Check Out This Week's Recommendations! (6/08/2021)

I, Tonya (movie)

This movie tells the story of Tonya Hardin, a talented figure skater who in 1991 becomes the first American woman to complete a triple axel during a competition. In 1994, her world comes crashing down when her ex-husband conspires to injure Nancy Kerrigan, a fellow Olympic hopeful, in a poorly conceived attack that forces the young woman to withdraw from the national championship. Harding's life and legacy instantly become meaningless as she's forever associated with one of the most infamous scandals in sports history.

This movie is truly amazing. It takes a very known event and tells it from a different perspective you might not have thought of. It is telling her part of the story which teaches you there are always two sides to the coin. The acting is also impeccable so definitely go check it out.

Outer Banks (series)

The series follows a teenager, John B., and his friends in Outer Banks, a place divided into Pogues (the less fortunate) and Cooks (the privileged ones). He, along with his three best friends hunt for a legendary treasure linked to his father's disappearance.

The story is extremely entertaining. Even though something like this would never happen in real life, the storyline compensates. You’ll get really invested in the plot and the characters and I swear you’ll finish it in a day.

Skam - Norway (series)

Skam is a Norwegian teen series about the daily life of teenagers at the Hartvig Nissen School, a gymnasium in the wealthy town of Frogner in West End Oslo. It also follows a new main character each season which keeps the series interesting.

This is a realistic series with realistic characters that feel like actual teenagers, so it’s very relatable and that makes it easier to get attached to the characters. It looks into teenage feelings and problems so it might also help you handle problems of your own.

A Separate Peace (book)

A Separate Place is a coming-of-age novel based on the author's earlier short story, "Phineas''. This is a tale of two high-school boys standing on the threshold of war and adulthood. Gene Forrester is a careful, studious young man, full of fear of the future as America is about to enter World War II and Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. They both go to a boys boarding school in New England during that time and the book explores what happens between the two friends one summer, like how the war itself banishes the innocence of these boys and their world.

This book has a profound lasting impact. It is a short but amazingly written narrated by a talented but inconspicuous boy who is jealous of his best friend, Phineas. He is simple but he is likable. It deals with teenage frustration and loneliness. It is an amazing description of adolescence during a period when the entire country was losing its innocence to the second world war.

Kiss Kiss (book)

Kiss Kiss is a collection of short stories by Roald Dahl. In these dark, disturbing stories Roald Dahl explores the sinister side of human nature that leads into the territory of the unexpected and unsettling. The stories featured in Kiss Kiss are: The Landlady, William and Mary, The Way up to Heaven, Parson's Pleasure, Mrs, Bixby and the Colonel's Coat, Royal Jelly, Georgy Porgy, Genesis and Catastrophe,Edward the Conqueror, Pig, The Champion of the World.

These stories are funny, weird, strange and frightening but very entertaining. They are so easy to access, so full of interesting thoughts about human nature, so clever and complex in their minimalism, leaving the reader with the thought that this could probably really happen somewhere and what a strange place the minds of many human beings must be.

It's the deep cynicism, the darkness close to misanthropy, that makes these stories so unique. It shatters any positive worldview by taking general pictures and especially intimate relationships with family members and loved ones to crush the illusion of normality and happiness with terror.

Bibliography

Dahl, R. (1960) Kiss Kiss [Photograph] Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44521.Kiss_Kiss

De Heras, G. (2017, January 17) 'Skam' no es la nueva 'Skins' y eso es bueno. [Photograph] TV Spoiler Alert. https://www.tvspoileralert.com/2017/01/critica-skam-serie-noruega.html

IMDb (2017) I, Tonya. [Photograph] IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580036/

Knowles, J. (1959) A Separate Peace. [Photograph] Book Depository. https://www.bookdepository.com/es/Separate-Peace-John-Knowles/9781471152320

Reed, S. (July 2021) What is Outer Banks Season 2 About?. [Photograph] https://netflixlife.com/2021/07/23/what-is-outer-banks-season-2-about/