The Television Tag!

Hello! Okay so I don’t normally talk about this on my blog, but I thought it would be fun to do something different. This tag was adapted to blogs by Sam @ Fictionally Sam and I was tagged by one of my favourite people, Kelly, over @ Struggling Bookaholic to participate in it! So thank you to both of them, you should definitely check out the content over on their blogs as well 🙂

1. Favorite shows?

Alright, I’m going to be super basic with this right off the bat and say that Friends is definitely up there. Watching it just feels like being rolled up in a blanket burrito in bed – comforting, warm, and really stupidly funny. Some other shows I love are How I Met Your Mother, Queer Eye, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Black Mirror, Nailed It, This is Us, and How to Get Away with Murder.

 

2. Favorite genre?

I like sitcoms a lot! I really enjoy following a story-line and becoming attached to characters and how they develop as the seasons progress. I also really like drama – especially if it has a criminal or sci-fi theme to it.

3. Least favorite show?

I can’t even think of what my least favourite show is. If I’m not feeling something, I usually stop watching it before it has a chance to develop into something I hate. I kind of just allow myself to become indifferent to it, which is probably why I can’t think of any examples right now.

4. Most re-watched show/favorite show to binge watch?

Although I haven’t re-watched it the whole way through chronologically more than once, I like watching random episodes of Friends. My favourite shows to binge watch though are usually reality shows like Are You the One? or RuPaul’s Drag Race – something where each season is its own separate thing that’s super light and entertaining where I don’t have to focus too much.

5. Do you prefer watching things week-by-week or binge-watching?

Binge watching for sure because watching an episode week-by-week sometimes starts to feel like a chore and I stress myself out thinking about having to watch it in time for the following week. I would rather watch TV at my leisure

6. Favorite television characters?

Monica and Chandler from Friends; Barney from How I Met Your Mother; Annalise Keating from How to Get Away with Murder; Will from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. 

7. Favorite television ships?

Marshall and Lily from How I Met Your Mother; Jesse and Becky from Full House; Cory and Topanga from Boy Meets World and others that I can’t say because I think they would be spoilers for people if they are currently/decided to watch those shows.

8. Show you could never get into?

There was a lot of hype around this show at the time that I tried getting into it, but I could never get into Suits. I don’t even remember there being anything wrong with it, I just remember having very little interest in continuing after a few episodes so I never watched again.

9. Show you fell out of love with?

I wouldn’t say I fell out of love with it because if I picked it back up again, I know I would enjoy it, but my answer for this one is Nashville. At the time, I knew that some very serious plot moves were on the horizon that I didn’t want to see happen, so I stalled for as long as I could until I eventually stopped watching altogether (oops), but I would still recommend it as an awesome drama.

10. Cancelled too soon?

Thankfully I’ve never really had a problem with this because most of the shows I get into have been around for a while prior and have a foreseeable closure.

11. Guilty pleasure show?

Nailed It has been a guilty pleasure show for a while. It’s about amateur bakers trying to replicate really intricate desserts and it is hilarious!

12. What are you currently watching?

Right now I am watching Queer Eye, slowly making my way through Season 3 through a film of tears.

I’m not going to tag anyone because I just wanted to do it for fun, but if you do want to participate feel free to ping back my post so I can check your answers out!

– Catherine

Let’s connect! Goodreads | Twitter

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Review// Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Author: Lisa Genova
Series: Standalone
Genre: Fiction
Release Date: July 6, 2007
Book Length: 292 pages 
Publisher: iUniverse
Review: 4/5

Goodreads Synopsis:

Still Alice is a compelling debut novel about a 50-year-old woman’s sudden descent into early onset Alzheimer’s disease, written by first-time author Lisa Genova, who holds a Ph. D in neuroscience from Harvard University.

Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children and a house on the Cape, is a celebrated Harvard professor at the height of her career when she notices a forgetfulness creeping into her life. As confusion starts to cloud her thinking and her memory begins to fail her, she receives a devastating diagnosis: early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Fiercely independent, Alice struggles to maintain her lifestyle and live in the moment, even as her sense of self is being stripped away. In turns heartbreaking, inspiring and terrifying, Still Alice captures in remarkable detail what’s it’s like to literally lose your mind…

My Review:

Occhiolism (n) – the awareness of the of the smallness of your perspective in the grandness of the vast scope of the Universe.

I like books that widen my perspective—books that make me aware of how small the world—my world—is in the grand scheme of things. That is what this book did to me.

It was heartbreaking to read about Alice’s condition worsening and her going from giving talks at Harvard to not even recognizing her own children. I think a lot of people have the misconception that Alzheimer’s is something that only happens to the elderly, but this really opens your eyes to the fact that it happen even to younger, well-educated, successful people that you wouldn’t typically associate the disease with.

I liked how the book focused on the familial relationship and how her husband and children coped through the progression of the Alzheimer’s alongside Alice. At times I grew frustrated with her husband especially, because it felt like she had almost become a burden in his life rather than someone he loved and wanted to care for. However, I also couldn’t even imagine someone with whom I had built over 25 years of life with developing something so slowly deteriorating, so I did begin to understand his character and sympathize as time went on. I think the Alzheimer’s actually made her family closer, which is sad but also a reality that many families do face. That’s what I particularly liked about this – it felt honest and real. Alice’s life still had meaning and value even though she couldn’t remember much of it by the end. Her value was derived not by what she was able to remember, but by everything she gave of herself throughout her life to others to remember her by.

