September 2019 Recommendations

Show Title: What We Do In The Shadows

Episodes: 10

Where to Watch: Hulu

The Halloween season has been well underway for a month already but as we head into October and our interest in all things supernatural grows, it is an excellent time to watch this wonderfully ridiculous show about vampires. I haven’t seen the movie (an oversight that needs correcting) but even without that prior connection, this show was a lot of fun. It has a delightfully weird sense of humor that is more than a little absurd and I absolutely recommend it alongside any other Halloween viewing you choose next month. 

Book Title: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid

Genre: Contemporary

I couldn’t put this book down. The majority is set in the past and told memoir-style and it was the perfect stylistic choice. We get to experience the Evelyn the world saw through news snippets as well as Evelyn in her own words and all of the smart manipulation of the former that Evelyn used to survive an industry that asked her to deny large pieces of herself. I love a story about complicated women who know exactly what the world thinks of them and plays that to their own advantage. I love that through the release of her story, the world would finally get to see a woman who tried to cram herself into the various boxes Hollywood wanted to put her in only to find the most happiness when she broke free and lived her life on her own terms. There’s a melancholy to it as she reflects back on her life and what could have been different if she made different choices but there’s also a defiance as she insists on people’s ability to be more than one thing. Despite the narratives that Hollywood (and the rest of the world) wants to push, we  don’t fit in easy narratives and the truth of a person is often more complicated and deeper than the flattened version we present to all but those closest to us. I also love the impact that Evelyn’s story had on Monique, her biographer. There are some people who change our stories and the direction our life will take and Evelyn was one of those people to Monique and that portion of the story is equally as compelling. Other people sharing their stories gives us the freedom to be more open and contemplative with our own and that was captured really beautifully. This is easily one of my favorite books that I’ve read this year and I desperately need more people to talk about it with. 

Book Title: The Unkindest Tide

Author: Seanan McGuire

Genre: Urban Fantasy

This is less a recommendation for this specific book and more a recommendation for the series as a whole (just in case I haven’t talked about my undying love for Seanan as an author enough this year). This is one of those books that came at exactly the right time. I love what Seanan is building as far as a long-term plot and overall world is concerned, things are revealed smartly and are seeded very skillfully throughout the previous books so that rereads are extremely rewarding and cause you pain when sentences suddenly take on more meaning. But most of all, I love the story Seanan is telling. It’s a story about hope and growth and healing from trauma. Each of these characters has been through a lot and will continue to go through a lot so long as they are anywhere near Toby and her job as Hero. But they aren’t alone and they don’t have to survive on their own. They are a family and family fights for each other even when someone can’t quite fight for themselves yet. Tragedy isn’t the end of the story and hope remains. That’s never been more clear than in this book, which made me cry multiple times in a very cathartic way. I didn’t think anyone could nudge Georgia out of her spot as favorite Seanan-created character but I think Toby has managed it by insisting the world be less unkind as her soon-to-be husband phased it. That’s a story I want to hear and I’ve never been happier I started this journey.  

August 2019 Recommendations

Show Title: Schitt’s Creek

Episodes: 66

Where to Watch: Netflix + OnDemand

As with Fleabag and Good Omens before it, Schitt’s Creek is one of those recommendations that you probably don’t need if you’re reading this blog. It feels like half the internet is obsessed with the show and will bring it up all the time. Turns out, it’s for a good reason. While the first few episodes are a little abrasive (and I get why many quit during them), throughout the second season, you start to see what this show will become. The Rose family settles in. This isn’t the life they planned but gradually it becomes the one they will accept, if not fully embrace until later. If the early episodes aren’t appealing at all, the second season finale would make a good re-entry point to the show. The third season is full of growth and love and blossoms into the show that makes everyone rave about it and it only continues from there. The main love story is full of that Mike Schur sweetness and connection that I love and I can’t think of another queer love story like it on television. You can’t help but fall in love with these characters with their occasionally myopic and privileged view of the world but who also continually become better as they open themselves up to the love they’d previously kept at a distance. It’s a beautiful journey, full of laughs and moments that were made for reaction gifs, and so worth a watch. 

