So Many Streaming Services…

…reminds me a bit of cable.

Streaming is great. Watch what you want when you want. Then they threw in some awesome original content that is super great. BUT – I knew the day was coming where everything would be separated into 25 different streaming services and I would have to pay for each one to watch all the shows/movies I want to. Which is basically cable, except I don’t have to wait for a certain time to watch something or watch commercials. Which is still better then cable, but I also liked that streaming was less expensive then cable. Now that I have to pay for all these services it’s about the same. I knew it would happen and I knew it was coming, but come on man I am poor. Can we make some kind of package with a discount or something?

HBO Max is my latest acquisition. I watched a show called Love Life and really enjoyed it. Highly recommend it. It has other great content as well and seems to have everything the ‘regular’ HBO app had for the same price. Why would I not switch to HBO max and get more content for the same price? So that’s my hot tip of the day for my readers who may enjoy TV. Anyone recommend anything else on HBO Max that is good?

I have started reading ‘The Ship of Brides’ and that will be the next Reading with Rachel post. Wanted to let you know in case you want to read along with us! I am also turning all my books from those posts into traveling books! https://www.bookcrossing.com/ is the platform I am using so check it out. I like the idea of books bringing free joy, adventure, and entertainment to someone else rather then collecting dust on my book shelf. Just sanitize before you release your book and I think it is still safe with the Rona.

Reading with Rachel…

…In Five Years

Hi everyone! I’m Rachel and I love to read books and give unsolicited book recommendations to my friends. Andrea recently read In Five Years by Rebecca Serle after I wrote a blurb about it on my Instagram, and I’m so glad she did! She’s asked me to write to all of you what I thought about the book and why I suggested others read it. Enjoy!

In Five Years is a charming book that follows Dannie, a goal-oriented New Yorker who has her life planned out to the minute. Her career as a successful lawyer, her recent engagement, and her entire future are planned out meticulously. Until they’re not. Dannie’s plans are shaken up when she has a vivid dream where she finds herself in a foreign apartment next to a strange man and a seemingly very different life than the one she left behind in the real world. Once she wakes, Dannie can’t help but ponder on this dream and the feeling of fate that seeped from it. The rest of the story follows Dannie as she navigates the next five years of her life with her fiance, free-spirited best friend Bella, and to her surprise, the strange man from her dream who has materialized in her real life.

I’ll be honest: this is not the typical kind of book that I reach for on the shelf. I found this book for a cheap price on Amazon while buying other books in my favored genres of mystery/thriller and bought it on a whim. It’s a pretty short book at around 250 pages so I figured I’d read it for a fun and light read before I moved on to my more heavy subject matter books. After reading the first few chapters of In Five Years I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t the cliche romance novel that I was expecting at all. In fact, I hesitate to even label this book a romance novel. It certainly has romantic elements and the author is tricky, as she writes the first few chapters to make the reader believe this story will revolve around romantic relationships. But I would put this book into the simple genre of: friendship. This is a story about the depths of friendship between Dannie and Bella. I don’t want to give anything else away because I want any future readers to have the pleasure of the surprise of this story, so I’ll leave it at that. This story explores how a friendship can survive the ups and downs of adulthood, can change even the most well thought out plans, and can have lasting impacts that can influence an entire life. It’s a beautiful story and a very sad one. I cried during this one, but they weren’t all tears of sadness. I hope that you enjoy this book as much as I did!

-Rachel

Me, My TV, and…

…how quarantine is changing it.

I have always really liked TV and movies. Shows and movies allow me escape my world for awhile and wind down at the end of the day. They provide social connections to those around you and a way to find common ground with someone you have trouble connecting with.

Lately, with the self-quarantine there hasn’t been much else to do but watch tv (yes I read and I have more books on the way). That is slowly fundamentally changing my relationship with TV to something I am sort of trapped doing. Yes people found a million other ways to spend their time (maybe better ones) but I am having a hard time doing that. My apartment is clean, I workout almost every day, and I still work a bit. I am just out of things to do (insert shrug here). I don’t want TV and movies to morph into something I do because there is no other option but right now that is the case.

I can’t wait until my new books get here.

What has COVID changed in your life? Anything you used to enjoy and relax with that is now starting to change and grate on you?

Or am I just worried I am lazy and I am watching too much TV? Possible.