Posts By: Rashika

Monday, January 22, 2018

Just Finished Watching: The Good Place

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While I am an active connoisseur of TV shows, I rarely talk about them? In fact the last time I did anything was actually end of 2016 which is just sad for someone who can sometimes finish a tv show a week. Anyway, I have time on my hands because I graduated which means I CAN DEDICATE MORE TIME TO WATCHING TV SHOWS. YAY. My life is SO EXCITING. So. I recently finished watching The Good Place. 

The Good Place takes place in the afterlife. Eleanor Shellstrop finds herself in The Good Place and she does NOT BELONG. The Good Place is a sitcom but unlike most sitcoms it has an overarching plot that is addicting and exciting.

Of course, while the poster for season 1 (and season 2, tbh) doesn’t make it seem like it, the cast of this is actually pretty diverse which I REALLY LOVED. Towards the end of the season, a character kind is shown to be canonically non-het which made me REALLY EXCITED. I re-watched the scene 5,000,000 times. And yes, the show having a diverse cast is an important detail that vastly impacted my experience with this show. None of the characters are stereotyped and the writing is so FUCKING CLEVER.

What makes the show even better is that the plot and world building is really smart. I will say that while the show tries to separate itself from the way various religions present afterlife, it doesn’t do the best job. The very idea that there is a good place and bad place is reminiscent of Judeo-Christian-Islamic beliefs. Aside from my nitpicking about that, the world building is still fun and the plot is amazing.

I said this before and I am gonna repeat myself because why not but the writing is amazing. There are so many little easter eggs to be found. The show is so genuinely funny while having an enticing plot which I think is hard to really do in a genre dominated by short 20 min stories as opposed to season-driven seasons.

So yes, you should watch this show if you’re looking for a smart, new comedy to pick up and if you’re looking for other sitcoms that have a plotline that runs throughout the season, Trial and Error might be another one for you! I am onto watching The Magicians! 

What shows have you been watching lately? Anything I should keep an eye out for?

An Avalanche: Unearthed by Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner

Posted by on 01/19/2018 • 4 Comments

I am behind on the times because this is my first time reading a book by this dynamic duo. To be fair, These Broken Stars has been on my tbr since 2012 and we’re just going to ignore the fact that 5 years later (or 4 years since it came out,) I still haven’t read it. BUT, I WASN’T GOING TO LET THAT HAPPEN WITH Unearthed. If I remember correctly, at some point it was pitched as Indiana Jones in space. I also got serious National Treasure vibes from the synopsis and I  am garbage for anything that involves a treasure hunt and secrets.

For those wondering, yes Unearthed 110% lives up to those comparisons. Unearthed is a fantastically written book that you WILL gobble up because it is…

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Truly Clever: Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

Posted by on 01/17/2018 • 6 Comments

I somehow missed that Maureen Johnson had a new book coming out this month and only found out like a month or two ago. That shows you how I’ve been doing on keeping on top of all the new releases. Spoiler alert, its not good.  I actually had not read any Maureen Johnson prior to reading Truly Devious but had heard so many good things about her other books. Plus I am absolute garbage for books that have boarding schools and this one even had a fun murder mystery involved. I am going to be a spoilsport though and start off by focusing on the bad because I really enjoyed the book and would rather end on a more positive note.

Ellingham academy sounds amazing but… I felt like it…

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A Short Guide To Teas

Posted by on 01/15/2018 • 13 Comments

 

First of all, Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. day! Unfortunately we seem to be alive in a time where it feels like all of his work was for naught. I have a lot more feelings in general but today is not for me and I don’t feel like its my place, today of all days to talk about //my// feelings. Anyway, I do hope you’ll take the time to reflect on the work and words of Martin Luther King, Jr on this day.

Today, I am going to be talking about TEA!!! If you know me, you know I LOVE my tea. I constantly joke about getting an IV drip for tea because I run on tea. On a regular day, I consume somewhere between 3-5 cups of tea….

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‘Stranded in an Airport’ Story I’ve Been Waiting For: The Chaos of Standing Still by Jessica Brody

Posted by on 01/12/2018 • 6 Comments

The first discovered Jessica Brody with 52 Reasons to Hate My Father. She immediately had my intention and I really wanted to read everything she wrote but I quickly found out that perhaps everything she wrote wasn’t for me. Which is unfortunate because I really enjoyed her writing style. But then I came The Chaos of Standing Still, a book that demanded my attention.

At 403 pages The Chaos of Standing Still is not a short book but don’t let it fool you. Those 403 pages FLY BY. There are books I’ve read where even 300 pages feel like they are too fucking much but Jessica Brody knows how to pace a story well. In fact she probably deserves an award because there have not been many times in my…

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Rashika’s Meet Cute

Posted by on 01/10/2018 • 4 Comments

Meet Cute is an adorable anthology of stories I felt were personally written for me. I didn’t actually know the book was coming out until like mid-way through last year. That in itself isn’t entirely odd in of itself but like for a book that just screams RASHIKA, clearly, I should have known about it. Shout out to my friend Holly who saw the book at ALA in June and thought of me even when I didn’t know Meet Cute was a book I needed.

I digress though. I don’t really want to review this anthology. I can wholeheartedly say it was worth the read and that I didn’t dislike any of the stories. There were maybe 2-3 that didn’t do much for me but even then, I did not…

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Self-Care in 2018

Posted by on 01/08/2018 • 10 Comments

  New Year, New Me, right? 2017 was a rough year for me, personally and just on a larger political scale. I am really hoping 2017 will at least bring good things on a personal scale or at least won’t try to take me on an intense emotional coaster; however, I am not holding any high hopes for not experiencing high amounts of stress because the world is falling the fuck apart. I am not trying to be pessimistic though, I just know that even if good things happen, I ~will~ be stressed out and so since the year has only barely begun and I haven’t experienced any high amounts of stress yet, I thought I’d do a post centering around what ~I~ plan to do for self-care this…

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Sequel Smashers: The One Where Rashika Takes On Sequels

Posted by on 01/05/2018 • 6 Comments

I have a problem. It’s called me picking up shiny new series and never reading sequels. It doesn’t matter if the sequel was the most anticipated thing or the least, I DON’T READ THEM. A quick browse through my Goodreads showed I have ~at least~ 100 sequels I have NOT read. This is not even including series where more books come out after the sequel I didn’t read. This year, I have decided enough is enough and decided to fix this problem; especially because I even BOUGHT a lot of my anticipated sequels and never read them. Basically, I seem to have a problem where I buy books I am looking forward to and then never read them? Last year, I focused on reading more backlist books and this year,…

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