What I've Been Reading, Watching and Listening To Lately

I thought it was time I'd do another What I've Been Reading, Watching and Listening To Lately post as I've realised that the last one was way back in May! I've definitely been more into watching TV shows over anything else over the past few months which is why there's a few on my list this time around. 

First up is the reading section and guess what?! I've actually read two books! Well, technically anyway. The first book I've read is Caroline Hirons - Skincare: The Ultimate No-Nonsense Guide. I've read all of the sections that appealed to my skin type and concerns the most and I've also been referring back to it when I've been looking at buying skincare products too. It's really detailed as well as funny and quite straight to the point as expected from Caroline. It's definitely a book I'd recommend to anyone who is interested in skincare and I think it would make a great gift for someone too.

The second book I've read and finished literally yesterday as I'm writing this is Heart Bones by Colleen Hoover. I've randomly got Kindle Unlimited for free for 2 months, I have no idea how and why but it popped up on my tablet and I accepted the offer. Maybe it's a sign that I should read more books, who knows?! Anyway, Heart Bones is the latest release from Hoover so I was surprised to see it on KU already. It's about a young woman named Beyah who lives on a trailer park and her life is tipped well and truly upside down when her mother dies from an overdose, she's got no one to turn to and nowhere to go locally and she's got two months to go before she can move to college. So she has to turn to her very last resort... her father who she hasn't seen in years and his new life and family who are spending their Summer on a Peninsula in Texas which is very different to what Beyah is used to. I don't want to say much more without spoiling it but I did enjoy reading it. It's described as a "breathtaking romance with magnetic suspense". I would also recommend reading Hopeless and Confess from Colleen Hoover too.

As I said at the beginning of this post, I've been really into my TV shows lately and the first one I've got to mention is Lucifer. It's something I've been meaning to watch for ages and I'm well and truly obsessed. I started it just over a week ago and I've already watched two out of the five seasons haha. I thought it was going to be scarier than it is but it's more of a comedy fantasy crime drama. It's about Lucifer Morningstar, obviously otherwise known as the Devil who has abandoned Hell and moved to LA where he has a nightclub named LUX. He also ends up becoming a consultant to the LAPD after meeting Chloe Decker in the first episode who his usual charms don't seem to work on which makes her even more intriguing to him. He's very open about being the Devil but obviously, no one believes him and they just think he portraying a character which makes it even funnier. As you get further into the show, more supernatural characters from both Heaven and Hell start turning up and usually pissing Lucifer off. I honestly cannot recommend it enough especially if you're a fan of shows such as Grimm and Teen Wolf. The first three seasons are on Amazon Prime and the rest are on Netflix.

I also loved Season 2 of Glow Up: Britain's Next Make-Up Star on BBC iPlayer. I find it really interesting as the contestants have different assignments and creative briefs to follow each episode and also feature a guest judge who is usually a celeb as well as the permanent judges Dominic Skinner and Val Garland and the two contestants who either haven't done a very good job or haven't followed the brief properly are put into the bottom two and then they have to do a face-off challenge before one gets kicked out. Some of the looks are amazing especially considering most of the contestants work standard jobs and aren't professionally trained. I highly recommend watching it if you like beauty and competition shows.

Another show I really enjoyed and is Miriam Margolyes - Almost Australian which is also on BBC iPlayer. I love how witty and straight to the point she is and I always watch her TV shows when they're on. This time around it's about her doing a 2 months long, 10,000km journey across Australia where she wants to experience and understand what it means to be Australian in this day and age after becoming an Australian citizen herself. It's really funny but also quite interesting too.

Another show which I really enjoyed watching is Unsolved Mysteries on Netflix which honestly blew my mind. Some of the episodes were more mind-boggling than others and some of them are pretty easy to solve but the people involved have somehow slipped through the net or wormed their way out of it (if you've already seen it then you'll know what I mean). There's also a Volume 2 coming in October which I'm looking forward to watching, I'm also hoping that there might be more supernatural kind of ones in the next volume with it being released around Halloween.

Lastly on my what I've been watching lately has got to be Dead To Me Season 2 which is available on Netflix. I didn't watch it when it first released for some reason so I'm surprised I didn't see spoilers but OMG I think season two was better than the first season! If you haven't seen Dead to Me then it's about Jen who is grieving after her husband's sudden death, she's angry at the world and doesn't understand why her husband had to die and leave her and her two sons behind. She unwillingly attends a grief support group and meets Judy who has also suffered a recent loss and has her own demons that she's dealing with. It's quite dark but also really funny and the episodes are only around 25-30 minutes each, so it's ideal if you don't want to commit to a long-running show.

I haven't really been listening to much new music lately but I did stumble across The Neighbourhood's latest EP on Spotify last week and I really like it. It's a little different to their previous work but it's quite easy to listen to.

I also really like the song Hypercolour from CamelPhat and Yannis (from Foals). It's just a really good catchy, summer kind of song which I've listened to a lot lately!

Lastly is Love Fame Tragedy's debut album Wherever I Go, I Want To Leave. LFT is the singer from The Wombats solo project and I'm a big fan of The Wombats, I've probably been a fan since I was like maybe 13 so I just had to give the album a listen, especially after really liking the EPs. It's probably been my most played album of the year (so far) which I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting but the songs are all really catchy and sing along. I think my faves are Sharks, Honeypie and Multiply.

What have you been reading, watching and listening to lately?

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