I saw this post style on Tom MacWright's site and thought it was cool. It's basically a log of things you read, listened to, watched, or are thinking about that month.

I thought I'd give it a try, with the intention to keep it going.

Read

In June, I finally finished Erik Larson's Demon of Unrest. It was, of course, great. Larson focuses on the shelling of Fort Sumter (or "Sumpter" if you're Abraham Lincoln) and tells the dramatic story of the characters, plots, actions, and words involved in that dispute. Ryan Holiday said Larson also captures Lincoln's transformation from a politician to a leader, which I would agree with. Critics, however, argue that in a book about the Civil War, the lack of realities of southern living was a massive oversight. I think this is less of an oversight and an intentional editorial decision because the book isn't really about the Civil War or slavery, it's more about how political influences and personalities clash when there is great divisiveness in a country, no matter what the issue is—something that makes even more sense based on Larson's prologue describing the January 6th events at the Capitol.

In honor of Independence Day, I wanted to read a simple history of the early days of independence. I was less interested in the actual Revolutionary War, and more interested in the events and people that started the movement for Independence, and wanted to learn how the government was set up after we actually won independence. Winston Groom's The Patriots was a great book that checked all of those boxes. It will never be praised in academic circles, because none of the information in the book is "original," but it's exactly what I was looking for.

I got The Years of Lyndon Johnson for Christmas last year, so have finally made my way through the first two biographies, The Path to Power and Means of Ascent. I'm currently reading Master of the Senate. This is the first multi-volume biography I've read, and it's kind of insane how much more information and detail you're able to get about the peripheral characters in Johnson's life that's just impossible to do in a single volume biography of anyone. Reading a few biographies since I've started this, even though they are usually over 750 pages, I feel like everything is moving so fast compared to Caro's Years.

I started and finished Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry Truman, and let me tell you: this is probably one of the best books I've ever read. It's entertaining, and Truman has such a humble philosophy on himself and life, he stands in sharp contrast compared to Lyndon Johnson, who seemed to think he deserved everything because he was LBJ.

Listened

I've been listening to American History Tellers, a phenomenal podcast. But this month I stumbled upon History That Doesn't Suck (HTDS) and have been binging the episodes. Both podcasts are well-researched and story-driven. HTDS often puts you in the shoes of someone from history as you learn about rum runners and prohibition or moonshiners or presidential elections. Professor Greg Jackson does a great job of producing and scripting the episodes.

Watched

After about twelve people recommending Fallout, I finally watched it and loved it. There was just enough intrigue and story to keep me watching for eight hours, but not so much to where I was frustrated with the lack of background. It also didn't end every episode on a massive cliffhanger just to keep you watching, like other eight episode long tv show/actually an eight hour movies nowadays do. The final episode left me with enough of a resolution to not feel frustrated, while also leaving open the chance to continue the story and find out more about what went on before the bombs dropped.

Dark Matter on AppleTV was great. The first few episodes were phenomenal, the episodes in the middle were slow and repetitive, and I thought the finale was dumb (but many of my friends disagree with me on this). It felt like after all of the tension it was just, "And they lived happily ever after." Spoiler: When Ryan got dropped off in new Chicago, and Amanda stayed in a world that looked awfully similar, I knew they'd find each other. I thought, though, that they'd play a bigger role in rescuing Jason1 and his family. But their reunion was pretty much just set up for season two.