I had a great time moderating the Austin book launch event for The House Where Death Lives at BookPeople! The horror anthology is so good and I highly recommend picking it up!
Also, side note, if you like candles and want to geekify your experience, Burning Vibes is a new line that is inspired by video games, anime, and comics. Their first line is Zelda inspired. Check it out on Instagram!
Now, onto what I’ve been watching and reading lately…
TV
Kaos on Netflix, starring Jeff Goldblum, Janet McTeer, Aurora Perrineau, Leila Farzad, Billie Piper, and more is fantastic. The first season is 8 episodes and an easy binge on your next day off. It’s a dark comedy that re-imagines Greek mythology. I can’t speak highly of it enough and hope that Netflix gives it a few more seasons. It’s Netflix and we all know how they are, so. I don’t know but please, please at least 2 more seasons before cancelling it right away. Three might be pushing it since we know how Netflix treats their original series but a girl can dream.
The final season of The Umbrella Academy was underwhelming. But overall the series was great and I would still highly recommend watching the series if you haven’t and were still considering it after all of this time.
Evil (CBS) ended and wow. What an amazing series. I love shows about the supernatural realm and this show did a knock out job every season, in every episode. Just phenomenal. I’m really going to miss this show. So, so much.
The Acolyte was cancelled, which, don’t even get me started on that.
Only Murders in the Building is back and I’ve seen the first handle of episodes already via screeners and oh my god. I haven’t had this much fun watching the series since the first 2 seasons, the first season particularly. Just wait until later episodes when Melissa McCarthy joins in. I love, love, love physical comedy and boy, did she deliver, as she always does. One of the things that I love about this show is how it plays towards the actor’s strengths and they are just allowed to soar. It’s just so stinking good. Molly Shannon is also a hoot this season. I would have loved to have seen more of her based on what I saw, but there are still a few episodes left of the season for which screeners have yet to come so perhaps my wish will be granted in those episodes. It feels like this show just got a burst of fresh energy this season, I can’t explain it. But I love everything about this season and if for whatever reason, you haven’t watched yet, get into it!
Movies
Note: Be sure to follow me on Letterboxd!
August was a slow month for me on the movie front but I did manage to watch Perfect Blue for the first time and whoa baby! This movie, which came out in 1997, was WAY AHEAD OF ITS TIME. I was only 7 when this came out so there’s no way in the world I would have watched this then. But wow! So good. Trigger warning for rape though. Up next on my watch list from Satoshi Kon are Millennium Actress and Paprika. Hopefully by the end of September I will have seen them both or at least the former.
Books
I also didn’t get a ton of reading done this month but I did read and love the graphic novel, The Faint of Heart by Kerilynn Wilson and if you know about the virtues manuscript that I’ve been revising on and off since 2012, then you know why I love it so much. I also read and loved Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis. This book had been in my queue since before it came out so I’m glad that I finally got to it! Highly, highly recommend. This would make a fantastic movie or mini series. Also, trigger warning for physical abuse, in particular between a daughter and her mother’s boyfriend. There wasn’t a trigger warning for the book and I don’t look up trigger warnings so it did make me sit back for a second but I’m so glad that I kept reading. Really good. So that’s that for me. I think in September, I want to focus on finishing reading the dozen books that I’ve half read so that I can just finally mark them as read. Wish me luck!
What did you watch or read and enjoy in August?