Weekly Obsession Wednesday - Books and Binge Watching...You Know...The Usual

Hello all. Time for weekly obsessions. Wow! I had a lot to say about all these things this week. I was in a story telling mood. Haha!

#3 Wildflower

When I color my hair I always listen to an audio book. I need something to break up the monotony of brushing dye on on my hair and waiting for it to process. I can't read because I need my hands. I don't want to watch anything because I need my eyes for the project. For whatever weird reason this is one of the rare times where I don't feel like listening to music. Audiobooks are the perfect solution. Hand and eye free storytelling.

Last hair coloring I started Lord of the Rings. However, this month Lord of the Rings wasn't floating my boat. By that I mean that I had forgotten where I stopped last time I listened, and I didn't feel like making myself crazy trying to figure it out. Then I remembered that I had seen Drew Barrymore's book Wildflower on audio book on my Scribd app. This is a book on my 2016 reading list, and the audio book is read by the actress herself. I listened to a few chapters while coloring my hair. I love it! The book is probably in the memoir section in the book store but even Drew says that it isn't a memoir in its traditional sense. It's a bunch of stories about her memories that can stand on their own. This structure might not work for everyone, but I like it. It's unique and the thing that I've always found lovely about Drew Barrymore in interviews is that she is unique herself. I enjoy hearing her little short stories and hearing her thought process. Of course she acts out the stories as she reads them which makes it fun and funny. Plus, the fact that it is essentially a collection of short stories makes it perfect for my often sporadic audio book listening habit. I am actually listening to it while writing this which is probably why this paragraph is so long. I guess it gets me inspired to write as well.

#2 Deadwood

My mom, dad, and I finished watching Justified. Thus leaving a TV hole for us. We are trying to watch more shows together. Which is hard sometimes because dad isn't always much of a fun of the types of shows mom and I like to watch. However, we do have a few shows that we can all agree on, and now we needed to discover a new one. Dad had mentioned that he was interested in watching the HBO show Deadwood, so we had gotten him the box set of all three seasons. We thought we would give it a whirl since it shared some actors with Justified. It's a period piece starting in the year 1876 in the lawless gold mining town Deadwood. The story features both fictional and historical characters which is super cool and interesting. What started out as a mild interest in the show became a bit of an obsession. Mostly because it is the type of show where you can't help but wonder what is going to happen next. The show is dark as heck. It's HBO so there is definitely some shall we say... colorful language, violence, and other craziness. However, I am not one to be faint of heart. Especially when the writing is good and the acting is wonderful as it is with this series. The show does a great job a bringing in some moments of levity that make you laugh so you won't get totally bummed out as well. I also love watching the historical featurettes that are on each season's special features. It's like a fun little history lesson.

#1 When Calls The Heart

I blame this obsession on Netflix. I was minding my own business watching my normal Netflix fair when this show called When Calls The Heart popped up in my suggestions. It is a show based on Janette Oke's book of the same title set in 1910. It centers around a young woman who leaves her life of wealth to become a teacher in the Canadian West. Of course at the time I didn't know that. All I thought was, "Ohhh! Period piece!" You know I couldn't resist that. It's an adorable little show. I say adorable because it's a show on the Hallmark Channel so I can't help but describe it that way. I love the structure of the show and the characters. I also love that it is good solid family entertainment without becoming cheesy or forced. It's heartwarming good clean fun. Ironically it's perfect to balance out all that Deadwood I've been watching. I guess my real obsession must be with exploring the North American west of the past. I've consumed nearly all the episodes of When Calls The Heart on Netflix in just a few days. I'll be bummed when I'm done. Not too bummed though because the new season starts on Hallmark at the end of February. Even though I will have to watch it from week to week instead of binge watching it I'm still excited because...MORE WHEN CALLS THE HEART! Awesome!