Women’s Weekender: For everything you need to read, listen and binge this week!

Women’s Weekender: For everything you need to read, listen and binge this week!

This week’s binge recommendations come thick and fast with more excellent books, hilarious TV viewing and a thrilling British court-room drama to see you through the weekend.

Intrigued? You should be. Below, I review a stirring tale of redemption and freedom, based in Newtown Sydney — a novel by the splendidly talented Amal Awad called ‘The Things we See in the Light’; Netflix’s latest sit-com that is sure to make you nostalgic for the 90s, ‘Pretty Smart’, and Sarah Vaughan’s gripping crime thriller, ‘Anatomy of a Scandal’.

Thanks to our partner, Scribd for supporting this feature. 

Listen: The Things we See in the Light by Amal Awad

If food is its own language, then Amal Awad is fluent in the sugary parlance of sweets and desserts. For Sahar – the heroine in Awad’s latest novel, The Things We See in the Light – cakes, buns and tarts are an essential part of her personhood. And her personhood has been disfigured by unimaginable trauma. 

This delightful book revels in a swollen, yet comforting melodrama of friendship, love and chocolate. And yes, there are many frothy descriptions of chocolate making. If you want something to lose yourself in and salivate to, listen to this lovely story today. 

Get it now on Scribd, here

Read: Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan 

Who doesn’t love a captivating court-room drama? Especially when it’s about a member of Parliament who is also ‘handsome, charming’ and ‘a very loving husband.’

Vaughn’s compelling novel follows the court-room case of James Whitehouse, a successful public figure who has recently been charged with rape by his mistress. His wife, Sophie stands by him. But how much can she really take? This book explores the fall out of political sex scandals, adultery among the elite wealthy cohort, and what a marriage looks like, after years of betrayal and abandon.

A lust-filled psychological drama, read it here, on Scribd. 

Watch: Pretty Smart (Netflix) Season One, 10 Episodes

Looking for some no-brain-chill-out sitcom to soothe your mind after the intensity of Squid Game? How about an entertaining 90s-inflected comedy that will give you the same predictable comfort as having a bath or taking that first sip of beer on a hot, Summer day? 

Pretty Smart is a pretty ridiculously superficial show, but sometimes, we all need a bit of superficiality in our lives. Our main characters are Chelsea and Claire — two sisters who have recently begun to live together.

Chelsea is the ‘bookish’ one and Claire is the ‘pretty’ one (I know…try to ignore this reductive, archaic trope) — they live in L.A and share a house with a gay influencer, a permanently shirtless personal trainer and a lawyer-turned-healer who only drinks turmeric ginger shots. 

If you’re looking for smart or witty dialogue, you won’t find much of it here. If you’re looking for eye-candy Ken and Barbie real life figures, this is the show you might indulge. 

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