Vol.2, Issue 1 // Mostly everything we’ve read, watched, played, and listened to these two months

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It’s a beautiful summer day as I write this. It’s the middle of June and it’s 63 degress at 10:30 in the morning. I have the day off from daycare today so Ant and I can celebrate his birthday today. And it has been so delightful to catch up first on June’s issue of Postcards and now this edition of “The Latelies”. I have my writing pullover on and, as I look over at the window, it’s overcast outside.

Actually, I’ve been sitting for almost two hours. I do need to get up and walk around. It may be a good time to water plants and just be outside for a few minutes. And, we are leaving soon for lunch. We have Cheesecake Factory gift cards, so that is where Ant is choosing to go for his birthday lunch 🙂

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• The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Volumes 5-8 by Beth Brower // And then, really all eight volumes that first two weeks of June on a second read-skim-thru because I read them too fast the first time through and needed to read them again.
• If It Bleeds by Stephen King // The hostess of Stephen King Summer specifically chose “Life of Chuck” for bookclub, but SK’s prominent character Holly Gibeny has a short story in this anthology, the title story, and I wanted to read it before reading his novel Holly, which is the novel we’re reading for June. I’m behind (because at the time of writing this), I haven’t finished “If It Bleeds”, but I’m determined to finish it this week (mid-June) and read Holly by the bookclub date of June 30th!
• Beth’s Brower’s substack: Beth Brower Scribbles Away // The emptiness I felt after reading EML the first time combined with the Facebook fan group I joined convinced me to subscribe to Beth’s substack to read The Gazette, which is stories of other characters around St. Crispian’s. It is delightful. The pleasant surprise is that her other substack posts, particularly the ones titled “Beth’s Selected Journals” are delightful as well. I read the first one she wrote in July 2023. The tears that came were a surprise, as was the poem she shared at the end.
• Dust of Dreams: Book Nine of The Malazan Book of the Fallen (2009) //
• Exodus // We’re trekking our way through Exodus. It’s been great to read it again, but we’re not making it a prioroty unfortunately.
• 1st Peter and 2nd Kings // Studying in Bible class on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights respectively. We maybe have like two weeks left of 2nd Kings!
  

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• Father of the Bride (1991) // Ant’s pick for movie night! This was surprisingly delightful. Way better than Meet the Parents, in my opinion. There wasn’t some big “break them up moment”. There were definitely shenanigans. There was a touch of sadness at the end with how much responsibility the wedding coordinator gave Steve Martin’s character, but overall it’s a great film.
• Take Note Troupe’s Bollywood-spin on Shakespeare’s The Tempest // This always feels like the start of summer to me! And it felt like it at 7pm at the ampitheater at Quarry Park in Rocklin (so hot!), but it was delightful as always.
• The Office // Season 2 of Arcane was a flop for us, so we decided not to finish it and watch our way through one of our favorites. We’re at least halfway through Season 3. Pam isn’t with Roy anymore and Jim transferred to Stamford. The early days of Karen and Andy are a wild ride. So far I’m enjoying the second-half of S3 better than the first half.
• My Hero Academia (2016-2026) // Ant says this show is great! It does seem funny, the little that I’ve overheard. He’s paused consistent watching of it as he’s focusing on reading and playing video games, but I know he’ll return to it.
• Andor (2022-2025) // I finally started this in May, but it’s taken me forever to finish Season 1. So I’m determined to finish it and resume watching it. I’m loving it so much!
• Enola Holmes (2020) // The third was released on July 1st and my heart is full of London and that Victorian-era of London, the late 1880s. (Which lines up with the EML time period, not so iroinically.) So, at the time of initially writing this (mid-June), I have chosen to watch the first two movies to be ready for the third one!
• USA vs. Turkey (6/25/26) // I have jumped on the FIFA-watching band wagon, but it has been so fun! This was the first US game I got to watch due to most games airing while I’m at work. I don’t have any of the english-commentaing channels/streaming services, so I am watching it via Telemundo via Peacock. Aaaaand if I’m being honest, I had it one while I was doing homework. but I have since been able to actually watch a couple of games. Since the commentators aren’t speaking English, I’m making sure to pay extra attention to who has the ball. It helps that Ant understands soccer, so I’m able to ask questions.
• @benwrightsoccer’s daily FIFA match videos // Ben Wright is the Founder and Executive Editor of SixOneFive Soccer. He typically covers Nashville SC and Major League Soccer, but every morning during the FIFA World Cup he posts a video with the matchups for the day with light commentary on each match. I found him via Carlos Whittaker, who is also helping his instafamilia out with learning soccer. It’s been fun!
• Onwawrd (2020) // Ant’s pick for the last movie of June. We saw this in theaters waaaaay back in early March 2020 with the Voylerwood Fam when Sawyer was like 3.5 months old. It was the last movie we saw in theaters before covid protocols shut the world down. It’s delightful. And heart-wrenching. I’ve seen it three times, at least, I still cried last Friday at the ending. It’s so good.

