July Worthwhile Stuff

📚 Books
Bright Ruined Things, Samantha Cohoe: This is a fun YA fantasy, this book has everything: magic, mystery, colonialism, loose inspiration from The Tempest, women aviators in pantsuits, love triangles, and more! Plus, it's all set over the course of one day and evening. Definitely a engrossing, entertaining summer read.

Death and the Penguin, Andrey Kurkov: Kurkov writes in a new introduction he penned this March, “Journalists, interviewing me about the war, often ask: what else can we do for Ukraine? And I answer: you can read more books about Ukraine, read more books by Ukrainian writers. … Even my depressed penguin Misha from Death and the Penguin can tell you more about Ukraine than Google can.” Indeed, I highly recommend this absurd, melancholy, lovely, and dear little story about Misha and his master. The continuation of their adventures, Penguin Lost, is also excellent and brings their saga to a satisfying, yet melancholy, conclusion.

This Time Tomorrow, Emma Straub: This is a time travel book that focuses on how changing the past can impact the future, while also addressing how we as humans handle things that can’t be changed or avoided, and how important it is to recognize and know what makes you happy, rather than constantly searching for a better life (what even is a “better life” when one is far beyond striving for survival?). It’s a very well-written and very NYC book that’s both enjoyable and thought provoking, and also a little sad.


🎶 Music
"Kill the Lights", Alex Newell, Jess Glynne, & DJ Cassidy: Pure disco heaven! I can't believe this song came out in 2016, but didn't come into my life -- both at 305 Fitness and as the closing number in the play Fat Ham -- until this year. It's utterly enchanting.

🎤 🎭 Performance
New Kids on the Block Mixtape Tour: I went to this concert because Rick Astley was part of the line-up, and Rick did an amazing job singing four of his biggest hits to a packed arena. But NKOTB, En Vogue, and Salt N Pepa were all excellent as well. The New Kids especially seemed to be having the time of their life, and while I was too young to have been into them in their heyday, their energy at this show was infectious. Donnie Wahlberg, Jordan Knight, and Joey McIntyre especially were hamming it up any chance they could get. They were in turns delightful and awkward (the amount of bare skin sometimes verged on creating a Chippendales vibe) to watch. Not an experience I will be forgetting any time soon.