Books, Podcasts, TV... and My Dream Weekend 📖🎧📺

📚🎧📺 Books, Podcasts & TV Keeping Me Company (When I’m Not Fantasizing About Room Service)

Lately, life has been a blur of juggling a million things at once: family, work, blog posts, the endless laundry pile, and all the stuff that comes with being a mom and a manager. In between all that chaos, though, there are little moments that keep me going—tiny, magical snippets of time when I get to escape into the world of books, podcasts, and TV shows. It’s like finding a mini vacation in my head, except without the actual vacation part. So instead, I’m binge-watching a lot of shows, reading a lot of books I almost finish, and listening to podcasts that I force my daughter to endure (whether she likes it or not). 🤷‍♀️

Let’s take a little tour of my latest escapes. Trust me, I could use a “Room Service, Please” button in real life—because sometimes, the only way to get through the day is to indulge in these distractions, even if just for a moment.

📚 The Books

Right now, I’m deep (or like… ankle-deep) into L'été by Camus in French, and Diez Mujeres by Marcela Serrano in Spanish. I read them in the evening, in bed, with a fake fireplace crackling on YouTube and classical music playing in the background because, obviously, I’m the main character of my own little cozy movie. 🎻🔥

But don’t be fooled—my reading style is pure chaos. I’m a distracted book hoarder™. I start five books at once, then forget what any of them are about. I Google random facts about the plot, the author’s life, the political climate of the book’s setting… and still can’t remember who Marie is or why she’s crying in chapter three. 🤔

That said, I did manage to finish Bonheur d’Occasion by Gabrielle Roy (miracle!) and Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neil recently. Both were gut punches in their own way. Bonheur d’Occasion left me thinking about the line, "Being poor smells, and that’s a smell you can’t get rid of," while Lullabies for Little Criminals hit me deeply with its raw, poignant exploration of adolescence, trauma, and survival. It was heartbreaking and beautiful, and the writing felt like poetry. If you haven’t read it yet, you need to add it to your list!

🎧 The Podcasts

On the podcast front, I’m currently obsessed with Therapy in a Nutshell because it helps me understand how I felt during my burnout and reminds me that emotions are not the enemy—they’re just squatting in your chest until you deal with them. 😅

Also in rotation: Easy Italian and Easy French, because if I’m not fluent in four languages by the time I retire, what am I even doing?

I listen while walking to the grocery store or during drop-offs to my daughter’s endless activities. She has no choice but to listen along, poor thing. Nothing like starting your gymnastics class with a quick lecture on emotional resilience. 💪🧠

I love when podcasts make me laugh out loud in public so strangers think I’m unhinged. That’s the sweet spot.

📺 The Shows

Currently, I’m vibing with Superstore (because I work in retail, and it’s basically a documentary), Severance Season 2 (which makes me question my reality), and I just finished Killing Eve... and wow. Just wow.

Villanelle?

I looooove her. Crush-level love. Huge. Like, if she knocked on my door, I’d be terrified she came to kill me… but I might still run away with her if she offered me a killer outfit and a croissant. 🖤🥐🗡️

My TV-watching guilty pleasure? Love is Blind. All of it. Every season. Every dramatic pause. Every “I love you” after three hours. It’s trash. It’s chaos. It’s art. 💅

My dream would be to erase Friends and Fringe from my memory just so I could watch them again for the first time. I want that fresh serotonin hit, please and thank you.

I don’t have rules for watching TV, except one: leave me alone. If my family starts talking, I pause the show and look at them like, “Are you done?” If not, I kindly ask them to leave my viewing suite (also known as the living room couch).

🛎️ My Hotel Room Fantasy

If you ever wonder what moms truly want, it’s this: A hotel room. Alone. A giant bed. Silence. Room service. TV. A nap. No one talking unless they're asking “Would you like extra fries with that?”

I wouldn’t answer the phone. I wouldn’t check email. I’d nap, eat burgers and pizza, sip margaritas, and maybe write a blog post or two while watching Friends for the 87th time. Maybe I'd pretend my name is Villanelle and talk to no one for 48 hours straight. Bliss.

So that’s where I’m at:

📚 Drowning in books

🎧 Overanalyzing my emotions with strangers on podcasts

📺 Falling in love with fictional murderers

🛏️ Dreaming of uninterrupted room service naps

Now tell me—what’s your current escape-from-real-life combo? Books, shows, podcasts, hotel dreams—spill it all in the comments 💬👇

And yes, Love is Blind counts. Especially if you’ve yelled at the screen, “WHY are you proposing after 4 days?!”

-Fabi