Hello!
September was so good to me. Here is a collection of my favorite TV shows, movies, songs, and books I consumed over the course of the month!
Movies
117/100
I watched 11 more movies this month!!! Here’s a list. Follow my Letterboxd to see more reviews :)
https://letterboxd.com/graciekate/
- Bottoms
- The Craft
- The Breakfast Club
- Pearl
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- Theater Camp
- Happy Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Ready or Not
- Hot Rod
- Nightcrawler
If there’s one movie you watch out of this list, please let it be Bottoms!!! “Gay Fight Club” is all you need to know about this movie, the less you know, the better hehe. This movie was absolutely hilarious and exactly what I needed at the moment. Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott put on phenomenal acting performances, Ayo’s deadpan disposition juxtaposed against Rachel’s frenetic one perfectly balanced each other. Director Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott did a fantastic job writing the jokes for this movie and was pure queer joy all the way through.
Books
42/50
- Book Lovers by Emily Henry – I loved this one. Out of all of Emily Henry’s books, this one was my fav.
- Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen – This was a weird “queer”/”horror” book. I say those in quotations because I feel there wasn’t enough of either queer or horror to really make this book for me. It was a fun, quick, and quirky read, but it wasn’t my favorite by any means.
- Say Her Name by Zetta Elliott – A beautiful illustrated poetry collection <3
- The Only Purple House in Town by Ann Aguirre – Super cute and cozy fall fixer upper, found family, supernatural book, but gosh was it too long! It took me forever to finish this even though I enjoyed it. Definitely could’ve saved 100 pages but oh well!
Television
I spent the majority of September making my way through Gilmore Girls! I have watched this show on and off for a few years now and was itching to get back into it as the weather dipped down into the 60s. I am currently at the end of Season 5 enjoying Rory’s time at college and Lorelai’s adventures with men. I won’t spoil anything, even though the show has been out for about 20 years, but it is the perfect fall show to put on in the background while I am working on school.
Music
September was so good for new music!!! Let’s start off with our tried and true: Miss Olivia freaking Rodrigo and her release of her sophomore album, GUTS! I LOVEEEEE this album so much it’s insane. I’m so loving the pop punk grunge vibe and adore the range between her more “talky” songs versus her gut-wrenching piano ballads. I think I may like it even more than SOUR, (although SOUR will always hold a special place in my heart). Here’s my very flexible ranking of all of the tracks on the album:
- ballad of a homeschooled girl
- logical
- lacy
- love is embarrassing
- bad idea, right?
- vampire
- all american bitch
- pretty isn’t pretty
- the grudge
- get him back!
- making the bed
- teenage dream
Upon the first listen, there were so many times where my jaw was literally on the floor after hearing some of the lines Olivia wrote into these gorgeous songs. Here are a few lines I especially adore:
Ooh, I care, I care, I care
Like ribbons in your hair, my stomach’s all in knots
You got the one thing that I want
from “lacy”
‘Cause loving you is loving every
Argument you held over my head
Brought up the girls you could have instead
Said I was too young, I was too soft
Can’t take a joke, can’t get you off
Oh, why do I do this?
I look so stupid thinkin’
from “logical”
And I know, in my heart, hurt people hurt people
And we both drew blood, but, man, those cuts were never equal
from “the grudge”
Ooh, do you think I deserved it all?
Ooh, your flowers filled with vitriol
You built me up to watch me fall
You have everything, and you still want more
also from “the grudge”
Got your whole life ahead of you, you’re only nineteen
from “teenage dream”
They all say that it gets better
It gets better the more you grow
Yeah, they all say that it gets better
It gets better, but what if I don’t?
also from “teenage dream”
I believe Olivia wrote this album with the teen-girl-entering-into-her-early-twenties in mind. Just as Olivia turned 20 in February of this year, I turned 20 in June of this year. “teenage dream” really struck a chord with me as it spoke to the anxieties of being in your last year of your teens and the unknown of your twenties looming in front of you. The song repeats advice given to Olivia from presumed older people in her life, “You’ve got your whole life ahead of you, you’re only nineteen” and she counters it by asking “But what if I don’t get better?” The anxiety echoes off of these lyrics, and the song in its entirety is so relatable to girls listening all around the world. Thank you, Olivia for making us feel not so alone.
Other albums that I had on repeat during September:
Bewitched & Everything I Know About Love – Laufey
I found Laufey from her song, “Falling Behind” on her first album, Everything I Know About Love (2021). To my happiness, I found she had just released a new album, Bewitched when I explored her music further. My girl Laufey is perfect in every way and I love listening to her discography when I study and do homework. I also just found out that she has a twin sister, Junia, and that her name is pronounced Lāy-vāy and not phonetically like I once thought!
Snow Angel – Reneé Rapp
Snow Angel came out in August, however, I had it on repeat all September! My favorite tracks are “Pretty Girls”, “Tummy Hurts”, “I Wish”, “Snow Angel”, and “The Wedding Song”. Reneé has a beautiful voice that was classically trained for Broadway, and she uses it to tell an emotional story of the tragedies she has faced and the feelings she experienced throughout.
The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess – Chappell Roan
I will save my review for a separate article where I can do a deep dive on everything Chappell! Keep an eye out for that in the upcoming weeks :)
Hope you enjoyed this recap! Talk to you soon,
xoxo Grace