What the hell is this all about?

Books and telly and movies, oh my!

Why this, why now?

If, like me, you love reading books, watching TV, listening to podcasts and the odd time - severely-reduced attention span permitting - even watching a movie, but feel overwhelmed keeping track of the many recommendations from friends, family & those in the know then: Like This Love This is for you.  

There is so much of everything these days that I find it impossible to keep on top of it all. I have lost track of how many Notes I have in my phone with “books to read” or advising of “must-watch TV”. And whilst there are so many places online and in print to find recommendations (think: podcasts about books, TV columns in the paper, TikTok accounts dedicated to movie reviews); everything is split up by ‘discipline’, but I do not have the time, energy or inclination to keep on top of all of them, all of the time.

Due to work commitments, life commitments &, generally, my age, I have never been less keen to waste my time on books I don’t love, TV shows that seem to just be a waste of the 40 minutes I can stay awake after dinner or podcasts that don’t grab me. I want to find things I love (not just the titles that have the biggest marketing spend) and I have long wished there was one place to get ideas of what to watch, listen to & read: I reckon I’m not the only one in this situation and so Like This Love This was born.

It’s starting life as this newsletter with a Like This Love This Instagram account alongside it and the ambition is to share recommendations from the worlds of books, film & tv as well as audio.

It’s not all about me

Like This Love This isn’t just going to be a platform for me to bang on about all the things I like - I want to share as many likes and loves from as many people as possible, in an attempt to stop us all suffering from TV we don’t enjoy or books that others love but aren’t our vibe.

If you have any books, TV shows, movies and / or podcasts you think people need to know about: please draft a few words or record a voice note and send it lucie@likethislovethis.com - and don’t just think of titles you’ve read or watched lately: what about the shows & books that have stayed with you years later that people should know about? Let’s resurrect those golden oldies that time may have forgotten.

So far so obvious

There is more afoot, I have bigger plans than this and I hope this is merely the beginning. My aim is to share reviews of TV, movies, books & podcasts (roughly each week) with a view to suggesting titles which complement or link to each other in some way: “if you like this, you’ll love this”. So here goes…

TLDR

Listen to More Perfect, if you like this, you’ll love reading (or listening to) Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell and if you like those you’ll love watching The Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World?

(It’s probably newsletter 101 not to give readers an out so early on - but if you want to hear my rationale for recommending the above, then do read on…)

LISTEN

Given the US election looms large next week, I thought it would be fun to talk about all things Americana (which means this will be a rare non-fiction special.) Recent polling by Newsweek shows that abortion has overtaken immigration as the second most important issue to American voters.

I’ve long been a geek for American political news, though even I have had to lean out from the coverage of the 2024 race lately. The rancour, the madness, the apparent interference from not just Russia but also China & Iran, it’s a lot.

I find it useful to know the history and context of the circus…and for that More Perfect from NPR fits the bill, ahem, perfectly. (Sorry, not sorry)

For the uninitiated, NPR (National Public Radio) is an American broadcasting organisation with a network of stations across the United States. They have been producing quality audio for more than half a century so were perfectly placed to do well from the podcast boom. They have many great shows to listen to regularly but in this instance I have to shout about More Perfect from WNYC. The show started back in 2016 as a spin-off from Radiolab, an outlet for long-form audio journalism covering (but not limited to) science, philosophy and politics. The team knows good storytelling and produces the most engaging podcasts.

More Perfect goes through the decisions of the Supreme Court - explaining the link between the Black Panther movement, the strengthening of the NRA & the Second Amendment (the right to bear arms) or the backstory to the now-overturned Roe v Wade case.

It sounds like it would be pointy-headed and dull but it absolutely is not - it’s fascinating, very well-told for a lay audience of people like me who don’t have a law degree but without being condescending. Get listening & learning folks

The links above all take you to the NPR website: but More Perfect is available to listen to & download wherever you get your podcasts.

WATCH

If you fancy knowing even more about the foibles of America - this time through the medium of TV, may I recommend to you: The Corridors of Power. 

This 8 part documentary series carries the subtitle “Should America Police The World?” and examines conflicts, massacres & genocides in 7 different countries (yes, 7 - the final case study is split across the final two episodes) and what the United States did, or didn’t do, in each case. This project was clearly years in the making as it was only released this year yet features interviews with former Secretaries of State: Colin Powell (d.2021), Madeleine Albright (d.2022), and Henry Kissinger (d.2023). 

I’m pretty sure it’s exclusively Americans talking about their own administration’s strategy (or lack thereof) from the big beasts of the aforementioned and Hillary Rodham Clinton to American diplomats who were on the ground experiencing firsthand the impact of their country’s foreign policy: so hardly a 360° view in the truest sense but the contributors do not all agree about what the United States did or didn’t do. All in all, a fascinating take on how the decisions taken in Washington D.C. impact the rest of the world.

READ &/ LISTEN

If you’re interested in more of the social side of those United States of America, then you’ll like Malcolm Gladwell’s new mea culpa: Revenge of The Tipping Point. Gladwell became the darling of politicians on both the left & right when his first book The Tipping Point was published back in 2000. It expounded the Broken Windows theory and backed the NYPD’s policy of stop & frisk which was proved to disproportionately target young black men. In 2013, thanks to a case brought against the NYPD about the policy, Broken Windows was proven not to be the unmitigated success Gladwell, President Bill Clinton & former New York mayor Rudi Giuliani said that it was. 

Twenty four years later, Gladwell returns to tell us that he has seen the errors of his ways and tells more seemingly random stories that illustrate his points - this is very much the formula for his (& most pop-sociology non-fiction) writing, and it’s definitely not the poorer for it. I often struggle with non-fiction in audiobook form but I’ve been listening to it, rather than reading, and would highly recommend it as Gladwell does it in the style of the podcast: using the voices of those he has interviewed alongside his own narration of the book, which makes it easier for me not to get distracted while listening. 

Back next week with more ideas of what to watch, listen to & read - I’m thinking an Americana Part 2 as I have so many other ideas of great shows and books that help explain the wealthiest nation on earth. But then, I might be done in by the election…so watch this space…

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