What to Watch October 2019

It's my favorite time of the month again! Time to look ahead for what to watch for the new month, in this case October! I've made the list for the Choco household so we don't forget to watch anything spread across the many services we have, and I'm sharing it with you below.

Here are my picks for shows and movies to catch, as well as links to everything new coming to various streaming outlets so you can add your own picks.

And away we go!

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

"The truth can cause a lot of trouble for those who are not supposed to know it."

Writing a followup to a classic like The Handmaid's Tale was a real risk. Hell, reading it was a risk – most readers wouldn't want to tarnish memories of the classic original with a lackluster sequel.

Fortunately, Margaret Atwood pretty much nailed it.

The Testaments takes place about 15 years after events in the first book. This time we follow the tale through writings or testimony of three women – the famed and feared Aunt Lydia along with two young women, one a girl from a prominent family in Gilead and another a teenager from outside the fray in Canada.

My Tips to Bag eBook Bargains

I love books and I love bargains, so mingling the two gives me all the happy feels whenever I track down a deal.

The best books deals are often on ebooks, which suits me fine. I adore my Kindle tablets and Paperwhite, so saving money while increasing my personal ebook library is a treat.

You can seek out these deals several ways, most of which mean simply checking a couple of things daily. These options involve a quick click and scroll, something I enjoy doing over morning coffee. There's also a tracker you can set up for sale alerts as well as some sites you may want to check now and then that don't require a daily visit.

Here are my methods. Hopefully some of you will find them useful in getting deals on books you love as well!

Amazing Memoirs that Captivate & Inspire

"When you put down the good things you ought to have done, and leave out the bad ones you did do — well, that’s Memoirs."

Will Rogers was known for being quick with a quip like the one above, but I beg to differ on this point — the best memoirs tell everything, messy mistakes and all!

Recently I mentally roamed over the list of memoirs I've read and loved, which ones I need to read again, which I haven't read yet but want to. Some of these are life stories, some focus mainly on a particular experience or career, some are even a memoir of a vocation, like writing.

I'm sharing my personal list of riveting memoirs here, including links to Goodreads so you can explore the titles yourself and add any you find compelling to your "Want to Read" lists. I'm sure I've left a few out unintentionally, but these are the ones that sprang to mind as I thought back on my reading life.

Normal People by Sally Rooney

I greatly enjoyed this story of two young lovers falling in and out of each other's orbits in high school and college, set in Ireland. In Normal People by Sally Rooney, Connell is a popular, yet poor, kid in high school. Marianne is the rich kid snubbed as an oddball.

Marianne has a low sense of her own self and lets others treat her as they will, so she puts up with Connell's demand that their relationship be secret. He's constantly worried what people will think. They drift apart due to one of many instances of miscommunication and misunderstanding each other that they'll have over the years.

But at college, Marianne is reborn, socially, at least. She fits in with the wealthy kids, she becomes popular, she changes her look and her beauty doesn't go unnoticed now. Connell's experience is the opposite, where here he feels out of place, not fitting in with the confidence and lifestyle of his more affluent peers.