Reading

The new Emily Henry book arrived while I was on vacation and I devoured it one warm weekend. Great Big Beautiful Life is maybe my new favorite of hers. I really enjoyed the flashbacks from the story she was learning. If you enjoyed The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo this is for you. Also that is NOT a spoiler, when I saw that comparison I was mad, but it’s simply in the “main character goes to write a sweeping celebrity memoir” category. Also SUPER excited for Taylor Jenkins Reid’s new book coming in June!

I have read all four of Marissa Pessl’s books and Darkly was (as always) fantastic! I knew that this was a book I needed to read on vacation where I didn’t have distractions and could just binge through it. I was correct. Pessl’s written two adult novels (Special Topics in Calamity Physics is an all time favorite) and now two YA novels. It’s creepy and a great mystery/puzzle. I highly recommend it for your creepy(ish) summer beach read.

Listening

I continue to be obsessed with Good Hang, and the Philly Justice episode is everything I was hoping for. I don’t watch podcasts because that defeats the purpose, but I did listen to the podcast on our trip back from the beach and and my husband and I then watched the trailer when we got home and it did NOT disappoint. If you’re 1/3 of the Parks & Rec fan that I am you need to be listening to this podcast in general, but specifically this episode.

My brother told me about the newest Christianity Today (stay with me…) series – Devil in the Deep Blue Sea. I listened to the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast from the same person a couple years ago and loved it. This one is about the satanic panic of the 80’s and 90’s. If you grew up going to an evangelical church like I did, this is the podcast for you…

Watching

May is the season of finales. From season finales (Hacks!) to series finales (The Handmaids Tale! Righteous Gemstones!) it was a big month to wrap things up.

The series finale of The Handmaids Tale finally happened. I am glad this “dystopian fiction” show has wrapped up. When I saw that as a descriptor for the episode on Hulu I had to laugh as it is no longer dystopian nor fiction… It wrapped up well and set the stage for The Testaments which is coming in 2026. I probably need more time to process this finale, I am currently fine with it but didn’t love it. I sort of expected it to be similar to the book which is her recounting her experiences in Gilead to a governing council. It was not that, although I think she did that a few seasons ago? Anyway, it wrapped up well and June is safe. I hope Hannah is too.

I binged through the final season of The Righteous Gemstones which I have loved but this final season felt off and the last two episodes were… not my favorite? Baby Billy for life. May also brought us a second season of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives that I didn’t need but absolutely binged just so I could read this power ranking (nailed it).

My family wouldn’t shut up about Chef’s Table: Legends with Jamie Oliver, Jose Andres, Thomas Keller, and Alice Waters. Four episodes, one about each chef, and they were all fantastic. If you like to eat at all, these all tell great stories about four incredibly accomplished chefs. Although…I came away with no need to go to French Laundry. Will be curious what you think.

I have created a long list of shows to binge this summer. I keep forgetting I have access to Disney+ so will see if I can get caught up on a few shows there in the coming months. I still need to watch Moana 2! Maybe when my niece visits in a couple weeks…

What have you enjoyed this spring? What are you excited to read/watch/listen to this summer?

Reading

I finished The Three Lives of Cate Kay at the end of March and it didn’t make last months round up. It was a really good story told well. I like multiple narrators and jumping around in time to tell a story. Once again Reese’s bookclub was right…

I love the journalist Leah Sottile and her new book Blazing Eye Sees All was fascinating! I had watched the Love Has Won documentary last year so was familiar with Mother God, but this book goes so deep into the history of new age studies and the women who lead them. If you like a cult, like I like a cult, you already know who Leah is then 😉

I started listening to the Lorne Michaels Bio Lorne and the narrator makes some interesting vocal decisions (which I’m glad that I’d been warned about by Whitney Matheson’s blog). Still, it’s a LONG audiobook and while I made a good dent on the trip, I’ll have to wait to finish until it returns to my library account. I didn’t read a single book while in Spain. I packed two and didn’t touch them. I tend not to read on international flights – I don’t know why, but it never really jumps at me. While I was gone the new Emily Henry book was delivered so I’ll get that devoured in the next week or two…

Listening

Everything is terrible and every podcast will tell you that on a daily basis if you let them. What’s saving me from all of that? Amy Poehler’s new podcast, Good Hang. It fills the Parks and Rec void in my life and the Kathryn Hahn episode was so fantastic…her talking about who would play her dog in a movie is amazing. I also really enjoyed the Jack Black episode on the painfully bumpy train ride from San Sebastian to Barcelona. They are so funny together and have a such a great friendship.

Watching

I really liked this season of White Lotus, sure the people are insufferable, that’s the point of the show. Parker Posey AND Walt Goggins AND Carrie Coon? I will always say yes to any of them in a show, a trifecta was quite the bonus!

We’re plugging along on Top Chef and The Amazing Race this season. It’s always fun to see where people travel on The Amazing Race and this season they ended up in Kyoto at a palace my husband visited when he was there last year for work, so that was fun (for him, I was home taking care of the dogs…)

I did a rewatch of Hacks for the new season and the show is so incredibly smart and funny and I hate when they fight but they do it so well. I caught up on the train rides and really loving this season and the story line. I also have been watching this final season of The Handmaids Tale. It’s as dark as ever and feels all too real this days, we’ll see how this one ends up. Also, can we talk about how Jonah from Veep absolutely would be the horrible character he is this season?

My binge on the flight was Étoile, I love anything Amy Sherman Palladino does, I wanted this to be more snark like Bunheads but it was a good show to binge on the flight home. I also finally watched Bottoms on the way to Spain and it was HILARIOUS. I’d heard great things and just needed 90 minutes with no distractions. It’s as funny as everyone said it would be, and Marshawn Lynch nails it.

The sun is shining and that means hopefully more time in my backyard reading and playing with Norm and Cliff are in my future…What are you excited for coming up in Pop Culture?