Baseball season has arrived in Hillsboro, and my nights are now a mix of up late nights after a game letting the dogs run around before bed, or a chill night at home catching up on the TV I’ve missed from the last week (or more). I love this time of year when the days get longer and we can comfortably visit outside with friends (and without masks for those of us who are vaccinated!) When I’m not cheering for the Hops or the Vancouver Canadians this month, here’s what’s been keeping me busy.

Reading

I am making my way through Project Hail Mary the latest book from Andy Weir who wrote The Martian. I am really enjoying the book and hopefully can push through this weekend with the warm weather to finish!

Between baseball and local elections this month I didn’t get as much reading in as usual, hopefully June will make up for it!

Listening

Besides the usual podcasts I discovered The Turning which is about Mother Theresa’s convent – Missionaries of Charity (MC). It’s pretty dark and crazy what was, and still is, going on for nuns in this organization. If you like a good cult story (as we all know I do) this will maybe fit that niche…

Most weekends we watch the latest episode of SNL with our friends in our quarantine pod. For the first time ever, the 13 year old DEMANDED we skip the musical guest two weeks ago when Olivia Rodrigo was on. He rarely asks to skip anything so we did it, sounds like we didn’t miss anything. And luckily we did catch Lil Nas X in the finale.

Watching

I am caught up on The Handmaids Tale and I really need to talk about it. WOAH. What a season. I am curious – if you read The Testaments are you enjoying this season more or less than previous seasons?

I also finally am catching up on the final season of Younger which I really enjoyed binging this winter.

Tis the season for Real Housewives! We just wrapped up Jersey (loved it, and Joe Gorga needs to CHILL), started New York – which is my favorite (really loving Eboni!) and finally the return of Beverly Hills – I can’t WAIT for all the Erika Jayne drama to unfold…

If you haven’t discovered Hacks on HBOMax you need to stop what you’re doing and jump on it. Jean Smart is a national treasure and she is as funny as ever in this smart series! On the other end of the funny ladies scale, I devoured Girls5Eva on Peacock earlier this month. It’s a sweet and funny series from Tina Fey. If you liked Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, this is for you.

My husband and I are really enjoying The Story of Late Night on CNN. I knew a lot of the stories since my dad is an uber Letterman fan, but I still didn’t know a lot of it. It’s GREAT. We’re also enjoying this season of Top Chef which had it’s best Restaurant Wars to date!

What pop culture got you through this prequel to summer? What pop culture are you excited for this summer?

Spring has arrived here in the Northwest and I am so grateful for it! My husband and I were able to get away to the coast for a few days last weekend. It was so nice to look at different walls and an amazing ocean view for a few days! I read a book in a weekend and almost finished a puzzle and then purchased a puzzle tray so I never have to experience that again!

Here’s the pop culture that got me through these April showers…

Listening

A few years ago I caught a Dateline story (FYI: I’m not a Dateline person) about a woman in Rexburg, Idaho who had remarried and her 2 kids hadn’t been seen since before the marriage. I happen to have a lot of family in Eastern Idaho so the story intrigued me. The episode was really crazy but the story was ongoing at that point. So when Mommy Doomsday popped up on my podcast radar, I was ready for it. The story goes into more details than I remember and yowza, it’s nuts. If you love cults and mysteries this is for you.

Each month on the Late Night with Seth Meyers Podcast he has a “Late Night Lit” episode where one of his producers interviews an author or two, someone who might have appeared on the show over the past month or someone connected to the show. Staff give their recommendations and all around I leave with a few new book ideas.

My brother made a comment about Lake Street Dive a few weeks ago and I didn’t realize what a large musical gap was missing in my life! If this is a reminder that you love this band, or the nudge you need to check them out, I highly recommend them as an excellent background to dinner or work.

I am also loving the new Nick Jonas album – especially Delicious. Trust me.

Reading

I got through 3 books this month, which means one thing: warm sunshine and outside reading has resumed!

I loved Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas. The Hate You Give was such an incredible book and this prequel about her father is really fantastic. Plus it takes place around the same time I was in high school and the references were great.

I tried out Powell’s Indiespensible book club for a couple of months and realized I have TOO MANY BOOKS to get books suggested to me blindly each month. But, before I stopped, I ended up with Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam. I took it on vacation back in January and realized that reading a book about a family on vacation in the middle of now where and then the (maybe) home owners show up in the middle of the night telling them about a potential major power outage was a bad vacation read. I was wrong – you’d be fine to read this fantastic story on vacation. And it’s a GREAT book, I devoured it in just a few days and can’t wait for you to read it so we can talk about it!

