August flew by. Summer ended. School started. Here are some things I was into this past month.

Books

  • Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead – The final book in The Harlem Trilogy. I have loved this series. While I love Ray Carney, I could just spend forever with Pepper. Especially Pepper and his Buddhism. There are few ‘good guys’ in these stories, but no anti-heroes if you know what I mean. I highly recommend this series.

  • Whistler by Ann Patchett – My wife and I have enjoyed reading several of Patchett’s books together. This one was no exception. There were a few times in the book where I got nervous about the direction things were going. I’m a stepfather and parts of this story about the main character and her stepfather really related to me.

  • Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinnaman – I saw too many recommendations about this book. It was okay, not quite worth the fuss. I may read more of the series, or not.

  • Mystic River by Dennis Lehane – Inspired by the New York Times 50 Best Thrillers of the 21st Century, my wife and I read this one. I’m pretty sure I saw the movie based on this back in 2003, but I had no recollection of the story. I enjoyed it and started Gone Baby Gone right after I finished, but I’m enjoying it a lot less. Maybe don’t start a book series in the middle?

Music

TV

  • World War II with Tom Hanks I love a good history show. I was making lunch while the first episode was playing and heard a familiar voice. When I looked up it was Dan Carlin from Hardcore History.

YouTube

  • Baked Beans Garage It’s a goddam shame this sweet, sweet Chinchilla only has 86k subscribers. The editing, attention to detail and humor are top notch. I probably would never have found it without the algorithm. I was watching some other car video when his RX7 video auto-played. Sometimes you get the algorithm and sometimes the algorithm gets you.

  • VTEC Academy I fell down the rabbit hole of classic Hondas and engine swaps. When my stepdad was in his 40s, he restored mid-60s Mustangs — cars about twenty-five-ish years old at the time. I’m in my 40s now, and a 1999 Civic Si is that same twenty-five-ish years back.

  • Speeed Very bro-centric, but I’ve enjoyed several of their videos. 82 Things That Make Life Good was a favorite.