November Recap

Alone on the Wall by Alex Honnold with David Roberts - I posted a full review of this earlier this month. It was just okay. I do highly recommend the documentary Free Solo which is sort of an adaptation (see movie section below). - MG

The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe - I posted a full review of this just a few days ago. Similarly to what Meg said above, I found this book just okay. I was really hyped for my first Tom Wolfe book and for the movie adaptation, but was disappointed by both. - MH 

Maid - I can't say why but I wanted not to like this but it was SO GOOD. Margaret Qualley crushes her first leading role and her mom, Andie McDowell, plays her mom and surpasses anything I've ever see her do before. I hope they both win awards and get to be the first (I think?) mother-daughter winners. The show goes a bit off book at times so I still highly recommend both. The show also has a killer soundtrack that I've been listening to on repeat. My full book review is here. - MG

a scene from Maid

Love Life S2 - Meg and I both really enjoyed the first season of Love Life starring Anna Kenrick. It's an HBO Max series that covers the relationships of the main character and wraps itself up on the final episode. For the second season they decided to recast and tell a new story. The lead is played by William Harper Jackson who I found way more charming and hot than when he was in The Good Place. I've been asking Meg to send me her summary of each episode's moral lessons. Here is what I have received so far: "No texting people of the sex you prefer unless you're cool with eventually fucking them" (Episode 1) and "Being single is just sitting in the dark texting" (Episode 2). I should note that her second rule was mostly shaped by the romcom Two Night Stand. - MH 

Before Sunrise - I am so late to this as it's from 1995 but man is it ever so good, and it doesn't feel old the way some 90's movies can. Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke have this amazing chemistry and the movie takes place over the course of one night they spend together after meeting on a train. I know there's a group of people who will say this is slow and boring but that's because they don't understand romance. I loved this and there are two more sequels that I can't wait to watch. I streamed this on Crave. - MG

a scene from The Family Man starring Nicholas Cage

The Family Man - I re-watched this for maybe the 15th time in my life this past weekend. This was a Christmas staple in the Puterman house growing up and I always liked it but I cried on more than one occasion watching it for the first time as a parent. Everyone will like this movie and it's now streaming on Netflix. - MG

Free Solo - Naturally, after finishing Alone on the Wall, I needed to go back and re-watch this doc for maybe the 5th time. It's just as good and adrenaline packed on re-watch and I feel like I'm always picking up on new parts that I find inspiring or thought provoking. I had to start a stupid StackTV trial on Prime to watch this but it is worth wasting the trial on, believe me. - MG

RoboCop - The best movie I have watched all month is defintely Paul Verhoeven's 1987 RoboCop. This month for movie club we are doing six movies directed by this Dutch pervert and so far it has been a BIG success. This movie is so insanely violent in a way I was not expecting, but was thrilled by. Verhoeven has a sense of humour like few others. - MH

a scene from RoboCop

Swallow - This is a movie from last year that had been on my watchlist for so long. It was available for a 99 cent rental so I watched it alone this weekend. It's about a young married woman who starts compulsively swallowing household objects. There were some moments I could not look at the screen because I am very squeamish, but the lead performance by Haley Bennett was sooooo good. She was so strange and magnetic, and I honestly thought about rewatching before the rental was used up. - MH

"Where is my person, my Big Love?" Question the Self by Jedidiah Jenkins ft. Connie Britton - I'm not totally sure if I'd recommend this entire podcast yet but I have listened to this particular episode 3 times. Jedidiah Jenkins is an author I love (To Shake the Sleeping Self) and he's really close with Connie Britton (The White Lotus). In this episode she talks about never meeting the person she wanted to spend her life with and choosing to adopt and single parent her son. I just can't think of anyone wiser than Connie Britton (I don't know her at all) and to hear her talk about this 'thing' that so many women who are my age stress about was so moving. Listening to it feels like being tucked into bed. I know I am married and blah blah blah but I am still allowed to care about this!! Linking it here. - MG

Connie Britton

The Watch - I have been soooo slow to move through podcasts this month which makes me sad. I am a big fan of The Watch podcast hosted by Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald from The Ringer Podcast Network. This month I have been listening to their weekly recaps of Succession S3. Their criticism is well balanced and they have been making some good points. - MH