The Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening in 2018, part 8: Christina M. Rau

The Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening in 2018
by Christina M. Rau


Books and podcasts and books and podcasts and movies and books and podcasts. That’s how I spent the better part of this year. Here’s what I most indulged in.


In current-ish novels: Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan, but I have yet to see the movie, but I plan to read the next book in the series; Darcy Bell’s A Simple Favor, and I saw the movie and within the first ten minutes decided to think of the movie as not based on the book, which made both enjoyable; Weike Wang’s Chemistry, which is unlike any book I’ve ever read, in a good way; The Sleepwalker’s Guide To Dancing by Mira Jacob, and I didn’t want it to end; Good As Gone by Amy Gentry and You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott, two thrillers that thrilled me to the core.

In throwback novels: Murder on the Orient Express (and then I watched the movie, or, actually, I watched the insides of my eyelids while the movie droned in the background).


In YA: Adib Khorram’s Darius the Great Is Not Okay, and I loved this book because I related so hard (https://adibkhorram.com/); Sadie by Courtney Summers, which tells a striking and thrilling tale

In poetry: Rupi Kaur’s Milk and Honey, read mostly so that when my students ask me if I’ve read it, I can say, “yes;” Jason Reynolds’s Long Way Down, which is a poetry-novel; Jared Harel’s Go Because I Love You, which is stunning and sweet (https://jaredharel.com/).


In nonfiction: Carl Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World: Science As A Candle In The Dark. I read other nonfiction, but nothing compares to this thought-provoking gem.

In listening: Serial Season 3; Annotated; Inside: Trader Joe’s (if you shop at TJ’s, listen to this); Oh My Dollar! to get geeky about money; and to laugh like a lunatic and justify my watching Riverdale, the podcast: RiverMales: All Tea, All Shade, All Riverdale (https://omny.fm/shows/tv-tea-time-with-mattie-jake)


Last year, I listened to the podcast Dirty John. This year, I’m watching the series based on the podcast on Bravo.


Other watching pleasures: Bohemian Rhapsody (wow!); The Meg; Ant-Man and The Wasp (yasss!); Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom; Deadpool 2 (ha!); Avengers: Infinity War (whoa!); Black Panther (whoa again!).

Christina M. Rau is the founder of Poets In Nassau, a reading circuit on Long Island, NY, where she's lived all her life. She is the author of the chapbooks WakeBreatheMove (Finishing Line Press, 2015) and For The Girls, I (Dancing Girl Press, 2014). She serves as editor for The Nassau Review at Nassau Community College, where she teaches writing and literature.  Aqueduct Press published her Elgin Award-winning collection, Liberating the Astronauts in 2017. For her blog, visit alifeofwe.blogspot.com. For everything else, www.christinamrau.com.