Alan & Jono's Watching/Reading List: June 2024
Added 2024-06-26 16:15:14 +0000 UTCAlan:
Hello Heroes!
June. If you’re in California, it’s gloomy. Which is ironically fitting. Cause I was in California half this month almost. Vacation with the family, then a trip to Hollywood for the premiere of Inside Out 2! Absolutely wild. Hard to believe this is my life!
What I’m reading!
Spielberg: The First Ten Years - by Laurent Bouzereau. This guy has been Spielberg’s on-set documentarian since A.I. and did several retrospectives of his films before that. This guy may know more about Steven Spielberg than any person on earth, but he’s not particularly critical. This book is just one long gush session (admittedly about probably the greatest filmmaker in history). Still, I got a lot out of it, and it’s loaded with images and BTS stuff I hadn’t seen before. So that was worth the price of admission.
The Emotional Lives of Teenagers - by Dr. Lisa Damour. What?! Alan is reading a psychology book? Isn’t that Jono’s job? Yes, but I’m also raising a teen (soon to be three... Heaven help me) and Dr. Damour was the “teen psychology consultant” on Inside Out 2. Just doing movie homework guys, the world hasn’t ended. I’ll get back to fictional nonsense next month (I think I’m gonna read Fourth Wing. Who doesn’t want slightly horny fantasy dragon-riding?)
What I’m watching!
Slow Horses Series 2. I’m way behind, but it’s a super-fun spy-thriller-comedy with great performances, phenomenal writing, surprising dramatic depth, and one of the all-time great Gary Oldmans. So yeah. Trying to get caught up since I think Series 4 just came out?
What I’m playing!
Return to Monkey Island - A 30-year-later sequel to some really fun adventure games from my very early youth. What’s not to love? Cartoony pirates? Cartoony Voodoo magics? Cartoony cartoon sidekicks? Incredible pun-based humor? If you don’t love these things… That’s fine. We don’t all have to like the same things! You do you, man. I’m gonna keep playing point-and-click adventure games, cause I’m too old to enjoy Souls-likes.
Watch Movies! (And television, and read books, and play video games)
Jono:
Hey all! The summer is already flying by too fast, if you ask me! Still, I've been enjoying the summer films, especially Inside Out 2! Wowza, what a film! I've seen it 2.33 times (the 0.33 was at Pixar, then again at the premiere, then again with my family last week) and it speaks to me so profoundly. Can't wait to do a full episode on it!
I've been devouring Bridgerton S3 and Gilmore Girls, then balancing that lovely estrogen with a viewing of the extended versions of the Lord of the Rings films.
As far as reading, I'm really enjoying It Didn't Start With You by Mark Wolynn, which is about the epigenetics and neuroscience of intergenerational trauma. What I love most is that he keeps it grounded in the human experience, taking what could be a dry and intellectual (read: boring) subject for me and turning it into something practical, emotional, and real.
I'm a BIG fan of anything that makes the abstract more relatable and applicable. It's the entire backbone of our channel.
What about you lovely folks? What have you been watching and reading this month?
Comments
Really? That Mark Wolynn book is rubbish. I remember trying to read it and had to put it down when he suggested that a man's hallucinations (I think?) was somehow a genetic consequence of his uncle's trauma/death. I seem to remember he froze to death? Think about it - you don't inherit genes from your uncle... unless he's not just your uncle, of course. And you definitely don't inherit genes from a dead man that are somehow imprinted with the trauma of his death. How would those have got passed on to anyone, let alone his nephew? Feels very much like this guy took some interesting, tentative results from some studies and constructed an entire fantasy from it.
Ami Valentine
2024-09-21 21:02:40 +0000 UTCThank God for Fathom Events and excellent timing!! I finished reading the LOTR trilogy at the beginning of this year, and was so blessed to get to go to all three days of the Fathom Events theatrical re-release of LOTR trilogy extended editions. I can’t stop thinking about these wonderful, blessed movies - or starring at pictures of Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn (as this character, he is now my eternal Man Crush Monday).
Catherine Ginn
2024-07-01 19:03:43 +0000 UTCA Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. The first book is basically a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. It gets muuuuch better in the last third, and REALLY picks up in the second book.
SaucyJTD
2024-06-30 16:25:54 +0000 UTCHahahaha. Well, if lightening and a wardrobe were involved then you have in fact arrived at *that* chapter. Welcome to Romantasy!
