Summer has FINALLY arrived, which means it’s warm enough (sometimes TOO warm) to sit outside and read – my favorite way to read. I had a great get away to the Oregon Coast for my birthday last week and was able to finish a book and get started on a new one. Not quite as much reading as I anticipated, but it was a great time to get out of town for a few days.

Here’s the pop culture that’s been keeping me sane this month…

Listening

Nothing too exciting on the podcast front this month. I don’t drive as much and since I now walk the dogs with my husband we visit instead of plugging in headphones. I appreciate What a Day for their voice on the news and The Daily continues to do a great job of deep diving on this world we’re living in. I am also appreciating Think out Loud and OPB Politics Now, especially when it comes to all the local Portland police/ICE fighting.

Watching

I meant to spread out the episodes of The Babysitters Club but as a HUGE fan on the books growing up, I couldn’t contain myself and binged them in a couple of days. Whoops. It was exactly what I was hoping for – a great setup from the books and modernized for today.

I watched half an episode of Down to Earth with Zach Efron and it was SO tone deaf that we turned it off. What could have been a fascinating show about science and the climate is two white bro’s on vacation showing off their abs and throwing in a little science on the side. I am SURE I am not the target audience for this, so hopefully there’s a 22 year old who’s learning something while watching, but it was painful.

I’ve been giving Space Force another try and it’s fun and ridiculous and redeems Steve Carrell after The Morning Show. My husband was afraid he could never watch him again.

Expecting Amy on HBO Max was a wonderful series! At just 3 episodes they shared just how hard her pregnancy was and how she continued to persevere, AND learning that her husband is on the autism spectrum while they were expecting. It’s sweet and wonderful and of course raunchy and funny as well. I need to go back and rewatch her Growing special on Netflix, it was HILARIOUS.

My husband and I just discovered Jamie: Keep Cooking and Carry On on Hulu (looks like it’s also free on Channel 4. Jamie Oliver’s newest series is designed for COVID times – it’s all about using food you may have in your freezer or pantry and he’s GREAT at encouraging you to use what you have, not what he necessarily is using. It’s AWESOME. I definitely picked up some new staples at the store this week…

I watched Palm Springs on Hulu when my BFF was visiting for my birthday. It’s definitely got a Groundhogs Day vibe to it, but it was sweet. I love Cristin Milioti so that was fun to see her being so ridiculous. I’m also glad that Peter Gallagher is okay with being everyone’s dad now. I was in the mood to watch Clueless but Netflix wasn’t having it so we ended up watching Can’t Buy Me Love which is still a great 80’s rom-com. Also, Seth Green was EVERYONE’s annoying little brother in the 80’s.

Reading

I have been in a GREAT reading kick lately which is so nice. I loved Homegoing which was such an incredible story. I loved the generational story approach and the way the stories ebbed and flowed. It was a great book. You should read it.

I finished An American Marriage over my trip and it was also wonderful and heartbreaking. I’d heard good things and it was recently recommended to me again, I’m so glad I picked it up at the library!

I’m currently reading The Likeness by Tana French. A client of mine (who always has amazing book suggestions) loves her work and said this is her favorite, so I added it to the list. It’s more dense then I was expecting but so far I’m hooked!

I picked up a pack of nonfiction books from Third Eye Books which is a local Black owned bookshop here in Portland. They have done a great job of curating antiracism and educational book packs. I highly recommend you check out their recs!

How’s your summer reading going? Are you getting through your stack or are you having a hard time concentrating? Share your latest pop culture finds in the comments!

Welcome to summer… the weather is warmer, it’s time to sit outside with a cold drink and learn to be anti-racist. The past month has been eye opening for me in a lot of ways, and I have been grateful for all of the lists and recommendations on ways that we can educate ourselves on racism and the Black Lives Matter movement using some of my favorite pop culture mediums. Every non-fiction book was immediately sold out, but there’s some great Black fiction that I “kept meaning to get to.” And now I am finally doing it. It hasn’t all been educating myself, I still found plenty of time for mindless entertainment, I promise.

Reading

Here’s a great anti-racist reading list from Powell’s if you aren’t sure where to start.

I quickly devoured The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel who also wrote Station Eleven. I love her storytelling style and how these seemingly independent stories come together. It wasn’t AS good as Station Eleven, but I still really enjoyed it.

I just finished American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson, a recent purchase from Powell’s. It was SO DAMN GOOD. It takes place in the 80’s and early 90’s, written as a letter to a woman’s young twin boys explaining her life and family and her time in the FBI. I had a hard time putting it down – the story is great and geographically diverse (Martinique & Burkina Faso). It’s also based on real people (the politicians in Burkina Faso) which I didn’t realize till I was half way through. I went on a bit of a wikipedia rabbit hole after I finished the book to learn more which rarely happens.

