consumption diaries #30: everything I read in june

spoiler: not much!

the heinous canva collages are back, baby

There is no reason for this to be so delayed. I actually considered skipping June entirely because, drum roll, I only read one book.

I could blame it on any number of things: the ills of the world, its doom looming as we all go about our days like nothing is different (and in some ways it disturbingly isn't), the arrival of summer, a season where my social calendar fills up rapidly, necessary for distraction.

But really, I just haven't felt like reading. Sometimes, you just don't feel like reading. Sometimes you don't feel like shouting into the void of the internet, waiting for the echo, just because you think it's special that you, gasp, read books!

That didn't stop me from buying two books, of course: Greta & Valdin and Patricia Wants to Cuddle. Book buying and reading are two completely separate hobbies! Hopefully I will get to those soon, but because of said book-buying habit, I've got quite a backlog to slog through, especially at my current pace.

There are approximately two of you who are waiting for my book recs, so I'm sorry to say there's only one this month and it was extremely weird! Fortunately, my reading has picked back up slightly in July, and because this newsletter is so delayed, I can already say next month's will be more exciting.

You can follow me on goodreads and storygraph to see if I actually hold myself accountable to reading more.

Sky Daddy by Kate Folk

I wanted this to be a weird book and boy did it deliver. I'm not talking about BookTok's watered-down definition of weird novels that are actually just white women with mild depression and chronic ennui; Sky Daddy, a book about a woman who wants to fuck planes and also consummate her marriage to one via a fiery plane crash, is truly weird. It's such a ridiculous premise that I'm finding it difficult to even talk about; when I've explained this book IRL to people, that one-line premise is all I've needed. I kind of love the idea that Kate Folk wrote a weird book just for the sake of being weird and her publisher said yes queen why not, but if I stretch my brain there's something to poke at beneath the grimy surface as well.

Folk gives us her weird little premise and lets it take on a life of its own, guided by the reader, wherever we each want to take it. A consumer of TLC shows such as My Strange Addiction, for example, might enjoy the perplexing psychoanalysis of our 30-year-old antisocial protagonist, Linda. A reader who feels isolated from their community and by extension their own self will be able to relate to Linda's intense desire to be accepted as she is, to make even one friend who can anchor her to reality. And another reader, fascinated by the idea of manifestation and fate, will delight in Linda's commitment to her vision boards and the suggestion that they do hold some power in the universe.

Sky Daddy is just fun, once you get over yourself and lean into the premise. Romance novels can be so cringe and so serious; why not read the ones that the author is encouraging you to laugh at and with? If you could call this a romance novel, that is, but I am because I can.

A brief aside: as a relatively frequent flyer myself, just without the plane erotica, if you missed my mood reading: you’re staring out of an airplane window at 35,000 feet post, it could be a nice accompaniment.

Also, the galley brag of it all for this book was particularly good — influencers' merch packages included hats embroidered with "sky daddy." The employee at Solid State that I spoke to about this says they often get PR packages but did NOT get the sky daddy hat, so I presume they were a hot commodity. I am not a book influencer, so I don't know much about merch etc. I'm not getting, but I too would have liked a sky daddy hat.

what I watched

While I wasn’t reading, I was at the movie theater this month. Some thoughts, and you can follow me on letterboxd if you want to see my dorky reviews there:

Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning needed to be the final reckoning but I'm not so sure it is because Tom Cruise really can't help himself when it comes to reminding us that he does his own stunts and is in better shape than most people half his age. He spends a not-insignificant amount of time in his underwear in this movie, including in the frigid waters of the Bering Sea, and the action scenes are thrilling if not a little long, but it's all worth it to hear him whisper "torpedo tube" so unseriously.

The Materialists — Enough has been said about this movie that I'll refrain from inserting myself too far into the discourse after it's mostly passed, but this is a movie about dating that tries to be a movie about love. Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal all seemed to just be playing themselves, not characters, which made the whole thing kind of feel detached from itself. But I enjoyed it, even if I didn't quite get what if was telling me.

The Phoenician Scheme — Wes Anderson went mainstream and suddenly wasn't cool anymore (I blame that Wes Anderson-ify your life TikTok trend that wouldn't die because it made its way to Reels) but his movies are such a delight. Even if you don’t like the plots, they're a delight. The Phoenician Scheme was surprisingly sentimental, which I think worked, and also satisfyingly brought Michael Cera into the Wes Anderson cinematic universe — a place he was put on this earth to exist in.

28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, 28 Years Later — in preparation for the release of 28 Years Later, I watched 28 Days and 28 Weeks with my sister because I'd never seen them before. 28 Days, good despite being filmed on a pink Motorola razr (I can't claim this joke); 28 Weeks, not that good and also an incredibly frustrating amount of incompetence and selfishness, so perhaps the most realistic; 28 Years ... this was two movies spliced together and maybe even a third at the end, so wear a neck brace to protect you from the tonal whiplash. There were some really great moments and fantastic action scenes, but for me, they were overshadowed by my own confusion.

F1 — ah, the F1 movie. I'd been waiting for this for years (OG readers, so just my friends, know I'm a fairly intense F1 fan). I knew it was going to be silly and cloyingly earnest and probably not all that accurate, and it didn't beat those allegations, but I really enjoyed it. As a hater of long movies, it's the first time I wasn't ready to check my phone and get antsy. However, I have yet to speak with someone who isn't an F1 fan or knows little about it and who's seen the movie, so I'm really curious how it translates to that audience. Even when they were taking creative liberties with the technicalities, I understood them because I spend half of my sundays a year glued to a screen showing posh European boys driving in circles. And there are SO many cameos from real-life F1 people — drivers, mostly, but surprisingly even more of the team principals — that were clearly designed to delight F1 fans, so I wonder how that translates to casual viewers. Like, did you clock the fear in Charles Leclerc's eyes when a camera was in his face, or did you think he was just a bad background actor? Anyway, if you're a non-F1 fan who has seen the F1 movie, tell me everything!

TV screen-wise, I watched the K-drama Tastefully Yours, and I frantically tried to catch up on Love Island USA. I'm perpetually behind, every summer, and I end up having to just read recaps and spoilers each week as I make my way through. Idk how I feel about this season, honestly, but I think the amount of scheming and game-playing might make the producers readjust next year and deliver us a true banger of a season. I've been neglecting Love Island UK since USA got actually good, I'm sorry to say.

Ok, that's it from me. This substack is increasingly not popular enough to apologize for the lackluster month, so I won't. But I will ask for you to tell me what you're currently reading!