Book Title: The Light Brigade

Author: Kameron Hurley

Genre: Science Fiction

If you’re a fan of The Expanse (at least the show, I haven’t read the books yet), The Light Brigade will probably be right up your alley. Set in a world controlled by a small handful of corporations, we experience a war from the perspective of Dietz, a soldier who signed up wanting to do good after losing everyone they cared about in an event called The Brink. It’s dark and bloody, as wars are, and full of striking quotes about the dangers of a world increasingly controlled by corporations and the loss of freedom and the overt and covert ways those in power exert that power over those without it. The interview snippets between an unknown person set in an unknown time that are sprinkled throughout the story give us a glimpse into a future event that comes together beautifully in the end. I am a big fan of Hurley’s nonfiction book The Geek Feminist Revolution and you can see some of the ideas touched upon in that book elaborated on and made richer by our investment in this fictional world. She understands that fighting for something, that fighting for those we love, will always be stronger than the choices we make as a result of fear. She understands the power that we have to change the world, even if (or especially when) it means tearing down the systems that brought us to this particular future. It’s that hope and belief in something better than takes this beyond a dark war story and turns it into one of triumph and fortitude. It’s one of the best things I’ve read all year and one that will stay with me for a long time to come. 

July 2019 Recommendations

Show Title: Leverage

Episodes: 77

Where to Watch: IMDb TV (included with Amazon Prime)

This isn’t the first time I’ve recommended this show by any means. But now that it’s streaming again on a platform that more people have (albeit with ads), I’m bringing it back as this month’s recommendation. The premise of the show on its own, that a group of criminals would get together to con a bunch of terrible CEOs who are taking advantage of people out of their money and positions, is incredibly cathartic for this particular moment in time. It’s gloriously angry without ever crossing over into despairing and is well worth the time for the individual episode plots alone. But on top of all that is a commitment to character work and this group of 5 people coming together as a family and healing. It is smartly handled and impossible not to love them just as much as these writers and this cast did. Throw in some incredible relationship development and an OT3 that is showrunner-confirmed but ambiguous in the show itself and you have this beautiful show that stole my heart and has so far refused to let it go. It’s an incredible journey with one of the most satisfying finales I’ve seen and I want everyone to watch it and be comforted by it like so many of its fans still are. 

Book Title: A Duke By Default

Author: Alyssa Cole

Genre: Romance

It’s been a few months since I’ve recommended a book that wasn’t sci-fi or fantasy and it felt like time to once again recommend an Alyssa Cole novel. This time, it’s a contemporary romance and is the second book in her Reluctant Royals series.  I loved Portia instantly. I loved her desire to choose an emotionally healthier life for herself and do better for herself. I loved her willingness to call Tavish out when he was being a jerk and demand that he treat her with respect. Most of all, as with all my favorite romance novels, I love that throughout the book, she learns how to love herself. After years of feeling like a failure, she discovers that she has ADHD and better learns how to work with her brain to get the results she knew she was capable of. She finally has an honest conversation with her sister and they work through their issues. She has a solid group of friends who may be an ocean away but still a present part of her life thanks to the wonders of group texts and she quickly befriends Tavish’s sister-in-law because a trademark of Alyssa Cole books (at least the few I’ve read) is women who love each other and have each other’s backs. On the romance front, I cannot resist a man who is utterly dazzled by the woman he loves nor can I resist him getting a swift kick in the ass when he needs an attitude adjustment. Once he gets over himself, he thinks the world of Portia and it is truly adorable to experience. It’s the perfect book to make you smile and cheer and feel for these characters and exactly what I needed this month. 

 

