June 11, 2018

Comfort Reading & Watching

Hi, everyone. You may have noticed that I haven’t blogged in awhile. That in itself isn’t super unusual, but this time, the absence has a reason. My father passed away suddenly in early March. Words really can’t express the sadness and anxiety that I’ve been feeling since that time. Unfortunately it’s also affected my reading habits. I’ve had a really hard time focusing long enough to read or retain much and I find myself having to re-read passages over again. To help ease myself back into reading, I’ve picked books that I’ve already read and are familiar favorites. Same thing for things that I’ve been watching. I feel drawn to watching things that I’ve already seen or are more light hearted. I am slowly getting back into reading though and hope to have some new reviews and content for you soon. In the meantime, I thought I’d share some of the books/TV shows/movies that have been helping me get through this tough time.

Do you have any favorite things that help you through times when you just don’t feel your best? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below.

Books

Kate Daniels series – I love the Kate Daniels series and ten to re-read it every year or so. No matter how many times I’ve read these books, I can always fall back into the world. It’s never boring and is the perfect thing to help me relax. Watching Kate kick butt and antagonize Curran never fails to brighten my mood. I am also a fan of the newer Hidden Legacy series.

Beautiful Bastard series – I recently re-read the first few books in this series and was reminded of how much I love it. Great dialogue, fantastic characters, and the perfect amount of smut make this series stand out and is something that I never get sick of reading.

Parasol Protectorate series – Alexia and her antics always manage to cheer me up when I am blue. This series is smart, funny, and utterly ridiculous at times, but always delightful. I’m also really enjoying the Custard Protocol spin off series.

Watching

Bob’s Burgers – This should come as no surprise if you know me (or most people for that matter). I’ve probably rewatched this series at least 10 times by now. The Belchers have all of the problems of any middle class family – sibling rivalry, teen angst, financial insecurity – but at the heart of it all is a family that loves each other.

The Equalizer – This showed up on our cable streaming app recently and I am not sure what it is, but watching Denzel rain down righteous vengeance is kind of comforting to watch, even though it’s a pretty violent film. There’s also a sequel being released later this year. You can see the trailer for that here.

Jurassic World – Now the original Jurassic Park will always be my favorite but I really enjoy Jurassic World. It’s also available to stream which makes it a little easier for me to watch. Nothing like dinosaurs to take your mind off of things. I am also very excited about the sequel to JW which is coming out in a couple of weeks.

Other

The other thing that’s been keeping me sane is my knitting. For at least a month after my dad passed away, I wasn’t knitting at all. I was just too bummed and tired to do much of anything and would sit in front of the TV or go to bed early. I was glad when the knitting bug finally came back though. I am not the fastest knitter but wanting to knit again was very exciting. Unfortunately I’ve been having some wrist and elbow pain in my right arm (I actually think it’s been from using my phone too much) so I’ve been trying to take it a little easy until the pain goes away.

That’s what I’ve been up to in the last few months. I am interested in hearing what everyone else has been doing lately? Are there any good books that I need to catch up on or movies/tv? Hopefully I’ll be back with some reviews soon. Thanks for stopping by!