☺️ Things I Like That You Might Like Too ☺️ (JUNE 2025)

Hello!

I realised I haven’t done one of these in ages. So, here’s an update.

Sometimes I get caught in a cycle of the same movies, books, activities, and whatever else. If you also suffer from this, I hope this small collection of recommendations can be of some help.

P.S. These are obviously just things I like and if you don’t like them too, then that’s absolutely a-okay ❤️

✨TV Shows/Movies:✨

Blue Jean (2022):

A beautiful movie from its story to aesthetic. I don’t know about anybody else, but I love when movies don’t look clean. They’re grainy, gritty, the camera shakes and it’s not always in perfect focus. Movies like this pull me-in in such a different way to sleek movies. They’re felt, they’re flawed - it just makes it so much easier to relate to the environment and characters. When everyone looks like they’re using an instagram filter - the disconnect is very present.

Blue Jean is set in 1980’s Tyneside, England. The movie explores homophobia, the insidious nature of bigotry and the beauty of self-acceptance. Beautiful performances, a simple and effective story, great acting and people who look like people. There’s a lot to love here.

I Am Sam (2001):

Sam is a mentally disabled man raising a very able daughter. This movie covers a lot, from mental health, disabilities, relationships and most importantly what it means to be a good parent.

Very necessary warning: this is a crying movie. Whether you’re neurotypical or neurodivergent, the feelings reach out to all.

I know some people feel that neurotypical actors should not play neurodivergent characters. I personally feel that Sean Penn did a wonderful job. A mental handicap, much like autism or ADHD, doesn’t look just one way. There is no one way to be disabled. I felt the movie was sensitive, engaging and honest about how much work it takes to survive a world not built for you.

Squid Game (2021-Present):

Korean dramas are some of the absolute best in the entertainment industry. The acting, the pacing, the length of the series - you really feel that attention to detail and the care that the team of creators put into the final product.

Squid Game follows a group of strangers who are crippled by debt - whether by their own actions or purely by being victims of circumstance - they are buried in financial ruin. Desperate, they enter a series of secret games in order to win a grand monetary prize. The only catch is… if they lose a game, they’re eliminated… forever.

It’s the classic tale of capitalism. Rich people get poor people to dance for money. And then they kill them.

This series is absolutely not just a gimmick. It’s an engaging, thrilling and nuanced look at how money determines and dictates our lives.

The third and final season is about to start next week. If there was ever a time to binge this gem, it is now.

✨Books✨:

We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver

How do you deal with the day, with shopping, with work, with nosey neighbours and cooking dinner when your son is a teenage shooter?

We Need to Talk About Kevin explores the troubling relationship between Eva and Kevin - mother and son - enemies and co conspirators. This is a difficult read in the sense that it holds a mirror up to the uncomfortable questions inside us.

What if childbirth isn’t amazing? What if we don’t feel a rush of love upon holding our baby? What if we don’t like our son? What if our son doesn’t like us? What if he hurts his siblings? What if you’re imagining it? What if you’re not? What then? Is it your fault? Their fault? If not… then whose fault?

I love a protagonist who is neither loathsome nor particularly likeable. A true shade of grey. If you like fucked up people and impossible situations, this one is for you.

My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell

A story of loneliness, grooming, and the human desperation to find a love story in all our pain. The novel follows 15 year old Vanessa as she is aggressively pursued by her 45 year old teacher.

The story is nuanced, feeling and painful. You feel Vanessa’s vulnerability, her desperation to make this inappropriate pursuit romantic and consensual. You feel the hole inside her, created by a lacklustre home life, bullying and generally feeling out of place and unwanted. The truth is predators are looking for vulnerable people. They look for the wounded and unloved, for the open and inviting. And I think this book explores the psychology of that brilliantly.

✨Music:✨

GERM  - Kate Nash

(Is This The Way To) Amarillo - Tony Christie

Mickey - Toni Basil

Personal Jesus - Depeche Mode

Little Lies - Fleetwood Mac

Cornflower Blue - Flower Face

Frictionless Wipe - OCT

Man on the Moon - R.E.M

Enjoy the Silence - Depeche Mode, Daniel Miller, Phil Legg

Virginia - Boys Go to Jupiter

Shadow of a Man - Lady Gaga

✨Activities:✨

Change What You Can:

There are some things you can’t change. You can’t change where you were born, your blood type, your allergies, the traffic, your bigoted distant relatives, what’s happening in the Middle East, if your government is going to add some new bollocks-y legislation.

There’s just a lot you can’t change. And often that can feel really disheartening.

But that’s why it’s important to change what you can. I’ve recently lost 15 pounds. I’ve been overweight for the last year or so and it’s been dragging me down.

I’ve gained and lost weight all my life. I have a poor relationship with food, binge eating and body dysmorphia. I never really know what I look like - and I either deprive or binge when it comes to eating. I go through good patches and then really bad patches. It’s something I have to work on everyday. But for the last year, I deemed it unimportant.

But the thing is, my eating habits are about me. And I am important. And so, I’ve been really conscious about looking after myself and slowly the weight has come off and I’m practicing much healthier habits.

I’m not suggesting everyone should lose weight. I’m just saying that you can take control of some things. And I think that’s encouraging.

I’m also making an effort to actually watch and read things lately. I have a bad habit of just mindlessly scrolling and I find it hard to apply real concentration. But lately, I’ve been reading more and actually finishing movies in one sitting. And I think it’s these little things that add up, in the end.

Anyway, my fundamental point is look after yourself and don’t surrender because of the things you can’t change - focus on what you can.