This Week In Recommendations - 23.07.23

Long baths, another amazing Belletrist book club pick, three new podcasts and are you ruining everyones vacation experience? Plus a poll that would help me so much!

👋 Hello and welcome to this issue of You Should Check Out. I don’t really know where to start when it comes to summarising the last week for me so y’know what? I am simply not going to. I also contemplated if I should even post this week. Then I remembered the comfort writing gives me - even if it is slightly harder to do when you are sleep deprived and living off slices of toast (insert that girl dinner song from Tiktok). My plan is for the next few weeks to keep this quite light - still with recommendations because I know I will still have things to share and post two huge bumper issues. So let’s go …

❤️ This week I’ve been loving this huge Aldi Tuberose, Cashmere & Ylang candle that I’ve burned for HOURS and it still doesn’t seem to be going down, excessively long baths that I don’t leave until I resemble a prune. Self care baby! And lots of dog cuddles.

Reading

📚 So the last couple of weeks, I’ve been posting what I’ve been reading almost a week in arrears because my reading slump taught me that I legit hated the fact I couldn’t share anything book wise. And this week, I have not read much despite my current read being amazing but being aboard the struggle bus has meant books haven’t held my attention as much.

📖 I did read The Three Of Us by Ore Agbaje-Williams that I very much enjoyed. It was the June pick for the Belletrist book club who actually kindly shared my review on their IG story this week. Taking place over one day, this is about the relationship dynamic between the wife, her husband and her best friend. The wife is caught between them both because they don’t like one another. Her husband doesn’t know why she’s still friends with Temi and Temi can’t understand why her friend has married the man she has. Filled with simmering tension, we get all three characters POVs and although I would have liked less of an abrupt ending, this would make a fabulous holiday read.

📖 Another book I finished was Chrysalis by Anna Metcalfe that was such an interesting premise. This is all centred around one woman through the eyes of three different people - Elliot, who meets her at the gym, her mother and an ex-colleague. It got me thinking about how others can perceive us. I haven’t read anything like this before and I thoroughly recommend it.

📚 No ‘from the archive’ this week because I forgot NetGalley existed and I’ve been approved for some great titles and wanted to share these! These include Sugar Baby by Celine Saintclare, Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter that I can’t wait to get to and Lost On Me by Veronica Raimo. Forgot how much I love this platform and it has saved me so much £££ over the years!

Watching

🎥 I watched a documentary called Lorena - the story of a married woman who cut off her husbands … you know what. It made headlines worldwide in the 90’s and I had never heard of the case until watching this. It told the story of Lorena’s marriage, the horrific abuse she suffered (massive trigger warnings) and the outcome of her trial. We hear from Lorena, her ex-husband John plus multiple lawyers, jurors and friends/family too. If you haven’t heard of this case, then this is a must watch.

🎥 Last weekend, I rewatched Frances Ha. I’ve slowly realised this is becoming a real comfort movie on mine. Starring Greta Gerwig (actress, film director including thee Barbie movie), she plays Frances, a dancer struggling for work and navigating the dwindling friendship with her best friend Sophie. It is all about growing up, figuring it out, female friendship and loneliness. I also love that this is shot in black and white!

📺 I’m also dipping in and out of Pretend It’s A City on Netflix. Created by thee Martin Scorsese, this is a wander through New York City through the lens and experiences of Fran Lebowitz - a dry-witted journalist and writer. She is not only super charming, super real but she is also incredibly funny. These episodes are little bite size chunks that I have adored watching but savouring than attempting to binge.

LISTENING

🎧 I started a new series called Vishal. Produced by the BBC, this is a podcast documentary series centred around the cold case of missing Vishal - an eight year old boy who went missing after going into London with his family to stand in the crowds to celebrate Charles and Diana’s wedding. I am on episode three and intrigued to see where this as headed as you know from the outset this podcast went ahead based off of the reporter receiving a tip off.

🎧 You might remember in probably the first few issues of the newsletter that I recommended Tortoise Media’s content. They had a podcast I loved called Sweet Bobby. Well, they have a new series called Into The Dirt that is all about spies and the blurred lines between reality and the story we tell ourselves. This has been pretty interesting so far.

🎧 And lastly, my favourite podcast Shameless launched The Shameless Book Club podcast this week and I am super excited about this one! Not only are they covering recent reads, book club picks etc, they are deep diving popular novels and authors too. The first episode is titled ‘The Man Who Fooled Oprah’ and it was juicy!

INTERNET BROWSING

👩🏻‍💻 My favourite article of the week is by Vox called Stop trying to have the perfect vacation. You’re ruining everyone else’s. It highlighted some popular viral topics this week on an American young lady complaining about Positano being hilly and not having great electricity infrastructure and how American’s don’t think European people drink water? Like what? This 2L minimum a day hydrated girl could not relate? It was an observant and funny read on the evolution of the travel industry, how entitled tourists can be and how we all just need to relax. As the article states, when did travel become such a blood sport?!

👩🏻‍💻 I have not been shy of declaring my love for the TV show Girls on here. I know, I know Lena Dunham is problematic. I don’t condone her whatsoever but the show is so nostalgic for me. Vice did a piece of Gen Z reviewing Girls. The show has had a new wave of popularity thanks to Tiktok clips and streaming plus rewatch podcasts springing up. But it was quite funny to see how a different generation view not just the show as a whole but the different characters too. And what their main takeaways where. Loved this!

🔗 The indie publishing mavericks shaking up the UK books world, A Man Proposed At His Girlfriend’s Graduation – And The Internet Is Divided and A Former Teen Idol Takes On Crypto.

A QUICK Q ON THE NEWSLETTER

So the newsletter is released every Sunday but given this is full of recommendations - would you prefer for this to go out say a Thursday/Friday so the recommendations within this, you can enjoy at the weekend? I’d love if you’d complete this poll to help me in deciding if I should shift the day You Should Check Out goes live!

ETC/WISHLIST

📱 After rewatching Frances Ha and the Barbie buzz, Greta Gerwig shared her Official Barbie Watchlist for Letterboxd. Lots of brilliant recommendations!

🛀 I prefer showers over baths but this week, I’ve converted. I have been using this Lavender and Bergamont Goodness Sleep Soak and it has been so gorgeous and heavenly. Can’t say it has made me sleep? But, it has made me feel relaxed.

🤑 I am trying to be responsible, save and financially recover from this summer so far but, I do have some things I really want on my wish-list that I know I will probably purchase before the end of summer. August is my birthday month so I will likely when this comes around be in “treat yo’self” mode. I am all out of my favourite day time fragrance, Jo Malone Mimosa and Cardamon so a new bottle would be lovely. This fake cake jewellery box - how dreamy? And some tech goodies that I will elaborate on later, wink wink!

And that is it for this weeks You Should Check Out! The newsletter now has its own dedicated Instagram that I am getting more active on. So a follow would be greatly appreciated. There is now also an option to pledge any £ to You Should Check out as a nod to the work I do on this. I want to keep this free but there is now an optional option to show support there.

Wishing you a lovely Sunday ❤️ thanks for reading xx