BOOKS
If They Come For Us by Fatimah Asghar
Where Should We Begin? The Arc of Love by Esther Perel
The Queen: Aretha Franklin by Mikal Gilmore
People Kill People by Ellen Hopkins
Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger by Rebecca Traister
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Gmorning, Gnight!: Little Pep Talks for Me & You by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Have a Nice Day by Billy Crystal
The Bookshop Book by Jen Campbell
Stephen Fry’s Victorian Secrets by John Woolf and Nick Baker
What If It’s Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Best American Short Stories 2018 edited by Roxane Gay
*Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald by J.K. Rowling
Becoming by Michelle Obama
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero
Ayiti by Roxane Gay
The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
Christmas Eve, 1914 by Charles Olivier
The Diary of a Hounslow Girl by Ambreen Razia
Zami: A New Spelling of My Name: A Biomythography by Audre Lorde
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
11.22.63 by Stephen King
The Poems of T.S. Eliot Read by Jeremy Irons
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson
Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
The Shining by Stephen King
Raven Girl by Audrey Niffenegger
BROADWAY
Mean Girls
I was skeptical for a long time but I…loved this? I loved this.
Torch Song
I had the opportunity to see this because Christine (see below) asked me to be a volunteer usher with her. The acting was amazing and I chipped all my nail polish off. Take that as you will.
CHRISTINE POLLNOW
A Sketch of New York
Christine was the best part, obviously! The skits were tailored to the New Yorker experience, and luckily for me, did not include audience participation.
CHRISTMAS TIME
Love Actually
First Christmas movie every year.
“Get a grip; people hate sissies. No one’s ever going to shag you if you cry all the time.”
A Charlie Brown Christmas
“All I want is what’s coming to me. All I want is my fair share!”
It’s Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown!
“Dear Mary Christmas, Congratulations on keeping your own name.”
Home Alone
“You can be a little old for a lot of things, but you’re never too old to be afraid.”
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
“It’s a nice night for a neck injury!”
How can you be lost in New York? The streets are numbered!
The Santa Clause
“Just because you can’t see something, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”
The Santa Clause 2
“I want you to look into my eyes. What do you see?”
“It’s dark… and cold.”
The Little Drummer Boy
“I hate people. ALL people.”
Mrs. Santa Claus
“Women of the world: unite! A revolution is at hand!”
Frosty the Snowman
“Messy, messy, messy!”
Never forget that this is a pro-life movie!
Frosty Returns
“Let’s go outside and make a fertility goddess!”
Wow, baby Elizabeth Moss!
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
“Maybe Christmas, he thought… doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps… means a little bit more!”
Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean
C’mon y’all, Mr. Bean don’t need no lines.
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
“I’m cude! I’m cude! She said I’m cude!”
Problematique, TM Caroline Weeks.
Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town
“I’m a man now, Tante.”
The Holiday
“You’re supposed to be the leading lady in your own life, for God’s sake!”
I just really relate to everything that Kate Winslet says. Also I have a really visceral memory of the first time I watched this.
Christmas Eve on Sesame Street
“Keep Christmas with you all through the year!”
Obviously I always cry watching this, but also when I was young, I was scared of this because I thought that Big Bird was going to commit suicide.
Arthur’s Perfect Christmas
“You know Arthur, no one actually know what day Jesus was born on. The holiday is celebrated in December probably because that’s when the Romans celebrated the winter solstice and more than likely they got the idea from the Babylonians.”
Eloise at Christmastime
“But I am sick, Nanny. Sick with grief and despair.”
Gavin Creel. ❤
A Christmas Story
“Randy just lay there like a slug. It was his only defense.”
Elf
“Buddy the Elf, what’s your favorite color?”
Miracle on 34th Street
“Trow ’em on the floor.”
The Polar Express
“The thing about trains… it doesn’t matter where they’re going. What matters is deciding to get on.”
The Muppet Christmas Carol
“No cheeses for us meeses!”
White Christmas
“It took 15,000 men to take my place.”
It’s A Wonderful Life
“Remember, no man is a failure who has friends.”
This film is very important to my therapy.
COMEDY SPECIALS
New in Town
One of my roommates hadn’t seen it, so…
Son of Patricia
I watched this off of having listened to Trevor Noah’s audiobook.
DOCUMENTARIES
40
I love Gaby Dunn and I think she deals with this whole “family secret” thing with such grace.
