Weekly Favorites #24

Hey friends!

It’s the one song on your playlist that you always skip but never thought to remove from the playlist, Sam Cote, here with Weekly Favorites #24!

What I’m Reading: I finished Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree! This book is everything it was hyped up to be and I enjoyed it quite a bit! The tag-line on the cover is “high fantasy, low stakes,” which is a pretty great summary of what this book provides. It’s not completely stakes-free, which I think it to the books credit– I cared about the characters and settings, and wanted them to succeed. This is touted by many as the pinnacle of cozy fantasy, and it definitely is cozy, but I find myself taking issue with what this implies about other kinds of fantasy. I’ve always seen fantasy as a cozy genre as a whole– the coziness I find in it comes naturally when I’m able to find refuge in a fictional world, and escape into it whenever I like (even if I probably wouldn’t survive in it– I like to imagine I could). The content of Legends & Lattes is unquestionably the coziest I’ve ever read; who doesn’t love a welcoming coffee shop and a wholesome cast of characters? But my ability to escape into it is severely limited by its purposely small scale. The limited scope was exactly right for the story, and a truly unique choice given the genre, but didn’t align exactly with my particular preferences when I’m looking for a cozy read. What I mean is this: other kinds high fantasy don’t need to be excluded from “cozy fantasy” because they aren’t small-scale and low stakes– it’s often quite the opposite that gives me the deepest sense of coziness. Regardless, I liked it a lot and it’s definitely worth the read!

What I’m Listening To: Remember Owl City? Apparently Adam Young (the guy behind Owl City) spent all of 2016 making hypothetical movie scores for historical events– it’s really freaking cool, and I’ve been slowly making my way through them all. So far my favorites are Corduroy Road and The Ascent of Everest. Voyager I, Miracle in the Andes, and The Endurance are also awesome– really high quality work, and great recontextualizations of famous stories.

What I’m Watching: Hailey visited this past weekend and we watched a bunch of Survivor: Redemption Island (Season 22). We just reached the Merge. I’m excited to see how players who took the backseat in the beginning step up now that it’s an individual game!

What I’m Making: Job applications and the novel! Still plugging away at both of those. One of them is important and the other is necessary. I’ll let you speculate which is which.