I love reading just about everything (okay, you won't see any horror or sci-fi picks on here), watching things that make me think and especially if they make me laugh, and wholeheartedly embrace the podcast. Here's my two cents worth.
READ
(Follow the links below or click through to bookshop.org to find all books referenced in this post and past Read, Watched, Listened posts. And here’s your friendly reminder that these are affiliate links!)
The Girl With the Louding Voice
Abi Dare gives Adunni, this book’s young protagonist, a compelling voice. I cheered Adunni on in her own fight against the Nigerian patriarchy she continually finds herself in. In the end, it’s more plot-based than character-based, and I personally need more character to draw me completely into a book.
The Four Winds
Set during the upheaval of the dustbowl, I couldn’t help but compare this to The Grapes of Wrath—especially because I only read that particular American classic for the first time late last summer. The drive/struggle in California is basically Grapes of Wrath revisited; there were so many parallels. I loved the protagonist, Elsa—my only complaint is that I wanted more of Elsa in her pre-dustbowl life. Though my low-key MVP is Elsa’s daughter Loreda. Loreda for president, please.
The Liturgy of Politics
Honestly, I wanted to love this more than I did. I thought the intersection of faith + politics would make this perfect for me but it felt like it was drawn out too long in book-form. Like maybe this would have been better served as a series of essays? I still want to hear more from Kaitlyn Schiess, but I don’t think a book was the best format for what this was.
The Office of Historical Corrections: A Novella and Stories
Am I a short story reader now? Because apparently, I’m a short story reader now. This collection of stories was on fire. I didn’t think I liked short stories—maybe because I want a good short story to last so much longer than it does—which is exactly how I felt with each and every one of these.
What We Were Promised
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: give me a detailed family drama any day. Set in China, this was a beautifully written novel about family, wealth, class, and society.
Rules of Civility
This was a delight—good for summer. I couldn’t help but think of Elizabeth Gilbert’s City of Girls while reading it. It’s not quite as frothy but is set in the same era and a similar setting. Single girl in NYC in the 1930s is almost always going to be a good time.
The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage
This book was a journey (hello, almost 500 pages) but it was worth it. It follows the lives of Dorothy Day, Walker Percy, Flannery O’Connor, and Thomas Merton as they wrestle with their Catholicism, society, their writing, and sometimes each other. I can’t even fathom how much research went into a book like this: studying their lives, reading their works and correspondence, visiting the places they lived, and then compiling and interweaving it all together. Sometimes it was admittedly a slog, but at other times it read a bit like a novel.
One Two Three
I finished this book a couple of weeks ago and still don’t know how I feel about it. On one hand, I couldn’t put it down; I wanted to know what happened next. on the other hand, it took a little bit for me to get used to the three different voices and I wanted more…something? More backstory? More depth? I’m not even sure. It’s no This is How it Always Is, but since that’s one of my favorite books of all time it feels pretty unfair to compare Laurie Frankel’s work from here on out to that one. Tell me you read this and then tell me your thoughts because mine are muddled.
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times
I thought this book was lovely. I might need to re-read it in the actual winter. It’s s-l-o-w. I would probably have found it boring at another point in time but it felt like exactly what I needed to read right now. For anyone going through a life change or new season in life.
Crying in H-Mart: A Memoir
This book is as good as everyone says it is. Also, it made me hungry, even though I didn’t know what most of the Korean foods were and lots of them included various types of seafood, and I’m allergic to shellfish.
RE-READS: Pride and Prejudice, Here for It, This Is How it Always Is
WATCHED
The Last Blockbuster
How fun was this documentary? Did they tap into every last bit of millennial nostalgia I possess? Yes, yes they did, and I’m not even mad about it.
Last Chance U
Oof. A docu-series exploring a community college basketball team in East LA as they try to get out of the community college world and break into top-level colleges. I felt like the series was a few episodes too long but the last one was worth all of it.
Bo Burnham: Inside
Bo Burnham wins quarantine. Full stop. Also, he deserves both a Grammy and a top-level comedy award (Do those exist?) for this piece.
Top Chef Portland
We are Top Chef junkies and this may have been the best season yet.
High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America
The worst part of this series is that I can’t reach through the screen to eat all the deliciousness depicted. It should be clear by now that I will read/watch anything to do with food so I couldn’t hit “play” fast enough for this.
In the Heights
How fun is this movie? All the fun. (Also: Tyson and I went back to a movie theater what is this life??) I could watch the pool scene on repeat for infinity.
LISTENED
Sour
Obviously.
No One Is Coming to Save Us
If you’re a parenting America, there’s probably not much that’s going to be groundbreaking here. Yet I still binged this podcast because yes, I am your choir, and yes, you are preaching to me, and yes , I am here for it.
Dirty Rotten Church Kids
If you identify as any sort of exvangelical or were impacted by early 2000s Evangelical church culture at all, this is the podcast for you. The episodes are LONG (it takes me several days to get through one) but they’re always thought-provoking, funny, and I end up saying “YES” out loud to no one and nodding my head vigorously at least once an episode. Also, I can’t recommend their Instagram enough.
The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill
Speaking of Evangelical culture: I am EATING this one up. It’s amazing how Mark Driscoll’s influence leeched out into so much of Christian culture and I’m not even a little sad about dancing on the grave of Mars Hill and Mark Driscoll in a very un-Christian-like way.