Mulling It Over vol. 37
A weekly recap featuring books, shows, and more!
Happy Friday! Welcome back to my semi-weekly newsletter, where I recap what I’ve been reading, watching, and listening to, as well as some personal anecdotes. We’ve made it to the tail end of January, and wow, it has been packed.
On a global scale, this year has already been bleak. This regime never ceases to amaze me on how low they can stoop. The terror invoked by ICE on citizens and immigrants throughout this nation has been truly horrifying. The information overload we receive on our screens daily is just overwhelming. I know there has been a trend towards analog hobbies, bricking your phone, and physical media lately, and I think these speak to the deluge of political horrors we’ve been exposed to over the past ten or so years. My hope is not for us to bury our heads in the sand, but perhaps turn towards our communities beyond the screen and take actionable steps to help our neighbors. Write postcards, call our representatives (I call mine using the app 5 Calls which makes the process so easy). The world news feels relentless, but we cannot freeze up - we must stay the course.
In my personal life, we’ve already made our first trip of the year to visit family in Austin, Texas, and in just a few weeks I’ll be traveling to Switzerland and Germany for a business trip! Our trip to Texas was a short but sweet one, including a visit to Longhorn Caverns, a Texas Stars hockey game, shopping at a few bookshops, and lots and lots of tacos. It was nice to get into some warm weather and visit family and friends for a few days.
Let’s get into it!
Reading
I’ve read 6 books so far this year! One my goals has been to read through my unread shelves, making 50% of the books read to be ones I already own. So far I’ve read one owned book so far (and I just got it for Christmas… oops!) but I’m keeping this goal in my mind as I’m reading.
One stand out so far have been James by Percival Everett. It’s no surprise to me this won the Pulitzer and National Book Award. In this modern retelling of Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, Everett explores the story of Jim on the cusp of the civil war in the enslaved south. It’s powerful, moving, and a masterclass in storytelling. It begs readers to consider whose stories have been left out in history and the power of a name. 5/5 stars!
I apparently was drawn to books about road trips recently, considering I read Run For the Hills, The Road To Tender Hearts, and Mosquitoland. This trio makes a nice “book flight” featuring found family, journeys across country, and coming-of-age tales of imperfect humans. (The Golem of Brooklyn may fit in that flight as well, but more of an outlier).
The Golem of Brooklyn came to my TBR via a subreddit looking for laugh out loud books. This book is WACKY! But it’s also a very interesting tale of a bored Brooklynite art teacher who decides to make a Golem from stolen clay from his art classroom. Chaos ensues.
Have you read any of these titles? Let me know what you think in the comments!
Watching
The Pitt Season 2 is back baby! I’m thrilled to have these characters on my screen again each week, but I’m also sad that I can’t binge the episodes like I did in Season 1. Noah Wyle and the rest of the cast deserves all the accolades for this show. Also, I’m loving their TikToks.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
On the plane I watched Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret (2023) and I adored it. Such a sweet pre-teen story and I am looking forward to watching it with my 11-year old daughter.
Etc.
After our vacation, I’m getting back into the swing of things. Starting to get barre and catching up on work. This weekend we’re celebrating Jake’s birthday with a date night to see a play and have dinner. We also are almost done painting our bedroom, so hopefully that gets finished soon!
Hope you all have a lovely weekend. We’re expecting a big winter storm on Sunday night, so maybe we’ll get a cozy day at home for Jake’s birthday present! Off to stock up on hot cocoa!
Until next time,
Cassie