A quick roundup of what I’ve been enjoying that’s new or possibly old and simply new to me these past few months. Everything listed here I recommend unequivocally, or will have further thoughts on later. There will be more things coming over the next several months but for now here’s a classic list.
Reading:
A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimar McBride
Heart So White by Javier Marias
Mao II by Don DeLillo
Disgrace by JM Coetzee
So Much Blue by Percival Everett
Remainder by Tom McCarthy
Born This Way: Science, Citizenship, and Inequality in the American LGBTQ+ Movement by Joanna Wuest
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Remainder by Tom McCarthy
So Much Blue by Percival Everett
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Wounded by Percival Everett
Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge by Benjamin Fong
Watching:
Passages (2023, dir. Ira Sachs)
Old Boy (2003, dir. Park Chan-wook)
Down by Law (1986, dir. Jim Jarmusch)
In the Mood for Love (2000, dir. Wong Kar-Wai)
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002, dir. Park Chan-wook)
Listening:
Atlas (2023) by Laurel Halo
Again (2023) by OPN
The Glow Part 2 (2001) by The Microphones
Pharoah (2023—reissue) by Pharoah Sanders
The King of Limbs (2011) by Radiohead
Other things I liked:
Two essays on J.M. Coetzee’s The Pole. One by Jennifer Wilson in The New Yorker and the other by Matthew Gasda in Real Clear Books
Three essays in Damage Magazine “Brick Red,” “Cash Dreaming,” and “Are You My Customer?”
Bookforum is thankfully back and the Christian Lorentzen essay on DeLillo, Jaime Hood on Annie Ernaux, and Jane Hu on The Guest were highlights for me.
And finally, this essay by Jackson Davidow in The Baffler, “Two Lovers”