What We're Reading, Listening to, and Watching This Week (5/17/2026)
Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director:
Reading: Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May. A beautifully written book by a neurodivergent author on the importance of slowing down and caring for ourselves during challenging times. Very much in the spirit of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain. Dominant culture may recommend the stiff upper lip and carrying on, but wisdom, and author Katherine May, suggest the opposite.
Listening: To bird song throughout the day. I love using my Merlin app to identify the many types of birds contributing to this glorious choir.
Watching: Very much enjoying The Other Bennet Sister on Britbox. Mary Bennet’s journey is so poignant and moving. I LOVED this quote from the most recent episode, in which Mary reflects after winning a parlor game and feeling at home and appreciated for possibly the first time in her life, “Even the most hopeless of situations, the most hopeless of people can, with kindness, change, little by little, over time."
Candice Huber / Membership:
Reading: Just picked up The Art of Activism by Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert. I'm learning about the artist's role in activism and the myriad ways art can effect change.
Listening: Just started The Tapestry of Fate by Shannon Chakraborty, the sequel to The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. I imagine it will keep me occupied for a while.
Watching: Season 50 has been my first Survivor season, and while I have really liked it, I think the final five are pretty boring from a viewer's perspective. But also, there's no clear winner, so I'm excited to see how everything shakes out in the finale!
Nicki Leone / Communications:
Reading: Olga Tokarczuk trying to dig herself out of a hole.
Listening: Well, it is a bit frustrating, but my Merlin app is telling me the birds I'm hearing are scarlet tanagers. But can I see them? No. I don't understand how something that brightly colored can be so invisible.
Watching: On the other hand, there is a phoebe pair that has built a nest right by the back door. AND, you get a really good view of it from the main bathroom window. So I have been watching the male bringing the female food while she sits on the nest. Only today, they were both flying back and forth with food, so I think maybe the eggs have hatched. Every time someone wants to use the bathroom, I tell them to go use the one downstairs.
SP Rankin / Website Administrator:
Reading: A good friend did some recent bookshelf deaccessioning and sent me a box of books. Among the treasures was Ma's Cookin': Mountain Recipes, published in 1966 by Ozark Maid Candies. It's the kind of kitschy thing (just tell me you don't want to try one of Maybell's Molasses Creams, though I understand if you don't want any Possum Stew) you'd find at highway road stops on a trip in the Oldsmobile VistaCruiser to visit your cousins up in Ohio.
Listening: The soundtrack of a more recent road trip (sadly, no Oldsmobiles involved) to the Outer Banks was all music from 1966, which really was a high-water mark in popular music.
Watching: Sunsets over Currituck Sound, wild horses on the beach in Corolla, sandpipers trying to catch a crab at Nag's Head. Back to old movies this week.
Andrea Richardson / Sales:
Reading: I just finished Diana Peterfreund's second installment in the Ellen Poe series, and it's so good! They're great YA mysteries with a Poe ghost helping solve things.
Listening: to my cats chase each other around for no reason. It's loud.
Watching: SNL UK has had a really fun first season! I'm looking forward to more from those folks.