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Thursday, January 5, 2023

The Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening in 2022, pt. 28: Christina M. Rau

 


Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening 2022

by Christina M. Rau

 

I kept up my reading streak this year, and I’m a happier person for it! Additionally, I kept up with my usual podcasts and added on some new ones; mini-episodes are now my jam. Spotify told me what to listen to, so I guess I’m a convert. I had a quick movie streak and watched some interesting television. Not everything was good, but still, it was a very good year. Included here is the good stuff.

 

READING

The top-notch very favorite books I read almost book-ended the year and are both nonfiction.


 Back in January, I read Widow Basquiat: A Love Story by Jennifer Clement. It. Haunts. Me.

 Then in November, a sudden urge came over me, saying “you must read this book,” so I read Wild by Cheryl Strayed, and then immediately watched the movie, and then kept talking about it. It’s magic.

 

 

 Poetry

What We Do To Make Us Whole by Christina M. Rau (hey! that’s me! my newest book!)

Against Heaven by Kemi Alabi

How To Love A Country by Richard Blanco

Tainted Lionheart by Christine Weimer

Inheritance by Elizabeth Acevedo

Poetry and Science: Writing Our Way To Discovery ed. by Lucille Lang Day

Otherwise Known As Home by Tim Wood

All Things Bent Are Beautiful by James Diaz

Thief in the Interior by Phillip B. Williams

When The Pilotless Plan Arrives by Ann Cefola

I Love You Means Nothing by Dre Hill

Ennui: From The Diagnostic and Statistical Field Guide of Feminine Disorders by Deborah Hauser

Damsel In Dystopia by Sarah Borruto

Soul Of A Rising Phoenix by Emma Desulme

Night-Blooming Cereus by Melody Wang

Servicing Nostalgia by Brendan McEntee

 

Nonfiction


Everything Bad Is Good For You by Steven Johnson, a little outdated but still interesting

We Learn Nothing by Tim Kreider

How To Live by Derek Sivers

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Brat: An 80s Story by Andrew McCarthy

 

Fiction


Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, wowza!

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid, wowza again!

Trash by Dorothy Allison

The Complete Collection of People, Places, and Things by John Dermot Woods

Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke

Iphigenia Murphy by Sara Hosey, which is YA

Severance by Ling Ma, which made me scared for the world over and again

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo, very poetic YA

 

 

Let’s not forget literary journals!

Swifts & Slows (https://www.arteidolia.com/swifts-slows/)

Anti-Heroin Chic (http://heroinchic.weebly.com/)

Punk Monk Magazine (https://punkmonkmagazine.blogspot.com)

Roi Faineant Press (https://www.roifaineantpress.com/)

Skink Beat Review (https://www.flipsnack.com/nikkiax/skink-beat-review-pride-2-2/full-view.html)

The Disappointed Housewife (https://thedisappointedhousewife.com/)

fillingStation (http://www.fillingstation.ca/)

 

VIEWING SPONSORED BY NETFLIX BECAUSE I HAD TO JUSTIFY PAYING THE HIGHER PRICE

Call Me By Your Name (somehow, I couldn’t get away from Timothee Chalamet this year)

Lady Bird (see?)

Jobs

The Alpinist

St. Vincent

Count Me In

Perfect Bid: The Contestant Who Knew Too Much

Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed

Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art

This Is A Robbery: The World’s Biggest Art Heist (I got into art!)

Blade Runner 2049

Killing Hasselhoff

Good On Paper

The Gentlemen

The Good Place, so smart!!

The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window (Kristen Bell streak)

Dead To Me, all three seasons

Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous

Space Force, Seasons 1 & 2

The Mole, the new one! So good!

Murderville

Eat The Rich

The Duchess

That’s My Time with David Letterman

Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist

Inventing Anna

Stranger Things

The Playlist, a dubbed Swedish mini-series about Spotify, which includes an episode that takes place in the future

Old Enough, a series of no-more-than-20-minute episodes of Japanese children under the age of 5 going off into the city by themselves to complete chores. Uh. May. ZING!

 

OTHER VIEWING

Rat In The Kitchen

Bullet Train

Elvis

Minions: The Rise of Gru

Thor: Love and Thunder

Jurassic World Dominion

Top Gun: Maverick

Everything Everywhere All At Once

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, a masterpiece!

 

LISTENING TO PODCASTS

Reality Gays Podcast

The Dork Forest

The Slowdown (poetry podcast)

Buddhist Boot Camp

Couples Therapy with Naomi Ekperigin and Andy Beckerman

Quantum Reiki & Healing

The Fckry

Two Cool Moms

The Poet and the Reader

 

LISTENING TO MUSIC


Train’s AM Gold album

Lumineer’s Brightside album

AllOne’s Emotionauts album

CoffeeNap’s (Of) Smoke Rings and Tenderness album

 

 

And my top songs according to Spotify and narrowed down by me because a lot of songs are on my yoga playlists for teaching:

 

If We Were Vampires by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

Meet Me At Our Spot by The Anxiety

Best They Ever Had by Rozes

abcdefu by GAYLE

Lay Your Head On Me by Major Lazer, Diplo, Jacques Lu Cont, and Diplo

Big Energy by Latto

Say Hey by Michael Franti & Spearhead

Drunk by Elle King and Miranda Lambert

A-O-K by Tai Verdes

Say My Name by Hozier

San Luis by Gregory Alan Isakov

Drive by Valerie Broussard

 


Christina M. Rau is the author of the 2021 poetry collection What We Do To Make Us Whole, the Elgin Award-winning sci-fi fem poetry collection, Liberating The Astronauts (Aqueduct Press), and  WakeBreatheMove (Finishing Line Press) and For The Girls, I (dancing girl press). She’s served as Poet In Residence for Oceanside Library NY, was named Long Island Poet of the Year by Walt Whitman Birthplace, and is the recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Creative Works and a New York State DEC arts grant through Huntington Arts Council. She also serves as Editor-in-chief for the international literary journal The Nassau Review at Nassau Community College, where she teaches writing.  http://www.christinamrau.com

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