Kelly's Guide To Surviving Social Distancing

Kelly from Kellyvision stops by the blog today to offer her suggestions on what to watch while we are all social distancing/self isolating/quarantined. 

I'll be offering up my own recommendations tomorrow.

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I've read a bunch of articles saying that you shouldn't just watch TV shows and movies all day, that you should be exercising and doing projects, maybe trying to learn French or paint your apartment or deep clean everything.

I'm sorry, but there is a literal pandemic and I am going to cope with this the way I cope with everything: by staying inside and letting pop culture distract me.

If you are overwhelmed but want to stay informed, I would advise you to only watch local news. They will tell you what you need to know (as in, exactly how your area is doing). And that gives you a lot of time for binging.

I'm pretty sure there are three main types of people: the ones who want to forget everything scary and just have an escape; the people who are leaning in and the people who just want to watch the shows and movies they already love. I'm probably that third type, though I definitely bounce around for all three. 

I'm going to recommend movies and shows, and I'll do them for Hulu, Prime and Netflix. Plus, I'll let you know what I plan on watching; please feel free to comment your suggestions and reactions or chat with me on Twitter (I'm @khager).

AMAZON PRIME: 

If you want to escape, Prime has The Spy Who Dumped Me. You may not have seen it, but it is so funny (much funnier than it has any right to be) and it's one of the most fun movie experiences I've had in a while. 

More of a lean in type? It has The Big Sick. It's not about a pandemic, per se, but the love interest has some weird disease and she spends half the movie in a coma. It's very funny and sweet, so don't put off watching it because of the illness part. 

Need some comfort food? Prime has all of Downton Abbey! Also, Pretty in Pink, Bridget Jones's Diary, First Wives Club and Clue.

I'm hoping to watch Brittany Runs a Marathon and The Report, as well as binge the TV shows Hunters (about people hunting Nazis after World War II).

HULU:

It has the first season of What We Do in the Shadows (it's so funny!) and the show Little Fires Everywhere (with Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon, based on the book by Celeste Ng) starts Wednesday. I've got approximately 11 billion things in my watch queue, including the show version of High Fidelity, so it's probably getting all my time.

Also, it's got Spin the Wheel, a game show that I absolutely love. (You can win over a million dollars, based on the wheel and your own knowledge of pop culture. And it only has the most amazing people as contestants so you really root for them to win. It's my favorite thing.

There aren't many choices for leaning in. There's a documentary on Nostradamus. 

*approximately 20 minutes later*

I just did a real deep dive into the rabbit hole of Hulu and there is a show called "Alone." Ten people are separated and left alone in middle of nowhere Vancouver. I mean, no matter how much you are slowly losing it, at least you have food and water and are indoors. So maybe that will help?

As far as old favorites go, Hulu wins the entire world as far as I'm concerned. Heathers, Say Anything, National Lampoon’s Vacation (also European and Christmas vacations), When Harry Met Sally, Some Kind of Wonderful and the original Hitcher. There's the Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas and Dawson's Creek.

NETFLIX:

If you want to escape, I cannot recommend The Good Place and Schitt's Creek enough. Both are sitcoms that will make you literally LOL, and also make you cry a little. They're the best of who we are as people.

If you want to lean in, there's Pandemic (a TV series about preventing an outbreak) and they have Outbreak. It's not maybe the best idea, but I don't judge.

And as for old favorites? Netflix is about to make your day. They have Tootsie, Gilmore Girls, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Candyman and Rosemary's Baby. And I don't know if you've seen Step Brothers, but it's so, so fun.

I'm probably going to watch Love is Blind soon, because that's been recommended to me so many times.

I feel so behind on TV so I'm excited to see how much I can catch up on. (Or, barring that, how many times I just watch Clue instead.)

It's a scary time. Hide if you need to. We're in a great age of television and movies.

2020 Most Anticipated - Kelly from Kellyvision

Today's post is a little different. I thought it might be fun to share the titles that other people are excited for and this is the first of that kind of post. My friend Kelly, who blogs over at Kellyvision, has kindly put together a list of some of the books she is looking forward to in 2020.

I'm really excited for 2020. I'll be turning 40, there's a new Halloween movie coming and hopefully we'll be getting a new president.

But except for those three things, I'm most excited for the books.

Six books I've preordered:

The Mountains Sing by Que Mai Phan Nguyen. A friend told me about this one and it sounds amazing. It's a sweeping family saga set against the backdrop of the Vietnam war and it's from the perspective of the Vietnamese. I'm going to very strongly pitch it to my book club.

Tornado Brain by Cat Patrick. I love her books so much and I feel like I've been waiting forever for a new one. This is a middlegrade and it feels very different from her earlier books. I'm really excited to see where it goes.

If it Bleeds by Stephen King. He's my literal favorite author. I'm not huge on novella collections but I do love his.

You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen. I've loved their first two collaborations. I'm trying to go into this one as blind as possible, but I'm really, REALLY excited. It's out a month before my birthday, but don't bother getting it for me; I am not waiting.

Seven Clues to Home by Gae Polisner & Nora Raleigh Baskin. I don't know what this is about, but I am all in for everything Gae does. Nora is a new author to me, but I think we're already going to be great friends.

The State of Us by Shaun David Hutchinson. Amazon doesn't even have a plot description for this but Shaun David Hutchinson wrote it, so I'm in.