Lauren Wagstaff
2024-06-30 16:24:54 +0000 UTCWhat is ACOTAR? Says guy who is too lazy to google things.
Alan Seawright
2024-06-30 16:24:45 +0000 UTCIf I haven’t gotten to THAT chapter, I don’t know what I just read, cause uh… yikes. Gives “let’s smash” a whole new meaning.
Alan Seawright
2024-06-30 16:23:08 +0000 UTCI loved watching the extended versions of LOTR in a packed theater. It was like watching a new movie because I saw so much more than I ever have and I’ve seen it so many times and it moved me I couldn’t stop talking about it for days. I’d love to hear you talk about the Last Kingdom tv series and Uthred and what he goes through. I’ve watched that series like 6 times since learning about it a couple years ago.
Julie Tracy
2024-06-29 11:11:33 +0000 UTCThis month my bookclub friends and I are reading The Count of Monte-Cristo. The librarian handed me both volumes of the novel. That’s a lot of pages… Wish me luck. 😅🤓 Perhaps, in the future, there might be a CT episode on the homonymous movie from 2002 ft. Jim Caviezel…? Just saying… 😬🤭🫣
Ana Bulat
2024-06-28 19:05:30 +0000 UTCI would love to hear your thoughts on ”to all the boys”! Might it redeem the genre a little bit, after the… interesting.. experiences that are Twilight and The Kissing Booth? 😉
Sara Wagiström
2024-06-27 18:00:41 +0000 UTCWe did a Patreon-exclusive episode on Roy and Jamie, but there's definitely a lot more we could explore there! (Honestly, we could do a deep dive on basically every character in that show!) Confession: Alan was also pleasantly surprised by To All the Boys. Should we do an episode on those movies?? Both of those books sound really interesting! Might have to check them out.
Cinema Therapy
2024-06-27 17:47:29 +0000 UTCI really had that psychology book on Jono's list 😂 I'll have to see if my library has that, thanks!
Angie
2024-06-27 14:52:31 +0000 UTCYes, the Born In series 😅. Ardmore is another favorite, too! I never got around to reading Year One. I'll add it to my list 😊.
SaucyJTD
2024-06-27 04:09:49 +0000 UTCYes! Dune 2 was excellent! My Key trilogy is dog-eared as well 😄. I don't know if I've read the Shame Trilogy. If that's the Born In series in Ireland ... Yes ... also falling apart! Did you read Year One? Loved that too. Thought the second and third installments weren't as good, but the first was great.
Melissa
2024-06-27 02:28:16 +0000 UTCThe Key trilogy and Shame trilogies are my favorites! I've read them so much lol. Btw, Dune 2 was really good! They changed some things from the books, sure. I think it makes sense since they aren't doing the entire series 😅.
SaucyJTD
2024-06-27 02:17:29 +0000 UTCWatching: - re-watching Ted Lasso. It’s a joy. But I’m wondering if we’ll ever get an episode about Roy Kent 😉 also, I never quite could grasp fully why Nate betrays and starts to resent Ted. So I guess for my own sake, I’d appreciate an episode about Nate (villain therapy?). - I was pleasently suprised by ”to all the boys I loved before”. Normally, I cringe at teen romantic comedies, but I found this one very sweet. - just recently, I’m also following the release of House of the Dragon s2 (btw, it’s soo nice to just get one episode a week!! i tend to binge and not being able to really makes me absorb the story better). Considering how disappointed (enraged, really) I was by the last few seasons of GoT, it really is a feat that they managed to get me to love HotD. Reading: - finished a gothic adventure called ”Gallant” by VE Schwab. It was short, quite fast paced and really good. It’s about an orphan girl, Olivia, who can’t speak but sees dead people. Her only memory from her mother is the diary she kept while ”going mad”. When she gets a letter from her uncle, calling her home to the mansion her mother fled, she goes, thinking she’ll finally find a home. When she gets there, it turns out her uncle is dead and cannot have sent the letter, and her cousin urges her to escape while she can. - just started ”How do we live?” by Genzaboru Yoshino, which apparently is in the works by Miyazaki and Studio Gihbli? I’m like a chapter in, but honestly: Just the pre-word by Neil Gaiman was 5 stars lol Can’t wait to see inside out 2, I’ve heard so many great things about it!
Sara Wagiström
2024-06-26 22:14:11 +0000 UTCOmg, I think I would pay good money to get to see your reactions to Fourth Wing 😂 And bridgerton, Gilmore girls and lotr extended kind of sound like my dream, tbh
Sara Wagiström
2024-06-26 21:49:59 +0000 UTCI got back into watching Evil again. It’s *so* good! I’m already caught back up to their current season.
