I hope your fall is going well! A road trip to Eastern Washington for Thanksgiving meant some great podcast catch up this month and the stormy dark nights mean a lot of DVR catch up and binging some new shows. I didn’t read any books or comics this past month which is BAD. I did get my friend elected to city council so that counts for something right? Hopefully December will include some down time to read and catch up. I have a few books on my wish list so need to make some time to READ!

Listening

My husband and I binged Bagman by Rachel Maddow on our trip to his family for Thanksgiving. It is a CRAZY story about Spyro Agnew that I didn’t know. I didn’t know much about Agnew and this story is fantastic, and crazy. It’s only 7 episodes total so perfect for a holiday road trip…

Nike has a new podcast called The Fenom Effect and the first episode with Abby Wombach was INCREDIBLE. I had no idea how much she did off the field for soccer players. She’s badass.

The Michelle Obama interview of Two Dope Queens was really great and got me excited for her book! And David Axelrod’s Axe Files interview with President Obama was also great. Am I the only one who thought Obama was getting annoyed when Axe would cut him off? Maybe it was just me getting annoyed he wouldn’t let the President finish talking.

I am still enjoying this season of Serial even if it infuriates me most of the time. The Daily‘s recent episode on asylum seekers was a must listen.

I also procured tickets to see The Rolling Stones next spring so they will be in heavy rotation over the next few months (along with Justin Timberlake who’s concert was rescheduled to February!)

Watching

Julia Louis Dreyfus received the Mark Twain Prize for Humor this year and it was incredible. Find it, watch it, get your ab workout in. She is so amazing and hilarious and we are lucky to have her.

I watched Homecoming on Amazon this month and it was really good. Weird, but good. It had the weirdness of Mr. Robot but in 30 minute increments, which is what we needed for Mr. Robot.

I also finished The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina which was fun. I will watch anything with Kiernan Shipka as I mentioned last month, and while it could improve in some spots it was enjoyable and a good escapist show this season.

In way overdue shows – I finally caught up and finished Westworld. And I remembered why I stopped watching half way through the season. That season finale could have easily been a series finale, and there’s a strong chance I will treat it as such.

I watched about 30 seconds of Dogs on Netflix and decided I didn’t want to spend the next 6 hours crying, so quickly turned that off. I am excited for the new season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and the return of Runaways on Hulu!

What’s been keeping you sane as daylight savings is over? How do you make time to read more in your life these days?

Happy Halloween! We are less than a week away from the election and although I have a lot going on for the campaign, thanks to a quick get away for my husbands birthday – I found some time to catch up on my pop culture this month…

Reading

I finished French Exit by Patrick DeWitt. He’s such a unique writer and I really enjoyed this book. Quirky seems too easy a description for it. His writing style and characters are great and very one of a kind. If you’re a writer (or a reader) I suggest starting with The Sisters Brothers, but I loved this story that took you from the Upper Eastside to Paris with a cat.

I finally started Outside the Wire by Jason Kander just as he dropped out of the election to take care of his PTSD.  It is a great book – he joked the alt title was “how to run for office without being an asshole” and he’d be the guy who knows. Holy GENUINE guy. I can’t wait to finish this book over Thanksgiving.

I also caught up on some comics including the new Nancy Drew series from Kelly Thompson (my current favorite comic book author). I like the West Coast Avengers (also by Thompson) and I am excited to read more of Maneaters by my 2nd favorite comic book author Chelsea Cain (who wrote the BEST Mockingbird comic you’ll ever read). Maneaters is hilarious and clever and every page has about 75 things going on. Pick it up (make sure to get the one with sparkles on the cover!)

Listening

Nothing better than the dulcet tone of Michael Barbaro’s voice to get you going in the morning. I love The Daily and the election reporting and this morning’s episode on Internet Outrage was fantastic. Pod Save America continues to keep fuel in the fire and I’m loving their HBO specials as well!

I’m also enjoying the new season of Serial which takes place in Cleveland and follows a courthouse – the judges the prosecutors the accused. It’s FASCINATING and sad and enraging. Just like the criminal justice system.

Watching

Obviously I binged the new season of Schitts Creek – it was, Simply the Best.

I started but haven’t continued the new season of Making a Murderer but I hope to catch up with it soon (probably post-election). I am however watching Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. I do have to admit to watching Riverdale so I was more inclined to watch this version of Sabrina, having never watched the 90’s version (which looked terrible at the time, and still does). I will watch anything Kiernan Shipka is in – ever since Mad Men I have vowed to watch whatever she does, she’s an amazing actress, even if she’s overcast for this role. It’s fun, creepy and a perfect fall show to fill that Stranger Things hole in my viewing schedule.

This season of The Good Place continues to make me happy and I love each twist and turn. So far my favorite is the discovery of WHO Donkey Doug is in Jason’s life. <insert exploding head emoji here>

I am enjoying the Murphy Brown reboot and hated the Manifest pilot. And this season of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has already had it’s perfect song…

What pop culture is keeping you sane this election cycle? Make sure to VOTE and get your ballot in early if you live in a mail in state. If you need to go to the polls – please make a plan and VOTE – the future of our democracy depends on it.

There’s less than 40 days to the election so my pop culture consumption this month was waylaid by weekend canvassing and evening events. BUT I am still getting in some good pop culture to keep me sane through it all. Here’s what I really loved this month…

Reading

I may have grabbed a few too many books at Powell’s a couple of weeks ago which I will get to at some point I SWEAR. I just need a vacation… BUT I am trying to get some time outside to read the past couple of weeks while the weather is nice. I am really loving French Exit by Patrick DeWitt. He is a quirky author who wrote a book I loved a few years ago – The Sisters Brothers (yes it’s a movie, no I haven’t seen it yet, yes I want to!) According to Goodreads I am 51% of the way through – let’s see if I can finish it before the election!

Listening

I really like Chelsea Cain who wrote the Mockingbird comic series a year ago. I knew there was some drama and social media harassment but I didn’t realize the extent until I listened to the Revealed podcast episode with her. It was fascinating (and makes me not happy with Marvel, wow you suck giant media company). The episode is about not meeting your (super) heroes and talks about white supremacy in comics and only harassment of female comic book writers. The whole episode is interesting, even if you don’t read comics.

Watching

I am having a hard time watching much TV with a strong story line these days. I finished a rewatch of Parks & Rec and didn’t cry at the finale for the first time. Then I rewatched The Good Place in anticipation of the new season – YAY I can’t wait!

I did find some time for Netflix of course. Why oh why do I watch Orange is the New Black? I don’t know how many seasons they’ll keep going with but there was some storylines wrapped up so I may just treat it as my series finale and be done with this series (some one please remind me of this next summer when it’s back).

I LOVED the first season of Atypical on Netflix and the second season was a welcome surprise to my viewing schedule. I binged the season and once again loved the series. If you haven’t watched it, get on it please.

The Quincy documentary was FANTASTIC. His daughter directed it and the intimate family details included were great. I knew he was prolific but good grief it makes you love him and all that music all over again. We may have gone down a Michael Jackson music video rabbit hole after finishing…

The Emmy’s mean the return of fall TV and I’m most excited for the return of The Good Place and Crazy Ex Girlfriend (side note – when is Jane the Virgin returning?!). I’ll try out the Murphy Brown reboot but am a bit anxious about it. I have Manifest on the DVR but we will see if I get around to it.

What fall TV are you excited to see return and what other pop culture are you loving recently?