It’s loud and chaotic a lot of the time and more fun for it. Very little has made me laugh harder than this segment and on the opposite end of the spectrum, the poems they were challenged to write to each other were sweet and genuine in a way that made me really emotional. It’s exactly the kind of content I needed this month and that I’m sure will be frequently rewatched in the future. 

Movie: The Old Guard

Where to Watch: Netflix

I am truly terrible at watching movies, if I manage to watch 4 in a year I’ve done well. But I started this year with The Old Guard and it was everything I hoped it would be and more. It was the superhero movie my heart needed with its emphasis on using what has been given to you to do good, even when you can’t see the results, and the idea that we need other people. The family that the Immortals form is strong and good and even when it fractures, it doesn’t break because these people are bound together by experiences no one else can share. They will lose everyone else in their lives but walk through it with the idea that they will be by each other’s sides. They have chosen each other for centuries and continue to do so. It’s a movie about regaining hope and purpose in the face of what looks like a losing battle. I can’t wait to see where this story goes from here (and just to spend some more time in this world and these characters) and need everyone I know to watch this movie before the sequel comes out.

And finally, some music recommendations for the month! I have historically been very terrible at actively listening to new-to-me music in favor of listening to the same things I’ve liked forever with only a few new additions at any given time but at some point in 2020, I got tired of everything I already knew and needed to refresh my music habits. It’s my only bit of pop culture consumption that makes me insecure because I feel like I spent a lot of my teen years hearing that everything I liked was somehow wrong and made me worse as a person and have yet to fully break out of that fear of sharing my tastes with others but I’m doing it anyway because it really has made me happy to discover new things in the past month or so. Not all of these are recent releases but they have all been on repeat for me the past month so it still counts.

I hope you found something that excited you to check out somewhere in this post and be sure to leave me recommendations of the things you love and want to see more people love as well.