Emily Snell-Salvaggio
2024-06-26 20:05:24 +0000 UTCI know I'm super enjoying it!
KrissyArtist
2024-06-26 19:32:59 +0000 UTCI have more than a few dog-eared copies. 😄 My Chesapeake Bay Saga has seen better days. Who doesn't love a ghost story in the middle of a loving adoptive family?
Melissa
2024-06-26 19:28:48 +0000 UTCI've been reading (listening) Salem's Lot by Stephen King. It's been a slow burn, but starting to get interesting. I'm glad I stuck it out. I, of course, watched Inside Out 2. And I've rewatched Bridgerton season 3 twice. Also watching Ragnarok. On season 3 currently.
Holly✌️
2024-06-26 19:24:47 +0000 UTCI've been reading lots of historical fiction, by Judith Starkston about the ancient Hittite empire, and the 14th Jane Austen and Dragon book by Maria Grace, Dragons at Land's End. I have now moved on to the second in the Jerusalem Mysteries by Ellen Frankel. All of these authors were guests on my podcast, Story-Power. After that who knows. I have a long TBR.
Lucinda Sage-Midgorden
2024-06-26 19:14:13 +0000 UTCYES!!!!! “Like.. I know. You’re young. You stupid. LET IT GO.”😂 on almost everything- except Dain. F that guy.
Brooke
2024-06-26 19:10:36 +0000 UTCI finally watched Queen Charlotte and to celebrate my husband's retirement, we're going to watch Bridgerton season 3 starting this coming weekend. I've also been watching lots of classic movies lately. Last night it was Born Yesterday, such a great movie. My sister and I are thinking of starting a classic movie YouTube channel later this year or early next.
Lucinda Sage-Midgorden
2024-06-26 19:09:35 +0000 UTCNo shame in Nora! I re-read her books often!
SaucyJTD
2024-06-26 19:01:15 +0000 UTCOMG yes. Like “VIOLET! You’re being dumb. LET THIS GO”
Lauren Wagstaff
2024-06-26 18:55:49 +0000 UTCWait, mine? 🤣
SaucyJTD
2024-06-26 18:55:33 +0000 UTCAlso: username checks out
Lauren Wagstaff
2024-06-26 18:54:57 +0000 UTCHotD is so good
Lauren Wagstaff
2024-06-26 18:54:21 +0000 UTCSHHHHH. DONT RUIN THE SURPRISE😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Brooke
2024-06-26 18:47:43 +0000 UTCI finished reading Iron Gold and Dark Age (just yesterday!), started reading Light Bringer and got so mad (and then depressed) when I realized that was not the last one!! I had waited and waited to read the new ones until they were all out and now I'll have to redo the slog that is the Dark Age next year when the actually final book comes out....ughhhhh. But I'll do it anyways lol. My husband and I did the three days in a row watching Lord of the Rings extended editions in theaters and it was SO cool! I also went back to watching Heartland because I really needed the basic, simple drama of it lol.
Lydia Hartzler
2024-06-26 18:07:43 +0000 UTCWatching Dune Part 2, White Lotus (just starting Season 2), and taking my kids on a blast from the past, the original Quantum Leap with triple threat Scott Bakula. 😁 I'm reading a few Nora Roberts novels (don't judge me 🤭!). I usually need some fluff before bedtime to destress. And idealized small business and small town community as a backdrop does the trick for me. 🙂
Melissa
2024-06-26 18:03:41 +0000 UTCI finally got to watch Inside Out 2 and it was great! Of course I was all about the puns, but the film was also just GOOD. I haven't been playing anything myself but Hubs has been loving a little platformer called Dave the Diver, and the visuals are super cool! The cutscenes are also a blast. The new DLC for Elden Ring dropped so he's currently getting his butt kicked on that. We also just caught up on The Boys and HOOOLY STARS AND STRIPES.
Smidge
2024-06-26 17:40:11 +0000 UTCReading: The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd and Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir Watching: The Chosen S4, Alone, and The Good Place (again!) Playing: Catan and Five Crowns at my mom's every week 😆
Amy Moody
2024-06-26 17:22:55 +0000 UTCCassian, to me, would be my best bro. I love the hell out of him, but I would enjoy roasting him even more haha.