Five series installments I'm desperate for (without explanation, because it's obvious):

Ten Things I Hate About Pinky by Sandhya Menon

The Nobleman's Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks by Mackenzi Lee

The King of Crows by Libba Bray

Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland

The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Four backlist books I'm determined to read:

Butterfly Yellow by Thanhha Lai

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray (I haven't read this and book four is coming out soon!)

Three releases you need to read:

The Mall by Megan McCafferty. Her books are always fun but this one is a complete delight.

Jack Kerouac is Dead to Me by Gae Polisner. All of her books are great; this is her best one to date.

The Assignment by Liza Wiemer. Absolutely captivating. Go into this one knowing as little as possible.

Two titles I'm stepping out of my comfort zone for:

The Unwilling by Kelly Braffett. I don't read a lot of fantasy but Kelly Braffett is amazing and this is her first book in ages. She's earned my trust.

Of Curses and Kisses by Sandhya Menon. I don't love fairy tale retellings as a rule, but...Sandhya Menon.

The author I'm binging in 2020:

Nic Stone. I saw her speak with Laurie Halse Anderson a few weeks ago, and I'm very excited. Dear Martin, Odd One Out and Jackpot are out now, but we have some great books ahead, too: her middlegrade debut (Clean Getaway) and a Black Panther novel centered around Shuri! There's also going to be a Dear Martin sequel, but I think that's next year. Either way, I'm really excited to read everything she's written up to this point and then everything from here on out.

A huge thank you to Kelly for participating in this. There are so many amazing sounding books on her list as well.

Don't forget to stop by tomorrow for another title that I am eagerly anticipating!

Kelly's Top Five Movie Love Triangles

Kelly from Kellyvision and I often talk books, TV and movies. We often discuss love triangles as well. She's Team Rainer, and I am firmly Team Jordan for Rebecca Serle's Famous In Love series. Our discussion about this book resulted in me asking her to take part in this week long event, and she graciously agreed.

Here is her guest post on her top five favourite movie love triangles...

When Kathy and I were talking about how much we loved Famous in Love, I said that one of my favorite parts is that---while there's a love triangle---there isn't a bad choice to be made.  Both guys are equally wonderful and the "right choice" is a matter of personal taste.  That isn't always true.

I am a huge fan of movies and one of my secret shames is that I love a good love story.  And one of the things it seems that you can't get away from is a love triangle.  (And unlike in Famous in Love, in these cases, there is a definitive right answer and a wrong one.)

Here are my top 5 favorite cinematic love triangles!  (There are spoilers...and potentially unpopular opinions.)

Pretty In Pink (Molly Ringwald-Andrew McCarthy-Jon Cryer).  (Fun fact: this is the only movie I picked where the first choice is also the final choice!)  I am starting to feel like the only person in the world who hated Duckie in this movie.  Is it the fact that I find Jon Cryer to be the world's most obnoxious person? Could be! It's highly possible that I would've hated the ending if they had cast the OTHER choice for Duckie, one Robert Downey Jr.  I think that he could have made it obvious that Duckie's grating personality hid a great deal of vulnerability and would have made him charming.  Instead, while Andrew McCarthy's Blane has plenty of flaws of his own, he's at least a person and not a cartoon character.  I pick Blane; she picked Blane.

Gone With the Wind (Vivien Leigh-Clark Gable-Leslie Howard).  Gone With the Wind is one of my favorite movies ever and I'm honestly not sure that this really counts as a love triangle just because Scarlett never really loves the two at the same time.  Instead, Ashley Wilkes is sort of her ideal, the person she wishes that she could be with, and Rhett Butler is the person she SHOULD be with, although she doesn't realize it until she's too late.  (Also, I'm pretty sure that Clark Gable is one of the most handsome people who ever lived.  I don't see the appeal of Leslie Howard AT ALL.)  I pick Rhett; she picked Rhett. (But too late.)

Sweet Home Alabama (Reese Witherspoon-Josh Lucas-Patrick Dempsey).  Here's probably another unpopular opinion of mine: If all things are equal and you have a choice between handsome, kind man who loves you and New York City and handsome, kind man who loves you and Alabama, YOU PICK THE ONE IN NEW YORK.  No offense to Josh Lucas, but Patrick Dempsey is also cuter.  Even so, this movie is a total guilty pleasure of mine and I do watch it every time I see it on TV.  (I pick McDreamy and New York; she picked Alabama.)

Sabrina (Audrey Hepburn-Humphrey Bogart-William Holden).  My friend Paul hates this movie because, he says, it's inherently flawed: who picks Humphrey Bogart when they could have William Holden? The answer: Sabrina, the chauffeur's daughter.  Like in Gone With the Wind, she spends the bulk of the movie pining after the wrong guy only to realize the right guy is RIGHT THERE.  And, you know, Rick from Casablanca.  I know everyone loves Roman Holiday or Breakfast at Tiffany's the best, but this is my favorite Audrey Hepburn movie.  No contest.  (She picked Bogart; I pick Bogart.)

Bull Durham (Susan Sarandon-Kevin Costner-Tim Robbins).  It's a personality quirk of mine that I hate sports but love sports movies.  This is my favorite baseball movie (Field of Dreams is a close second) and most of it has to do with the love story.  Susan Sarandon plays Annie, a woman in love with baseball and its players.  Each season she picks a player and they have a fling.  This year's contenders: Crash Davis (Costner) and Nuke LaLoosh (Robbins).  Initially, she goes with Tim Robbins, but ultimately ends up with Kevin Costner.  There are some great speeches in this one, too.  (We both pick Crash.)