What We're Reading, Listening to, and Watching This Week (6/7/2026)
Linda-Marie Barrett / Executive Director:
Reading: Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto. Vera is the owner of a tea shop in San Francisco’s Chinatown who discovers a dead body and decides it is up to her, and not the police, to find out the identity of the murderer. While tracking down leads, she makes a family out of a group of flawed people (aren’t we all) who may or may not have been involved in ending the life of the worst kind of con artist. I’m loving it.
Listening: As we head into the final two months of NVNR conference prep, I’m spending early mornings on the porch watching the sun come up and listening to birdsong. For the endless hours at the computer, I’m firing up the Nick Drake station on Pandora.
Watching: The Other Bennet Sister (love it!), Brokenwood (always good), Death in Paradise (the same), and Canal Boat Diaries (about as chill as it gets). We also watched the 1995 version of Sense and Sensibility again, which is such great fun. I so miss Alan Rickman.
Evangeline, owner of Candice Huber / Membership:
Listening: Sitting on the window ledge, looking out of the open window (screened, of course), listening to the wind through the trees, birds chirping, and cars and people passing, contemplating life.
Watching: CatTV on YouTube is my favorite show! I love to watch livestreams of backyards and forests and scratch and meow at the TV. Sometimes, I'll jump behind it and pounce just in case. Maybe one day I'll catch something back there!
Playing: I love to carry around small toys in my mouth and drop them different places for safekeeping, but sometimes I bring them into the bedroom window and accidentally drop them behind the dresser. I hate it when that happens!
Nicki Leone / Communications:
Reading: Maggie O'Farrell's Land and Steppe by Oksana Vasyakina are my fiction reads for the next few weeks. For nonfiction, Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald.
Listening: Still on American Rambler by Isaac Fitzgerald.
Watching: Mom and Dad have been watching Patience on BBC. I have been watching the first fireflies of the summer in the evenings.
SP Rankin / Website Administrator:
Reading: The Lesbian Bar Chronicles: The Living History and Hopeful Future of America's Dyke Dives and Sapphic Spaces by Rachel Karp, which is probably my favorite Mother's Day present ever.
Listening: After hearing the song "Deep Shadows," by the legendary 1960s Detroit soul singer Little Ann, she's been the foundation for all my listening for the last several days.
Watching: The opening number of the 2026 Tony Awards, hosted by Pink, which has joined Taylor Mac's performance of "People Have the Power" as videos to watch when the world is a lot.
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.