Stuff We Like :: 6.3.16

Suzanne's back with lots of geeky goodness in this week's edition of Stuff We Like. 

Around the Web

JANE MY LITTLE SUNBEAM WHERE ARE YOU I NEED YOU BY MY SIDE: I know Amy already talked about how we’re going into mourning as The Toast closes its doors (fortunately, the archives will remain, so that we can catch up on Ayn Rand’s Harry Potter among other things), but I thought I’d take this opportunity to make sure that we’ve all got our copies of Texts From Jane Eyre by Toast co-founder Mallory Ortberg—we do, right? Yes? Excellent.

And while it doesn’t make up for the loss of The Toast, Mallory’s fellow co-founder, Nicole Cliffe, can now be found at The Guardian, writing about the Romanovs and Erma Bombeck (not together, but that would be an awesome fanfic).

In happier news, FILM CRIT HULK, my very favorite all-caps superhero/film critic has made a triumphant return to essay writing after a too-long absence (though I respectfully disagree with his take on Captain America: Civil War).

READER, I &*^%$ING MARRIED HIM: When Storytime Blows Kids’ Minds: The Power of the Plot Twist

at home | school | life

on the website: Amy and I recorded the first episode of The Podcast with Suzanne and Amy this week. Look for it next week!

on the blog: Apparently Amy’s obsessing over planning high school pretty much everywhere. (It’s going to be fine!)

on instagram: A little first-day-of-homeschooling nostalgia

in the classroom: There’s still time to sign up for my Hamilton class (and other great summer classes, too)!

Reading List

Obnoxious and Disliked: Although I adore Hamilton and have new love and appreciation for the man himself, my very favorite founding father is still John Adams, so I’m thoroughly enjoying David McCullough’s John Adams (yeah, I’m just now getting around to reading it — I’ve been busy!)

Just got The Mind Readers, the last Campion mystery written by his creator, Margery Allingham (though the series continues with books written by her husband); Allingham created Campion as a spoof of his contemporary, Lord Peter Wimsey, and he indeed comes off as Wimsey crossed with Bertie Wooster at the beginning, though by now I’ve followed him through several decades and he’s his own man, surrounded by an entertaining group of family members, old friends, and various detective inspectors, some of whom at least I’m hoping will show up in this final book

My current fantasy pick is A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab, sequel to the original and entertaining A Darker Shade of Magic, about a magician who can travel across worlds from Red London (his home) to Grey London (our London, during the Regency period) and White London (where evil magic runs rampant)

I’m reading Jane Eyre with the 13-year-old, which gives me another excuse to link to The Toast, with The Best Part of Jane Eyre Is Guessing What the French Is (for the record, as an non-speaker of that language, my read-aloud approach has been “...and then Adele speaks in French for a bit.”)

At Home

Lots of video games in my house for summer break: Right now the 18-year-old and the 11-year-old (not to mention the 47-year-old) are obsessively playing Uncharted 4, which is convenient for me, the non-gamer, as Uncharted is my favorite video game to watch and I can’t wait to see what happens to explorer/thief/treasure-hunter Nathan Drake (who should totally be played by Nathan Fillion in the live action adaptation) in this, the final chapter of the series

Haven’t had a chance to play it yet, but the family is also looking forward to some tabletop gaming with Ghostbusters: The Board Game, a cooperative game (my favorite kind!) with some of the cutest pieces I’ve ever seen, including a very large (comparatively) Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man

And I know it’s a week away, but don’t forget to set your DVRs for the 2016 Tony Awards on June 12th, where we’re sure to get at least one freestyle-rap acceptance speech from Hamilton-creator Lin-Manuel Miranda!

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