June 2019 Recommendations

Show Title: Good Omens

Episodes: 6

Where to Watch: Amazon Prime

Look, if you follow me on either Twitter or Tumblr, you’re well aware that this is my latest obsession. I read the book about 6 years ago and loved it so I was already the target audience for this show. But thanks to some brilliant casting choices and shifting the story just enough to primarily be a love story between Aziraphale and Crowley on their mission to avert the apocalypse, it beyond delivered. From the outset, it was conceived to be a tribute to Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s friendship with him and that care came through in everything they did. It’s a celebration humanity’s ability to choose paths other than the ones seemingly ordained to us and to make the world something we can be proud of. The Them standing up to the Four Horseman because they know they deserve better than a ruined world and Adam standing up to the devil to point out that biology doesn’t determine parentage are gorgeous moments in what was actually one of the weaker points of the show. Where it truly excels (and what has caused the bulk of the media attention) is in the developing relationship between Aziraphale and Crowley as they forge their own side out of a shared love of humanity and each other. The cold open of the 3rd episode is 28 minutes long and entirely devoted to their history with each other over 6000 years and it was brilliantly done and acted. They put in the time to develop their relationship so that you really feel the impact of their fight at the end of the same episode and it’s that dedication to character work in a 6 hour long show that I appreciate so much. While this isn’t fully a story about them, they’re the hook and in order for everything else to land (and to overlook things that may not have been as strong), we had to believe in their connection and they delivered. After a frustrating spring of uneven character work on other shows, this was exactly what I wanted.

Book Title: The Luminous Dead

Author: Caitlin Starling

Genre: Sci-fi/Horror

It can’t be easy to write a book in a very confined setting with only two characters but this debut manages to do just that in a compelling way. Em and Gyre are full of secrets and past pain that both drives them and holds them back from truly living and to see them be confronted with those pasts and also begin to find healing in their initially reluctant friendship and growing feelings was incredible to read. Yes, it’s a story of exploration and the drive to push on despite obstacles and the gradually unfolding story surrounding these particular set of space caves is interesting, but it’s the revelations each girl has in the process that will pull you in the most. They had to put their life (in Gyre’s case) and their hopes (in Em’s) in each other’s hands and that’s no easy task. It required vulnerability and trust that neither of them knew how to give when they started this journey and at the end, there was no one else who could fully understand what they’ve been through. To have to anchor someone and fight for them when their senses could no longer be trusted. To accept the help when it seems so much more seductive to let go and lose yourself in the pain. The character work is the focus and while that may not be what someone is looking for in a horror book, it was absolutely the right choice for this particular story and I really enjoyed it. 

 

May 2019 Recommendations

Show Title: The Expanse

Episodes: 36

Where to Watch: Amazon Prime

I might be slightly hesitant to recommend an ongoing show with a stellar season three after I was so disappointed by The Magicians last month but no matter where Amazon takes the show in season 4 (and hopefully beyond), I can’t regret falling in love with the Roci and pretty much everyone who has ever set foot on it. Even when you aren’t invested in the plot, you can’t help but invest yourself in these characters. You want to love them and root for them because that’s what they do for each other. Whether it’s Amos’s loyalty to Naomi (and then the rest of the crew) or Alex doing everything he can to make the Roci feel like home and for its crew to be a family, the show offers more than lip service to the idea that these people care about each other. Their relationships drive their actions going forward and in doing so, affect the plot. That’s what I need from my TV shows and why I am so ready for this show to be back.

Show Title: Fleabag

Episodes: 12

Where to Watch: Amazon Prime

Yes, I know everyone TV-adjacent is talking about this to the point that it risks becoming oversaturated and pushing people away. And yes, I also know with certainty that it’s going to end up all over my Best of 2019 posts and I will therefore have other opportunities to write about it. But I also haven’t been able to to stop thinking about season 2 and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s ability to craft a show and therefore it deserves a rec for this month. I liked season 1 a lot – the structure was intriguing, I loved Fleabag for all of her flaws and pain, and Olivia Coleman is clearly having an incredible time playing the deliciously wicked stepmother. Season 2 turned my appreciation into a full-blown love affair by giving me a story about healing and being able to move forward despite the tragedy of one’s past as well as the power in letting yourself be seen. It is impeccably constructed, features a relationship with so much chemistry and potential that you’ll root for it even knowing it’s probably doomed, and while it’s probably not a show that will appeal to everyone (much like Waller-Bridge’s other creation, Killing Eve), if it works for you, it will probably really work for you. It was one of my most anticipated returns of the year and it surpassed all my expectations.

