SERIES SATURDAY: 2025 Television and Movie RoundUp

As noted in the past few days’ round-up posts, I did not do a whole lot of television or movie watching in 2025. Despite the huge number of DVDs I own and streaming services I subscribe to. But here’s what I did watch:

 

MOVIES

I had a goal of one movie per week (regardless of whether on DVD, streaming, or in an actual movie theater), so 52 total. I managed: three. Yes. I watched three whole movies in an entire calendar year. If you know me at all, this is definitely not my normal modus operandi.

Those movies were:

Superman (2025), directed by James Gunn; starring David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, and Nicholas Hoult. (theatre)

Fantastic Four: First Steps, directed by Matt Shakman; starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Jospeh Quinn. (theatre)

The Life of Chuck, directed by Mike Flanagan; starring Tom Hiddleston, Karen Gillen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benjamin Pajak, Mark Hamill, and Mia Sara.

I greatly enjoyed all three. I keep meaning to do a “page to screen” post about The Life of Chuck. Maybe sometime this month.

 

TELEVISION

I had a goal of watching an average of one episode of television per day in 2025. I managed 63. Again, quite unusual for me. There are several shows I love that I’m now at least a full season or more behind on (like Slow Horses and The Wheel of Time), or that returned late in 2025 and I haven’t started yet (season 2 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians) and a bunch of shows I have yet to start but keep meaning to (I keep hearing great things about The Expanse and Down Cemetery Road) and shows that are soon to show up on American TV from overseas (Mark Gatiss’ new bookshop-set mystery series sounds right up my alley), not to mention all the “one season wonders” I have DVD that I want to do a series of posts about after I re-watch them. So hopefully 2026 will be a better television viewing year as well.

Here's what I did manage to watch:

·       The 78th Annual Tony Awards

·       The 97th Annual Oscar Awards

·       Doctor Who Classic (7 episodes, all while dining at The Pandorica restaurant in Beacon NY)

·       Doctor Who 2005 (4 episodes, 1 at the Pandorica, the others at a friend’s house)

·       Doctor Who 2023 Season 2 (all 8 episodes, streaming, Disney+)

·       Only Murders in the Building Season 5, (all 10 episodes, streaming, Hulu)

·       Poker Face (1 episode from S2, at a friend’s house)

·       Shoresy Season 4 (all 6 episodes, streaming, Hulu)

·       Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 (all 9 episodes, streaming, Paramount+)

·       Stranger Things Season 5 (all 8 episodes, streaming, Netflix)

·       What If…? Season 3 (all 8 episodes, streaming, Disney+)

2025 Reading Roundup: By The Numbers

Time for my annual round-up of what I read and watched in 2025. Because I dropped the ball on doing monthly Round-Up reports, I’m going to run a few more detailed posts over the next week or two listing everything I’ve read or watched. Today’s post is mostly a “by the numbers” thing.

 

 

 

BOOKS

I did manage to read 123 books in 2025: 13 hardcovers, 49 softcover/paperbacks, 35 e-books, and 23 audiobooks. 19 of those titles were rereads, the rest books I read for the first time in 2025.

 

Monthly distribution: 7 in January; 9 in February; 9 in March; 6 in April; 5 in May; 11 in June; 9 in July; 10 in August; 13 in September; 5 in October; 13 in November; and 26 in December.

 

I read work from approximately 110 different creators (authors and anthology editors mostly; I did not track graphic novels editorial staff, colorists, and letterers this year).

 

17 of these books were for book clubs at Sparta Books in Sparta NJ and Stanza Books in Beacon NY. 12 of them were Advanced Review Copies (either print or from NetGalley). 3 of them were for my “Reread My Favorites” project (hopefully debuting on the blog soon.)

 

The shortest book I read was 41 pages long (Jeffrey Ricker’s short story collection Lies I Tell Myself: Stories), the longest 609 (Suzanne Finstad’s Natalie Wood: The Complete Biography).

