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?

Well, my favorite month finally arrived! Between the holiday weekend and my birthday I’ve gotten in some great reading, a few podcasts, and finally finished Ozark! Here’s what kept me entertained and cool this past month…

Reading

I finished Kal Penn’s memoir You Can’t Be Serious and really enjoyed it. The story he tells about his (spoiler alert) fiancé was so sweet, and being married to a NASCAR fan… I feel his pain. I spent the rest of the month listening to How To Be Perfect by Michael Schur who created Parks and Recreation and The Good Place. As a philosophy minor in college (I know we’re all surprised by this information) I really appreciated the thoughtful and easy to understand way he writes about philosophy. This is definitely a book to listen to for The Good Place actors voices!

I really liked the mystery of Disorientation which was not at all what I expected! It is a very fun summer read set on a college campus that kept me on my toes. I then read The Paper Palace on a recommendation, I enjoyed it but t/w: child abuse/rape. Maybe I’ve been married too long, but I didn’t enjoy Cult Classic as much as the reviews made me think I would. It is still good twists and turns if you are looking for a weekend beach read, just wasn’t my jam.

Listening

We have a new Lizzo album out and I couldn’t be happier! And on the day I post this the new Beyoncé album drops! It is the birthday month that keeps on giving! Alos, I finally got on the Harry Styles bandwagon and I’m sorry it took me so long.

As far as podcasts go – OPB Politics Now has a great summer series called Growing Oregon that is fascinating (to me).

Watching

We finally did it. After months and months we finally finished Ozark. I’m still not sure what I think of that finale, but I’m glad I watch the whole thing.

At the opposite end of the spectrum we are really enjoying Loot on Apple+. Maya Rudolph is perfect as usual and Adam Scott plays an excellent ex. I finally finished Ms Marvel this week and it was so fantastic. I’m frustrated that I didn’t know about Partition until I watched a Disney+ show, but like Watchmen, sometimes TV is a good history lesson.

Now that we finished Ozark we can watch other things like The Bear on Hulu which everyone is talking about. I  also started Julia on HBO Max over the 4th and need to go back and finish it, it is delightful.

Next will be Under the Banner of Heaven I think and one of these days I also need to catch up on Stranger Things.

Thank the Lord – summer has finally arrived in Oregon (along with some EPIC unexpected allergies!). I wasn’t sure it would ever arrive, and on the summer solstice it officially showed up, phew! Now that I can sit outside and read more (my preferred location for reading besides a beach) I’m ready to kick things into gear. June has been a CRAZY pop culture month for me, let’s get to it…

Live Theater

If you caught my newsletter then you know that my dad and I took an amazing trip to New York City to see The Music Man on Broadway with Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster. It was AMAZING. We loved it. It was everything we had hoped for and more. If you have a chance to go to New York during its run, no matter who is in the cast, GO.

We had decided to wait till we arrived in New York to get an idea of what else people were talking about and what was jumping out at us. We ended up doing a double feature on Saturday. A matinee of The Book of Mormon and then we saw MacBeth with Daniel Craig (yes, 007 – who evidently looked my dad in the eyes TWICE – or so he claims). This was my third time seeing The Book of Mormon and  surprisingly it was dad’s first. It was GREAT, and the audience was a blast too. MacBeth was DARK and moody and fabulous.

Our final show was Funny Girl with Beanie Feldstein and Jane Lynch. It was one of my grandma’s favorite musicals so my dad suggested we go check it out. I knew nothing about the show and not a ton of the music, but I thought Beanie did great at making it her own, and the cast was fabulous!

Four shows, 48 hours. It was amazing.

Reading

Thankfully an airplane ride was what I needed to finally read The Sea of Tranquility, which is the latest Emily St. John Mandel and it was PERFECT. If you have read The Glass Hotel you’ll enjoy it more I think, but you’ll be ok if you don’t. More importantly, if you can read it in one sitting (or flight, or afternoon…) DO THAT. I had about 50 pages left when we landed so the next day while dad took a nap I went to a restaurant across the street had a glass of wine and finished it.

I also listened to Where the Deer and the Antelope Play which is surprisingly my first Nick Offerman book! I love Nick’s voice so the audio was the only way to go on this one for me. I appreciated his thoughts on National Parks and being good stewards of the environment. A good road trip book this summer…

I just finished reading Where the Crawdads Sings which my dad (and a million others) have recommended. It’s as great as everyone says, and I would love to discuss that ending please.

Currently on audiobook, I have Kal Penn’s memoir, You Can’t Be Serious and am thoroughly enjoying it so far!

Listening

I really like the journalist Leah Sottile and am super excited for her new book When the Moon Turns to Blood which I need to pickup ASAP. After the attempted terrorism attack of a Pride Parade in Idaho I decided I needed to listen to Bundyville season 2 finally. I think I started it at some point, but a re-listen/finish was needed. If you’re struggling with how much hate there is in this country, Leah is an excellent author to help explain why.

The Offline episode about kids screen time was fascinating as someone without children, BUT an aunt who has many friends struggling with this issue.

Also, why am I just now discovering Harry Styles? Harrys House is an excellent album to work to people… And Beyonce’s new drop is PERFECT.

Watching

June is evidently my month to finish up TV series that I started but had to stop for one reason or another. Baseball season makes my TV viewing a little more challenging. My husband and I are STILL working our way through Ozark…I promise we’ll finish it soon. We aren’t quitters…

The Wonder Years finished a great first season – if you’re looking for a fun family show this summer, it’s just like the show we grew up with, but with Don Cheadle, which makes it even better. I finally started the latest season of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel on the flight home from New York and it was another fun season. This season of Top Chef was as usual, excellent. I was fascinated that they finished the season in Tucson which is not a food city I would have thought of, and now I may need to take a trip (in winter obviously…)

I also finished the second season of Upload on the flight and it’s another great show that in peak TV can easily be over looked. It doesn’t help that Amazon Prime is such a pain to find shows on. Find it, watch it, enjoy The Office easter eggs…The hammerhead worm in the final episode of Our Great National Parks haunts my dreams, but this was such a lovely series. We finished it while my dad was here and he texted my brother (with two boys 5 & almost 3) that they should watch it. Fun for kids of ALL ages.

Hacks second season was excellent and putting them onto a tour bus was so so great. I can’t wait to see what next season brings. I Love That for You was such a weird little series that I liked the characters and the shopping channel workplace shenanigans but the star is definitely the least likeable, and Jenifer Lewis is wonderful as always. Speaking of second seasons, Girls5Eva really needs to have more episodes please. Each season goes by way too fast with such great jokes – I mean, The Property Brothers record label? COME ON, Tina Fey is brilliant.

I am loving Ms Marvel on and finished up Obi-Wan Kenobi this past weekend (thanks allergies for keeping me inside!) Obi-Wan was really really great. The kid who plays Leia was awesome and that is all I’ll say till you watch it. The latest season of Rutherford Falls is wonderful and it fills that Parks & Recreation hole in my pop culture heart each season.

Besides live theater I finally went to a movie theater for the first time since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (yes, December 2019…) to see Top Gun: Maverick and it was PERFECT. Surprisingly excellent. My husband and I decided to rewatch Top Gun the night before which was a smart move but not necessary. Watch Maverick on the largest screen you can, it’s worth it!

What pop culture are you consuming this summer? What are you excited for that’s arriving in July (besides my birthday!)?