#my fave book of 2021 honest to god

[coldflasher]

"bring back tumblr ask culture let me. bother you with questions and statements" what's your letterboxd top 4 for books/albums/movies?

okay SO im very aware that i was all "oooh send me asks!!" and then didn't answer the asks, i am so sorry, but in my defence i was saving them for when i would be able to give a proper answer SO, onward!!

if we're getting mega technical i don't have a letterboxd account but i assume the sentiment remains the same regardless so here we go (and these are in no particular order cos i'm sooo bad at choosing favourites)

MOVIES:

The Incredibles (2004)

You all know this one, I'm sure. Superpowered family goes into hiding after a decree that bans superheroes, then Mr. Incredible, who's struggling to adjust to civilian life, gets lured to a mysterious island to complete a superhero mission for a shady benefactor who turns out to be a spurned fanboy who was obsessed with him as a kid and is now out for revenge. It's such a fun movie and probably what triggered my obsession with superhero media, if we're being honest. Also I had the world's BIGGEST crush on Violet.

Igor (2008)

In a land where evil scientists create dastardly inventions and participate in a yearly Hunger Games-esque competition to build the deadliest superweapon, Igor (who, like all other hunchbacks in the land of Malaria, is banned from inventing) creates a 10ft tall Frankenstein’s monster named Eva who desperately wants to be an actress.

Aided by an immortal (but ironically also incredibly suicidal) rabbit named Scamper and an autonomous brain in a jar, Igor illegally enrols in the mad scientist competition with Eva as his entrant, all while concealing his true intentions from Eva, who thinks she is auditioning for the titular role of a very avant-garde version of Annie.

It’s an incredibly funny movie that appealed to the kid in me that was obsessed with dark, gothic-looking shit. Not to be all *old woman grumbles* they don’t make em like this any more, but they genuinely don’t. I miss that period of time when these grungy, spooky-looking kids movies were in vogue—think Paranorman, Coraline, Corpse Bride… none of which I actually like that much but it’s the PRINCIPLE. It’s the VIBE.

I have never met another person who’s even HEARD of this movie, let alone seen it, which is a real tragedy.

Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004)

The second (and infinitely superior, I say having not seen the first one in probably 20 years because seeing Scrappy Doo crawl out of Rowan Atkinson's face put the fear of god into me as a kid) live-action Scooby Doo movie, in which the Scooby gang accidentally activate a device that brings all the costumes of all their old enemies to life and turns them into real monsters. It's a banger.

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Oh look, a movie that was actually made within the last decade! It's probably a toss-up between this and Endgame but I think this one wins by a hair just because I waited almost a decade to see Andrew Garfield's Spiderman finally get the acknowledgement he deserved. Multiverse fuckery occurs and a bunch of alternate universe Spidermen and spiderverse villains get dragged into the MCU, it's a fun time *Michael from The Good Place voice* we've all seen it

Books (I went for mostly fave standalones here cos if we talked about fave series I'd be here all day. Did I mention I was a booktuber for 6 years?)

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Sutanto

Meddy, a young Chinese-Indonesian wedding photographer, is set up on a blind date by her mother that goes horribly wrong and ends in her date’s sudden and pretty violent death (trust me, he deserved it).

In the process of trying to dispose of the body, Meddy, her mother, and her meddling aunts hide it in a fridge and accidentally ship it out to a huge wedding they’re working at that weekend. They then have to try and pull off the perfect wedding for a big client AND get rid of the body without any of the wedding guests stumbling upon it. To top it all off, it turns out that Meddy’s ex, Nathan, owns the island resort and wants to give their relationship another shot. Poor Meddy just wants five minutes to catch up with the love of her life but keeps getting interrupted by hijinks.

It’s genuinely one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. The author is genuinely incredible, I have no idea how she writes so fast and yet never has a single miss. There are now 3-4 Aunties books and she also wrote an absolutely hysterical cosy mystery about a teashop owner named Vera Wong who finds a dead body and then starts her own murder investigation, Miss Marple style, and that book made me cry on an aeroplane, so just. Hats off to Jesse Sutanto, she is genuinely the writer I want to be.  

You Deserve Each Other

This one is a rom-com about a newly engaged couple, Nicholas and Naomi, whose relationship kind of sucks due to various factors including (but not limited to) Nicholas' overbearing mother-in-law. Faced with the reality that she'll have to be married to a man she no longer particularly likes and deal with his mother for the rest of her life, Naomi decides to deliberately sabotage their relationship and get Nicholas to dump her, and it culminates in a huge, rapidly escalating prank war as they slowly start to fall in love again. Again, this book always makes me cackle out loud, it's so fun and I never get tired of reading it

The Bromance Book Club

This is another second-chance romance about a pro baseballer called Gavin and his wife, Thea. They're on the brink of divorce, until Gavin's friends let him in on their secret book club, where a bunch of dudes all get together and read romance novels to help them figure out their relationship problems. Again, it's just fun and funny, I really love romance novels myself (as you can probably tell from this list and my entire personality lmao) so I enjoyed the meta aspect of it, and just. It's just good stuff

