Thursday Top Threes: recommendations

M: 3 recommendations you would like to give to Jenn and/or Mira!

(Was originally going to separate this out into categories: book recommendations, movie recommendations, tv recommendations, song recommendations -- but realized Jenn has been reading/watching/listening wayyyy more than I have! For our 2-3 readers out there, if you find you have way more than 3 overall recommendations and want to make recommendations in specific categories, please feel free to do so!)

Mira: Jenn, here are my recommendations for you! For some reason this was REALLY hard for me!

1. "Inventing Shadows," by Dia Frampton: Since I know Jenn did not watch The Voice, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess she hasn't heard this song either? It might be too pop-y for your taste, but I do like it and she has a very interesting singing style and voice. Her rendition of "Losing My Religion" was pretty great, too!

2. The Born In... trilogy by Nora Roberts: Haha, I definitely know Jenn has not read any Nora Roberts books but this was a fun, throwaway-type of read that I recently was reminiscing over with a friend. Definitely makes me want to visit Ireland one day. And I like the completeness that trilogies seem to have about them, even silly ones written by Nora Roberts!

3. Glee Project: Sort of already made Jenn watch an episode of this, but I want her to watch it with me so I have someone with whom I can talk about it! I know Jenn gave up Glee, but as mentioned in my previous post -- it's got a lot of the best elements of the show without all the contrived story. It's been a fun summer show and it's surprising it's got virtually no buzz going for it.

Jennifer: I, on the other hand have way too many recommendations for Mira! So I'm way overachieving and doing three categories with multiple recs!

1. Young adult books!
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. For some reason this was out of print for a really long time which is why I'd never heard of even though it's more of a classic. It was written in the the 1940s and set in the 30s, about a teenage girl and her eccentric family living in a rundown English castle whose lives get upended by the appearance of two American brothers. The movie adaptation is pretty good too!
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart. Really fun book about a secret society at a boarding school.
Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. Same authors as Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist! Super cute book about two Manhattan teens who meet and communicate through a notebook.

2. TV shows. I've mentioned these already, but Mira really needs to watch season 4 of The OC and I also think she'd really like the Canadian show Being Erica.

3. Music. I know Mira is more on the pop side of things when it comes to music so I think she'd like Freelance Whales, which is really happy and kinda Postal Service-like. Try "Hannah" and "Generator ^ Second Floor". Also I think she should try out Zooey Deschanel's band She & Him ("Sentimental Heart" and "Thieves"). It's kinda folk-y and almost retro sounding. She's so talented it's almost unfair!

M: Now, the challenge is for us to watch/read/listen to the recommendations (from each other AND our "audience") and blog about that! Jenn is definitely more likely to follow through than I, but I will make a concerted effort, I promise!