There’s only so much hitting the refresh button we can do before we reach peak news burnout during an extended crisis. And in this time of coronavirus, even the extroverts among us may have crashed into the “too much ZOOM, too many Hang Outs” wall. We took an informal survey to see how we on the diocesan staff are counterprogramming COVID-19 during our off-work hours. From books to gaming, podcasts to Netflix bingeables, and from the purely escapist to the deeply thought-provoking, here’s our best of the best:
Books
- Aquinas’s Shorter Summa by Thomas Aquinas
- Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham
- The Hope of Glory by Jon Meacham
- Church Dogmatics Volume II.1 by Karl Barth
- 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
- We Are Called to Rise by Laura McBride
- The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Hallelujah Anyhow by Bishop Barbara Harris
- Simply Jesus by N.T. Wright
- The Lost Art of Scripture: Rescuing the Sacred Texts by Karen Armstrong
- The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronvitch
- Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction by Margaret Guenther
- Unmasking Latinx Ministry for Episcopalians by Carla Roland Guzman
Audiobooks
- Byzantium by Stephen R. Lawhead
- Surrounded by Love by Murray Bodo, OFM
- Canoeing the Mountains by Tod Bolsinger
- A Wrinkle in Time series by Madeleine L’Engle
- Shardlake series (Sovereign is the first) by C.J. Sansom
- The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek
Podcasts and Streaming
- On Being with Krista Tippett
- Fresh Air
- Met Opera (free during the pandemic)
- 22 ways to leave home…from virtual zoo exhibits to museum tours
TV shows
- The West Wing (Netflix)
- The Crown (Netflix)
- The Two Popes (Netflix)
- Dexter (Netflix)
- Star Trek: The Next Generation (Netflix)
- 90 Day Fiance (TLC)
- 100 Humans (Netflix)
- The Good Place (Netflix)
- This is Us (Hulu)
- Million Little Things (Hulu)
- Homeland (Hulu)
- The New Pope (HBO)
- Outlander (Starz)
- The Outsider (HBO)
- Avenue 5 (HBO)
- Westworld (HBO)
- The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher (Amazon)
- Gentefied (Netflix)
- Story of God with Morgan Freeman (Netflix)
- El Barco (Netflix)
- CBS All Access has a one month free trial going on (normal charges apply after 30 days) and for all you Trekkies out there, this might be the prime opportunity to start in on the new Star Trek series.
Movies
- The Princess Bride
- To Sir With Love
- Bandits
- Groundhog Day
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
- Antoine Fisher
- Leap of Faith
- Pygmalion
- Stardust
- Murder by Death
- O Brother Where Art Thou
- My Man Godfrey
- The Thin Man
- Kinky Boots
- Paper Moon
- Off Limits
- The Gods Must Be Crazy
- The In-laws
- The Harry Potter movies
Documentaries
- Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story (Amazon Prime)
- Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam CJ Walker (Netflix)
Gaming
- DayZ (for PCs)
- Unturned (for PCs)
- PUBG (PlayerUnknown’s Battleground) (on iPad)
- Hearthstone (on iPhone)
Apps and Other Things
- Coffitivity (white noise app for when you want something on in the background, but you get too distracted if it’s music!)
- Bemyeyes (app that assists vision impaired folks with shopping)
- Practicing yoga (see a list of free classes)
- Cycling
- Running
