January 2021 Reading List! (Patreon)

Lots of videos for you this month! These are mostly highlights from stuff I watched over my Christmas/New Year break 😊

Articles

Kara Reviews: Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez - Kara, one of our Common Room members, has a book review blog! I recently read Invisible Women and someone (can't remember who sorry!) shared Kara's review in the discord server. Kara reviews all the books she reads and it's A LOT!

In the battle of The Slumflower vs Florence Given, the only winner is the publishing industry - not sure if any of you followed what happened in December but thought this was a really great article talking about the issue and how if we look deeper than the individuals involved it comes down to a very white industry that's trying to make money.

Why Cancel Culture Matters - I find myself searching for more nuanced discussions about cancel culture. These conversations are happening but the tend not to be as popular as the cancelling itself.

Videos

D'Arcy Carden Ranks Every Janet on The Good Place - everytime a new The Good Place video appears in my recommended I gobble it up. This one was especially fun!

my goals for 2021 - Taylor from ItsRadishTime coming at us again with some new year wisdom. One of her goals this year is to have a hobby that is unmonetised and entirely for her. This is something that crosses my mind every now and then. I feel like it would be really healthy of me to have a hobby that I don't share online but I just love sharing things! Constantly monitoring my relationship with this.

picking the 2021 goodreads challenge colour!!!! - first off, I didn't realise until writing this that Canadians spell colour the British way! YES! But this is the final installment (I think?) in the unexpected saga of Ariel Bissett's crusade against the Goodreads Challenge colour the last few years. This year she got to pick! I'm not actually using Goodreads anymore but still very happy for her and it's just one of those silly, ridiculous things that the internet has gifted us with!

MY NYC APARTMENT TOUR // $1800 studio in manhattan - my pal Leena told me watch this video just for the comments about her stalker and how Ashley "beststressed" basically did an apartment tour right before moving because of a stalker (!!) anyway, now my YouTube homepage is full of New York apartment tours.

Liberal Christians vs Conservative Christians | Middle Ground - Brenda from God Is Grey is in this episode of Middle Ground from Jubilee! Really interesting discussions, lots of just throwing Bible verses at each other (grateful that Jubilee put definitions on the screen of some of the theological concepts they were talking about!) It was quite a difficult, sad watch at points - especially when one of the conservative Christians all but came out as gay but said because it's against his faith he'll probably never marry.

I cycled across Cornwall | Land's End to Bath in 7 days  - a really inspiring and calming video from Rosianna Halse Rojas. Worth just sticking on in the background.

CGI influencers are going to steal my job - Tiffany Ferguson at it again making me terrified of the internet. I knew about CGI influencers but I didn't know about CGI influencers.

How to Change What you Want - Hank Green basically sharing all the same stuff I'm learning in the Science of Wellbeing Course - psychologists call the act of wanting things that don't actually make us as happy as we think "miswanting".

In Conversation: Bo Burnahm Live on "Good One - shared in The Common Room and I will just eat up anything Bo Burnham does. They go through the history of Bo's career, all his specials and why he stopped performing. Really interesting conversation.

73 Questions with Esther Perel - is Esther Perel a fully fledged celebrity now? Love it! I love so much of what she has to say about relationships and intimacy.

ARAGORN vs. Toxic Masculinity - this video took me by surprise. I didn't know clicking on it who would be the host but it was just two white American dudes (a therapist and a filmmaker) and their YouTube channel is called Cinema Therapy. 1) I love Lord of the Rings and here for Aragorn's soft masculinity being celebrated but 2) I am SO here for men talking to other men about vulnerability. One of the dudes sheds a few tears while they watch one of the clips (and quite rightly - it's emotional!) but I love how they talk about it and don't shame it. As much as I can try to talk about men and masculinity in my content, nothing will be more impactful than other men doing that and this channel is doing that work!

living with grief after a sudden loss - double Rosianna in this list but she was doing Vlogmas. I wanted to share this in case anyone who has experienced grief hasn't seen this video but as someone who hasn't experienced grief like this it was really useful for me to watch to see someone else's experiences.