- Hello, welcome to my July favourites video.
Yes, we're in a different location
because I decided that I can't always be bothered filming
whilst standing up.
Apparently that's just too much effort for me now
and we're sitting down.
It just feels cosy, dunnit?
I like to be cosy.
Okay, let's get right into it.
First thing, books.
So the book that we read for Banging Book Club in July
was Juliet Takes A Breath by Gabby Rivera.
And that light is reflecting.
There we go.
This book was incredible and especially useful
if you want to learn more about feminism,
about queer politics, about racism, and all of that stuff.
I will leave a link in the description
to where you can listen to the full episode,
where me, Lena, and Lucy discuss this book.
But I would also highly recommend that you read it.
Also very special Banging Book Club announcement.
If you're a fan of the podcast, if you're a fan of books,
if you're a fan of just chatting about sex and gender
and all of that good stuff, then oh!
Exciting times.
So in August, we are reading The Gender Games
by Juno Dawson, who is a friend of mine
and she is an author and trans activist.
And we're going to be interviewing her.
The Banging Book Club, me, Lena, and Lucy,
are doing a live show.
We're doing a live recording of the podcast
and Juno is going to be there and I cannot wait.
It is on Thursday, the 24th of August at 7:00 p.m.
in London.
It is at a venue near Piccadilly Circus,
so super central, easy to get to.
I will leave a link in the description
to where you can get tickets and all of that information.
Tickets are 15 pounds, but we want to do more of these,
so please come and support us, come say hey,
be able to ask us questions that will be in the podcast,
and hopefully meet you guys afterwards.
Please come, please come.
It's gonna be great.
Also I'm very excited to read this.
Juno wrote a bit for my book all about her experience
being trans, and she interviewed me for a section
in The Gender Games too.
So, like, we're in each other's books
and it's very exciting.
Thursday, 24th of August, 7:00 p.m., London,
link to tickets in the description.
Oh, and also Banging Book Club now have a Facebook page
and we created a Facebook event for the live recording,
so it's easy to share and invite your friends
and do all of that stuff.
Is that how people still do events?
That's how I do it.
But maybe I'm getting old.
Let's continue in books I also read.
Sofia Khan is Not Obliged by Ayisha Malek.
This has been at the top of my TBR, To Be Read,
for so long and I finally got around to it.
And it's so good.
It's so funny, it's just so lovely.
The way that I've heard people describe this
and when people ask me what it's about, I use this too
because it kind of summarises it very neatly.
In that it is the Muslim Bridget Jones.
It's just very funny,
but it's about a person that I don't really see that often
in books and in films, like who's the main character.
So that was just really exciting
and all the characters are so great and lovable.
You just have all of the classic, like,
bad guy she falls for
and the good guy who like "Oh my god, was he there
"under your nose all along?"
Like, who knows?
And Sofia Khan also works in publishing
and her boss basically asks her to write a book
all about Muslim dating.
So you get her story and her life and all of her endeavours
and romances and all of the weddings that she's going to,
alongside her trying to write this book
all about Muslim dating.
And finally, in July I also reread for the first time
in about 15 years I think,
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
And oh, oh boy!
Also, I have the physical books but they're in Manchester
and it was free on the Kindle
because 20th anniversary celebrations and all of that jazz.
Basically in almost every chapter,
I was just tearing up and crying
because of all of the emotions and the nostalgia
and everything.
Also I realised that most of my knowledge
of Philosopher's Stone comes from the film,
because I've probably seen the film more times
than I've read it and I've also seen the film more recently.
It was so magical rereading it
and I think I'm gonna reread all seven books
because that seems like an appropriate thing
for a 25 year old to do.
Okay, enough about books,
but some more about Harry Potter.
I don't know how I'm going to get this into frame.
Pottermore also now have like an art gallery.
They have an online shop and they have pieces of art
and I got this poster.
It's of the, hello.
Of the Hufflepuff common room, and I got it framed.
The thing is, though, is that when you frame something,
it's quite heavy and then you put it up in your living room
and it falls down twice.
Luckily, nothing's been smashed.
So now it's just leaning against the end of my bed
and I don't really know what to do with it
because I don't know if I'm allowed to bang nails
into the wall.
But isn't it beautiful?
Look at this, Hufflepuff common room.
