Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
Even though it’s only September 7th, it feels like August was months ago. Time feels stranger than ever in this COVID-19 world. I spent most of August wondering if I’d still have a job since my school district is starting the year doing virtual-only classes. Thankfully, I’m still employed, and after I knew that for sure, I was so excited to get back to work. It’s strange without the students there, but I now have a lot of time to get tasks done that I never had time to do before. Silver linings!
And now for the good stuff. Keep reading to see what I read and loved in August.
What I Read
The Lazy Genius Way: Embrace What Matters, Ditch What Doesn’t, and Get Stuff Done by Kendra Adachi
I’ve been a fan of Kendra and her Lazy Genius podcast for a long time, so I was eager to get my hands on this book. I had high expectations, yet Kendra managed to exceed all of them. The Lazy Genius Way is not a typical self-help book or organizational guide. It doesn’t have lists of what you need to be doing or formulas for a perfect home. Instead, Kendra guides you to living your best life through 13 principles that you can customize for your own needs. That customization is what sets this book apart from others like it. After reading this book, I sent a copy to a dear friend and mom of three kids. My copy is currently in my mom’s hands. The three of us are in entirely different stages of our lives, but each of us finds the book helpful and encouraging. Do yourself a favor and pick this up ASAP. I’ve underlined every other sentence, and you probably will too.
Hamilton: The Revolution
by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter
As you know if you read last month’s recap post, I watched and immediately became obsessed with Hamilton. This book helped me during my Hamilton hangover and is a must-read for fans of the acclaimed musical. The book contains beautiful photos and behind the scenes essays, but my favorite part is Lin-Manuel Miranda’s notes for each song. I loved getting to peek inside his head and see what he thought as he wrote the most iconic musical of our time.
Intimations by Zadie Smith
It had been a long time since I’d read anything by Zadie Smith, and this slim essay collection seemed like a must-read. Smith wrote each essay during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Reading this reminded me of just how brilliant Smith is and how I need to read more of her work. (Which I did! Thoughts on that next month.)
The Bright Lands by John Fram
I placed a copy of The Bright Lands on hold at the library as soon as I heard about it. The plot–a high school football star in small-town Texas goes missing, and his brother comes back from NYC to investigate–intrigued me. When I picked up the book, I realized that my library had categorized it in the horror section. I started reading and wondered why. Then the last few chapters came, and it all made sense. I enjoyed the first three-quarters of this novel, but the last part was far too violent and scary for my taste. I had to skim the last quarter of the book and wasn’t satisfied with the conclusion.
What Will Soon Take Place by Tania Runyan
Before finishing this book, it had been two years since I’d read a poetry collection. As I mentioned above, August had its fair share of stress, and I find it hard to read sometimes when I feel overwhelmed. I thought a volume of poetry might be just what I needed, and it was. Tania Runyan is one of my favorite contemporary poets. Her work combines religion and meditations on daily life in a way that is profound yet wholly relatable to me. What Will Soon Take Place is a look at the book of Revelation. Several lines throughout Runyan’s poems felt like gut-punches. Not only did I love this collection, but it inspired me to read poetry more often.
What I Loved
TELEVISION: The Morning Show
I’d heard mixed reviews for this show, and while I understand some of the criticisms, it provided a much welcome TV binge. Jennifer Aniston and Billy Crudup are great in this show, and the finale left me eager for season two.
My Macbook was starting misbehave, so I looked up some of its issues on Apple’s website. According to them, my beloved 8-year-old computer was “vintage.” Ouch. I needed a new one. Thankfully, Apple was running a great deal for students and school staff that included a new Macbook at a reduced price that came with a free pair of AirPods. I would never pay $150.00 for AirPods, but I was certainly not opposed to a free pair. It turns out that if I ever lose these, I might pay $150.00 for AirPods after all. I love these little things so much. I’ve had other Bluetooth headphones and earbuds before, but none have worked as well or have sounded as good as these do. They sync to my phone automatically and hold a charge for a long time. My AirPods aren’t noise-canceling, but that’s good for when I’m wearing these at work. I like that I can still hear when people are trying to get my attention. As you’ll see below, I’ve been listening to many podcasts, so my AirPods and I have become very close in a short amount of time.
The Bible Binge is a podcast from the folks who host the Popcast, a podcast about pop culture that I never miss. The Bible Binge looks at stories from the Bible and the hosts–Knox McCoy and Jamie Golden–recap those stories as if they were movies or TV shows. The show was seasonal but has recently changed to a weekly format with two additional episode types. One is called Favored or Forsaken, in which the hosts discuss religious topics in the news. The most recent episode discusses Jerry Fallwell, Jr. and Christian colleges, and it is [insert fire emoji here]. The other new episode format is hosted by a gem of Instagram and resident Bible Scholar Erin Moon. In Faith Adjacent episodes, Erin looks at pop culture through a biblical lens to see what spiritual truths we can take away from cultural icons. Her first episode was about Hamilton, and I devoured every word. If you’re interested in a smart and funny look at how faith intersects with modern culture, don’t miss this show.
As I said, I’ve been a fan of this podcast for a while. A couple of episodes were August-specific favorites, though. One episode is called How to Lazy Genius Anything. In this episode, Kendra takes an issue and walks through how to resolve the problem and make it better. The other episode I loved is How to Make the Perfect Playlist. I’d wanted to get back into music more but was overwhelmed with where to begin. I took Kendra’s advice in this episode and started making some new playlists, and they have given me so much joy. My favorite one is linked here.
That’s it for me! What did you read and love in August?
Andrea Is Reading 