Summer Favorites | What We Read, Watched, and Heard this Summer

The Office of Engaged Learning team is diverse in all sorts of ways, including our tastes and interests. As you will see below, though, we enjoy learning with and from one another, and we hope you might enjoy that, too. Below are our favorite books, blogs, shows, songs, and films from this summer—some brand new, others tried and true.

As ever, our offer stands: if you'd like to discuss any of these, we'll buy the coffee! Enjoy!

Andy Hogue

• Books: 
  • Mayflies, by Andrew O’Hagan: a beautiful, complex portrait of male friendship set against the backdrop of the 1980s British punk rock scene.
  • Whistler, by Ann Patchett: I’d read anything Patchett writes, and her newest is among my favorites, a touching meditation on what makes someone family.
  • The Things We Never Say, by Elizabeth Strout: On loneliness, secrets, silence, and love, featuring an endearing old teacher in sneakers and white socks (goals).
  • The Score, by C. Thi Nguyen: Thanks to my colleague Rory Jones for this one, on the choices we make amid the manufactured scoring systems of modern life.
• Movies & TV:
  • High Fidelity: I can’t see that movie enough times. I also re-read the book this summer. 
  • Season 5 of The Bear: Goodbye, beautiful masterpiece.
  • Season 4 of Ted Lasso: Welcome back, beautiful masterpiece.
• Music:
  • Although I do plenty of exploration beyond my ‘90s rock roots, I’ll always come back. A few were on blast this summer: Counting Crows, Oasis, and Ben Harper’s 1999 triumph, “Burn to Shine.” 
  • Also really enjoyed the new Bleachers album to kick off summer.

Rebecca Flavin

• Books: 
  • Much of my summer reading included books from my friend and colleague Dr. Annie Ginty’s booklist for her students in her Health Disparities Psychology class, which she taught in the Minimester. The course included a study abroad and engaged learning service component that I was able to join where the students worked with a nonprofit in Rome called Casa Scalabrini. From that list I highly recommend everything but especially  The Broken Ladder by Keith Payne and Invisible Women, by Caroline Criado Perez, both of which are very accessible and well-researched books that address how inequalities impact quality of life in expected and unexpected ways.
  • My other summer reading included delightful, trashy mystery and historical romance novels.
• Movies & TV:
  • I finally watched Slow Horses, which several colleagues recommended on previous editions of this newsletter. It is fantastic.
  • Hacks: (totally forgot until I saw Rory’s post!) I’m going to miss this show. Jean Smart is an American treasure, and the final episode will, I think, go down as one of the best series finales on record. 
  • Ted Lasso has returned, so I am savoring every moment of that.
  • Of course, I recorded and watched every new installment for Hallmark’s Christmas in July. I am unashamed.
• Music:
  • I’m a 90s kid, so whatever is on Sirius 90s on 9 is always a delight.
  • I am also not ashamed to admit I’m still in my Backstreet Boys era and trying to find a way to go see them again at the Sphere before the residency ends.

Rory Jones

• Books:
  • Theo of Golden, by Allen Levi: I would never have read this book (too popular for this contrarian) without the personal recommendation of Jennifer Martinsen, one of our PPS instructors who teaches her passion: Non-profit Sports Ministry. Theo’s gift of paying attention is something we can all learn from.
  • Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer: Having been part of the OEL team for a year now, I decided it was high time to drink the Kool-Aid, to have my thinking shaped by sensibilities whose influence is so evident in the way we approach our work, and be reminded to live into an alternative gift economy.
  • The Score, by C. Thi Nguyen: Don’t let Andy fool you – it’s actually a book about rock climbing, board games, and cooking.
• Movies/TV:
  • Star City: After a couple disappointing recent seasons of For All Mankind (you know what you did, showrunners), I was skeptical that Star City could bring back the magic of the first couple of seasons of FAM, but they did so fantastically. While you’ll be rewarded with a few Easter eggs if you watched FAM, you don’t have to have seen it to be caught up in the intrigue and suspense of the Soviet space program.
  • Hacks: Great final season, I will miss Ava’s unhinged outbursts of righteous Gen Z anger, and the beauty of Jimmy and Kayla’s friendship.
  • Pressure: Should be on everyone’s dad’s watchlist, since it is right in the middle of their Venn diagram of favorite topics: the weather and WWII. Great performances from Andrew Scott (Captain James Skagg) and Kerry Condon (Kay Summersbee) and captures the ‘feel’ of a stage play adaptation.
• Music:
  • As I often do, my listening is often related to the next concert on my calendar. With Phoebe Bridgers on tour next month in Austin and her new album, Lost Weekend, released last weekend, I haven’t spent much free time doing anything else. And for those who were wondering what Bo Burnham has been up to post-Inside, he has some songwriting credits on this album!
  • We went to family camp this summer, introducing our daughter to a whole new genre of music: silly camp songs. Wanting to keep that spirit alive after camp, I found that Pete Seeger, a folk music pioneer and archivist played by Edward Norton in A Complete Unknown, had recorded a Camp Songs album with a chorus of kids ages 6-11 in 1955! We got great enjoyment of the songs we recognized and appreciated hearing others that would’ve been lost to time were it not for Seeger and others who worked to archive folk culture in the early to mid-20th century. 

