The M&Q crew has been mostly homebound for a week or more, but we’ve been sharing updates and recommendations on our social media. Thank you to everyone who’s interacted with us, either just by liking a post or by placing an online order!

Our Insta stories are fleeting, so we wanted to share a more permanent snapshot of what some of our booksellers are up to at home:

Here’s what a few of us have been up to lately:

Christine:

• What I’m reading: The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker
• What I’m watching: The Handmaid’s Tale, Atlanta, The Tiger King, Outlander
• What I’m listening to: MPR
• What I’m doing: planting seeds for the garden, taking walks along Minnehaha Creek, making sauerkraut, trying recipes from Thug Kitchen.

Beth:

• What I’m reading: Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell (the sequel to his oh-so-much fun, Diary of a Bookseller).  For fiction, I’ve started Donna Leon’s Commissario Brunnetti mysteries set in Venice (there’s at least a dozen or so).  I’m just finished the second.
• What I’m watching: Shameless (on season 9 and am already missing it since it ends with season 10).  Also, Outlander (Kilty Pleasures!*) and Ozark
• What I’m listening to: classical music, because Doug works at home and that is pretty much all he listens to during the day
• What I’m doing : washing windows, sleeping in, reading books over video chat to my grandson Louis, watching my other grandson Desmond crawling around by video chat.

Annie:

• What I’m reading: The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel. I tend to resist reading books this long, but I had to make an exception for the final installment of Mantel’s unbelievably good series (which started with Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies). I also just started Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown. It’s written in the form of a film/TV script and it’s fascinating so far.
• What I’m watching: The absolutely breathtaking movie Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma’s award-winning film is available on Hulu earlier than planned due to its wide release being cut short! Sad for movie theaters, exciting for you!)
  As always, I’m watching several TV shows, including bingeing Outlander** and Bojack Horseman, and keeping up with the current seasons of Westworld and Brooklyn 99. Also, Netflix’s reality competition The Circle is an absolute masterpiece of the genre and everyone should watch it and then talk to me about it!
• What I’m listening to: The delightful The Office rewatch podcast Office Ladies, the audio drama podcast Midst (co-created by a former M&Qer!), new albums from The Weeknd and Megan Thee Stallion, and the MPR choral stream.
• What I’m doing: At-home workout videos from YouTube, keeping up with my friends and family through video calls and apps like Marco Polo, hanging a bunch of shelving and art in my new apartment, and trying to keep my cat from eating random packing material left over from the move.

*Kilty Pleasures is a wall calendar featuring very attractive men in kilts. We order it for the store every year and it sells…extremely well.

**You might have noticed three booksellers separately decided to start watching Outlander, based on the book series by Diana Gabaldon, on Netflix. This was not planned! Perhaps the double dose of escapism—a period piece from 1940s England AND a time travel story to the 18th century Scottish highlands—is irresistible right now. (This post was not sponsored by Starz or Netflix. But uh…hit us up if you’re reading.)