Reading, Listening, Watching 19

Are you ready for a whole load of recommendations? There's been lots of watching, but not so much listening or reading lately. I need to get back to the reading, I always feel more relaxed when I read a lot. For now though here's what I've been reading, listening to and watching over the last few weeks.

Reading

I finished Rag Soup and quickly moved on to the sixth and final book in the Western series of John Locke's. Spider Rain was another quick read and nicely finished the series. Emmett and his family embark on a new adventure and you get to decide how it all worked out for them. I don't think I'd choose another Western themed book but once I got used to these they were good reads.

Listening

Not much going on for this section. I've found it much easier to work without music or noise so I haven't been listening to much at all. Right now though I have a selection of my favourite music playing, so I'm hearing things like The Greatest Showman soundtrack and songs from Frozen 2!

Watching

TV Series

This is where the list is long. I've been tracking our watching habits better and writing down whenever we watch something new. Since the last time I wrote one of these the Hubby and I have been through a few TV series including Las Vegas, Walking Dead season 10, Grey's Anatomy season 16, Cougar Town, and we started Dexter.

Movies 

Watching movies is where there's usually a long list of recommendations. What with the Hubby and I saving every Saturday for movie night and involving the kids too we get through a lot of them. Since last time there's a few on the list I think I've mentioned before like Blended and Map of Tiny Perfect Things. Then there are the movies we watched with the kids, or on our own that I haven't mentioned before. 

There are some movies we don't watch often, for whatever reason, and What Happens In Vegas is one of those movies. It's a good movie, funny, entertaining, but whenever I think of it I always think there are better movies to choose. But anyway, What Happens In Vegas stars Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher who happen to meet when they're both in Las Vegas and drunkenly get married. Okay so that's a cliche right there but it takes a turn when they win a Vegas jackpot and in order to claim the winnings they have to prove they can stay together. The movie is funny for all the reasons you would expect, the bickering, the arguments, and of course the reconciliations. Not one to watch with the kids.

Next came Minority Report and we did watch this movie with the kids. It was interesting to hear their opinion on it, given the premise is stopping criminals before they have a chance to commit the crime. Arresting people for something they haven't done, but intended to do. It started a long discussion in which we all concluded it's not a great way for society to work, but the movie was still good.

When choosing our movies for the kids we like to include movies they'll probably really like so any action movies are a good bet. Others to include are things like Gone In 60 Seconds and Fast And Furious. The boys both enjoyed these movies, and were surprised when we told them about Paul Walker and how he died. I think the fast cars and racing around cities made them enjoy the movies (shocking I know!) and I think they're more likely to watch other movies like this in the future.

Two movies that have been on our list to watch with the kids were Gravity and The Martian. These two are very different to the movies above in that there's not much action but they both show the peril around travelling through space. Unsurprisingly they both enjoyed The Martian more than Gravity and that's because of a few things. For a start in The Martian Matt Damon talks to the camera - as if he's talking to someone else - and is funny and comes up with brilliant one-liners. I do want to mention here that The Martian is based on a book of the same name by Andy Weir. Definitely one to read! In Gravity Sandra Bullock has to make her way to a few different space stations in order to find a craft that can get her back to earth after a satellite crashes sending debris orbiting around the earth at thousands of miles per hour. The Hubby and I love this movie, we even watched the 'making of' bit afterwards, but it wasn't really one the kids will come back to - at least not until they're older.

Finally the Hubby and I watched Perfect Sense, a movie starring Ewan McGregor and Eva Green. A topical movie in that it involves an unknown virus that attacks human senses. It's an interesting watch and explores how people would react to losing certain sense on a mass scale. It looks at how we would all change how we live to accommodate restrictions and how in the end, it's all about the people. Your loved ones, your family. I'd recommend watching this - but again, not with the kids.

Well, that's it for another Reading, Listening, Watching but I'm sure I'll be back in a while with more great recommendations for you.

Until next time.