This week’s round-up includes feeling shocked reading The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, gearing up for the Oscars, feeling nostalgic about music, having a not-so-happy birthday, and much more.

Literature

After rereading The Hunger Games trilogy, I pressed on to The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. As much as I enjoy the original trilogy, and in spite of only being ~60% of the way through Ballad, I am already obsessed with it. I don’t know why I’m shocked that it’s SO good. I thought I would be expected to find empathy for Coriolanus the future President, but fortunately there is none to be found in Coriolanus the student. It’s been some time since I’ve watched the film adaptation (though my review at the time was full of praise), but I’m very much looking forward to giving it a rewatch!

In rereading The Hunger Games, I released how much I missed having a physical book library. Of course, with moving around so much and not really having a solid base these days, it’s entirely impractical, and so my digital library has been my go-to. In order to make up for this sorry loss of a clear library, I’ve been trying to find a good tracker for my books. After trawling through Etsy and purchasing one or two to try, I think I’ve finally found a great bundle that includes two Google sheets, one an annual reading tracker and the other a digital library for all my 1000+(!) books. It has so far taken hours of my life to fill in just basic information, but it really scratches an organisational itch! And, as someone who hopes to publish a book (or ten) some day, it’s the perfect place to write down my thoughts privately 😉

So, if you’re a deep bookworm (whether physical, digital or audio) and enjoy trackers, I highly recommend this reading journal and home library manager by BoxedSheetsGB on Etsy! They also have tons of other excellent trackers.

Film

Here come the Academy Awards 2026! Starting at the earlier time of 10:15pm in the UK (usually with the red carpet first), it’s sure to be an interesting night, with some real top contenders for Best Picture, including Hamnet, One Battle After Another, Frankenstein and Sinners, amongst others. I haven’t had much time to think about who I think will win and who I would like to win, but if I had to put my money on it, I think One Battle After Another will get Best Picture, along with Best Director for Paul Thomas Anderson. Personally, I would be elated if Sinners and Ryan Coogler won those categories respectively, and I will be keeping everything crossed for Coogler, his cast and his crew!

Television

I caught up with the latest documentary from Louis Theroux (I’m a big fan, especially of his podcast) in which he delves into the Manosphere. I say ‘delved’, but really there wasn’t much depth to it. I don’t think the doc really presented us with any new information; these men, who seem to be so confused about a great number of things, have not been quiet about their misguided thoughts and dangerous ideoligies online. What was interesting was seeing how they reacted to the mere presence of Louis, in which he would say almost nothing but the “men” would be saying everything to the point of contradicting themselves numerous times. The whole thing just made me feel exasperated and hope that more boys and young men have male role models in their lives to avoid more of this narcissism in the future. For the time being, the rest of us have our work cut out to stop the ‘manosphere’ from causing more harm, not just to women, but to everyone.

Music

I have been feeling so nostalgic about music of late. It started when I was watching some videos from Steps (if you don’t know who Steps are, you’re missing out) TikTok account and decided to watch their music videos on YouTube. It reminded me of being about 11-12 years old and listening to my Steps, Britney Spears, Westlife and Backstreet Boys albums, headphones on, Walkman skipping from time to time. Those really were the days.

Then I started to think about my music taste from aged 13 and onwards, thinking about when my tastes moved from pop to pop-punk, and I remember the exact moment.

It was 2002, coming towards the end of summer. I was 13 years old. I was at a friend’s house, and some music channel was playing on television, most likely Kerrang!. Suddenly, a video came on with a song that was very guitar- and drum-heavy with catchy riffs and clear lyrics. That song was I’d Do Anything and the band was Simple Plan.

Not long after this, a couple of weeks maybe, I was at the same friend’s house, and another music video came on that stole my attention. The song was Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous by Good Charlotte.

It was also around this time that Avril Lavigne was swimming around my friendship group, and her album Let Go was played on repeat.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

I still enjoyed listening to my childhood pop music through my teens, but mostly under the radar lest I destroy my new-found ‘rockier’ reputation (newsflash: nobody actually cared), but soon I was growing ’emo’ and thoroughly spent my teen years listening to rock, emo, and pop-punk, alongside earlier softer rock, 80s rock and pop-rock (from 2003-2005 I think you’d have been hard-pressed to find a bigger fan of McFly than I). Listening and singing along to my favourite music (from any decade) is one of my favourite things to do, and thinking about summer days with friends, drinks, beaches and music reminds me of how good it felt. Those were literally the fucking days. Especially 2002. What a year.

Life

I turned 37 recently, and not to sound immodest, but I mostly forgot about it. It didn’t exactly feel like a time of celebration. I have a lot of negative feelings surrounding it, but it is what it is.

In general, I’ve been struggling with my mental health in the past few weeks, more than I ever have in my life. I haven’t wanted to do the things that usually bring me joy (including going to the cinema, which is often what I live for – I couldn’t bring myself to go). I think there have been so many changes in my life recently, and upcoming changes that I’m trying to prepare myself for, that I’ve felt so overwhelmed to the point of numbness and felt really rather stressed. My diet has been terrible, my body has been suffering and my period was over a week late (this has never happened to me before). I’ve also been dealing with a lot of physical and mental insecurity. I finally feel like I’m coming out the other side of it, but I’m also acutely aware that this black hole, as I’ve dubbed it, seems to rear its head each month, and it appears to be getting bigger, i.e. sticking around for longer, each month. I’m trying to make steps to avoid it/learn ways to deal with it better and prepare for it, but it’s not easy. I’m also hoping that by being open about this it might help others, especially women, who go through something similar see that we’re not alone and we need to talk about it more.

A Random Fact I Learned

Through my late period, I’ve learned so much about perimenopause, mostly about how early it can start! I feel like I’m now overly aware of the symptoms and starting to prepare myself for the onslaught that will, one day, be the FULL menopause! Part of me says ‘bring it on’, just so the periods stop, but then the effect menopause has on a woman’s body sounds worse! Honestly, we just never get a break from our bodies.