 

Genre Breakdown:

·       Adventure: 1

·       Biography: 1

·       Crime: 1

·       Pop culture analysis: 2

·       Fantasy: 20

·       Historical fiction: 2

·       History: 2

·       Horror: 28

·       Memoirs: 25

·       Mimetic/current day fiction: 3

·       Mixed genre short story collections: 2

·       Mystery: 12

·       Mythology: 1

·       Romance: 7

·       Science: 3

·       Science Fiction: 11

·       Superhero: 2

·       Thriller: 1

·       True Crime: 1

 

These were my own rough classifications, and in hindsight I’m not sure why I broke crime fiction and mysteries into separate categories. I was surprised to realize I once again read a lot more horror than I thought. I didn’t read any playscripts this year for the first time in a while. And also, for the second year in a row, not a single poetry collection. I am not a big poetry reader, but I usually like to at least try to read a collection or two during National Poetry Month.

 

 

STORIES

I did manage to read 366 short stories in 2025 by 243 different authors (this includes translators).

 

The monthly distribution: 35 in January; 38 in February; 36 in March; 8 in April; 24 in May; 31 in June; 17 in July; 16 in August; 39 in September; 14 in October; 12 in November, and 96 in December. (Clearly, I was way behind my 1-per-day pace by the time I hit December, but a few anthologies and single-author collections helped me catch up.)

 

These stories came from 23 anthologies and single-author collections, 15 different magazines, 1 author Patreon site, 1 author website, 1 stand-alone e-book independently published, 3 printed chapbooks, and 2 novels (as back-matter). Last year, I calculated exactly how many stories came from each format, but as I’m running behind on this post, I’m going to skip that this year. In previous years I’ve also counted how many different editors were involved, but I neglected to accurately track that this year as well.

 

Genre breakdown:

·       Adventure: 3

·       Comedy: 3

·       Crime: 3

·       Fantasy: 102

·       Horror: 134

·       Mimetic/modern-day: 4

·       Mystery: 9

·       Science Fiction: 104

·       Super-Heroes: 4

 

Again, I’m surprised that I read a bit more horror than I thought I did. And I’m still not sure why I separated crime, mystery, and thrillers into distinct subcategories.

 

 

MOVIES

I didn’t even come close on my “watch 52 movies” challenge. I watched 3 whole movies in 2025.

I had challenged myself to watch more of the several hundred DVDs I own (split between movies and television series). 1 of the 3 movies watched was on DVD. The other two were in actual movie theaters.

 

Genre breakdown:

·       Horror (kind of): 1 (The Life of Chuck, a movie that is hard to categorize)

·       Super-Heroes: 2 (Superman and Fantastic Four: First Steps)

 

These 3 movies were the work of 3 different directors.

 

 

TELEVISION

I only managed to watch 63 distinct episodes across 9 series, so nowhere near the “1 episode for every day” goal.

 

Genre breakdown:

·       Comedy: 2 series

·       Science Fiction: 2 series

·       Super-Heroes: 1 series

·       Horror: 1 series

·       Crime: 1 series

·       Variety/Comedy Specials: 2

 

 

LIVE THEATER

I saw 11 live theatrical productions in 2025, so I missed my “average one per month” goal by 1! I attended these shows in 11 different theaters, 9 of which were in New York City. One was in the Los Angeles area, and 1 was a local high school production. 8 were musicals, 3 were dramas. One was a new production of a show I’ve seen live before (Guys and Dolls), and two were shows I’ve seen movie or filmed stage versions of (Moulin Rouge and Pirates of Penzance).

 

 

OTHER LIVE EVENTS

I also tracked what other live events I went to. I attended:

·       one college graduation (my goddaughter’s, from the University of Pittsburgh),

·       1 baseball game (our local minor league team, The Sussex Miners)

·       1 work convention

·       2 book conventions/festivals (PulpFest; Milford Readers and Writers)

·       1 antiquarian book fair (in NYC)

·       1 annual birthday bookstore crawl (in NYC)

·       4 In-Person Author Events (1 at Kew and Willow in NYC, 3 at Stanza Books in Beacon)

·       6 online author events (mostly on C.S.E. Cooney and Carlos Hernandez’s Twitch channel)

·       16 book club meetings (6 at Sparta Books in Sparta NJ, 10 at Stanza Books in Beacon NY)

 

 

PODCASTS

I only really started listening to podcasts late this year (other than about a decade ago when I used to listen to the New Yorker’s short story podcast, back when I still had an iPod Nano). So of course I decided to track my listening: 54 individual episodes across 5 different podcasts. All of them were comic book-related with the exception of 2 episodes:

·       The Borgo Pass podcast (Universal Monsters): 2 episodes

·       World on Fire: the All-Star Squadron podcast: 3 episodes

·       The Boxing Glove Arrow podcast (Green Arrow): 5 episodes

·       JSA Presents (various Justice Society related shows): 16 episodes

·       The History of Comic Books in 500 Issues: 24 episodes

 

 

COMIC BOOKS

I also decided to track how many individual comic books (single monthly issues, or “floppies”) I read in 2025. The total was 467. 30 of those were rereads, the other 437 were new (and mostly newly published). These issues were stretched across approximately 112 different titles from 10 different publishers.

