What We're Reading, Listening to, and Watching This Week (4/5/2026)
Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director:
Reading: Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel. As always, I dip into another terrifying near-future novel with Emily St. John Mandel just as the world seems like it’s falling apart for the nth time. I’m following the journeys of outlaw characters dealing with the breakdown of nation states into militia-run territories, climate disasters, and hints of a multiverse and doppelgangers. Not my usual before-bed choice, but I will read every book this author writes because she’s such a fascinating thinker.
Listening: To a chorus of birdsong every morning.
Watching: We’ve added Canal Boat Diaries to our nightly mix. Such a nerdy, calming experience watching Robbie Cumming travel 300 miles across the Midlands and North of England in his narrowboat. The scenery is gorgeous and the logistics of his trip fascinating.
Candice Huber / Membership:
Reading: Still on The Shadow Cabinet by Juno Dawson.
Listening: Currently sifting through my hundreds of Libro books searching for my next audiobook read!
Watching: I'm SO excited that baseball season is once again upon us! I'm back to watching Guardians games every day.
Nicki Leone / Communications:
Reading: Autobiography of Cotton by Cristina Rivera Garza, which is lovely. The Company of Owls by Polly Atkin, which I picked up because of the cover and because, well, owls!
Listening: Kin by Tayari Jones, and Against Breaking: On the Power of Poetry by Ada Limón.
Watching: Like SP, I am riveted to the Artemis live feed. And the photos. And the grateful feeling that we can still rise to achieve something so wonderful, even in the midst of such terrible war and strife.
SP Rankin / Website Administrator:
Reading: I started The Things She Carried: A Cultural History of the Purse in America a while ago, but am now back into it. I love this sort of social history.
Listening: NASA's official Artemis II Wake-Up Songs playlist (all songs selected by the crew). I can't work like an astronaut, but I can wake up like one.
Watching: NASA's live feed from Artemis II, especially the day when the crew was taking over 10,000 photographs of the far side of the moon, and the scientists back on earth were jumping out of their skins with excitement about what they were hearing. Juxtaposed with current events, it was a profoundly hopeful, if disorienting, experience.
Andrea Richardson / Sales:
Reading: The incredibly cute and cozy Impossible Garden of Clara Thorne, a sapphic romance that just came out by Summer N England. I've also started my third-time loop book for 2026, Kill Slay Replay by Rachel Harrison, which is really good.
Listening: To the big loud purrs of my big loud Bandit cuddled up next to me. He's trying to make up for screaming the song of his people at 4 am.
Watching: I loved the new season of Love on the Spectrum! There were some new cast members along with the returning favorites this season.