June Ings
Talking books, tv, film, music, and travel.
Wrapping up June with a bow. It simultaneously has felt like the longest and shortest month on record. What is this strange phenomenon?
Don’t the people in the painting above look like they’re having the best time? Whenever I look at old paintings like this I always think about how those were real people- fully alive and immersed in their space in time. Everything felt so serious to them just as everything feels serious to us. And now they’re all gone and one day, we will be too. Maybe things aren’t so serious after all and we just need to play in the water for a little bit.
Celebrating | The summer solstice, summer, the fading of “june gloom” (heavy cloud marine layer that looms this time of year), sunshine.
Reading | I finished One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune. Her summer lake series is a fun time.
Slaughterhouse-Five - Omg. I saw this in Sept 2023 on my Libby app to reserve and it had 45+ people ahead of me in line. I reserved it just to see how long it would take to get through the line, not necessarily because I wanted to read it. It took almost 2 years! It came available this month and was it worth the wait? No, not really. I’m still baffled by that wait list. Why?? How are so many people at my library waiting to read this? Lol. Mysterious. Anyway, classic war novel. Meh.
I was going to write down quotes when I came across any good ones and I only wrote one and it wasn’t even that relevant~ “She had legs like an Edwardian grand piano.”
The Maui Effect by Sara Ackerman - Also found on Libby. Read for the vibes. Lots of surfing and a young woman who is trying to save a portion of the Maui rainforest from foreign developers. Cute summer read.
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman - I mentioned I was reading this before and that I might make a post about it like I did for Walden but I just don’t think it’s possible. I read the original 1855 edition and it’s just too out there. I still don’t know what to think of it. I know this is vague but it’s like the OG stream of consciousness writing style that wavers between nature and weird male thoughts. Lol. If you’ve read it, let me know your thoughts. I’d be interested to see how it differs from the last edited version but not interested enough to find out.
Maggie Finds Her Muse by Dee Ernst - A woman writer from the US has writer’s block so she goes to Paris to try and “find her muse”. She spends time with her adult daughter and her ex husband who also happen to be there. Her agent lets her stay in his apartment while he’s traveling. The apartment comes with a housekeeper and her son is staying there too. It was pretty good. I’d give it 3/5 stars.
Sandwich by Catherine Newman - The story of a middle aged woman who goes to Cape Cod for a week with her family. They’ve gone to their summer beach rental for 2 decades and this summer she’s at a time in her life when her kids are growing up and her parents are aging so she’s “sandwiched” between these life events and the week is full of nostalgia and becoming and feeling out this new life stage. Lovely read. Also, Cape Cod.
Haunted Ever After by Jen DeLuca - currently still reading this. It’s my Summerween book pick. A woman decides to leave Orlando FL to buy a house she can afford somewhere else. She buys a house in Boneyard Key off the coast of southern Fl. It’s a tourist destination for ghost tours and mysteries. The house she bought had been vacant a long time because it was haunted. One evening she finds out it’s on the friday night walking ghost tour list when people are standing outside listening to the tour leader describe the woman who used to live there and now haunts it.
She meets a local coffee shop owner who receives texts from the original owner of the shop, who happens to be dead but has a lot to say about how he’s running it.
The debate for whether or not cinnamon should be in banana bread is prevalent in this book.
Background for Love by Helen Wolff - This has been on my TBR for months. I have it in hardback which I really don’t like so I’ve put it off but it’s also ideal for summer. I’ve just started it and it’s about a couple in 1930’s Berlin who escape the fascist regime that summer to go spend months on the Côte d'Azur. While the trip starts out idyllic, the woman soon gets fed up with her older man and decides to leave him and finds a cottage in Saint Tropez and has an “unforgettable summer of independence and freedom”.
A book about a woman breaking free from the norm to indulgently live on the French coast in summer? Sign me up.
The Love Haters | Currently listening to this one on audio. I thought it looked funny because it’s about a woman who is put on assignment to film a compelling documentary for the Coast Guard to try and get people to sign up and she finds out she’ll have to be on the helicopter and in the water with them. The thing is she doesn’t know how to swim but she really wanted the job so she took it. She goes to Key West and there’s one thing after another that goes wrong. I think it’s a popular book this summer because there are already 15 people in line after me on Libby to read/listen to it.
Watching | I finished watching Outer Banks seasons 1-4. The fifth and final season will be out next year and I’m looking forward to seeing how it ends. I thought the show was really good. It’s definitely more action/thriller/drama than I’m used to watching with the group of friends hunting for gold and dealing with other people on the same missions. Wild ride for sure.
Also watched Summer Camp from the summer movie watch list and I thought it was a good time.
I also subscribed to Flora Gonning this week on YouTube after watching her solo travel vlog to Kurdistan. Female solo travel vlogs are some of the best videos on youtube and I love when they defy general expectations or assumptions of certain places.
Listening | For the past couple of weeks I’ve been listening to this OBX playlist someone made on Spotify for Outer Banks. It gives young, beach, surfing, summer vibes.
Traveling / Another road trip incoming. There’s nothing like a long stretch of road in the summer. I’ll be visiting 2 more national parks so you can expect another photo diary coming soon. <3
I think that might be it for me for the summer. I’m looking forward to spending July and August on our local beaches. My little one has turned into quite the mermaid this year. Reading on a beach towel while she jumps waves has become permanently scheduled on our calendar a few times per week.
Sending / I sent out my paperback advanced reader copies for Iris this week! Yay! I can’t wait to hear feedback and get everyone’s thoughts.
I’m sending some ARC epubs to people’s kindles as well. Do you have a kindle? If you know the email address for it (you can find it on amazon in your kindle info area), email me what it is at ayrfairy at gmail and you may find Iris in your library!
Emailing | Senators to not sell our public lands which is theft and destruction. Have you seen the map? This takes 5 seconds to fill out and email your senators. The work is all done for you.
What have you been reading and watching this month? I’d love to know!
X,
Courtney
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