August Recommendations by Jenn D
Well, we’re eleventy weeks into lockdown in this gleaming harbourside city and there’s no end in sight. So my first recommendation is this: wear a mask. Second: get vaccinated. Third: call your local member so they can express to the federal government just how irritated you are at the fact that we haven’t gotten it together yet.
Okay. Now that’s off my chest, I’ll get on to the fun stuff!
It’s been a quiet one here—there’s a home learner and a work-from-home thing happening here—so the music happens while I run or while I write. I took Jen V’s long-ago suggestion and I’m running while listening to an entire album all the way through.
Half Waif - Lavender was my choice this morning - excellent, bracing, haunting, plaintive, invigorating.
Torres has a new album out — Thirstier — and it’s a whole new direction and I love it.
And I’m still obsessed with Black Belt Eagle Scout - At the Party With My Brown Friends.
I haven’t had much time for pod-browsing this lockdown, but I did just discover Bonnets at Dawn! It started out as an Austen v Bronte thing but expanded to 18th, 19th, and 20th century women writers. It’s a deep cut podcast with lots of guests and long chats and I’ve quite enjoyed cherry-picking episodes to listen to. (I started with The Blue Castle as it’s one of my all time favorite books.)
I’ve also been thinking about revisiting some of my favorite episodes of The Confessional (by Nadia Bolz-Weber) — specifically the one with Claire Bidwell Smith. It hits hard.
Books! Now, the book fairy has been kind to me (because Booktopia is still delivering during lockdown) so I’ve added… a lot to my TBR pile. Like The Mabinogian. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. (Speaking of Tolkien, I also picked up the LOTR trilogy in hardback. Someday…) I got two more Becky Chambers books (To Be Taught, If Fortunate and The Galaxy, and the Ground Within) and I also picked up Burnout, which, ironically, I have been too busy to read.
Books I’ve read and loved - The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg. This one was really interesting. I liked the idea that once you form a habit, the groove is still there in your head—but it can be overwritten! It’s a bit reassuring. I’m choosing to believe all my good habits (like running) are there to be reactivated if I need to pause.
I also blasted through all three of Sonali Dev’s The Rajes series, which are Austen interpretations, and I loooooved them. And also I want to make, and eat, all the food, because there is so much yummy food talk in those books.
And I’m about halfway through Emily Henry’s A Million Junes which is good. Sort of magical realism-y? I’m taking the book slowly because it’s got a lot of overwhelming grief in it. Which is just hard right now.
TV shows - I’m still banging on about Ted Lasso, but while I was doing an entire room reorganization over this week, I watched both seasons of Mythic Quest. It is not as… heartwarming, but it’s so funny. It’s a bit like 30 Rock in terms of humor. It made me laugh and I wanted to watch it all the way through.
And for general sanity… I’m reading a lot of Mary Oliver. I’m exploring my neighborhood. I’m living for tea breaks with my oldest, as she’s learning from home and will make tea for us both. I’m enjoying the fifteen minutes of quiet cuddling I get with my littlest one when he climbs in at 6am and sticks his ice-cold feet on my warm ones. (I forgive him.) Right now, I am breathing just a little and calling it a life, because there’s just not that much air… so I’m enjoying every lungful.
Stay safe out there. See you in September!