Jan 2015: Reading, Watching, Listening to...

This week marks the 10 year anniversary of One Hot Stove. A whole decade, you guys! I can't believe I'm still here. I certainly can't believe you're still here. I wouldn't be out here talking if you weren't here listening, so thank you, thank you for being part of my life.

Today, this blog is more important to me than ever, because I'm using it as my ally in establishing some crucial new habits. My personality tendency is that I'm an obliger, and the external accountability of posting my experiences on the blog is just the push I need to stay committed to my new Nupur 2.0 habits.

On to today's post...
I typically discover things 4.5 years after everyone else discovers them and so it is with podcasts. They are old news for everyone else but I only just got into listening to them. My friends Bala and Shankar (and their sweet puppy Kalki) drove through our town on their way to and from a beach vacation and it was a pleasure to spend two evenings with them. They're dog people through and through. Shankar taught Duncan to give a high five in a matter of minutes! And they taught me to like podcasts.

When V and Lila and I took a road trip to St. Louis over New Year's Eve, podcasts made the journey go by quickly. In town, I don't have much of a commute but I like listening to them while I'm cooking and doing chores around the house. The NPR podcasts are definitely my favorite ones- Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me and Ask Me Another. I found this list of food podcasts and enjoyed a couple, including America's Test Kitchen radio. I also listened to Serial, a 12-episode podcast about a real life murder mystery- a very puzzling and unfortunate story involving high school students.

Over on the Netflix side of things, I've been watching a few reality TV shows, Chopped, Restaurant Impossible, Flea Market Flip, Income Property. All total time-pass while knitting. 20 years after everyone else, I watched the British rom com Four Weddings and a Funeral. Underwhelmed. V and I like to watch Midsomer Murders together, and now the new Barnaby is on and I like him (and his wife) better than the old one! I stumbled on a vintage mystery series Columbo, named for the clever but bumbling detective who is the lead character. It is interesting to watch something from the 70s- the decor and the clothes. And the mysteries are a little different too- they start with the murder and show who the murderer is so there's no whodunit element, and the story is all about how the murderer is finally caught.

And some favorite books from recent weeks...

Roz Chast's graphic memoir, Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? The back cover of the book says "it is a story of an only child watching her parents age well into their nineties and die". Sounds grim, doesn't it? It is much more than that, though. It is honest, relatable, funny and a case study of family dynamics and aging. Chast says of her parents, They were a tight little unit. Her mother's response- "Codependent"? "Of course, we're codependent. Thank God!!!"

Then, I read the latest installment of the Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, The Handsome Man's De Luxe Cafe. It is a cozy and heart-warming novel as ever, my literary comfort food. This time, Mma Ramotswe investigates the baffling case of an Indian lady who can't remember who she is or where she came from. Mma Makutsi gets into the restaurant business. Mr. Maketoni has staff troubles, but all is well in the end.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg. Written in 1967, this is an adorable story about a 12 year old girl and her 9 year old brother who run away from their home in the suburbs and hide out in the Metropolitan museum in New York City.

I started reading Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple but couldn't get past the first dozen pages. Right now, I'm finding it it too irritating to read about whiny, over-privileged people, even if the novel is written in a witty tone.

There were two good non-fiction reads last month, both narratives that piece together history and modern events. The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson is a fascinating account of Victorian London and the beginnings of modern public health. Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff is a gripping account of plane crashes and human endurance in the 1940s. I don't typically read books about military planes and such, but this was interesting for many different reasons.

What are you reading, watching and listening to these days?