Books & Beyond: July and August
Summer reading, water-sports shows, and recent podcast discoveries
Before I jump into today’s reading roundup, I’d love to extend a special welcome to anyone who found me through my recent guest post on South Korean literary tourism over on the Modern Mrs Darcy blog! I’ve opened up my South Korea travelogues for everyone, if you’d like to read more about our time exploring that wonderful country. And if you enjoy keeping up with our journey (and my reading adventures), I’d love it if you’d subscribe.
Books I’ve Read:
I read 16 books over the past two months, including one of my picks for the Modern Mrs Darcy Team’s best books of summer episode. I also dipped my toes into the world of Elin Hilderbrand (which I enjoyed more than I expected—thanks to everyone on Instagram who recommended specific starting points), finally marked Sea of Tranquility off of my TBR-list (and endless library holds cycle), enjoyed some, but definitely not all, of the stories in the Hugh Howey-curated Apocalypse triptych (blame my viewing of Silo earlier this year for leading me to this trilogy..), and highlighted so many beautiful passages in Dorthe Nors’ quietly contemplative A Line in the World.
(For the MMD readers here, you may be curious to know that my runner-up summer reading pick that I ran out of time to talk about on the podcast was Jon Billman’s The Cold Vanish, which I found to be a compelling, wistful, and honest look at disappearances in the wild parks of the West. Weaving together stories of exploration and Bigfoot with a cast of unique characters and the grief of the lost, Billman takes a close look at the way search & rescue actually works. I found the lack of data or comprehensive databases to be eye-opening, and while I also enjoyed Andrea Lankford’s new Trail of the Lost, the way Billman structured his story was ultimately a more enjoyable reading experience for me overall.)
You can keep up to date with me over at Storygraph if you’d like. I’ve also set up my very own Bookshop page, including curated book lists focused on Travel & Adventure, my Alaska Shelf, and Fantasy (& Sci-Fi) Favorites. It’s been fun to start compiling this both for myself, and hopefully for you, too! (As always, if you shop via a Bookshop link, I earn a teeny tiny commission; and you’ll be supporting local, independent bookstores!)
Over the past two months, two books got 5-star ratings from me:
The Cold Vanish: Seeking the Missing in North America's Wildlands by Jon Billman
The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. While dark and difficult things happen in the pages of this book, the reading experience was much more hopeful than I had expected, and the economics & international development nerd in me couldn’t get enough of the deep dives into capitalism as a system, currency policy, etc. Robinson’s described the book as a sort of “documentary of the future” and it compiles voices and perspectives that are widely varied: I especially enjoyed the riddle chapters told from the perspective of resources/inputs (like the sun!), the explorations of novel scientific approaches (such as, how can we stop glaciers from sliding into the ocean?), and, as I mentioned in the podcast episode, the entire list of projects in Chapter 85.
One honorable mention in this category, because while it’s not a book, I devoted quite a bit of reading time in August to devouring the archive on my newly-discovered favorite Substack, Shangrilogs. Kelton, the author, recently published her 100th post and it’s a great place to start if you, like me, would love to live in a cabin in a semi-isolated high mountain town.
Podcasts I’ve Loved:
As usual, my podcast listening is all over the map and typically enjoyed while walking, running, or occasionally (lately) sitting by the beach. Here are a few standouts from the past few months:
Bush and Banter: As described on their website, “Bush & Banter is an outdoor-inspired, seasonal, topic-driven podcast hosted by Thru-Hikers Jennifer Mabus and Dyana Carmella where they interview people way cooler than they'll ever be.” I’ve listened to a few episodes now, and they’ve all been excellent. My entry point, which you may also enjoy, was their Season 3 conversation with Callie Russell.
The Permaculture Podcast: Essential Rainwater Harvesting. More homesteading geekery in audio form.
The Retrievals series: As a non-mother (by choice) who has had so many friends go through fertility treatments, this was still an incredibly difficult listen.
Wilder: This series with Glynnis MacNicol is the perfect listen for anyone else who grew up dreaming of building a little house on the prairie. (I enjoyed hearing this new project from MacNicol, whose memoir No One Tells You This I read and enjoyed back in 2019.)
Shows I’ve Watched:
Does RushTok count as a show? I know I’m not the only one who was both fascinated and confused by this whole situation. Thanks to Anne Helen Petersen for making sense of it all (and taking us into some of the deeper social and cultural messaging going on here.)
Otherwise, we seem to be on a “water sports” viewing trend which perhaps makes sense, as we’re currently living on an island and I spend most of my leisure time diving or swimming.
The Swimmers: This Netflix film was sad and moving, following two sisters—one an aspiring Olympic swimmer—as they flee war-torn Syria.
The Deepest Breath: A riveting and emotional documentary about an award-winning free diver and lauded safety diver trying to make history.
(While we’re on the road, our watching is filtered by the streaming services available to us: at the moment, that’s (non-U.S.) Netflix. But I’m keeping a list of all the shows I’ll want to revisit on HBO, Disney+, or Apple TV in the future. If you have a recommendation, I’d love it if you’d tell me in the comments section!)
Your Turn:
What have you read, watched, listened to, or discovered in the past few months? Please tell us all about it in the comments!
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After having watched the excellent prequel "1883" with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, we are currently watching prequel "1923" with Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford-- filmed in Montana... coming from the series Yellowstone which we have yet to see. It is said that 1923 is the best of them all. Indeed, we are loving it!!