They might not be raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but that doesn’t mean that we love them any less. Welcome back to My Favorite Things, the weekly column where we grab someone in speculative circles to gab about the greatest in geek. This week we sit down with Speculative Chic contributor Lisa P. What does she love when she’s not brainstorming new columns for the blog? Spoiler alert: discovering her Destiny, exorcisms (and it’s not even Halloween!), and the scent of a good book! Curious? Read on for more!
Let me start by saying that this list is not going to contain a lot of books. I have been in sort of a reading slump lately, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been consuming a lot of spec fic from other mediums! Here are my top three favorites:
My first favorite this has jumped to the top of this list as of this weekend (which is Black Friday weekend, at the time of writing this), which I bought because it was on sale. It’s Destiny 2, a science fiction MMO-style game. I never played the first Destiny, mostly because I knew it was a first-person shooter, and I generally don’t like those, especially if it’s on console. Cue to this weekend: I heard good things about Destiny 2, that it was a MMO (so I could play with friends and get help), and that it is made by the studio Bungie. Mass Effect’s head writer left BioWare for Bungie, and this game is similar in style to Mass Effect, so that was a big plus for me.
Turns out this game is really fun! The graphics are stunning, gameplay isn’t very hard compared to other first-person shooters, and best of all you can group up with your friends to complete missions. Even if your friends are much higher (or lower) level than you, the game scales missions to work for both of you. You don’t need story knowledge from the first Destiny, but at times I looked up some references because I wanted to know more.
I predict a lot more Destiny 2 for me in the future.
Another favorite thing that I never expected to actually like is the TV show The Exorcist. I’m not a huge fan of horror. I never saw the original because it’s too scary for me. Until one night there was absolutely nothing on TV, and I was flipping through the channels and stopped on an episode of The Exorcist from season 2. I left it on because John Cho was in it. It was so suspenseful and subtle in its horror that I was intrigued. The two main characters (played by Alfonso Herrera and Ben Daniels) were trying to coax a demon inside a possessed person into showing itself. The next day, I found The Exorcist season 1 on Netflix and binged watched it. The story takes place 30 or so years after the original movie and has some major twists and turns. It does get much scarier than that first episode I watched, but it’s never more than I could handle. It’s rare that horror can be done well for TV due to having more limits on content than movies, but this one is a gem.
My last favorite thing is something I think many people who read this blog might find to be a really great Christmas present for either themselves or a loved one. It’s the candles by Wick and Fable. Wick and Fable is a small company producing hand-poured vegan candles with unique scents. In fact, they create specialty scents based on books, TV, and movies! I ordered a sample bundle not too long ago with these scents: Hufflepuff (Harry Potter, of course), Highland Mist (Outlander), Campfire Tales (for Halloween), and #Bookstagram. I’m not even a candle person, and I freakin’ loved these! They also feature scents from the Throne of Glass series, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, Gilmore Girls, Riverdale, Wonder Woman (on my wishlist), and much more.
Lisa P., former book blogger, is as geeky as they come. Graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Concordia University, she (naturally) got a job in tech at a big corporation. She makes up for it by spending all her free time reading SF/F, watching TV (SF/F, crime dramas, anime), following esports, playing video games, or going to the gym to lift. Roxie and Lolli, her cat and dog, are her constant companions. You can find her on Twitter here.
Oh, I’ve never even heard of these candles! They sound excellent!
I’m always learning about cool things here, because I didn’t know that candles based on books even existed. I can’t really do scented candles because of my asthma but I really want to know what the Outlander Highland Mist candle smells like.
Lisa, you’re on a long list of people who keep telling me about what I’m missing not playing Destiny. This might just make me cave. 😉
My husband adores this franchise, so add another!