So this next favourite is a new obsession.
And if you follow me on Twitter, you will probably know
what this is.
And it is the game Civilization VI.
It's a video computer game
and my boyfriend introduced me to it and I can't stop.
I'm having Civ dreams.
I'm dreaming in Civ.
I'm still not very good at it.
I've actually only ever completed one game.
Me and my boyfriend have two games on the go now,
still not finished one, and he really likes declaring war
against me and I really like to take it personally
and get very upset.
So (laughs) we'll see how long this relationship lasts.
But the thing is that I can only play Civ with him
because it's on his account and he logs out of his account
when he's not here and so I can't get on there
on my computer.
We thought that this would help me stay productive
during the week and I wouldn't be constantly playing Civ.
But no, I have now progressed into just watching videos
of people playing Civ for hours and hours and hours,
so productivity, ding ding ding.
But I'm also the kind of person that when I get a new hobby,
I feel like I have to make it productive.
I hate wasting time.
I, like, it makes me angry with myself
when I'm wasting time.
And so we are livestreaming us playing Civ on Twitch.
What did I just say?
We're just doing it for the shits and gigs.
We did a livestream on Saturday for a few hours
and like 80 people were watching
and it was like so much fun!
We loved it, it was so great!
Very secretive boyfriend is now kind of not so secret
to a very small portion of my audience.
We're not doing video streaming or anything like that.
It's just our voices.
But it's just so fun!
And we're gonna do more.
We think the next one is going to be the Monday
after Summer in the City, because I am taking that day off
to recover.
So we're just gonna play Civ all day,
which is gonna be great.
So that's I think Monday the seventh of August.
This is who I've become.
Relationships change, you guys.
Who am I?
Okay, we need to move on from Civ
because it's making me really want to play it.
I want to scratch that itch but I can't play it!
(deep breath) You can wait until Monday, Hannah.
Next, films.
Or just film, film single.
Went to see Baby Driver.
Oh my goodness.
I loved this film.
Ansel Elgort is beautiful.
I don't think I've ever fancied him so much
than I have in Baby Driver.
Amazing.
Also Lily James.
I just love her.
I think her American accent was bad
but Americans, you can be the judge of that.
The music, the music!
I heard that when they were filming it,
they filmed it to the music so that all of the beats
were in the right place, and if that's true,
you can definitely see it
because music is such an integral part of the plot
and the character of Baby.
So (hums)...
I liked it so much that I want to go and see it again,
like immediately.
I don't often get that feeling from films.
I'm just like oh, I want to experience
that whole thing again, it was amazing.
TV shows.
Game of Thrones.
Game of Thrones is back.
(hums)
I'm up to date, three episodes in.
Obviously not gonna spoil anything or say anything.
There's no point in even saying anything
because someone will interpret in a way
that they think is a spoiler,
but let's just say I'm enjoying it very much.
I am very happy that Game of Thrones is back,
it's been too long.
And finally, got some food and drink bits and pieces
because I've never done that before
but I've got some foodie favourites.
In fact, this foodie favourite has actually been a favourite
for months, but I've never had a packet to show in a video
because I've eaten them all.
These are Walker's Sun Bites multi-grain crispy snacks.
And it's the sweet chilli flavour and (gasps).
I don't ever buy multi-packs of crisps.
But now I keep these stocked in my cupboard.
They are delicious, they are also meant to be good for you!
Like, how can something this tasty be good for you?
Oh.
I'm just gonna continue this with food in my mouth.
This girl Pam sent me a little care package
filled with lots of stuff.
And one of the things was this water bottle,
but it's one of those water bottles that has (hums)
one of these things in it that you can put fruit in it
and it makes the water taste like fruit.
I've tested out a few different things.
Strawberries don't work so well, unfortunately,
because it takes too much time for it to diffuse
into the water.
But citrus fruit, but citrus fruits like lemons and limes.
(kisses)
They work perfectly.
I'm just gonna continue eating whilst thanking you
for watching this video.
And please give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it
and let me know some of the things that you've been enjoying
this month in the comments.
Don't forget, Banging Book Club live recording
with Juno Dawson, Thursday, the 24th of August,
7:00 p.m., London, tickets below.
Please come.
Thanks for watching, bye!
(calm music)