What a busy birthday month it’s been! The heat has helped my pop culture intake immensely. From staying inside air conditioned buildings, to sitting outside on my patio reading, I’ve devoured a good chunk of pop culture this month!
Reading
I LOVED The Martian. What a fantastic book, I’m not a big science person (note: the book is NOT sci-fi!) and this book did a great job of being smart, and not making me feel like an idiot because I’m (literally) not a rocket scientist. LOVED it.
Then I picked up The Girl with All the Gifts. Woah! It’s about a zombie girl who has cognitive function and the post-apocalyptic British world they live in. I’ve read and watched enough zombie stuff that I kept thinking “well that’s not how it would happen…” which I really liked about it. Changing tropes and throwing curve balls left and right, it was a GREAT book, and I hope the movie doesn’t ruin it.
Finally this month, I went to an author reading & book signing with Ernie Cline at my local Powell’s (note: happiest place on earth). It was a FABULOUS evening, he did not disappoint, and I got a signed copy of Armada, which I came home and devoured. I loved his first book, Ready Player One, and Armada was so much fun. It also takes place in Beaverton which was an added bonus! Armada is filled with pop culture references, it’s fun and fast paced and perfectly geeky for me. I LOVED it.
July was easily one of my best reading months ever.
Coming up in August…
I need to get back to my comics and clear through that pile. I got a copy of The Hedge Knight for my birthday, a Game of Thrones prequel graphic novel which I’m excited to read. I also got Go Set a Watchmen, which has received mixed reviews, but I’ll still read it. And I should get back to The Lord of Opium and finish that finally! Too many good books in my lineup lately!
Watching
I finally saw Jurassic World this past weekend and it was exactly what I was hoping it would be! It was super fun, it didn’t take itself too seriously, and Jake Johnson’s Jurassic Park t-shirt made me laugh every time. My biggest question of the movie? What were the shoes that Bryce Dallas Howard wore the whole movie? They may need to be my new go to heels…Also- I need Vincent D’Onofrio to be the bad guy in everything I watch – I loved in in Daredevil earlier this summer too.
I’ve had They Came Together in my Netflix queue for a long time now, and finally watched it on Saturday night. If you like David Wain movies, or Amy Poehler or Paul Rudd (and if you don’t like those two, you’re broken) then you’ll love it. It makes fun of all the rom-com tropes and I laughed throughout!
I’m still really enjoying UnReal on Lifetime this summer. I finally started watching Mr Robot, and that’s kept me busy this weekend with the rain. Discovering the theory that Christian Slater is maybe Tyler Durden hadn’t crossed my mind till I read it, and WOAH, now I can’t stop thinking about it. I need to get caught up! Masters of Sex is making some big leaps in the story telling this season, I don’t like the new baby story line, but I usually don’t like the addition of kids to story lines, so I hope they come up with something to make it worthwhile. I watched the first episode of Deutschland 83 and liked it but haven’t been in the mood to pay that much attention to a show, so hoping that I get back into it soon! I’m really loving The Jim Gaffigan Show too, if you like his standup, you’ll love his show.
In August I’m looking forward to Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp! on Netflix. Of course I’m excited for Fear the Walking Dead on AMC!
Listening
I’ve started listening to Planet Money podcasts lately and there’s a lot of fascinating information, I especially liked the Tweak the World episode, and now I can’t stop thinking about the IRS doing my taxes for me. WTF had Robert Kirkman on a couple weeks ago which I enjoyed listening to since he writes two comics I love. He also had a FASCINATING interview with Wyatt Cenac that I listedn to earlier this week. The Nerdist had great episodes with Paul Rudd and Scott Weinger this month (Steve from Full House). They also had a great hostful last week, and some good stuff from ComicCon!
I’m about 10% into The Martian, I’m hoping it picks up a little bit. Definitely more science than I expected but it’s definitely interesting.
Read The Boys in the Boat before that, if you haven’t read it I highly recommend it. Really interesting, especially for people who are familiar with Seattle and/or the University of Washington campus.
Keep with it Matt! It’s really intense (reminds me of the movie Gravity) but snarky and funny and great!
I’ve heard good things about The Boys in the Boat – thanks for the suggestion!