 

The monthly distribution: 32 in January; 55 in February; 15 in March; 34 in April; 45 in May; 42 in June; 35 in July; 29 in August; 31 in September; 66 in October; 29 in November, and 54 in December.

 

The genre breakdown:

·       Comedy: 2

·       Fantasy: 25

·       Horror: 44

·       Mystery: 7

·       Sports: 2

·       Science Fiction: 2

·       War: 2

·       Super-Heroes: 383

 

 

Summary of Challenges:

366 Short Stories Challenge: 366 of 365 read.

Goodreads Challenge: 123 of 120 read.

Movie Challenge: 3 of 52 watched.

Television Challenge: 63 of 365 watched.

Live Theater Challenge: 11 of 12 shows attended.

Theatre Thursday: Kowalski

My first theatrical show of 2025 was Kowalski, at The Duke on 42nd Street in New York City.

In Kowalski, playwright Gregg Ostrin imagines what might have gone on the night Marlon Brando showed up at Tennessee Williams’ Provincetown house to audition for the role of Stanley Kowalski in the Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire at the behest of director Elia Kazan. I am a sucker for tales of backstage/off-screen drama, so I knew I had to see Kowalski even with as little as I know of the personal lives of Williams and Brando (does that make me a bad theatre fan? Should I turn in my gay card?), and no matter how much of the 90-minute encounter is conjecture on Ostrin’s part.

Robin Lord Taylor was mostly known to me previous to this as Oswald Cobblepot, a.k.a. The Penguin, on Gotham, but his turn as Tennessee Williams now supersedes his TV work in my mind. His body language betrays Williams’ combination of insecurity and hubris with almost every gesture, some of it flamboyant enough to be real and real enough to avoid caricature. His whiskey-soaked voice soars when he’s excited and drops gutturally when he’s no longer amused, trying to stay in command of his home despite the overwhelming presence of Brando (and eventually, Brando’s female traveling companion).

Brandon Flynn (also previously known to me mostly from his television work on 13 Reasons Why, where he proved he could handle tough material) captivates from the moment he breaks into Williams’ house (easy, because the front door doesn’t latch properly); he exudes the calm sexuality Brando did at the start of his career mixed with playfulness but underscored with some bitterness. He avoids doing a Brando impersonation, giving his dialogue just enough of a mumbly quality to justify the number of times Williams comments on the way he speaks but otherwise avoiding the cliches.

When Taylor and Flynn are alone on stage together, they have a connection that made the audience the night I saw the show sit still and focus on every word, every gesture. The connection is in turn playful (especially with the misunderstanding of their first meeting), commiseratory (sharing stories of troubled childhoods), and confrontational (as each tries to control the other). Even when the characters are angry with each other, when Williams sulks or Brando rages, the actors are perfectly in synch.

While this is essentially a two-man show, there are three other characters. I estimate two of them have about twenty minutes of stage time each, and the third less than that. Ellie Ricker’s Jo, the young girl who has traveled with Brando to Provincetown from New York only to be left behind at the bus station until she takes matters into her own hands, is effervescent and easily manipulated by both men. I spent the whole time she was on stage wanting to tell her to pay attention to the way they’re using her as a pawn. When she does, Ricker’s transition from sweet to hurt to angry is pitch perfect. Alison Cimmet (who I think I last saw way downtown in a production of Machinal, twenty or more years ago) plays Williams’ long time friend Margo Jones … and man, do I wish the script gave her more to do. She is wonderfully acerbic as the long-supporting friend who is deeply hurt by being passed over as director of Streetcar in favor of the much more in-demand Elia Kazan; acerbic but loving. She and Lord also have solid chemistry in their too-few scenes together. Sebastian Treviño has the least stage time as Pancho, Williams’ live-in lover. He handles what little he’s given to do (sexily smolder, physically threaten, get drunk) very well but the Pancho is there mostly as a possible basis for the role Brando is there to audition for.