April 2019 Recommendations

Show Title: All-American

Episodes: 13

Where to Watch: Netflix

If you miss old-school WB teen soaps, All-American is the show for you. Despite the football-heavy promos, it’s not Friday Night Lights. The football team is a part of it but more for what it represents to Spencer. It’s a character-focused soap and it’s best when it isn’t trying to be anything else. It does a decent job of weaving in more socially conscious stories and highlighting the differences in the characters from Crenshaw and Beverly Hills based on their economic privilege but it mostly wants to make you fall in love with these characters and root for their success and you can’t help but do so. Even when they are being messy and making bad choices out of pain or sometimes just because they’re human, you want the best for them. You want them to make good choices and grow into better people and find their place in the world. It’s may not be groundbreaking or revolutionary like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend or Jane the Virgin, but it’s a solid non-genre addition to CW’s lineup and I couldn’t be happier that it’ll be back for a second season.

Book Title: Heroine Worship

Author: Sarah Kuhn

Genre: Urban Fantasy

I’ve already talked about my love for Heroine Complex, the first entry in this series, but I finally got around to this book and it only amplified my love for this series. Unlike other UF series, the protagonist of each book shifts, much like it would in a romance trilogy. It allows for a new exploration of the world but more interestingly, it allows for a strong character arc in each book. After the events of Heroine Complex, Aveda Jupiter is struggling. She’s no longer the star superhero in San Francisco and if she isn’t a superhero, who is she? She is forced to examine and reconcile competing portions of her identity, to recognize that she can be a protector and vulnerable at the same time. So much of this book is about Aveda and Evie learning how to be best friends again as adults and their relationship dynamic is unlike anything else I’ve seen. They have to learn to choose each other again, not in the archetypal roles that had defined their relationship as children but as grown women full of complexities. They got stuck and had to find a way to get unstuck because at the end of the day, there isn’t anyone they would rather have by their side. It’s about learning to embrace yourself and all the multitudes you contain and trust that there will be people to love and accept you once they’re allowed to truly see you. This series holds such a special place in my heart after only two books and I can’t wait for this journey to continue.

March 2019 Recommendations

 

Show Title: The Magicians

Episodes: 52 (by the end of s4)

Where to Watch: The first three seasons are on Netflix, s4 is available on demand or to purchase)

I originally started this show sometime last fall, got busy and lost interest halfway through season one. After some excited screaming from the fandom in the midst of season four, I got inspired to start the series over and quickly watched the available episodes over the course of a couple weeks. There are some things I don’t love about the first couple seasons but season three is genuinely one of the best seasons of TV I’ve ever seen. It completely rejects the “we’re actually making a ten hour movie” mentality and instead embraces the strengths of its medium by giving us a character-focused, season-spanning quest. There was an overarching storyline that swiftly moved along, but it also took time to make each episode count and play with the form and structure of the show. There are not nearly enough shows that pull off that episode/season balance as well as The Magicians has and while it hasn’t quite hit the same peak in season four, it has still taken risks and embraced the chaos that comes with a fantasy show that isn’t interested in being complete misery at all times. The characters are damaged and messy and make big mistakes but they also love and fight hard for one another, even when they don’t like each other. They grow and evolve in ways that make sense for their journeys and what they have been through and it is beautiful to watch. You can’t help but love them even (and sometimes especially) when they are assholes. And, as you’ve heard if you are at all engaged in fandom spaces on the internet, they are telling what is so far a beautiful and painful love story in an incredibly satisfying way that I am unused to as a fan. They are excelling at so many things that make me love TV and it is everything I needed in this moment. It’s already been renewed for a fifth season and even if you can’t watch it right now, it’s well worth taking a look at before next January.

Book Title: That Ain’t Witchcraft

Author: Seanan McGuire

Genre: Urban Fantasy

I don’t think there’s a current author who knows how to write an ongoing series better than Seanan McGuire. The individual pieces are good and compelling stories with characters that I love but when you put them all together and look at them as a whole, they become something greater. The climax of this book would not have had the impact it did without 8 books and numerous short stories (especially The Recitation of the Holy and Harrowing Pilgrimage of Mindy and Also Mork) to back it up. We needed to know the legacy of the Price women and to understand the purity of the faith the Aeslin mice have in their priestesses. We needed Annie to truly feel the strength of those bonds and her love for her family, blood and chosen. It was emotionally earned and incredibly effective, given how hard it made me cry. This book was, in many ways, the end of one chapter of this story and the beginning of something new and exciting and I am already anxious to see the next part of the extended Price-Healy family’s story.