The Brutal Truth

This one is a Devil Wears Prada fanfic turned romance novel where a struggling journalist named Maddie ends up getting involved with her cold, ice queen boss, Elena, who has a habit of acquiring failing magazine/newspaper businesses and then crushing them under her high heels. If you've ever thought Miranda and Andy from DWP should fuck (they should) then this book is for you. It's a 10/10

Albums

Will keep the music one brief as I have rambled enough already and do not know how to talk coherently about music

Razzmatazz by I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME

straight bops all the way through, some excellent villain songs, just a different sound from a lot of the music that's out there

Four by One Direction

Four was the album where they really started to find their sound and completed the transition from cheesy radio pop to something with slightly more mature, rocky influences, but it's a bit more lively than their fifth album, Made In the AM, which while technically accomplished is nowhere near as fun to listen to in my opinion

Selfish Machines by Pierce the Veil

this has been a fave since my angsty high school days and it's one of the few albums that exist in the world that doesn't really have any skips (I've been known to skip Million Dollar Houses on occasion, but generally I'll listen to it all the way through)

It's Still Nothing Personal by All Time Low, which is their 10th anniversary rerecord of their early album Nothing Personal (caveat that, like most early 2010s pop punk bands, All Time Low have been accused of some things that are less than ideal, sigh). It has all the nostalgia while also stepping up the quality and just having that more mature, polished sound that comes with 10+ years of experience making music. good stuff unfortunately somewhat tainted by The Allegations, why can't we ever have nice things, and by nice things i mean "2000s pop punk artists who didn't allegedly sleep with impressionable and easily manipulated teenagers at warped tour"

[pocmuzings]

"all i could think about was how i didn't want a friend like me. i have enough of me to go around."

YOLK // MARY HK CHOI

[starredforlife]

if you want reblog this and tag with your favorite song, podcast, book, movie and show you discovered this year!

[solatgif]

TGIF: ROUNDUP FOR JANUARY 22, 2021

SOLA Network Editor Hannah Chao and I got together to talk about The Best Articles from SOLA Network 2020. Watch on YouTube. If you have an article or link to share, reach me on Twitter or Instagram.

Should all churches be multiethnic? Is there still a place for ethnic-specific churches? Moses Y. Lee spoke with Thabiti Anyabwile and Dr. Alexander Jun, and we will share their conversation on Monday. Watch a preview on YouTube.

Our first SOLA Network Magazine features our best articles from 2020. Read it online as a flipbook or as a PDF download for free. Read and subscribe to our monthly newsletter and see our most popular articles. For more of our faves, check out SOLA’s Hidden Gems of 2020.

ARTICLES FROM AROUND THE WEB

1. Jay Y. Kim: Inaugurations and Image Bearing

“While many Christians might bear the name of Christ, it isn’t clear that they bear his image as their truest source of identity and allegiance.”

2. Vaneetha Rendall Risner: Has God Withheld Good from Me?

“Christians should never mistake fame, money, and health for the best things of God.”

3. Kevin DeYoung: We Must Find a Better Way to Talk About Race

“The simple, honest truth is that Bible-believing orthodox Christians are not setting a Spirit-infused example in how to talk about racial matters.”

BOOKS, PODCASTS, MUSIC, AND MORE

1. Brett McCracken: Three Habits Making Us Sick

Three particular dynamics of the information age that are making us foolish and sick: Too much, Too fast, Too focused on me.

2. TGC Q&A: How Do the Arts Help Us Learn and Grasp Scripture?

Josh Byers and Quina Aragon on the arts as a means of communication, Imago Dei, and more.

3. Aaron Lee: Related Works

Book Reviews: The God Contest by Carl Laferton and Catalina Echeverri; Evil and Creation by David Luy, Matthew Levering, and George Kalantzis. Commentary Review: Hebrews by Thomas R. Schreiner. Our TGIF playlist is available on Spotify. Join my Asian American Worship Leaders Facebook group.

FEATURED THIS WEEK ON SOLA NETWORK

1. Thabiti Anyabwile, Alexander Jun, and Moses Y. Lee: SOLA Preview: Why Ethnic-Specific Churches are Still Important

“Being in ethnic-specific context is not only permissible, it's actually quite necessary for a lot of Christians to receive the comfort and discipleship that that's needed.”

2. Hannah Chao and Aaron Lee: The Best Articles from SOLA Network 2020

“I wanted to show that SOLA is here to equip Christians of all age ranges and on so many different topics.”

3. Daniel K. Eng: Tips for Reading and Teaching the Book of Ruth

“It is because of the lovingkindness of Christ that we who follow him can have a future.”

4. Hannah Chao: Remembering Dr. King's Words from a Birmingham Jail

“We pray that his words will continue to challenge us as we fight for justice for and through the Gospel.”

5. TGIF: Roundup for January 15, 2021

10 Commitments for 2021 / Let’s Be Different in 2021. (But Not Like That.) / The Day We Saw the Capitol Fall

General disclaimer: Our link roundups are not endorsements of the positions or lives of the authors.