Of cruelty and floods

The Sunday Salon, What I'm Listening To, What I'm Reading

Each week here on The Sunday Salon, I take a look back and/or ahead at what I’m reading, what I’m watching and/or what we’re watching, what I’m listening to, and what I’m doing and/or what we’re doing.

What I’m reading

As I type up this draft, I’m in the middle of The Cruelest Month, the third book in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, by Louise Penny and am enjoying it thus far. As per my 25 Before I Turn 50, I want to read 10 nonfiction books. To that end, I have one nonfiction book per month planned until the end of the year:

  • August: Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family by Amy Ellis Nutt
  • September: Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson
  • October: Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
  • November: We Were Eight Years In Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • December: You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me: A Memoir by Sherman Alexie.

That will leave five more nonfiction books for January through May 2019.

What we’re watching

We just finished the first season of the FXX series (on Hulu) You’re The Worst. We’ve seen characters like this before in such series as Catastrophe and Difficult People, but unlike in those shows, where we wearied of the bitterness of the people involved, in this one, at least so far in the first season, we haven’t. At the center also is a love story, even if it is at times a messy and complicated one, especially since the two main characters, Jimmy and Gretchen are such awful people. However, you still are pulling for them somehow, because in their own weird (horrible) way, they’re sweet together.

What I’m Listening To

What I’m/We’re Doing

Over the last couple of weeks, Kim and I both have been going to concerts with a local musical festival, some together, some separately with other people. In addition to a few free concerts, we have been lucky enough to score free tickets from generous people in the community. The festival is called the Endless Mountain Music Festival and features world-class musicians over two weeks.

Today, as you’re reading this, I’ll be visiting my mother, who celebrated her 74th birthday on Friday. My sister and I are joining her for church and then going to her house where we’re having cheesesteaks from a local general store (the owners are originally from Philadelphia).

Later this week, I had planned on lunch and a movie. However, I probably will be foregoing that as I will be putting my money elsewhere, to help my hometown library (where I grew up, not where I live and not the library where I work) which experienced losses Friday no thanks to a flash flood.

So what are you reading, watching, listening to, doing this past week and the week to come? Any highlights?

Published by Bryan G. Robinson

Blogger formerly known as Unfinished Person. Still an unfinished person...

Published

17 thoughts on “Of cruelty and floods”

  1. Pingback: Grieving for a family member, a library, and a town – Still an unfinished person…

  2. I just finished Baby Teeth and posted the review today as well. It was not award winning fiction but kept me turning the pages.

    This weekend, my daughter is taking my son to see Waitress at the Pantages in Hollywood. It was his bday present. We plan to all eat dinner together, drop them off and then The Hub and I bought tickets at a nearby theatre to see Mission Impossible. I am a little sad because I thought it was in the Cinerama Dome which is a bit of thing in Hollywood and a theater that I last visited when I was six but’s in a new theater addition added on a few years ago. Anyway, I reserved our seats so I hope it’s good. I do not like Cruise usually but he does make a good action flick.

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  3. Oh dear, that flood picture is distressing! I mean, it’s obviously good only books were damaged, but what a mess for everyone to deal with. Ugh.

    We watched Your’re the worst for awhile and thought it was funny! Lindsay and her husband started to drive me bananas eventually, so it kind of petered off in my viewing schedule.

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  5. You’re the Worst was my guilty pleasure several months ago — I was borrowing the DVDs from the library — but I began to lose interest somewhere in the middle of Season 2 (I think). I think Gretchen and — what’s his name, I can’t remember — just became too much for me to handle. The roommate, though (the one who made the breakfasts) was hilarious.

    Very sorry to hear about the hometown library and the flood. That’s just awful.

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          1. I just finished S2 of “You’re The Worst”. I thought they did a good job with the depression issue. Can’t be easy to make a totally not funny subject funny. They did it by making fun of the people in her life who obviously know nothing about depression or how to deal with it. Depression wasn’t really the main focus of S2. I’d say that storyline got the same attention, maybe even less, as the storylines of the other characters. And now, I am continuing on with S3! I am so glad you told us about this show!!!! And don’t worry, I won’t keep popping up to report on each and every season. LOL

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  7. I do not know You’re The Worst or the other two shows you mentioned so I will check out YTW since normally my Hulu subscription sits dormant in between seasons of Handmaid’s Tale. Now I finally have something else to make use of that service!

    Happy Birthday to your mama and so very sorry about the awful flood!

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  8. The flood picture is horrible. We saw such sights as this last fall when Harvey hit lots of libraries in my area. We were not hit by Harvey, but my town’s library was hit by a double whammy ten years ago of a flood from a hurricane followed by a fire. The Texas Library Association has a special fund with money that goes for libraries hit by devastating events.

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