Eliza Denley

• Books:
  • Circe by Madeline Miller - a fiction novel exploring Circe’s life before, during, and after the events of the Odyssey. I know people can have mixed emotions about myth retellings, but Madeline Miller’s writing style is absolutely beautiful. 
  • James by Percival Everett - another retelling. Maybe that has been the theme of the past few months of reading for me! This book reimagines Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim (or James). It was great to return to a familiar story I read many years ago as a kid but witness the same events from a vastly different and much needed perspective. 
  • Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott - this is my second time reading this book but it never fails to shake me out of whatever mental blocks I encounter as a writer.
• Movies/TV
  • Andor - I know this one came out a while ago, but I’ve only just now gotten around to finishing it. I’ve been skeptical of most Star Wars shows in recent years, but I really enjoyed this one.
  • Spider-Man: Brand New Day - obviously!
  • Princess Mononoke - I just wanted this Studio Ghibli movie for the first time with my roommate and loved it. It tackles complex and difficult issues while still being a light and beautiful movie. 
• Music
  • ROLEMODEL’s new album Chuck Timely & the Hourglass - It’s sweet and summery.
  • I’ve been avoiding Phoebe Bridger’s new album for the sake of my sanity and mental health but I’m sure it’s fantastic!

Dustin Benac

• Books 
  • Belonging: A Culture of Place, by bell hooks. This is in the running for one of the best books I have read in the last several years. Hooks, a native of Kentucky, tells the story of growing up in Appalachia, leaving to pursue her education at Stanford and start a career in New York, and then the slow pull back to be rooted. The story hooks tells and the layered cultural commentary is beautiful, poetic, and provides a way of seeing the power, fragility, and possibility of the belonging we all crave. 
  • “Can you Hear It?” a poem by Paula Lepp. I encountered Lepp’s words in a collection of poetry while walking across campus; it stopped me in my tracks, and I think I even let out an audible sigh. The final few lines are stunning: “if I listen, really listen, even they are singing faint little bell-notes of joy.”
  • Creativity, Inc, by Ed Catmull. I am reading this as part member of The Whole Body Project team, which includes designers, filmmakers, researchers, and community leaders. Although I haven’t finished, it’s an insightful take on the culture of creativity that distinguished the early years of Pixar. 
• Movies/TV
  • Project Hail Mary–Brilliant, funny, futuristic, and hopeful. Ryan Gosling deserves an award–and an extra cup of coffee–after carrying the emotional weight of this space-drama. 
  • Spider-Man: Brand New Day: I watched it with my son and had a grand time reliving a decade-plus of spider man drama. 
• Music: 
  • I’m not always a work/write with music type of academic, but I do enjoy a sonic backdrop while washing dishes or working on a few ongoing construction projects at home. Here’s what’s been on our kitchen playlist: 
    • Anything by Bensoon Boon
    • U2’s Rattle and Hum
    • Drew and Ellie Holcomb 

Daniel Benyousky

• Books: 
  • A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth: it’s a history of the Los Angeles port in San Pedro. Maritimey things! LA! What’s not to love? 
• Movies & TV:
  • I watched the most recent seasons of House of the Dragon and Sugar. You know about House of the Dragon, but Sugar is an LA detective noir starring Colin Farrell. I love LA, detective shows (still trying to figure out why I love them so much), and Colin Farrell.
  • After helping lead Baylor in St. Andrews last fall, I’ve been seeking to imaginatively inhabit the UK how I can. I’ve done so by watching Line of Duty and right now I’m watching Slow Horses.  
  • I watched the original Jurassic Park, a nostalgic favorite, in my favorite theater this summer and then sketched out a poem about the experience. This made me very happy. 
  • I watched a lot of the World Cup and I might watch too many Dodger games. 
• Music:
  • I’ll speak in songs. Summer jams included Hot Blooded by New Constellations, Party for One by Magic AL, and lo que un día fue by Paloma Morphy. 
  • Other good ones: Horses at Night by Still Corners, Sabor Dulce by Los Belkings, Head First by Snazzy, Strangers by Ruby Haunt, Frolic by James Xerxes Fussell, September Again by Nation of Language, and Actor by Widowspeak. 
  • I’m always often returning to Michael Nau. Some favorites include Smokeflowers, Accompaniment, Long Distance Driver, and A Loose Dust. I’m going to see him in concert again this fall and my heart is happy. Not bragging or anything, but I was in the top .01% of Michael Nau listeners this past year according to my Spotify Wrapped.
  • I also return to Ocie Elliott a lot. Her Eyes Dart Round and A Place are two good ones. 
  • I saw Gia Margaret in concert. She’s great! 