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I really want to include songs that I’ve discovered thanks to my Release Radar, so I figured it would be easier to make a “new discoveries” playlist:

Fun fact, the last time I released an issue of “The Latelies” was before Dave Barnes released his latest album, so here’s the link it. It’s delightful and full of jams!

I’ve been listening to my Leah Novel Playlist A LOT this month, as well as defaulting to this Emma M. Lion playlist frequesntly. I took a trip down Hadestown memory lane too. I’ve got Drew and Ellie Holcomb song to share too! I love these musicians, and Drew’s band The Neighbors too! On their recent tour earlier this year, Drew and Ellie covered each other’s songs: Drew covered “Constellations” and Ellie covered “

Here are both versions of the song:

“What Would I Do Without You” by Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors (original)

“What Would I Do Without You” by Ellie Holcomb (cover)

“Constellations” by Ellie (original)

“Constellations” by Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors (cover)

Here’s some songs that Ant has especially enjoyed these past couple months:

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• Wordle // puzzle #1,838 brings me to a streak of 16. The word was DEMUR.
• Waffle // Puzzle #1,623 brings me to back to #wafflegoldteam with a streak of 52.
• Maracaibo // Players are playing as explorers in 17^th Century Carribbean. It’s such a fun resource-collecting game. It’s in my top games for sure! Ant surprised me with this for my birthday in March and then we stayed up late on his birthday and played it. Ahhhh it’s so great!
• Architects of the West Kingdom // Players collect resources to build buildings, hire apprentices, all to gain the most victory points. This game was pulled out on a recent Thursday Night Dinner/Game night. I wasn’t able to play due to poor time management of Havok’s newsletter, but everyone who did play had a blast!
• Arcs // I feel like Board Game Geek describes it best with this: “Lead a spacefaring society through an epic saga.” There’s a lot of little details to remember but just think space battles and you’ll be okay! Only our second time playing this, but I enjoy it a lot!
• Space Base! // A fun, dice-rolling game where each player is in charge of their own space base (hence the name). It looked overwhelming to begin with, but it fun and low strategy overall.
• Ark Nova // A zoo board game! This was new to all of us, Rob and Ant and I. It took all of Sunday afternoon; it’s a long game, but it is fun! I ended up winning, not really sure how haha. We enjoyed it!
• Dune: Imperium // This has similar mechanics to Lords of Waterdeep with a resource-gathering game. It can be long, but it’s a fun one too.
• Settlers of Catan // We don’t have this fancy Gallery Edition buuuut to keep the board game tiles in place would be so cool. Also, such a throwback game. We’ve played this with my parents a long time, with my father-in-law’s for a holiday. The first few years into our marriage and the first time we had friends over, we played this game. We played this during the game weekend we had with our friend Rob in mid-June. It was fun to play it again! I stole the win from Rob in my last turn, woohoo lol.
• DARK SOULS II // Technically, we started recording Dark Souls II in December of 2025, and it’s taken an unfortunate backseat due to managing other things around a fulltime job. I’m linking to all of the Dark Soul II “Wife Reacts” videos here. And we do hope to make a comeback by recording episode 14 next week!

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And there we have it! A month’s worth of stories and games in various forms. Your turn! What did you read, play, listen to, or watch in July? Is there something else you enjoy that you do more regularly than one of my latelies? Did you knit, bake, sew something, or hike somewhere this month?

My hope for these monthly roundups is that you find something that piques your interest. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Share to the extent that you’re comfortable in the comments 🙂 I’d love to hear from you!

Happy Summer, my friends!