If I have any complaint about the show, it’s the way it is structured as a memory play. The first minute or so, with an older Tennessee Williams sitting in a chair talking to an unseen, and unheard, television interviewer, felt awkward and unnecessary, as did the closing narration.

Colin Hanlon’s direction is superb, making full use of the single set (the living room and kitchen of Williams’ home) designed by David Gallo with an eye towards keeping your attention on the actors. Jeff Croiter’s lighting design is subtle and warm and Lisa Zinni’s costumes capture the essence of Williams and Brando with period perfection. The Duke at 42nd Street is an intimate black box space which made it even easier for the audience to be pulled into the drama. I hope the show does well enough to garner a transfer to a Broadway house eventually, but I fear some of the immediacy of being in a smaller house will be lost. So go see Kowalski during this initial limited run. It closes February 23rd.

Kowalski set design by David Gallo, lighting design by Jeff Croiter

 

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is a new occasional series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

2025 Reading Challenges

I always set myself more than one reading challenge per year. Some carry over from year to year, and some are new. Some are broad and some are themed. And in many cases, books read will help me meet more than one challenge. Last year I also started making some formal movie, television, and live theatre viewing challenges.

 

On the reading side of things, in 2024, I hit my overall book and short story goals and blew past my non-fiction reading sub-goal, but didn’t complete any of the other reading challenges I set myself. On the watching side of things, I exceeded my goal for live theater, but only hit about 70% of my television goal and slightly less than 50% of my movie-watching goal.

 

So I decided this year, I’m sticking to the basics:

 

 

 

365 SHORT STORIES CHALLENGE

Every year, I challenge myself to read one short story per day. Some years I keep the pace well, and some years I fall behind and then scramble to catch up (and some years, I catch up and fall behind again, and some years I blow past the goal handily). I’m defining “short story” as anything from flash fiction to novella-length. I am going to once again make an effort to review one or two stories every Sunday in my “Sunday Shorts” feature.

 

 

GOODREADS CHALLENGE

Goodreads allows members to set a challenge. In previous years, I’ve set goals ranging from 125 to 150 books. For 2024, I’m setting a goal of 120 to start with (10 books per month), and we’ll see what happens.

 

MOVIE CHALLENGE

I own a lot of DVDs. (I know, you’re shocked. Shocked!) Every year I say, “This is the year I’m going to make an effort to watch them!” And then, somehow, I … don’t. One year, I did a list of 12 and two alternates as I do for the TBR Challenge, called it the TBW Challenge … and failed it miserably. Last year, I got about halfway to the goal of 52 movies, an average of one per week. So this year, I’m setting myself the same challenge. This includes movies on DVD, streaming services, and any trips to an actual movie theater (which have become rare for me).

 

TELEVISION CHALLENGE

Did I mention I own a lot of DVDs? And that I’m subscribed to a lot of streaming services? I did? Well, you won’t be shocked to know that it’s not all about the movies. So I’m setting myself a “TV Series Watch” challenge akin to my Short Story Challenge: an average of one full episode of a television series (regardless of length) for each day in the year, which this year means 365 episodes.

 

LIVE THEATRE CHALLENGE

I did pretty well with this one in 2023, even though I never posted about it (because I posted extraordinarily little here in 2023, but that’s a subject for another post), so I’m making it official for 2024: I want to see at least 1 live theatrical performance per month. Most of them will be in New York City, but I’ll count any play, musical, opera, ballet, or staged reading I see anywhere, regardless of whether it’s fully professional productions, college, community theatre, whatever. (Music concerts, author signings, and conferences/conventions do not count towards this.)

 

 

ACCOUNTABILITY

So how am I going to hold myself accountable? I’m planning to bring back my monthly Reading RoundUps. I’m not going to rename/rebrand because I like the alliterative title (which falls well in line with Series Saturday, Sunday Shorts, and a few other blog series I’m hoping to make regular features in 2025), but those posts will also track the Viewing challenges.

 

I would love to hear what YOUR Reading, Writing, or Viewing Challenges are for 2024. Let me know in the comments!

Reading Round-Up: 2024

Time for my annual round-up of what I read and watched in 2024.

