August Pop Culture Round Up

This month included a lot of baseball, a trip to the coast with Norm & Cliff and a train trip to visit a friend, all resulting in some great pop culture consumption time, which I always love this time of year. Here’s what I read, watched and listened to while the dogs snoozed or were on a walk this month.

Reading

August was a good book month for me! I didn’t read as much as a I expected, but I read good stuff! Daisy Jones and the Six was just as fun and fantastic as everyone said it would be. I do NOT recommend watching the show adaptation immediately after, I did and ended up super angry at how many (dumb, weird, unnecessary) changes they made. I bet in six months I would have forgotten a few more things and liked it.

A friend of mine texted and asked if I’d ever read The Giver, yes the book you may have read in elementary school about children being told what they do with their lives (super Hunger Games vibes). Anyway, I hadn’t and so picked it up at the library for a quick read. It was GREAT, and the reason I read it was because of this article interviewing the “highest grossing female director”, Greta Gerwig about her inspiration for Weird Barbie. If you’ve seen Barbie, check out this article and maybe give The Giver a read, I thought it was great.

I Have Some Questions for You has been on my to be read list for a while, and I was so happy when it showed up just in time for a trip to the coast where I could get in some good reading time. It was GREAT. An excellent mystery and great twists along the way. I highly recommend it if you are a true crime podcast junkie.

Listening

Someone (and I can’t remember who – if it’s you please respond in the comments to get proper credit!) suggested Think Twice the new Michael Jackson podcast to me, and it is a slower burn than I expected but still excellent. It starts as the child sex abuse charges are unfolding and then goes back to his childhood and through his whole career. It’s a fascinating reminder of ALL that Michael Jackson accomplished in his life, and all the flags and warnings that were ignored. Side note: if you haven’t watched the Brooke Shields documentary on Hulu, it’s great and she talks about her relationship with Michael.

I have had a big ole crush on Timothy Olyphant since Justified was first on, so when I saw he was a guest on Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers I was super excited. He was so funny and the conversation between the three was very entertaining and made for a quick trip home from the coast.

Watching

I need you all to stop what you’re doing to watch the two seasons of Somebody, Somewhere on Max. There’s only seven episodes a season, this is an easy weekend binge of this sweet, funny, raunchy and wonderful show about a woman in Kansas dealing with her aging parents, the death of her sister and the quirky characters in Manhattan, KS. I loved it and should not have watched it on a train, people were concerned with my laughing.

We FINALLY watched Season 2 of The Bear and loved it/maddened by that finale. Each episode is really intense and really fantastic and if you’ve ever enjoyed a dining experience you need to watch this series, it’s so great.

I’m finishing up a few other shows that I’ll hopefully remember to talk about next month. What pop culture have you been consuming this summer? Anything I missed?