A while ago Nothing to See Here was recommended and I added it to a list to read and forgot about it until it showed up at the library for me just in time for our weekend getaway. Boarding School friends who keep in touch by letters and then reconnect over twins that can burst into flames PLUS politics? This book is exactly what I needed for a very funny rainy weekend read.

Watching

Top Chef Portland is here and I am SO excited. My dad has been visiting over the past month so Top Chef viewing parties have been part of the weekend activities – and we all have bets on who will win – winner picks any restaurant in Oregon and losers have to pay. I am very excited for Sara to win this for me! It’s also great to see them feature Oregon and work their way around the pandemic.

My dad watched Mank in advance of the Oscars and I didn’t (and don’t plan to).  But when he wanted to watch Citizen Kane again,  I watched it with him since I had never seen it. I get why it was such a big movie at the time, but with a 2021 lens on it, I mean, it’s good… What I really want now is a good podcast or biography about William Randolph Hearst please!

The coast had spotty wifi so we did a rewatch of I’m Sorry on Netflix which has just popped up on a list of “if you’ve already rewatched Schitt’s Creek” recommendations and I was reminded how HILARIOUS this show is. Just watch it and trust me.

Alright, those are my highlights for April! Here’s a few other things I’ve been watching lately – share your favorites in the comments and then get excited for this and this.

Spring has arrived my friends! If you’ve been around here a while, you know I love what spring and summer mean for me: reading outside, which means more reading. I am READY for this! I hope you are enjoying the beginning of spring and all that the warmer weather and fresh flowers means for your pop culture consumption! Here’s what got me through the rain this month…

Reading

I’ll continue to preach the good news of the Libby App to download audio books and ebooks from your library. I had a great month of comedian memoirs… I loved Dear Girls from Ali Wong – it was wildly raunchy and hilarious. If you’ve liked her comedy specials on Netflix, this is for you. Do NOT listen with your children. My favorite part was the afterward by her husband. It was VERY sweet and thoughtful.

As a big fan of Parks & Rec I was behind the game to listen to Retta’s book So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y’all Don’t Even Know. It was interesting to listen to her story about having immigrant parents while I was also reading In the Country We Love: My Family Divided by Diane Guerrero about her Columbian parents being deported. In the Country We Love was a fascinating look at just how broken our immigration system is. Guerrero is a US Citizen so when her family was taken, no one checked on her, and she relied on the support of family friends to help get her through high school. At 14 she was all alone and the government never checked on her. This was a quick but important book to read.

I am almost finished listening to Obviously by Akilah Hughes. I really like Akilah on the What A Day podcast and her book is essays about her life which I am really appreciating as I get to “know” her through the podcast.

If Chelsea Cain writes a comic series, I am going to read it. I finally picked up the 4 issue Spy Island and it was VERY fun. She writes badass females and her comics are ALWAYS funny. If you’re looking for a comic that’s not a super hero, this would be a great one to try out (also try Mockingbird & Man Eaters from her…).

I finally started reading Concrete Rose the latest book from Angie Thomas. It is great to be back in the world of Garden Heights, this book follows the father from The Hate You Give which is a fantastic book.

Listening

Since I’ve been working on more audiobooks lately I haven’t listened to many podcasts except for my morning What A Day routine and occasionally The Daily. I listen to a few of the Think Out Loud stories each week and always catch OPB Politics Now on Friday to get caught up on what’s going on in Oregon each week.

Watching

I continue to keep my Google Sheet up to date with EVERYTHING I’m watching. But this month I finally caught up with Resident Alien and it is SO FUN. It’s very funny and relatively light hearted which I often need these days.

I devoured Murder Among the Mormons. You KNOW I love a good Mormon story and I only wish this one had gone further – I could have used one more episode. The Last Blockbuster on Earth is about MY Blockbuster. Yes, the one I grew up going to in Bend when I was in high school. It was very fun to reminisce about Blockbuster and going out of your house to RENT A MOVIE.

We had an outdoor movie night with friends and ended up watching The Truman Show with their kiddo and that movie holds up! I had never seen Coming to America so my husband and I watched it a few weeks ago and then watched Coming 2 America which did a good job of honoring the first film but making the sequel a little more 2021 appropriate. We also ended up watching Game Night with Jason Bateman & Rachel McAdams this month. If you missed it – it was hilarious and I’m so glad we ended up watching it!

The latest season of The Unicorn just wrapped up, and it’s such a great, sweet show. Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy was excellent and I’m excited for more seasons! I can’t WAIT for Top Chef to being this week and Fast Foodies has been a good place holder until then now that Searching is over.

Wow, that’s some good pop culture this month. What have you been reading/watching/listening to that is keeping you going lately?