What we’re reading, watching, and listening to

Sophie

Reading: I dove into Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke and so far so very intriguing. A tradwife influencer finds herself flung back in time to where she actually has to live the life she advertises. It’s satirical, darkly funny, tragic, and very sharp. I’ve also just started The Republic of Memory by Mahmud El Sayed because when 4 award-winning Sci-Fi authors recommend it to you at an event, you listen. A generation ship is about halfway through its journey and discontent is brewing among the population. Really enjoying the way the society is thought out among a large but still very contained space.

Watching: During my vacation last month I started watching Dark Winds, based on the Leaphorn & Chee books by Tony Hillerman. A police drama set on the Four Corners region of the US, mostly in the Navajo Nation, during the 1970s. It’s the quietly intense kind of police drama, with a dollop of humor here and there.

Listening: After watching the documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin, and falling a little bit in love with all four members through those interviews, I listened to the first 5 or so of their albums (still have about 3 or 4 to go I think). My favorite song has become ‘Ramble On‘, partly because of the way the members describe how they interacted off of one another while playing together in that documentary and I hear that most in this song, and partly because of the very clear, if confusing, Lord of the Rings reference in the text!

Iris

Reading: I put Children of Strife by Adrian Tchaikovsky on pause for a while to dive into some shorter books (the new Murderbot! And Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz), but now I’m going back in. Can’t wait to see what kind of messed-up shenanigans these space-faring megalomaniacs get up to next, although the size is a little daunting (my edition has almost 700 pages).

Watching:  The Testaments, the sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale based on the novel by Margaret Atwood. Obviously very oppressive and infuriating, but so beautifully made. Kind of glad there’s only one episode per week, though; I don’t think it would be good for me to binge this.

Listening to: The Outer Wilds soundtrack. I finished the game a while ago (which I highly recommend, holy macaroni!), and the music is a lovely way to dive back into this beautiful world. It’s also great to put on while reading!

Renata

Reading: Orbital by Samantha Harvey and The Sword of Kaigen by L. M. Wang. I just finished Lore by Alexandra Bracken, and A Language of Dragons and A War of Wyverns, both by S. F. Williamson.

Watching: I just finished watching Maul-Shadow Lord. Having watched (but not read) all the movies, series, and animations, you can say I’m up to date on Star Wars and now I just watched The Mandalorian and Grogu and it was very entertaining. Nice, funny and that’s it. I have my Grogu popcorn bowl, though. So I’m happy! :) I’m a fan since I was 6 years old. No way I’m going to stop now (hahaha).

I also watched the 3rd season of The Night Agent, The Old Guard and other ones not really worth mentioning. Open channels (TV): The Connection (quiz), 2 voor 12 (quiz) and Pointless (quiz)… I see a pattern here … :)

Listening to: Always 70’s, 80’s and 90’s songs. Also Brazilian tunes (Pop, Rock, Bossa Nova & MPB)

Sigrid

Reading: I am reading I Want You To Be Happy by Jem Calder. About Chuck, a man without a moral compass navigating life when he meets Joey, twelve years his junior with whom he has a fling. Joey is a poet working at a coffee shop and Chuck is an aspiring novelist. Told from both their perspectives. Sally Rooney liked Jem Calder previous book of short stories and it reads like a Sally Rooney novel, dissecting the protagonists thoughts and feelings. Quick read and very good!

Yannis

Reading: 

• Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace: I’ve been a huge fan of Wallace’s commentary on American society and finally made the plunge to read his highly praised first novel (Time magazine named it one of the 100 best English-language novels published from 1923 to 2005.) Part book about tennis, part revolutionary uprising, part commentary on addiction and recovery – very hard to place exactly what this book covers, yet it’s some of the most masterful control of the English language I’ve seen in a book.
• No Logo by Naomi Klein: Written nearly 20 years ago but more relevant than ever, an exploration of how brands, advertising and marketing is everywhere. It invades our homes, schools, workplaces, in-between spaces, but what is the impact more generally on our society? A great analysis of the rise of anti-corporatism.

Watching: 

• Witch Hat Atelier: Brand new anime based on the best-selling manga series by Kamome Shirahama
• Funny AF: X Factor style competition for Stand-Up Comedians with Kevin Hart as the host

Listening to: 

• If Books Could Kill: Recommended by a colleague and it’s been a blast, exploring the misleading, false and downright dumb statements made in some of the world’s best-selling books
• The Curiosity Shop: Brene Brown and Adam Grant exploring topics about Learning & Unlearning

Tiemen

Reading: I devoured A Parade of Horribles by Matt Dinniman and concluded it is the best part of the series so far. Considering it is book 8 this is quite something and I’m not just saying because I am borderline unhealthy obsessed with Dungeon Crawler Carl. Also, for reasons completely unrelated to said book, I’ve been listening to Take On Me by a-ha a lot. Like a lot.

Also enjoying The Republic of Memory by Mahmud El Sayed which is a scifi novel set on a generation ship mixed with a hefty dose of Arab Futurism.

Iris M.

Reading: I’m rereading Holly Black’s Folk of the Air series and just finished the gorgeously illustrated How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories. While the original three books are written from Jude’s point of view, this one takes Cardan’s, expanding on moments earlier only mentioned in passing. It is a lovely addition for anyone who loved the Folk of the Air series. Next up: The Stolen Heir.
Also on my TBR are Martha Well’s Queen Demon (the sequel to Witch King, which I loved a lot) and Platform Decay (Murderbot’s latest), and Becky Chamber’s To Be Taught, If Fortunate.