#poetry
A weird thing about this is I used to think that Ariel Bissett was pretentious and wrong about a lot of things. But I jumped back on the bandwagon, and this documentary was amazing and it changed my mind about the way I want to share my writing.
Gaga: Five Foot Two
Leading up to A Star is Born, I had a huge Gaga kick.
Hot Girls Wanted
This is just a tiny look into the porn industry. Tiny.
Holy Hell
Cults are interesting, but I’ll never understand them.
The Staircase
It’s interesting, because I feel as though this is one of the first documentaries I’ve seen that doesn’t, in such terms, take my side.
Jon Richardson: A Little Bit OCD
I’m a sucker for docs on mental illness.
Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist
I have to admit that I enjoy these kinds of documentaries, in which the documenter becomes a part of the story. Sad business, though.
Making a Murderer
I avoided this for a long time but this is so compelling and disgusting and everything that everyone says about it.
FILMS
Iron Man
My brother-in-law has a very specific plan for getting me indicted in the MCU. We’re slowly but surely getting there. But I still just talk about feminism and ableism and racism the whole time.
A Star is Born
I have thoughts.
The Hate U Give
I probably haven’t had a catharsis like this in a movie theatre since Selma. This is maybe my favorite movie of the year? I even saw it again in theatres.
Thor
A continuation of the MCU introductions. I liked this less than Iron Man.
Silence of the Lambs
I never really had a desire to watch this and then I… loved it? I loved it.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
A Halloween tradition!
The Avengers
I didn’t talk all through this one, which is a good sign!
Coraline
I was feeling more Halloween, but it took me two weeks to watch it. Much quicker to read the book, but I love the animation and the MUSIC. Like The Nightmare Before Christmas, it definitely gives me the uncomfies, which I think is good.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Another MCU film that I didn’t talk through, which is a good sign!
Mary, Queen of Scots
Saoirse Ronan is as perfect as ever, and although these representations of Mary and Elizabeth were not accurate, they were good characters.
Mary Poppins Returns
As Kate Shindle put it, “but when I’m wrong, then I say I’m wrong, and I was wrong about you. So listen up!” I loved this and cried through it. I have a lot of opinions on it, though.
MUSIC
Ariana Grande
thank u, next ; imagine ; God is a woman
Paramore
Last Hope ; Fake Happy ; Rose-Colored Boy
MY WRITING
Cigarettes in the Rain
I started posting vignettes on my blog because of reasons. This one is imagined around the line “you told me you quit,” which I heard at Astor Place one day.
NDE
On my near-death experience.
The Sound of Music Ruined My Love Life
This is the true story that I tell at parties.
The Second Kill
My version of what happened when real-life World War II hero Nancy Wake came in contact with a female German spy.
Candy Corn
A story about Halloween and identity.
NaNoWriMo
Right, so even though I cheated, I didn’t win, but I did better than last year! I got The Blues in Flannel to 35,185 words.
The Twilight of My Youth: A New Project
An introduction to my latest project… re-reading the books that I now eschew, but that got me started on reading, again.
It would appear that this problematic novel is once again a fave…
My thoughts on re-reading Twilight ten years later.
“depression. it’s lit.”
New Moon!
Nickname
Some sad prose poetry.
Total Eclipse of My Art
Eclipse.
Killer
A story that was directly inspired by Twilight that I still somehow like.
Telling to tell myself it’s okay to like things.
Breaking Dawn.
TELEVISION SHOWS
Frasier
I started season four at the start of this quarter and went all the way through!
The Good Place
Ugh, thank goodness that there is such pure, clever television still.
Dancing Queen
It’s like Dance Moms but with Alyssa Edwards and my mandated reporter side gets to mostly sleep.
Big Mouth
I love the sex positive stuff! Though sometimes the Nick Kroll humor is too much.
British Panel Shows, Various
Some of the only things that make me laugh. London’s calling.
Fuller House
I’m trash, but also, you need background noise sometimes, right?
RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars
I don’t have a team picked yet!
YOUTUBE
Katytastic
This is a booktuber I just jive with and I get really inspired by her writing vlogs!
Vlogmas
I watched every Vlogmas episode for Jen Campbell, Ariel Bissett, Jackson Bird, and Niomi Smart. Because I am a nerd.
The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals
I’m obviously not as big a fan of StarKid as I used to be, but I had a fun time.
*Media I consumed during this quarter but do not necessarily recommend.
Anxious Adventures with Abs 