Not Just Books: July 2025

While we do love us some books, believe it not, we do have a life outside of reading. So to highlight our other pop culture interests, on the last Monday of each month, we each will highlight three other “happenings” from the last month. Big events on favorite TV shows, new movies we’ve watched, old movies we’ve “discovered,” etc. Pretty much whatever we found of particular interest outside of the book world during the last month. Share your own favorite things in the comments!

Serena’s Picks

Show: “Daredevil: Born Again”

While I haven’t kept up with or been overly impressed with what I’ve seen from Disney’s Marvel TV shows, I had a lot of hope for this one. I mean, I loved the first version of this show, and Disney rightly understood what they had with Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio and kept the focus largely narrowed in on these two. The show also did a great job of staying true to some of the more impactful themes from the first show (the focus on balance between vengeance and justice, largely). While I don’t think that the support cast was as good as in the first version, I was still satisfied with the new characters. All in all, it was just fun to return to this world and this story! (Plus, I now have an extra soft spot for Charlie Cox after he voiced my beloved Gustave in “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.”)

Movie: “How to Train Your Dragon”

While I’ve been to a few movies in the theater with my oldest, my youngest has been hankering for his turn! So this June we decided to all go together to the movies for the first time, and this movie came out just in time! Now, I’ve definitely started to lose patience with the endless stream of live action re-makes, but this movie is proof that it can still be a winning strategy. For one thing, the makers of this film understood the prompt: a live action REMAKE of the original. I don’t want added songs or character arcs or “interpretations” from these movies, especially not when the original story is great on its own, as these additions almost always make it worse. No, here we have almost exactly the same movie, shot by shot, only now in live action. The music is the same, the script is largely the same, we even have the same actors for certain roles. There are large chunks of this movie where you could play the original and this side by side and they would show the exact same sequence. And that’s all I want from these remakes! Also, you know, my kids had a fun time!

Movie: “The Fountain of Youth”

This is movie was pretty much exactly what it looked like: an “Indiana Jones” lite quasi sequel. And, in that light, it succeeds fairly well. There was a lot of action-adventure fun to be had throughout! The writing was definitely a bit weak at times (especially some of the explanations at the end of the movie about how everything worked). So things really lived and died based on the charisma of the actors, mostly John Krasinski. The rest of the cast was good as well, but without his natural charm, I do think this one would have verged into extreme cheese ball territory. As it is, it wasn’t a masterpiece by any means, but still a fun time, especially as a summer popcorn flick!

Kate’s Picks

Film: “28 Years Later”

I remember going to see “28 Days Later” in the theater with one of my good friends from high school the summer after graduation, and we were both wholly blown away by it. I have loved this movie ever since. When I saw the trailer for “28 Years Later” with Terror Tuesday people, I was nervous, but intrigued (I really hated the previous sequel). And when Terror Tuesday went to see it in the theater, I was, once again, blown away. Set 28 years after the Rage Virus Infection’s start, Great Britain has been quarantined. Infected still roam the mainland, having become more feral but also more evolved, and some survivors live peacefully on an island off the coast. When twelve year old Spike and his father go to the mainland for his right of passage Infected hunt, he has to experience the Infected like never before, which in turn leads to a poignant coming of age tale when he returns to the mainland with his ailing mother in hopes of finding her help. Because there are rumors of a doctor nearby. Yes, the ending is jarring, I’ll admit it. But I found myself sobbing more than I would have anticipated, as this movie is, in many ways, heartfelt and beautiful and not only about zombies and the end of civilization, but also never forgetting those we love and lose at the end of all things.

TV Show: “The Gilded Age”

I still love a soap opera, and if it is all dolled up in historical fiction finery and opulence I will love it even more. That’s why I enjoyed “Downton Abbey” so much, and that’s why I enjoy “The Gilded Age” (both by Julian Fellowes, boy does he love his soapy aristocracy shenanigans!). Season 3 is finally here, and it’s already off to a very scandalous start! Bertha is haranguing daughter Gladys into marrying into a Duke’s family even though Gladys is terrified and uninterested (boy do I loathe Bertha, but I do love Carrie Coon)! Marian and Larry are having a secret courtship! Agnes is having a hard time accepting that younger sister Ada is in charge of the household now since she has a fresh inheritance and Agnes is now penniless! Peggy is perhaps finding romance?! And AUDRA MACDONALD’S VERY PRESENCE!!! Yes, this show makes me want to tear my hair out at times (I mean they REALLY want us to believe that because George Russell is a hot wife guy that his anti-labor robber baron ways are FIIIIINE), but I love the costuming, I love the time period, having worked in a historic house that was very much during this time, and I love the drama.

New Family Addition: KITTENS!

Back in March we had to say goodbye to our elderly twenty year old cat Baby, who had been with me since my husband and I were in college, along with her sister Kasha who passed in 2022. We decided that this summer was the time to add some new pets to our family. And we have started with two kittens! One belongs to my husband, the other belongs to my daughter (I intend on getting my own in a month or two, I’m being VERY picky about what I want in a cat…), and boy, I had forgotten what HOOLIGANS kittens can be. But The Beast and Betty Draper (my kid insists it’s just Betty, but given this cat’s personality it’s absoLUTEly Betty Draper in my mind) are both very cute and a lot of fun, even if they are complete menaces, like all kittens should be. And hopefully soon we will welcome our third and final kitten into the family….. We may be insane for getting a third, but hey, we wouldn’t have it any other way.