Mark Richards

• Books, Articles, Blogs
  • I made next to no progress on the dozen or so books I put on my summer reading list and instead discovered and dove into several fascinating (if niche) blogs:
    • Gwern.net (Gwern Branwen) — a writer and researcher and a blogger to end all bloggers, his beautifully designed blog is like a black hole (in a good way), dragging me in to his fascinating writing, research, and more.
    • Andy Matuschak — also a researcher and writer, I think I first read his piece Why books don’t work, before discovering his system of notes, which genuinely might have changed my life and is a system I’ve now adopted for myself.
    • Andy Masley — I continue to appreciate his level-headed, absurdly well-researched pieces.
  • I did make some time to read the July issue of The Atlantic in honor of the nation’s 250th anniversary and enjoyed it as always.
  • I neglected to do much fiction reading because that is just a durable personality trait of mine at this point (or flaw, depending on who you ask). But my colleagues have you covered there!
• Movies/TV
  • I devoured Season 5 of The Bear and cried at least once during each episode. It was sublime, heartwarming, intense (as always), and beautiful.
  • I think I felt what I can only describe as euphoria watching Michael, the Michael Jackson biopic. It is sensational, and my only regret was watching it on a plane, where getting up and dancing along to the music is…well, probably frowned upon. So I guess I’ll have to just watch it again.
• Music
  • I regularly find myself saying I like an artist but never getting around to listening to more of their music; that’s the case (or no longer the case, as it were!) with Maggie Rogers, whose music I’ve really enjoyed this summer.
  • I enjoyed and plan to return quite a bit to the three(!) albums Jon Batiste released a couple weeks ago: Monk Movements, Monk Meditations, and Black Mozart.
  • I’ve enjoyed my fairly regular rotation of Bon Iver and Sufjan Stevens.
  • I love Black gospel music, as some people know very well, and I’ve lately been on a major Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir kick. They have a fun crossover sort of sound that feels distinctly gospel while also feeling like contemporary evangelical worship music. If you want a gospeled-up version of a CCM throwback, Holy Is the Lord is a fun time, or for a true gospel music standard, try their cover of Tremaine Hawkins’ classic I Never Lost My Praise.

Nathan Gibbs

• Books
  • The Strength of the Few by James Islington - The second book in The Hierarchy series was a masterful follow up to the first in the series (my favorite book of last year). A fantasy book with spectacular world building that is full of surprises and adventure while still thought-provoking. If you’re looking for a fun read, I can’t recommend this series enough.
  • Imaging Abundance by Kerry Alys Robinson - I read this for a course on religious fundraising and it ended up being one of my favorite books of the year. Robinson looks at fundraising as ministry and the reasons that we’re all called to be stewards. She invites us to reconsider some of our assumptions of what fundraising is and reimagine it as a way to invite others to faithfully partner in what God is doing.
• Movies/TV
  • Man on Fire - I’m a sucker for suspenseful action movies/TV. A haunted former special ops agent travels to Brazil with an old colleague and gets sucked into a dangerous mission that somehow weaves in the themes of resilience and redemption. (Definitely not as profound as that probably sounds, but I’m trying to talk you into watching it!)
  • Like Daniel, I also watched as much of the World Cup as I could! Excited to continue watching the great game this fall by rooting for Arsenal to repeat as champions of the Premier League.
• Music
  • The world cup inspired me to listen to many of the songs of previous World Cups including N’NAAN’s Wavin’ Flag, Shakira’s Waka Waka and La La La, and Pitbull’s We Are One.
  • Other favorites in our house with two kids under two are the Wiggles Shake Your Sillies Out, Captain Feathersword, and Hot Potato, and any version of Baa Baa Black Sheep.