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!)?

Memorial Day Weekend is HEREEEEEEE! Sunnier days HAVE to be ahead right? I’m excited for more time outside reading, and walking the dogs while binging podcasts, how about you? Here’s a few pop culture finds that got me through the month…

Listening

I thought Tiffany Dover is Dead* was really interesting. It was a story that I missed – a nurse faints after getting her COVID vaccine and conspiracy theorists decide she has died. I’m glad that Brandy Zadrozny covered this story and I appreciated that she wraps it up in five episodes.

There was a bonus episode from The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill that you should make sure to catch if you listened to the series. It’s about the music of Mars Hill and one music directors story.

Thanks to a May 17th Primary in Oregon I listened to a lot of OPB Politics Now this past month. For national politics/commentary I am still enjoying Offline and Majority 54.

Meal time has recently included a resurgence of The Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan, but mostly The Nightfly by Donald Fagan which was a go to album in my house growing up.

Reading

It’s hard to know what kind of mood you’ll be in on vacation and if you need something light and easy to read or more thriller/gotta catch all the details. So I packed a couple of books to the coast last weekend and then promptly went to the local bookstore and bought the new Emily Henry which I devoured over the weekend. Book Lovers is just as fun and fast paced as Henry’s last two books which I enjoyed. I had picked up Beach Read for a flight at the beginning of the month and really enjoyed it. Both are a perfect weekend escape, which evidently I needed lately.

I started Cover Story when I returned and am enjoying the Anna Delvey-esq storyline. It’s a clever writing style – emails, journals entries and FBI memos all combine to help you figure out who this woman is and what’s going on. Memorial Day Weekend is going to be a perfect weekend to finish this book! And THEN I’ll finally read the new Emily St. John Martel that everyone is raving about and claiming they read in one sitting.

I started listening to Where the Deer and the Antelope Play by Nick Offerman and loved it, but didn’t enjoy it fast enough. So back to the library it went and has just returned this week. I’m excited to finish it in the next couple of weeks. I just finished listening to Hello, Molly! Molly Shannon’s memoir and it’s…good… Absolutely do the audiobook on this, her voices are KEY to the story. I wish it had one more round of edits, it feels like it could be tighter. Make sure you don’t miss the airplane story, it’s a crazy story I heard over 10 years ago on Marc Marons podcast and I always think of that story when I see her. Worth getting the book for that bonkers story alone.

Keep up with my latest reads on Goodreads.

Watching

My husband and I have been doing a rewatch of Ozark that’s taking longer than expected (baseball season takes up a lot of time my friends!) We’re through Season 2 and I am committed to finishing by the end of June!

I am really enjoying the ridiculousness of I Love That For You. Vanessa Bayer is perfectly over the top and out of her element in this series and Molly Shannon and Jennifer Lewis are excellent as a home shopping channel star and CEO. I am hoping to savor the new season of Hacks, it’s off to an amazing start!

I had forgotten that Mr. Mayor was created by Tina Fey, and in the last few episodes it was abundantly clear she is all over this show. If you didn’t watch the show while it was on NBC catch it on Hulu or Peacock, it’s so sweet and funny and has an incredible cast. I’m sad it was cancelled too soon! A totally different comedy that I loved was Minx on HBOMax. This show was so fantastic and funny and man alive I love Jake Johnson. The whole cast is great on this not safe for “sensitive eyes and ears” show.

Last year I watched the Chrissy Teigen produced The Way Down and loved this crazy documentary about a diet cult trying to be a church (or maybe it’s the other way around…) It’s a bonkers story and part two of the series just came out to wrap up the story of the mysterious plane crash and aftermath. If you like a cult like I do, this is for you.

I feel like I’m way behind on my TV right now, probably because there’s so much going on. We’re still loving Top Chef and as always I’m all in on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. The season finale of SNL was okay, but I have been getting a feeling lately that they were all tired and need the summer off and some rejuvenation in the writers room. Molly Shannon talks about when a great partner (writer or cast mate) shows up at the show and things start to click. I am hopeful this is the case for the upcoming season.

You can keep up with my TV viewing here.

Alright, what pop culture has kept you going this spring? Anything you’re looking forward to this summer? I am excited for Leah Sottile’s book and Blake Crouch’s new book! I’m also excited to go to New York in a few days and see some live theater just in time for the Tony’s! More on that next month…