I am almost done with The Mercies which is a crazy good story about a 1600’s fishing village in Northern Scandinavia. A boat filled with all the village men goes down in a storm and the women are left to run the village. It is so good, I’ve had a hard time putting it down this weekend! Update: I finished The Mercies and it was AWESOME! I am so glad it stuck the landing – 10/10 would recommend.

My new reading goal is to make sure every other book is written by a BIPOC. The last book I read by a man (sorry guys) I stopped within the first 50 pages. I’ve read a lot of male authors, but a librarian recently mentioned she mostly reads female authors, and I noticed I do tend to enjoy them more so plan to start paying better attention to who I let on my bookshelf.

Next up: The library just informed me that An American Marriage, Homegoing and Between the World and Me are ready, so those are my next 3. I also picked up G Willow Wilson’s latest graphic novel – Invisible Kingdom, she wrote the Ms Marvel series that I LOVED, I can’t wait to dive in to her new series!

Listening

Here’s a good list of books, tv shows, movies and podcasts to help educate you.

If you live in Oregon and haven’t read the OPB article about Oregon’s Racist history, there’s an audio version included and there’s also a good 5 minute Retropod episode that will give you a quick overview of what a terrible state we’ve been.

I read a different list that I can’t find to share (sorry!) that suggested What a Day as a podcast to listen to. I used to listen to it and stopped because I felt like it was redundant to news I already knew in the morning. BUT Akilah Hughes (one of the co-hosts) is delivering some great content around systemic racism and the history surrounding specific BLM events. Episodes are only 15-20 minutes, easy to listen to while getting ready in the morning or while driving to and from the gym.

I really enjoyed Winds of Change which just finished its 8 episode series. I wish it had a better final episode but maybe with some time away I’ll come to love it more. It does sound like there could be more to come from the story. It definitely filled a Russian/CIA/KGB hole in my heart left by The Americans, an all time favorite TV show.

Watching

My husband and I finally watched The Last Dance. As a kid who grew up in Oregon in the late 80’s/early 90’s and was a MAJOR Blazer’s fan, it was fun to watch the series and remember all of those players that I hated (did anyone ever like Bill Laimbeer?) It’s definitely Jordan’s version of history, but I still learned a few things and it was fun to have a bit of sport around.

When They See Us should be required viewing, it’s only four episodes and even though we have spread them out over a couple of weeks, it’s a horrible story that I didn’t know anything about. Watch it, be infuriated, keep going.

The Juneteenth episode of Black-ish was a great and easily digestible way to learn about this (soon to be national) holiday. If you’ve never watched Black-ish it’s really smart and worth watching. Then watch #blackAF on Netflix which is the same creator, Kenya Barris, who stars with Rashida Jones (Ann Perkins!) who I love so much.

We finished Top Chef and the right person won – I was VERY happy! Luckily to fill that foodie void is Padma Lakshmi’s new show on Hulu – Taste the Nation. It’s so well done – each episode tells about specific food cultures from immigrant groups. It’s been educational and the Gullah Geechee episode is free on YouTube, which was our favorite! We devoured the series and every episode had us curious to try or revisit foods we may have over looked.

Wyatt Cynac has a show on HBO that I completely missed – Problem Areas. I caught it on Hulu the other day – I was looking through the two seasons and discovered in the second season they go to Salem, Oregon and talk to the school district about mental health. It was FASCINATING. Once we finish Taste the Nation this is the next binge.

Also on YouTube is 8:46 a stand up special Dave Chappelle recorded earlier this month. It’s eye opening and smart and I wish I had started watching his work years ago.

I did also find time to watch Queer Eye, the first episode with the gay pastor was AWESOME, the rest of the season was also good, but man they started out with a bang. I also binged season 2 of The Politician. I liked that they didn’t try to tell too many stories and the comedic team of Judith Light and Bette Midler is still one I will always be shocked and delighted by. Over the weekend we enjoyed Uncorked on Netflix – a foodie movie that includes both wine AND BBQ? The movie was made for my husband and me. We also enjoyed Leslie Jones: Time Machine, the woman wore a knee brace for her standup special recording and I love her SO DAMN MUCH.

What pop culture kept you sane over the past month? Did you pick up any new recommendations based on the increased awareness of Black authors and creators? Did you find some good mental health breaks with pop culture? Share your new favorites in the comments!

May seemed to fly by faster than April did. Maybe it was that we turned our backyard into a dog park for Norm & Cliff so are enjoying more time outside. The warmer weather also helped. Pop culture continues to keep me sane this month. Thanks to attending another Bookish Happy Hour with the library this week my list of “to reads” is getting longer and longer…Here’s a few of my favorite pop culture finds over the past month. Please make sure to share yours in the comments – I am always up for new recommendations!