 

I … did not do well on most of the reading and watching challenges I set for myself for 2024. Even though so many of them overlapped (the Graphic Novel Challenge and Non-Fiction Challenge and TBR Challenge all fed into my Goodreads (Read 120 books) Challenge, for examples). I managed to complete the two “big” reading challenges (120 books, 366 short stories), but didn’t come close on the subsidiary challenges. Nor did I come close on my “watching” challenges, as we’ll see below. I did do well on my “see live theater” challenge, as discussed in yesterday’s post.

 

 

BOOKS

I did manage to read 120 books in 2024: 13 hardcovers, 49 softcover/paperbacks, 35 e-books, and 23 audiobooks.

 

Monthly distribution: 10 in January; 9 in February; 8 in March; 15 in April; 9 in May; 9 in June; 14 in July; 8 in August; 7 in September; 11 in October; 5 in November; and 15 in December.

 

I read work from approximately 110 different creators (authors and anthology editors mostly, but also adding in graphic novels artists, colorists, and letterers).

 

Genre Breakdown:

·       Adventure: 4

·       Biography: 1

·       Children’s Books: 3

·       Crime: 2

·       Pop culture analysis: 4

·       Fantasy: 23

·       Historical fiction: 3

·       History: 2

·       Horror: 22

·       Memoirs: 13

·       Mimetic/current day fiction: 3

·       Mixed genre short story collections: 2

·       Mystery: 2

·       Playscripts: 3

·       Romance: 7

·       Science Fiction: 13

·       Spy fiction: 1

·       Superhero: 9

·       Thriller: 1

 

These were my own rough classifications, and in hindsight I’m not sure why I broke crime fiction, mysteries, spy fiction, and thrillers into separate categories. I was surprised to realize I read a lot more horror than I thought, and fewer memoirs than I thought. And also, for the first year in a while, not a single poetry collection. I am not a big poetry reader, but I usually like to at least try to read a collection or two during National Poetry Month.

 

 

STORIES

I did manage to read 366 short stories in 2024 (since 2024 was a leap year), by 200 different authors.

 

The monthly breakdown: 26 in January; 19 in February; 34 in March; 42 in April; 37 in May; 21 in June; 23 in July; 24 in August; 44 in September; 31 in October; 22 in November, and 43 in December.

 

46 of those stories were in anthologies (there were quite a few anthologies that I only read a story or two in, though); 7 were on Author Patreons or websites; 6 were in printed chapbooks; 124 were in single-author collections; 175 were in magazines (pretty much all in e-book form); 4 were additional material at the back of a novel; 1 was on a publisher’s website; and 2 were stand-alone e-books.

 

Genre breakdown:

·       Comedy: 1

·       Crime: 22

·       Fantasy: 109

·       Horror: 118

·       Mimetic/modern-day: 11

·       Mystery: 1

·       Pulp adventure: 4

·       Romance: 6

·       Science Fiction: 92

·       Spy fiction: 1

·       Thriller: 1

 

 

Again, I’m surprised that I read a bit more horror than I thought I did. And I’m still not sure why I separated crime, mystery, and thriller into distinct subcategories. With the magazines in particular, I tended to stick to familiar ground: Lightspeed, Nightmare, Clarkesworld, The Dark, and towards the end of the year Beneath Ceaseless Skies a bit more regularly. Towards the end of the year I also realized that I have a lot of anthologies that have been on my shelves a long time and that I will probably never get around to reading in their entirety, so I started just reading a story or two in random anthologies before putting them in the “bring to the used bookstore or donate” boxes.

 

 

MOVIES

I didn’t even come close on my “watch 52 movies” challenge. But I did make it to 24, so kind of half-way there.

 

I had challenged myself to watch more of the several hundred DVDs I own (split between movies and television series). 17 of the 24 movies watched were on DVD. 6 were on streaming services, and 1 was in a ballroom at the Pulpfest convention.

 

Genre breakdown:

·       Action: 1

·       Biography: 1

·       Documentary: 1

·       Horror: 2

·       Kaiju: 8 (all the Showa Era “Gamera” movies)

·       Musical: 1

·       Mystery: 1

·       Noir: 2

·       Romance: 1

·       Science Fiction: 1

·       Super-Heroes: 3

·       Thriller: 1

 

These 24 movies were the work of 19 different directors.

