Pop Culture Recs for The Dark Days – by Carlie St. George

Welcome to Smugglivus 2017! Throughout this month, we will have guests – authors and bloggers alike – looking back at their favorite reads of 2017, looking forward to events and upcoming books in 2018, and more.

Today’s Smugglivus guest is our very own Carlie St George, author of the Spindle City Mysteries series.

Please give a warm welcome to Carlie!

Pop Culture Recs for The Dark Days

Let’s face it: 2017 has been a rough year. I know it has been for me personally, even without taking—well, everything—into account. So today I’ll be listing a few of the comforting books, TV shows, and even Youtube videos that have helped me through it.

BOOKS:

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

This stand-alone sequel to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet works for me on so many levels. The found family feels are strong with this one. It’s also the A.I. story I didn’t realize I was looking for. It’s a novel about identity and purpose and family, and best of all, it nails the ending. I am all here for the optimistic space feels.

The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry

This a thoroughly charming read about friendship and, well, hasty body disposal. If you’ve ever thought to yourself, Arsenic and Old Lace is great, but I wish it was set at an all-girls boarding school in the late 1800’s, this might be the book for you. One of my favorite things about it? The strong relationship between the girls. There’s some bickering, sure, but these seven young ladies are absolutely devoted to one another. And at the time, it was just what I needed to read.

TV:

The Good Place

I binged the whole first season in, like, a day while my sister was housesitting, then binged the whole thing again when she came back home and I pestered her into checking it out. The first season was great, and second season has been even better. The narrative choices they’ve made, particularly in regards to story structure, are both experimental and fantastic. The whole show is funny, but more than that, it’s interesting.

Also, Janet. I love everything about Janet.

Voltron: Legendary Defender

I actually decided to check this out in the beginning of 2017, shortly after last year’s Smugglivius, when A.E. Ash recommend it. I was all, “Well, I didn’t watch any of the previous Voltron shows, but I like cartoons, space battles, Steven Yeun, and Bex Taylor Klaus. Maybe I’ll like it.”

Reader, I did not like it. I became obsessed. I have bookmarked, like, 30 different Voltron fanfics on AO3, and have read about 3,000 more. I want to be Pidge when I grow up. And if I can’t do that, I’m thinking some cosplay at the very least might be in order.

YOUTUBE:

Jeremy Jordan singing Celine Dion’s “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”

I’m not really a Celine Dion fan. As a general rule, power ballads are very much not my thing, but Jeremy Jordan, I mean, damn. The boy’s got pipes. Plus, the performance is hilarious, and nothing is sexier than musical talent combined with a sense of humor. Can there be at least one musical episode in every season of Supergirl now?

Eartha Kitt singing “I Want to Be Evil”

Oh my God, I love this song. I stumbled across it earlier this year, and it brightened up my whole day. I regularly return to it whenever I need to smile. Eartha Kitt had the most amazing voice. Her facial expressions in this performance are just the best, and in a time when women are still being told to sit down, shut up, and behave, this song feels like a goddamn anthem.

2018 is coming. Ladies, let’s be evil.

Carlie St. George is a Clarion West graduate whose fiction can be found in Strange Horizons, The Dark, Daily Science Fiction, and Lightspeed. She is also the author of the Spindle City mysteries.

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