What I've been reading, watching and listening to lately

A little glimpse of some of the things that I've been enjoying lately!

Reading

I've read lots of books over the last few weeks as usual, and there have been a few in particular which have really stood out. I loved Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, a story about a young girl who raises herself after her family abandon her in their shack in the marshes. It's a little far fetched in places perhaps, but I enjoyed all the descriptions of nature and of the woman's solitary life. 

I also liked The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, a horror classic which I was inspired to read after seeing it mentioned in reviews of another book I enjoyed. It was a good read, I'm not normally scared by books but this one was quite terrifying. The popular Netflix show is very loosely based on the novel, but I watched a trailer for it and it looks a bit too scary for me.

Finally I've been finishing off some of the paperbacks that I received for my birthday - a couple of books of short stories by Daphne du Maurier who is one of my favourite authors. The stories are usually quite short and cover a wide range of characters, often with something that is a little bit off about them, something that leaves you feeling a bit uncomfortable. 

Photo credit Clay Banks via Unsplash

Watching

Over the last couple of weeks we've been binge watching The Witcher, a series that we've had on a vague 'must watch' list for a while. I really enjoyed it, once I'd worked out what was going on in the first few episodes where the timelines are in a bit of a muddle. It was a nice easy watch with plenty going on and lots of interesting characters. The second season was definitely better, and it looks as though there will be more seasons to look forward to in the future.

Since Mia adopted her gibbon we've been watching an episode of Monkey Life most days after dinner, a documentary series about Monkey World. Each episode is quite short, but with over 250 episodes to get through it's going to take a long while to watch them all! But when we do get to visit Monkey World, hopefully over half term, we'll be able to take so much more from our visit now that we know more about the park and the individual primates.

As a family we've been watching Boba Fett on Disney+. I'm not so into this series I must admit but it's nice to have something to enjoy together as a family. Also on Disney+ we've been enjoying a series called Behind the Attraction which takes a look at some of the most famous and popular rides at the Disney parks. Disney are very clever about giving you a look behind the scenes without revealing too many secrets but it's still a really interesting watch. 

Photo credit Wang John via Unsplash

Listening to

I don't generally listen to podcasts as I find that I'm too easily distracted! But one that I drop in to from time to time is Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee. There's a good mix of longer and shorter episodes and I've picked up some really useful and helpful information. The episode that I started listening to most recently was How to Reclaim Your Attention with Johann Hari, and I say started listening to because I was so taken by the information in the first part of the podcast that I went and bought the book and I read that instead!

In terms of music I've been enjoying the Encanto soundtrack. I also have a playlist called Relaxing Piano which is also a collection of pieces that I would love to be able to play on the piano myself.