 

 

TELEVISION

 

I did a little better on my “watch 366 episodes of television” challenge. I managed 232 distinct episodes across 21 series on 8 different streaming services (plus 4 episodes of Doctor Who watched in full at the Pandorica Restaurant in Beacon NY, which you really should visit if you’re a Doctor Who fan and you’re in the NY/NJ/CT/PA area).

 

Genre breakdown:

·       Comedy: 3 series

·       Fantasy: 5 series

·       Romance: 1 series

·       Science Fiction: 5 series

·       Spy: 1 series

·       Super-Heroes: 3 series

·       Talk Show: 1 series

·       Variety/Comedy Specials: 2

 

 

 

 

 

Summary of Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: 7 of 15 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: 366 of 366 read.

Goodreads Challenge: 120 of 120 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge: 17 of 52 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: 22 of 12 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: YTD: 2 read/watched.

Movie Challenge: 24 of 52 watched.

TV Shows Challenge: 232 of 366 watched.

Theatre Thursday: 2024 Wrap-Up

I challenged myself to see at least 12 pieces of live theater (an average of one per month) in 2024, and I managed 16:

1.      Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, NYC)

2.      Drunk Shakespeare NYC (Macbeth) (Ruby Theatre, NYC)

3.      Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age (Studio 54, NYC)

4.      All The Devils Are Here (DR2 Theatre, NYC)

5.      Macbeth (an undoing) (Polonsky Shakespeare Center, Brooklyn, NYC)

6.      Water For Elephants (Imperial Theatre, NYC)

7.      Or, What She Will (Red Bull Theatre, NYC)

8.      The Play That Goes Wrong (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Central Valley PA)

9.      N/A (Mitzi Newhouse Theatre, Lincoln Center, NYC)

10.  Back to the Future: The Musical (Winter Garden Theater, NYC)

11.  Once Upon a Mattress (Hudson Theater, NYC)

12.  The Hills of California (Broadhurst Theater, NYC)

13.  Drunk Dracula (Ruby Theatre, NYC)

14.  The Man of La Mancha (Beacon HS Theatre, Beacon NY)

15.  The Comedy of Errors (modern language version) (Newton HS Theatre, Newton NJ)

16.  The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical (The Other Palace, London, UK)

 

So that’s 6 musicals, 1 cabaret act, 5 comedies, and 4 dramas. 6 of those were in Broadway houses (Sweeney, Alan Cumming, Water for Elephants, Back to the Future: The Musical, Once Upon a Mattress, and The Hills of California), four were Off-Broadway/elsewhere in NYC (Drunk Shakespeare, Drunk Dracula, Macbeth (an undoing) and Or, What She Will); two were high school productions in which a nephew or niece appeared (La Mancha, Comedy of Errors), one was at a regional festival (The Play That Goes Wrong) and one was in the London equivalent of an “off-Broadway” house (do they call it “off the West End”?) (Lightning Thief).

Leaving aside the high school productions (because of obvious “That’s my nephew/niece” prejudice), favorites were Sweeney Todd (we saw it after Groban, Ashford, and Gaten Matarazzo left, but before Tveit, Foster, and Joe Locke came in – and it was still utterly fantastic); Drunk Shakespeare / Drunk Dracula; Or, What She Will; Once Upon a Mattress and The Hills of California. (This does not mean the other productions were bad – just that I enjoyed these productions more.)

 

I have set myself the same “see at least 12 pieces of live theatre” challenge. I’d like to see more live regional theatre when I’m on the road for work, but that’ll always be sort of last-minute decisions. I already know we’ll be seeing Old Friends on Broadway in April (starring Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga, co-starring among others Bonnie Langford (one of my favorite Doctor Who companions, Mel!) We’ll see what January brings….

 

 

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is an occasional series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

Reading Round-Up: August 2024

Here’s what I read, listened to, and watched in August 2024!