 

 

January 2019 Recommendations

Over the course of a year, I watch and read a lot of things that I love. Some make it on to my year-end lists but others (like the two shows I mention today) aired last year or earlier and I didn’t get to them in time for them to make my list. There is so much content out there and depending on who you follow on social media, you may or may not see any buzz for an individual show or book so I wanted to draw some attention to things I enjoyed in the hopes that someone will find something to add to their TBR or to-watch lists. What good things did you read or watch this month?

Show Title: Élite

Episodes: 8

Where to Find It: Netflix

If you like high school dramas and don’t mind subtitles, this is the show for you. Part Gossip Girl, part Riverdale, this teen soap is full of characters trying to figure out who they are, budding and faltering romances, and lots of bad decision making skills. If that weren’t enough to deal with as a teenager, there’s also a murder mystery that’s told in flash-forward glimpses of the investigation and interrogations. Secrets are unraveled and alliances are formed as the final episode reveals the culprit and sets up what is sure to be an equally entertaining (and most importantly, already ordered) season two.

This sort of show is an easy sell for me. I love a well-made teen soap and the added suspense of the murder mystery makes it all the easier to binge. What I wasn’t expecting was to love these characters as much as I did. No one is entirely what they seem and as walls come down and circumstances shift, we get to see new sides to everyone that don’t make them better people necessarily but do make them more complicated and less archetypical. They are messes but they’re now my messes and I can’t wait to see more of them next season.

Best of 2018: Sci-fi/Fantasy Books

This is my genre of choice. This was the first year I purchased a supporting membership for the Hugo Awards, giving me voting privileges for this year and nominating privileges for next year, and as you will see, that’s where I found a lot of these books. It encouraged me to read books I may not have picked up otherwise, expanded my horizons within the genre, and introduced me to new authors that I’ll now enthusiastically follow. I am so excited by the variety of work that’s coming out and being celebrated within this large and varied genre and can’t wait to read more next year.

1. Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn This book is sort of urban fantasy/superhero meets Devil Wears Prada and is as much fun as that description makes it sound. There are demon cupcakes and difficult people to work with and a fantastic portrayal of the difficulties in taking full responsibility for a younger sibling but that’s not why it attached itself to my heart like it did. In my 30 years of life, I’ve never seen myself in a piece of fiction as much as I have in this book. Representation matters. Letting people see their cultures and people who look like them in fiction as the protagonist of a story is so important and something that fortunately is becoming more common for more groups of people. It’s explicitly addressed in the book as an influence for Evie and Aveda becoming who they are and something I had no idea I could have in this specific way. I am Evie. We share numerous personality traits, areas of academic interest, ethnic backgrounds, and even a favorite comfort food that she was made fun of for bringing to school which I refused to do for fear of the same result. So to read a story in which she worked to overcome her emotional repression (which I was actively doing to an unhealthy degree when reading this book) and let herself feel and own her feelings, both good and bad, was incredibly important to me and I can’t thank Sarah Kuhn enough for that gift.

2. Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire My love for Seanan McGuire’s work is well-established by this point and this series is something special. I was thrilled to be back at Eleanor’s and with some of the characters I fell in love with in Every Heart a Doorway and the introduction of new characters like Cora and Rini. I love that it’s a book about loving and accepting people for who they are, even when you don’t understand their reality. It’s a book about friendship, hope, and kindness and therefore everything I needed. I spent the majority of my first read-through in near tears for reasons I still don’t fully understand, it was just one of those pieces of fiction that resonates perfectly with where you are at that particular moment in time. For a series about finding the place where you fit, this is the story that has called to me the most. Confection wouldn’t be my world but this book is a partial glimpse of what mine would look like.

3. Wayfarers Trilogy by Becky Chambers This character-focused sci-fi series is going to be one of my go-to comfort reads from now on. There isn’t a lot of plot, it’s largely exploring the universe Becky Chambers has imagined and the day-to-day lives of her characters, but there is a lot of heart. There is a gentleness that runs through the trilogy and a sense of compassion for each of these characters that make these books feel warm and cozy. The world she has created is full of different species with different appearances and social structures that often aren’t like our own but without the othering that sometimes comes into the sci-fi and fantasy genre when creating new species or races. Everyone is simply allowed to be. It’s filled with found families and the acceptance that comes with finding your people and your place in the world and that made it everything I could have wanted to read this year.  

