Not Just Books: January 2025

While we do love us some books, believe it not, we do have a life outside of reading. So to highlight our other pop culture interests, on the last Monday of each month, we each will highlight three other “happenings” from the last month. Big events on favorite TV shows, new movies we’ve watched, old movies we’ve “discovered,” etc. Pretty much whatever we found of particular interest outside of the book world during the last month. Share your own favorite things in the comments!

Serena’s Picks

TV Show: “The Day of the Jackal”

I’ve never read the original book or watched the much older movie, but of course I was going to eventually get around to watching this assassin-based action show! And it turned out to be much more than I was even expecting, especially the parallels drawn between the assassin and the special agent tasked with tracking him down. There were numerous moments where the show challenged our perceptions of morality and the ways in which small steps can lead down dangerous paths. There was also a fairly massive twist towards the very end that I 100% wasn’t expecting. Honestly, it’s been a long time since a show/book/movie truly shocked me in this way!

Video Game: “Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous”

Continuing my run through popular RPGs, I finally got around to tackling Pathfinder. And yes, it is just as intimidating as everyone says. When you start it up and are met with a character creator menu that has like 30 options (no exaggeration), you know you’re in the deep end. I’m really glad I played BG3 before getting to this one, as there is no way I’d have any idea what I was doing otherwise. Even now, I still feel like I’m barely scratching the surface of the mechanics behind this all. I’ll also say that I find it incredibly frustrating at times, with seemingly endless loading screens and some very difficult to navigate layouts. Overall, I’m still enjoying it though, and the writing is fantastic!

TV Show: “Squid Game”

Per the usual, I’m jumping on the bandwagon several years too late. Mostly, I just saw that “Season 2” was dropping so thought, hey, might as well watch season 1! (And now I’ve seen reports that the second season watches more like a “part 1” of a second season rather than a whole season, so I’ll probably delay that too!). I obviously expected all of the death and violence, but I didn’t expect to become quite so attached to all of the characters. Especially the main character who doesn’t exactly guild himself in glory in that very first episode! I’m very curious to see where the story goes from here, but I think I’ll try to restrain myself. We’ll see how it goes!

Kate’s Picks

Film: “Nosferatu”

If there is one thing I can count on when it comes to Robert Eggers’s films, it’s that the vibes are going to be IMMACULATE. I absolutely love “The VVItch”, and really enjoyed “The Lighthouse” (I still haven’t seen “The Northman”, I need to get on that), and when I heard he was going to remake “Nosferatu” I was like ‘oh how perfect’. I had seen the original silent film in college, and was curious to see what he’d do with it. And wow, what a creepy, unnerving, gorgeous, and kinda sensual masterpiece this is. When Thomas is sent to Transylvania to do a real estate deal with the mysterious Count Orlok, he has no clue that said Count has a sordid and obsessive past with Thomas’s new bride Ellen. And back in Germany, Ellen is sinking more into conniptions, fits, and moments of disassociation. And when Orlok arrives in their city, a monstrous plague descends with him, along with his desire to be reunited with Ellen. THE VIBES, MAN! But not only the vibes, the CAST, MAN! Willem Dafoe, Nicholas Hoult, and Bill Skarsgård (as the titular vampire) are all phenomenal, but Lily Rose Depp REALLY steals the show as the tragic yet determined (and on and off possessed) Ellen.

TV Show: “Canada’s Drag Race”

While the mothership show “RuPaul’s Drag Race” has indeed started, I have started giving it a few episodes before I put it on my “Not Just Books” list, because sometimes I think I’m going to like it but then don’t. But the good news is that we still get some drag queens on the docket this month because “Canada’s Drag Race” is back! And still incredibly charming and Canadian! With Brooke Lynn Hytes still in charge of the judges panel (and looking as radiant as ever) we had a whole crop of new queens representing the great white north! Favorites for me include Makayla Couture, Perla, and Minhi Wang (who didn’t even register on the radar at first and then REALLY turned it out), but I really loved the entire cast this time around as it showcases so many different drag perspectives and backgrounds. And did I mention that Brooke Lynn is radiant? She’s RADIANT.

YouTube Channel: “Jordan and McKay”

I’m sure that many of you have been following my years (and I mean YEARS, long before we started this blog) long obsession with the LDS Church and the history of Mormonism and the cult-like practices of the Church and the off shoot splinter groups and so on and so forth. And I’m always eager to hear the perspectives of people who have left the LDS Faith to hear their perspectives. I’ve actually been following Jordan and McKay on and off for a few years, as they have done collaborations with Fundie Fridays, but recently I jumped back in for two reasons. One was that they collaborated with Natalie and Amber on “Some Place Under Neith”, and the other was that I read Shari Franke’s memoir and wanted to see what they thought of it. Jordan and McKay are a married couple who used to be in the LDS Church, but left after becoming disillusioned and deconstructing their faith. Now they run a channel that talks about Mormonism and the various facts of the LDS Church, as well as their experiences as perspectives, both as former members and as a therapist in Jordan’s case. I like their commentary and feel like I learn a lot from them, and it feeds my special interest a bit.