Although I didn’t cry, this book made me emotional on several occasions as I got to feel like I really knew Alice and grew to love her. I really enjoyed reading this book and it will remain close to my heart forever.

“My yesterdays are disappearing, and my tomorrows are uncertain, so what do I live for? I live for each day. I live in the moment.”

– Catherine

Let’s connect! Goodreads | Twitter

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Review// A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Author: Jennifer Egan
Series: Standalone
Genre: Fiction
Release Date: June 8, 2010
Book Length: 341 pages 
Publisher: Anchor Books
Review: 5/5

Goodreads Synopsis:

Bennie is an aging former punk rocker and record executive. Sasha is the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Here Jennifer Egan brilliantly reveals their pasts, along with the inner lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs. With music pulsing on every page, A Visit from the Goon Squad is a startling, exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption.

My Review:

There’s this memory that I have from grade 9 geography class that will stick with me for the rest of my life: we were watching a nature documentary, and this one scene of a waterfall flowing through rocks was on the television screen as the narrative voice of a woman said, “tiiiime paaasses” – elongating the vowels just like that. This one girl in my class thought the voiceover was hilarious, so she kept repeating ‘tiiiime paaasses’ over and over and giggling as only a 14-year-old girl can in her vivacious way. In that moment I remember thinking that as funny as it all seemed, that voice was right—time passes. And although I knew it at the time, the way you always do when you realize you’re living in a moment you know will turn to a lifelong memory, time really does seem to have passed so quickly since then. That’s what this book is about: the passage of time.

This book focuses on a web of people who are all connected in some way – the story is told from the perspective of a different person per chapter, and at different time periods in their lives. I loved that, for example, you would read about the childhood of one character, and then in the next chapter narrated by a different person, the child that was in the previous chapter was now referenced as an adult. I found this to be a very unique writing style and it made the characters feel so real to me. Sometimes it wasn’t until a few pages into a new chapter that I would realize who was narrating and what their connection was to the others, and I kind of enjoyed the mystery of having to piece them and the time periods all together.

I felt like this book did a great job of mirroring reality.  Not everything is always going to be sunshine and rainbows—some of it is—but not all. Since the chapters presented such a well-rounded perspective of these characters, you got to see their lives from all angles—good and bad— and I really enjoyed that.  The choices you make when you’re young will affect your future; the people you associate yourself with will shape you as a person; sometimes people grow apart; and sometimes people change, sometimes they don’t, but no matter what, time doesn’t stop for anybody.

This is my favourite read of the year so far. I would highly recommend it if you enjoy character development, books that make you think about life, and/or are looking for a unique reading experience.

Let’s connect! Goodreads | Twitter

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The Emoji Challenge Tag

I saw this tag over on Sara’s blog and thought it looked fun so I decided to give it a go!

From her post, I learned that she speaks 3 languages – English, Spanish, & Portuguese 🙂

Rules:

• tag the creators @bookprincessreviews
• share one thing you learned about the person who tagged you
• for each prompt, you can use a maximum of three emojis
• tag at least two other bloggers you want to get to know better

[1] What country do you live in?

🇨🇦

[2] What was your dream job growing up?

🕵🏻‍♀️

[3] How many siblings do you have (if any)?

👩🏼👨🏼

[4] What are your top three favourite activities?

🎧💃📚

[5] What is something you’re very good at?

🎨

[6] What is something you’d like to become better at?

☯️✌️

[7] How many languages do you speak?

🇬🇧 👌🇮🇹

[8] What is something you could talk about for hours? (non-book related if possible)

👻👽⁉️

[9] What’s your favourite book genre?

1️⃣👩🏻💭

[10] What is your favourite season of the year?

🌸🌱🌹

[11] If you had to describe yourself as an animal, what animal would you be?

🐈

I tag Books By The Cup & Suziey, but if you want to give this a go and I didn’t tag you, I would still love to see your answers!

Catherine

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An Open Letter to Myself on my One Year Blogging Anniversary

Dear me,

You did it – you’ve been blogging for a whole year. I know that when you started this, it was because you love to read, and you wanted an outlet to share all of your thoughts about one of your favourite hobbies, but I also know that you probably didn’t anticipate lasting this long so I’m really proud of you. Although ‘this is one for the books’, it’s also become one for the life lessons, new friendships, and everything in between. This is a space where you can talk about whatever you want, and I like that you never shied away from that, even when it made you vulnerable and nervous to be so open.

In the past year especially, you have been growing into such a strong and beautiful person even though you don’t see that a lot of the time. Between you and me, I think the one year ago you who started this blog would be really proud of the person you are now, and if you could see yourself through her eyes, I bet your perception of yourself would be a lot different. Reading has helped you through so much, and I’m glad you could find a community of people like you to share that passion with. When you first started one year ago, I don’t think you understood how impactful your blog would be on your personal life. You have made some amazing friends, both online and off, and read some of the most eye-opening and life changing books this past year which have enriched your life in ways you may not even be fully aware of yet.

If your experiences last year are any indication of what’s to come, I’m excited to look back this time next year at all of the new adventures you went on because of all the great books waiting to be discovered by you right now in this very moment. I know that these days it’s become difficult to finish books as fast as you used to, and sometimes even to pick one up at all, but my wish for you is that in the next year, as you get to know yourself more deeply, that you get to read even more books that change your life for the better. Happy one year of blogging; I can’t wait to see all the wonderful things and books in store for you next.

Always & Forever,
Catherine

“One must always be careful of books and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.”

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