SaucyJTD
2024-06-26 17:20:53 +0000 UTCAfter ACOSF…SAME
Lauren Wagstaff
2024-06-26 17:20:52 +0000 UTCCASSIAN!!!!!!
Lauren Wagstaff
2024-06-26 17:18:41 +0000 UTC🥵 In-DEED.
SaucyJTD
2024-06-26 17:18:08 +0000 UTCTHAT CHAPTER THO 🥵
Lauren Wagstaff
2024-06-26 17:17:17 +0000 UTCAs a Spielberg fan can’t wait to buy the book
Josh Jones
2024-06-26 17:16:35 +0000 UTCI wasn't gonna say anything, just let him learn 🤣🤣🤣.
SaucyJTD
2024-06-26 17:14:35 +0000 UTCUmm…Alan? If you think this is “slightly horny”…you might be in for a little surprise 😯 I saw Inside Out 2 but also…Thelma! And honestly I’d love for y’all to do a video. It does a wonderful job of showing how society views the elderly, and how they view themselves. Their problems. And the editing actually makes it pretty exciting. Did I also mention room that it’s hilarious?
Lauren Wagstaff
2024-06-26 17:12:43 +0000 UTCI read Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park and The Lost World for the first time. Really enjoyed them, and it was nice to see Creighton’s writing of young girls improved between books. Lex was an insufferable brat (what, you think you’re the only one that’s scared, tired, and hungry, kid??) but Kelly in the next book was a much better character that actually contributed.
Lauren Frey
2024-06-26 16:47:25 +0000 UTCI have three other friends who are reading the Maas-verse books, and we all love someone different 🤣. The general is definitely one of their favorites.
SaucyJTD
2024-06-26 16:44:26 +0000 UTCAh. Yes. Fair. Personally I pick the general, but I get it completely 😏
Brooke
2024-06-26 16:42:47 +0000 UTCRhysand. All. Day. Every. Cauldron. Blessed. Day. 🤤
SaucyJTD
2024-06-26 16:40:16 +0000 UTC😂😂 hmmm which one is your book husband?
Brooke
2024-06-26 16:39:01 +0000 UTCI won't lie, I'm terrified of what they would say about my book husband 🤣.
SaucyJTD
2024-06-26 16:36:29 +0000 UTCYES. 100%. I almost want them to do a full episode on those books😂
Brooke
2024-06-26 16:35:24 +0000 UTCReading The Letters of Van Gogh which is amazing! It's the real life letters Van wrote to his brother! Really interesting. What I have been watching Interview with a vampire season 2, Bridgerton season 3, and House of the Dragon. All really good.
KrissyArtist
2024-06-26 16:35:22 +0000 UTCThere were times I wanted to shake her silly during Iron Flame, but I ADORED the books. Got my pre-order in for book 3, can’t WAIT😁
Brooke
2024-06-26 16:34:44 +0000 UTCAlso, for Alan, ACOTAR is great for some fantasy non-sense. Would love to listen to you rant about the characters in that series 🤣.
SaucyJTD
2024-06-26 16:33:38 +0000 UTCOkay, but Fourth Wing and Iron Flame are both really good! Violet frustrates me at times, but I can't wait for the third book to drop!
SaucyJTD
2024-06-26 16:30:09 +0000 UTCReading: I read The Choice by Dr. Edith Eger! Absolutely amazing book and person! I'm glad I read it on my Kindle app because I highlighted so many things while reading it. I'm 27% through Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Dr. Susan Jeffers currently. Been sidetracked with TV shows 😅. Watching: Inside Out 2 was so good! I also can't wait to see you guys cover the whole movie, especially if it's done with Kelcey Mann visiting you guys this time! I've also been watching so... much... 24. Started season 3 last night, and still enjoying every second. Even when I'm pissed 🤣. I finished season 1 of Bridgerton yesterday, too! Can't wait to catch up to that! Edit: Gaming! Been playing Stardew Valley, since it's an easy game to play while also watching stuff. I'll be chained to my desk this weekend though for the FFXIV: Dawntrail expansion.
SaucyJTD
2024-06-26 16:27:28 +0000 UTCCan’t wait to go see Inside Out 2 soon, I loved the first movie so much! I’ve been reading a lot of romance novels, but also Fourth Wing and a lot of other fantasy books (Yay for slightly horny dragon-riding. And if you have no clue about the context, that sentence is wild.)😂
Brooke
2024-06-26 16:23:57 +0000 UTC