Reading

Becoming RBG was a nice graphic novel about Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s life. It was a gift from my dad and I’m not sure if he knew it was more of a young reader book, but it was fun to read her story and I’m happy to share it with kiddos in my life who need to learn about this hero. I then ready a very NOT child friendly graphic novel – November Volume I, by Portland comic book writer Matt Fraction. It’s a weird story but I liked it enough that I’ll complete the trilogy.

On vacation with a friend last year she handed me The Nest when she finished reading it. I figured now was a good time for a light and easy “beach read.” It’s a good story with some nice twists to it. Nothing amazing to write home about, but it was the easy read I needed after finally finishing The Starless Sea last month. I have a lot of other books on my shelf to read, but also a long list of new books I need to find. Might be time to finally do curbside pickup at Powell’s (I really need the library to open)…

Listening

I have a friend who has similar podcast taste and he texted me a few weeks ago to recommend We Crashed, about the rise and fall of WeWork. It was FASCINATING. I’d heard pieces of the story but hadn’t heard it all. If you like a good “guy sounds like a massive tool and gets his comeuppance” kind of story, this is it. It’s only 6 episodes and it’s really fascinating.

Now I’m in the midst of Wind of Change, an investigative series into whether the CIA wrote the hit power ballad by The Scorpions at the end of the Cold War. I’m learning a TON about the CIA during the cold war and the story is BANANAS. It’s still going on because I refuse to download Spotify to binge it. But that will probably change soon enough…

The Daily episode a few weeks ago about the Murder Hornets was fascinating if you’re curious what’s going on there. This weeks episode about USPS was really helpful too. And I’m grateful for Think Out Loud and OPB Politics Now for helping to keep us up to date in Oregon on reopening and our May election!

Games

I don’t usually talk about my obsession with the NYT Crossword mini, but it’s a thing. Last month I also discovered Tiles on the New York Times app and it is such a calming, zen like game to play. You can pay for the game app or play tiles 8 times a day for free. So far that’s been enough for me.

Last week one of my all time favorite pop culture writers, Whitney Matheson, mentioned a new app called I Love Hue Too. It is my new obsession (and probably why I should rewatch Upload, I was two screening with the game). It takes color hues and mixes up the pattern so you have to put it back. Again, it’s super soothing and zen like. I’m. Obsessed.

Watching

We finally finished Ozark and it was SO GOOD. If you need a good series right now that’s SUPER dark but a great story, this is it. We could only watch one episode a day – it was a lot to process. And I am grateful that my clients are so much easier to manage than Helen’s.

A few people had recommended Never Have I Ever on Netflix and it was SO GREAT. It’s produced by Mindy Kaling and a very smart show about an Indian American  teenager growing up in LA. The voiceover is John McEnroe, which makes NO sense but really ties the show together. Trust me. It’s awesome. I’m also enjoying #blackAF if only because Rashida Jones is so great. I tried a couple of episodes of Hollywood on Netflix and couldn’t get into it. It’s just not my jam, but if you like Ryan Murphy you may enjoy it.

Over on Hulu I devoured Mrs. America. I know it’s a fictionalized account of some characters but I learned a lot about everything that was going on during the Equal Rights Amendment work in the 70’s. I thought it wrapped up nicely.

I blew right through Run on HBO, with just 7 half hour episodes it’s a light and easy show. I love Merritt Weaver which won over my aversion to “hey lets have an affair” kind of shows. It’s just weird enough with some good twists I kept with it. And it’s all worth it for a very ridiculous minor character late in the series.

The best thing that happened over the past month was on April 30th – A Parks and Recreation Special. It was EXACTLY what I needed during quarantine. What is Leslie Knope doing? What do her binders say? I was SO HAPPY, and yeah I cried at the end. It also got me thinking about what other fictional towns and characters are doing right now. My friend and I went down a wild Gilmore Girls quarantine fan faction hole that we really should have shared with the internet.

The other day my brother suggested I check out Upload on Amazon Prime, and so I binged that this week. It was a clever show by Greg Daniels (creator/EP of The Office & Parks & Rec). It has a similar but different vibe to The Good Place – what if right before you die you could “upload” and then still communicate with your loved ones on earth? There’s a good mystery to it and the female lead, Nora, is an actress I hope I see for years to come!

That’s the pop culture that has kept me sane this past month, what about you? I’m excited for more warm days ahead to spend time outside with my pups and making a dent in my bookshelf and the laundry lists of books I want to read…

Stay Healthy, Stay Sane, Walk Your Dog…