4. Inheritance Trilogy by N. K. Jemisin It’s fair to say that N. K. Jemisin is among the best fantasy writers of our generation, if not the best. While slightly more traditional fantasy than her Broken Earth trilogy, it feels anything but stale as Jemisin gives us a world of imprisoned gods and their captors. It’s a story of balance and the way forces push and pull against each other to find equilibrium. It’s a story about love and jealousy and rediscovery. It’s a look at power structures and the way they are perpetuated as well as a reminder that we need each other to survive. Each novel in the trilogy revolves around a different set of characters (though still connecting to the larger whole) to create a full picture of this universe from its creation to the present. The worldbuilding is stunning as are the characters, from the mortals to the gods and everyone in between.

Best of 2018: Books (Not SFF)

Approximately half my reading this year was sci-fi or fantasy so I wanted to talk about those in their own post but didn’t want to leave out some of the other terrific books I read this year, so this is a catch-all for all the non-YA, non-SFF I loved. This year I got back into reading more romance novels after a several year break and it was one of the best decisions I could have made. I love seeing what this genre is doing as it starts to embrace different voices and perspectives and the sheer variety of work that is available. There really is something for everyone and the focus on growth and love in many forms was exactly what I wanted to read.

1. Agents Irish and Whiskey trilogy by Layla Reyne This trilogy took over a weekend for me because I did not want to put it down. The mystery portion of the books is solid, if not a little overcomplicated by the end, but it’s the romance that sells it. Aiden was told to take Jamie under his wing and train him for fieldwork, while also enlisting his help to discover the true story surrounding his husband’s death. Despite his fears and hesitation, Aiden falls for Jamie (who already had a bit of a crush on him that was only enhanced by actually getting to know him) and that progression from “it’s only a physical thing, I’m not attached” to “I want to spend the rest of my life with this person” is perfectly done. Their banter and dynamic is terrific and you can’t help but fall in love with these two characters and root for them even when one of them is being dumb (in a good, in-character way) and you want to yell at them. It is so incredibly satisfying to read and there is a bonus short story of their wedding available for free to look forward to once you reach the end of their journey.

2. Forbidden Hearts Trilogy by Alisha Rai I started this trilogy at exactly the right time. I needed Livvy’s story and stubbornness and mistaken belief that strength meant never being weak and that shoving down all your emotions was the way to handle life. I love the romance and the work she and Nicholas had to do in order to make their relationship strong again but it was her journey in particular that unexpectedly brought me to tears. And that’s a trend that held through in all three novels, it was the women and their journeys that I loved most of all and the romance was a (wonderfully done) bonus. They had good friends and their own baggage to deal with and they refused to take sole responsibility for fixing the men they loved. I love the depth the rest of the family was given and the love that was so clearly present in all forms throughout the book. Grandpa John is the very best and I was cheering for him getting his whole family back just as much as I was cheering for the love stories. It’s touching, it’s hot as hell, and will make you run through the full spectrum of emotions out of love for these fantastic characters.

3. Tequila Sunrise by Layla Reyne I know this is technically considered part of the Agents Irish and Whiskey series but the main characters are different and I love Mel so she gets her own entry on this list. I will forever love couples with badass ladies and men who are utterly delighted by the fact that their significant other can kick their ass. This whole novella is Mel being the talented and trained former special agent in charge that she is and protecting the people she loves while getting a glimpse at the key moments in her relationship with Danny that took place during the timeline of the main trilogy. It’s sexy and suspenseful and just plain fun.

4. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng While there is a small mystery around which the story revolves, it’s never the point. Instead, it’s a focused look at one family shrouded in secrets and insolation who never really found a place they could feel settled. But instead of talking, they held all their pain inside until it made them lash out at each other. But it’s also about healing and the process it will take. Lydia’s death changed the family forever and they’ll never be the same but in some ways it brought them together in a new understanding. It’s a melancholy, bittersweet novel that tugs at your soul and makes you think about all the things you keep to yourself and how that limits the way others understand you.