Watching: The Owl House – it’s been on my peripheral for a while now but I never got to it. It’s cute! However, most of my screen time doesn’t go towards series or films but games; and on the top of the list is Slay the Spire II, which recently was released in early access. The multiplayer option is pretty cool!

Listening to: Colleen – Libres Antes Del Final. This is the latest in a long line of albums by Cécile Schott, though I didn’t know her work before. Hypnotizing. Also, Younger Brother’s new album Mutually Assured Distraction.

Else

Reading: I have been slacking on my goal of reading 12 non fiction books this year, so I am making up for it by reading Indigenous Continent by Pekka Hamalainen right now. It is good to read a bit about history, colonialism, and how the Native Americans weren’t just uniformly massacred by European colonists.
I am also currently reading Green and Deadly Things, the new Jenn Lyons book. This is about forest magic and necromancy and to be honest, I was expecting a lot from it, but it is kind of disappointing. So after this, I’ll start on reading the backlist of Colson Whitehead, because he is coming to The Netherlands on the 2nd of July with the John Adams Institute and I will be there to sell his books. And I might have an Advanced Reader Copy lying around of his upcoming book, Cool Machine, but that is part 3 of the Harlem trilogy, so I need to read book 1&2 first.

Watching: I have been watching a load of movies with some colleagues the last couple of weeks. In the last month we saw The Drama (good), The Devil Wears Prada 2 (bad), Exit 8 (great), In The Grey (the absolute worst). And tonight we are going to see Obsession, a horror movie I am looking forward to so much.
I’ve also been watching way too many hours of Slay the Spire 2 gameplay, even though I haven’t even gotten the Early Access version for myself to play, but I haven’t gotten myself that game, because I’ve been too busy reading and knitting and it’s not yet out for the Switch, so I can’t play it from the comfort of my bed yet.

Listening to: I am currently also listening to books, of course. I am still working my way through the Malazan Book of the Fallen audiobooks, and I am currently 75% through Dust of Dreams. This is the only book in the series that ends on a cliffhanger, because Dust of Dreams and The Crippled God were actually supposed to be one book, but that would’ve been a 2000+ page tome.
I also picked up the audiobook for The Story of Birds by Steve Brusatte, because of the earlier mentioned deficit in Non Fiction books, but I am only listening to it while I am knitting a new sweater, because summer is the best time to knit a 100% wool sweater, right? I also loved the two previous books by this palapaleontologist; The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs, and The Rise and Reign of Mammals. Sometimes you need some bones in your life.

Naomi

Reading: I’m still not over This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me, so I’m trying to get my fix of more Ilona Andrews. Even though I read the second half of the Hidden Legacy series (about the main character’s sister) years ago, I’ve somehow never read the first three books. I just finished Burn for Me, and the main character reminds me of a bit of Maggie, plus all the other things I love from House Andrews.

Watching: I have never seen The Legend of Korra before, so I am finally watching that. I’m enjoying it! I also got a compliment on a particular tattoo of mine, so that means it’s time to go rewatch the show it’s based on. Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries is my favorite show of all time (as mentioned in the book-to-screen adaptations posts here), and I can’t wait to dive back into that world.

Listening to: I have been listening to Noah Kahan’s new album, The Great Divide: the Last of the Bugs, on repeat, and it is everything I wanted it to be and then some. Maisie Peters has also recently released a new album, Florescence, which is also very fun (and more upbeat).

Lília

Reading: I just finished The Summer War, a novella by Naomi Novik and really liked. I’m reading the ARC of The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley, the second on the Dearly Beloathed Duology, coming out this July.

Watching: I’m watching HIP, a Franco/Belgium production about a High Intellectual Potential woman who besides having a high IQ also has ADHD and is completely hectic, but extremely smart. Of course the inspector with whom she has to work with is not that on board of working with her, but they end up creating a reasonable working relationship. I’m still watching it, so I don’t know yet all that happens…

I’m also watching Off Campus,  based on Elle Kennedy’s series of books. There’s been so many people talking about it that I wanted to check if it was as good as said. It’s really good in a nice non-pretentious way.

Listening to: I’ve been listening to Bløf and Green Polder – Dutch bands I like. The female main singer of Green Polder is a good friend of mine and I really like her voice and their songs.

Damla

Reading: Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (An Instagram tradwife wakes up one morning to find herself transported to the 1800s in all its brutal frontier glory. The story is biting, darkly humorous, and thoroughly messed up; I certainly see what the hype is about!)

On the nonfiction front, I am reading Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth. It is full of tidbits about Tolkien’s life, and how he came to imagine the fantastic lore of Middle Earth with loads of his drawings and hand-written letters.

Watching: I just finished watching Off Campus, a fake-dating hockey romance adapted from Elle Kennedy’s series of the same name.  10/10, no notes, we are at the golden age of hockey romance adaptations. Next up on the watchlist is Anne Hathaway’s dark psychological thriller, Mother Mary.

Listening to: The GraphicAudio edition of Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews. I have been obsessive-level enamored with the writing duo Ilona Andrews ever since I read This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me, so I am devouring their backlist until the new book comes out. Innkeeper Chronicles is so enjoyable, although from a completely different vein to TKWNKM, and the dramatized audio is so perfect. I am not sure I can go back to regular audiobooks after this experience.