 

BOOKS

I read 8 books in August: 3 in print, 3 in e-book format, and 2 in audio format. They were:

1.       My West Side Story: A Memoir by George Chakiris and Lindsay Harrison (E-BOOK, Non-fiction Challenge)

2.       A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne, (Narrated by Tim Curry) (AUDIOBOOK)

3.       Superman Batman: Saga of the Super Sons by Bob Haney, Dick Dillin, Vince Colletta, Tex Blaisdell, and others (PRINT; Graphic Novel Challenge)

4.       Stormgate Press Quick Reads Book #1: The Purple Mystique by Charles Millhouse (PRINT)

5.       Tournament Manners: A Martial Arts Mystery by Jess Faraday (E-BOOK)

6.       In the Hands of Women by Jane Loeb Rubin (PRINT) REVIEW HERE

7.       The Butterfly Mosque: A Young American Woman's Journey to Love and Islam by G. Willow Wilson (AUDIOBOOK; Non-fiction Challenge)

8.       A Princess of Mars: Shadow of the Assassins by Ann Tonsor Zeddies (e-book) REVIEW HERE

 

 

 

STORIES

Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it.

 

1.       “The Darkness Between the Stars” by Richard Thomas in Lightspeed Magazine #171, edited by John Joseph Adams

2.       “Resistance” by Cat Rambo

3.       “The Quality of Mercy Is Not Strain'd” by Archita Mittra

4.       “Under the Skin” by Deborah L. Davitt

5.       “Mud Maidens Rise” by K.A. Wiggins

6.       “Look at the Moon” by Dominique Dickey

7.       “What's in a Name?” by Matthew Hughes

8.       “Child of the River” by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe

9.       “The Lazarus Cabal” by Sean Lee Levin, from The Lazarus Cabal, edited by Michael Croteau

10.   “Daily Nightly” by Jim Beard, from Moonstone Double Shot May 2024, edited by Joe Gentile

11.   “Streets of Blood” by Richard Scanlan

12.   “The Time Capsule” by Alice Towey, from Clarkesworld #214, edited by Neil Clarke

13.   “The Sort” by Thomas Ha

14.   “A Night in Purple” by Charles Millhouse, from Stormgate Press Quick Read Book #1: The Purple Mystique, edited by Charles Millhouse

15.   “Death in Purple” by Charles Millhouse

16.   “Into the Valley of Death” by William Meikle, from Creature Feature, edited by William Meikle

17.   “Home from the Sea” by William Meikle

18.   “A Rock and a Hard Place” by William Meikle

19.   “One Ear Left Over” by Jonathan Olfert, from Beneath Ceaseless Skies #413, edited by Sean H. Andrews

20.   “An Isle in a Sea of Ghosts” by J.A. Prentice

21.   “Once There Was Water” by Katie McIvor, from The Dark #111, edited by Sean Wallace

22.   “The Operculum Necklace” by Megan Chee

23.   “Bite Me, Drink Me, Get Me” by H. Pueyo

24.   “To Call the Lightning” by Rebecca Burton, from Kaleidotrope Summer 2024, edited by Fred Coppersmith

 

So that’s 24 short stories in August. Less than “1 per day” again, which keeps me slightly behind for the year! (August 31st was the 244th day of 2024.)

 

MOVIES

I watched four movies in August:

1.       We Are Doc Savage (2024)

2.       Logan (2017)

3.       The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

4.       West Side Story (1961)

The week ending August 31st was the 35th week of the year, so I’m still behind on the “1 movie per week” challenge.

 

TELEVISION

·       Batman: Caped Crusader Season 1, Episodes 1 – 10 (10 episodes) REVIEW HERE

·       Slow Horses Season 3, Episodes 1 – 6 (6 episodes)

·       Only Murders in the Building Season 4, Episode 1 (1 episode)

·       The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2, Episodes 1 – 3 (3 Episodes)

That’s 20 episodes of television, which puts me still well below the “1 per day” I was shooting for and keeps me behind the pace for this challenge.

 

LIVE THEATER

I saw two live theatrical performances in August:

1.       Back to the Future: The Musical (Winter Garden Theater, New York City) REVIEW HERE

2.       Once Upon a Mattress (Hudson Theatre, New York City) REVIEW HERE

 

Summary of Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 6 of 15 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  24 read; YTD: 226 of 366 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 8 read; YTD: 83 of 120 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 1 read; YTD: 16 of 52 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 2 read; YTD: 14 of 12 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0 read/watched; YTD: 2 read/watched.

Movie Challenge: This month: 4 watched; YTD: 21 of 52 watched.

TV Shows Challenge: This month: 20 episodes watched; YTD: 169 of 366 watched.

Live Theater Challenge: This month: 2 shows attended; YTD: 11 of 12 attended.