Bottled water, brat summer and lyrical prose.

What I'm reading, watching and listening to this week.

Georgia Holliday

Aug 26, 2024

Welcome to another end-of-the-week check in where I share the things that brought me joy this week.

Joy List:

Currently Watching:

Documentaries:

Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food on Netflix

Through revealing interviews with experts and victims' families, this gripping documentary examines the problem of deadly food-borne illness in the US.

You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment on Netflix

A group of identical twins change their diets and lifestyles for eight weeks in a scientific experiment designed to explore how foods impact the body in more ways than physical.

Rotten on Netflix

Rotten dives deep into the food production underworld to expose the corruption, waste and real dangers behind your everyday eating habits. We watched an episode about bottled water.

360 music video by Charli xcx

And then completely on the opposite end of the spectrum I watched the 360 music video by Charli xcx and it is honestly so iconic. Very brat.

Currently reading:

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Gosh this book is a work of art. The cover is stunning yes, but the prose inside is just gorgeous. The way Vuong writes is so tender and lyrical and raw and intense, I adore it. Ocean Vuong is a Vietnamese American poet and this is his debut novel.

The book deals with heavy themes such as abuse, race, and the traumatic effects of war and is written in such a way that you can’t help but be pulled into the heart story. An epistolary novel, it is written in the form of a letter from a Vietnamese American son to his illiterate mother who continues to be traumatised by the Vietnam war.

It is a heavy and complicated read, making me wince at times, but that is exactly what it set out to be and it achieves this completely whilst still being beautiful.

Currently listening to:

The Fan Grrrls Podcast by Jess and Dani

Listening to this episode is what made me watch the Charli xcx music video for 360 and I am obsessed. I used to listen to podcasts all the time but went off them for a long time because I couldn’t find any that I was interested in. However, I can see myself getting into The Fan Grrrls Podcast.

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