While July was all about finishing Ozark over here, August has been all about baseball. Four of the five weeks in August had the Hops playing at home which was AWESOME, and reduced my pop culture consumption a tad. I also am now running a state senate campaign (I mentioned in my newsletter last week) but luckily had a quiet weekend that was cool enough to sit outside a lot and read a book. Here’s what kept me sane in my air conditioned home the rest of the month…
Reading
Holy crap, When the Moon Turns to Blood by Leah Sottile was even better than I was expecting it to be. Cults, doomsday preppers and Mormons. This book had EVERYTHING, and it’s a true story. All of the history that got Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell to where they are now is even more bonkers than I could have imagined.
In lighter summer reading, I finally read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and really enjoyed it! I had heard good things about the author and wanted to read something of hers, I’ll read more for sure. I also enjoyed The Lifestyle which I learned about last month from a Late Night Lit podcast interview with the author. It was a fun summer read, perfect for that end of summer vacation.
I also listened to Stanley Tucci’s memoir Taste. I think I actually would have preferred to read this book instead of listen, which was surprising to me. Over the weekend I read Blake Crouch’s newest book Upgrade. Since it’s so new I’ll hold on my review but I am super curious what other people thought.
Listening
Obviously Renaissance is on a constant rotation over here and Harry’s House continues to be excellent background music. As far as podcasts though, I finally found a new one that I think fellow pop culture fans will enjoy. Into It is a new podcast from Vulture and I am really loving it. There is a “culturegeist” segment at the end of each episode where a few editors recommend their latest pop culture finds, and that has lead me on a few rabbit holes already!
OPB Politics Now has a great summer series called Growing Oregon that I have LOVED, if you live here, give it a listen. A recent email from Anne Helen Petersen recommended Switched on Pop and a great episode about Harry Styles and the Sledgehammer Horns, just trust me on this one.
Watching
I LOVED Loot, it was such a wonderful and kind show (ala Ted Lasso.) There’s no surprise – Maya Rudolph is fantastic. Watch it. We enjoyed the second season of Only Murders in the Building and I am grateful they were meta about the pace this season. Lots of excellent twists and a fantastic cameo in the end!
If you missed Julia on HBOMax – go find it. There’s actually two Julia shows on HBOMax, but this is the TV series (with Bebe Neuwirth and David Hyde Pierce!) and it is LOVELY. Her editor, her husband, her friends, it falls into that “nice” category, and a great show to add to the list for an adult family holiday show to avoid talking politics.
As I mentioned, it’s been a lot of baseball and outside time this summer, so less TV has been consumed. My in-laws also visited for a few days so we did a re-watch (new to them) of Ted Lasso season 2 and I am so sad we only get one more season of this amazing show.
With one week of no baseball in town, we obviously binged A League of Their Own and it was fabulous. Watch it, find it on Prime (we all forget we have Prime don’t we?) and enjoy every moment of it. I am half way through the latest season of Never Have I Ever, which again is hilarious and wonderful and I should probably be better at savoring the season.
Reservation Dogs, She Hulk and House of the Dragon are on my up next list, I promise…
What’s been keeping you sane this summer?
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