Welcome to my maiden voyage for a new series on my blog I’m calling Monday Mentions!

There’s a lot more I love than books and I wanted to be able to share some recommendations on things like podcasts, TV shows, movies, and other articles & blog posts my friends are publishing.

I want this to be a weekly or at least bi-weekly post where I can help spotlight other bloggers and other creators I love. And maybe even get some recommendations from you guys, too. Think of this as like a weekly wrap of all things bookish and then some.

Let’s jump in!

Podcasts are total comfort listens for me. I first discovered podcasts back in 2017 while my husband and I were making the drive from Texas to our hometown in Pennsylvania. I don’t usually listen to podcasts that are… educational; I mostly stick towards true crime and paranormal, but history podcasts (mainly dark history) are also my jam.

Since podcasts are such a big part of my life (I listen to podcasts every single day), I wanted to share some new and old favorites!

Scared to Death

Okay so I love both podcasts and ghost stories, and when I find something that combines the two I obsess over it!

I’ve been listening to Scared to Death for about a week now, and I love love love it! It’s hosted by Dan Cummins (who also does Timesuck) and his wife, Lynze. They basically just tell each other ghost stories and other spooky stories and it’s both really creepy and really fun! Dan has such a great voice for telling stories and it’s damn near like listening to an audiobook about urban legends, ghosts, and spooky happenings. If you’re like me and enjoy good storytelling and creepy stories in general, you’ll really like this.

Monsters Among Us

Another new favorite of mine is Derek Hayes’s podcast Monsters Among Us. Another relatively spooky podcast, MAU shares first-person stories of supernatural and paranormal encounters that listeners call in themselves.

Every now and then Derek with throw in some news reports and other stories he researched himself or that tie into a story shared, and it really adds to the listening experience. Derek is a superb storyteller and I love listening to MAU while I grocery shop or do housework. It’s not always scary, per say, but some stories are downright chilling.

Small Town Murder

Hands down my favorite podcast, Small Town Murder is a staple in my podcast arsenal. I’ve been listening to them since they launched in 2017 (this was my first ever podcast) and I’ve listened to every single episode, most more than once.

James and Jimmy are hilarious and can tell a damn good story. True crime comedy podcasts aren’t for everyone, but now that I’ve discovered it I’ll never turn back!

Episode Rec: Episode #60 A Triangle of Tragedy in Phillips, Oklahoma – Possibly one of their funniest episodes, this involves lots of bigamy and not a lot of bathrooms. I laugh so hard every time I listen to this episode.

Just Mercy

With all that is happening in the world, there’s never been a better time to watch this movie. And it’s free to rent on platforms like Amazon Prime. There’s no excuse not to watch.

Not only is this an incredible movie in terms of acting/composition, but the story is so thought provoking and horrendous at the same time. The concept of wrongful convictions, particularly those of people serving life or death sentences, has really interested me from both a true crime and social work perspective. It’s really hard for me to grasp the idea that one in nine people on death row are innocent and that sometimes, they never get the courts to believe them.

Seriously, watch this movie. And while you’re at it, read Actual Innocence, the novel written by the creators of the Innocence Project.

Brit Box via Amazon Prime

So after Netflix took down both Father Brown and Rosemary & Thyme (boo Netflix, you whore), I finally broke down and got a Brit Box subscription through Prime and I couldn’t be happier about it!

I started the newest season of Father Brown and it’s just as good and cozy as I remember it. If you love cozy mysteries or just murder mysteries in general, I cannot recommend Father Brown and Rosemary & Thyme enough! There’s nothing I needed more than a trip to the cozy English countryside to help two gardeners or a priest solve a perplexing mystery.

I think Brit Box is like $6 or $7 a month (could be wrong) but if you love British time pieces or British mysteries like I do it’s a completely life changing purchase!

Queer Eye

The new season of Queer Eye just dropped and if you’re not watching it I don’t know what you’re doing with your life.

I cannot thank the Fab 5 enough for sharing tips with both those on the show and me. Every time I watch I feel like I just left a session with a therapy team and feel ready to kick some ass and be the best version of me.

I don’t know about you, but there was nothing more I needed than a little fun, some positivity , and the sharing of self-love.

I wanted to take some time here to share some of the posts from fellow bloggers that I’ve been loving this week! I don’t get on my “reader” portion of WordPress as much as I’d like to, but I want to promote some of the bloggers I adore and share some of their recent (at the time of writing this, anyway) posts!

In no particular order:

• Anti-Racism Reading List by Beth’s Bookish Backpacking
• Let’s Educate Ourselves: 10 Books by Black Authors by Books, Baking and Blogging
• Black Lives Matter – Your TBR by Life With Books
• The Hate U Give Review by Audio Killed the Bookmark
• Support the Fight Against Inequality: Resources and Ways to Act by Destiny Kanno
• My Bullet Journals – May Spreads by Hawthorn Book Reviews

 

I think I can speak for everyone when I say that I spend a lot of time on the internet researching things or just shopping, so I wanted to take a moment to share some articles I’ve been reading and think are enjoyable or important.

• 22 Black-Owned Bookstores to Shop Right Now (and Always)
• Thousands Protest Across 3 Continents to Honor George Floyd and Support the Black Lives Matter Movement
• Why you should stop saying “all lives matter,” explained in 9 different ways

There you have it! A short list of some of the things I’ve been loving recently that aren’t books. There’s so much more to me than just the novels I read and I wanted to take a moment to showcase some of the other creators and content I enjoy when I’m not busy with my nose buried in a book.

I also want to thank everyone for sticking with me the last week while I participated in the Amplify Melanated Voices movement on Instagram and here. I haven’t posted any original content on any of my platforms but have been sharing other articles, posts, and resources throughout the last week. I did lose some followers but I don’t give a flying fig because my platform is not around for my or anyone else’s comfort, not when it comes to racism and oppression. Some may not know this, but I have both a bachelor and masters degree in social work and so challenging those structural pillars of systemic racism and oppression is my duty.

So many others have put out great book recommendations for the current social issues/climate so I won’t be making my own post on the matter, but please reach out to me if you would like to be pointed in that direction, but also check out the links listed under the ‘Blog Posts’ portion for help!