Reading

I finally finished The Authenticity Project which I started back in January on vacation. It was such a sweet and kind book, but the writing style it made it easy to pick up and put down. I finally finished reading this book on a rainy weekend, and it was delightful.

If I could have Amber Ruffin read every book to me with her commentary I would love that. I was excited when The World Record Book of Racist Stories showed up on my audiobook feed. It was again devastating and hilarious, I highly recommend reading You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism first if you haven’t yet.

I am almost finished with Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, and it is incredible. My friend Bronwyn recently wrote about it in her newsletter and I knew it was finally time, and she was (as always) correct! (FYI she and I have very similar pop culture taste if you are looking for more recs – subscribe!)

Listening

A recent episode of Think Out Loud about elk (yes the animal) on the Oregon coast was fascinating, and terrifying if you have a summer vacation planned there with your dogs…

Offline with Jon Favreau has had some great interviews lately, especially “How the Internet is Radicalizing Young Men.”

Between Into It and Vibe Check I feel like I understand the pending Writers Guild strike better, and a lot of other news. The Guide to Spoiler Culture episode of Into It should be required listening if you complain about people spoiling shows on social media.

Watching

If you’ve read this blog for a while then you know that The Americans is one of my all time favorite shows. when I saw that Keri Russell was returning for a new political TV show, I couldn’t wait and devoured it in 4 days. The Diplomat had everything I wanted in a Keri Russell politics show (except enough episodes – I needed way more than 8!) If you miss The West Wing this show was created by a former WW writer and has an incredible cast and a captivating story. Let me know when you’ve finished, so much to discuss!

Food AND travel shows are always a hit around here. We’re enjoying this season of Top Chef and all the international chefs and inspiration they bring. We’re also enjoying Eva Longoria’s Searching for Mexico on CNN. A favorite Top Chef alum, Kristin Kish, had a great 4 episode series on Disney+, Restaurants at the End of the World. Now I want to go to an island off Norway inhabited with polar bears and walrus!

I loved the book The Power and the series on Amazon is equally fantastic. I can’t figure out what I think about Beef still, I’ve watched two episodes, it is SO DARK I need a minute between each episode. Are you watching it? What do you think?

What pop culture has got you through the rainy cold winter/spring this year?

Reading

I have loved Rob Delaney since Catastrophe, and I had heard great things about A Heart That Works, the devastating story of his son dying of cancer at two years old. I didn’t realize you could laugh so hard (the pronunciation of giraffe being racist had me laughing loudly on a dog walk) through the grief. If this book is on your to read list, I highly recommend you let Delaney read it to you.

As an unashamed Real Housewives fan, I usually skip the memoirs, but Heather Gay’s new memoir Bad Mormon obviously screamed “Elizabeth needs this ASAP.” I LOVED it. The stories Gay tells about the church and her mission and her marriage were so fascinating to me, especially with her lens of no longer being in the church. I recommended it to my dad and told him to just skip the part about the housewives at the end, which if you aren’t a housewives fan, I’d suggest the same for you. She was sweet and funny through the whole book and then felt like it was a fan service to trash talk RHOSLC cast mates. I get it and still loved the book.

Like most of the world, I read Spare this month and, like everyone else it seems, LOVED IT. I got the book before the audiobook was ready and I preferred to read it since the chapters are such short stories, it was very easy to pick up and put down. I didn’t realize how intertwined “the Firm” is with the media in the UK, it’s crazy and disgusting. I felt sympathy for Camilla after the latest season of The Crown and after reading what Prince Harry had to say, I no longer feel sympathy for her. At all. Or his brother for that matter. What a messed up family.

Watching

Shrinking on AppleTV is the best show I didn’t know I was going to need this winter. It is so clever and funny. If you only watched the pilot please keep going. I promise you won’t be disappointed. There is a scene in episode four that I can’t stop laughing when I think about. You’re welcome.

I finished another lovely season of All Creatures Great and Small, which continues to be such a nice and kind show.

When recovering from a medical procedure, a good rom-com is always the answer, and Your Place or Mine was the answer this month. It was exactly the amount of cute and funny I needed. Plus it was written by the co-creator of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend AND has Tig Notaro in it! What’s not to love?

Speaking of movies, I finally watched The Menu and if you have traveled for fine dining experiences like I have, well, you should watch this. And then eat an Olive Garden amount of breadsticks to make up for that bread course. Thanks to a snow storm and visit from my dad, we watched Wakanda Forever finally and it was a great next step in the Wakanda universe after the loss of Chadwick Boseman.

Listening

I haven’t listened to a lot of new podcasts lately so decided this part may come and go. Besides In To It, I am also enjoying Vibe Check lately – it’s a great mix of news and pop culture.

When I saw The Boss was coming to Portland on his latest tour I knew we had to get this bucket list item concert checked off. My dad flew up to join us and we had a GREAT time! If you are around my age and have parents who live in the Portland area, I can almost guarantee where they were that night. Springsteen went all in for almost 3 hours, it was AWESOME!