January 2021
Films:
- Diego Maradona (UK, 2019)
- Men who Stare at Goats (USA, 2009)
- Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project (USA, 2019)
- Soul (USA, 2020)
Books:
- The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold
- The Wandering by Intan Paramaditha
- Art as Therapy by Alain de Botton
- Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
- Ali and Nino by Kurban Said
- Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford
TV:
- The Queen’s Gambit (USA, Netflix)
Audiobooks:
- The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs by Alexander McCall Smith
- Ramble Book by Adam Buxton
December 2020
Films:
- Extra Ordinary (Ireland, 2019)
Books:
- The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany
- The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley
- Three Apples fell from the Sky by Narine Abgaryan
- You Should have Left by Daniel Kehlmann
TV:
- The Disability Paradox (UK documentary)
- The Crown (UK drama, season 4)
- Love and Anarchy (Swedish comedy drama)
Podcasts:
- Where is George Gibney?
New music:
- Avalanches, We Will Always Love You
November 2020
Books:
- Lost Art, edited by Jennifer Mundy
- Weather by Jenny Offill
- A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen
- A Month in Siena by Hisham Matar
- The Transmigration of Bodies by Yuri Herrera
- Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys
- Ways of Looking by Ossian Ward
- Flames by Robbie Arnott
- Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers (audio book)
Film:
- This is not a Burial, it’s a Resurrection (Lesotho, 2019)
- Happy Gilmore (USA, 1996)
- Kmêdeus (Cabo Verde, 2020)
- Borat: Cultural Learnings of America (UK/USA, 1996 -rewatch)
- 8, or The Soul Collector (South Africa, 2019)
- Whisper of the Heart (Japan, 1995)
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show (UK, 1975 – watched many times before!)
- On a le temps pour nous (Burkina Faso, 2019)
- Black Book (Netherlands, 2020)
- Without Gorky (UK, 2011)
Art
- Tate Modern, online walk-through of the Andy Warhol expedition
- Tate Liverpool, online walk-through of the Don McCullin exhibition
Television:
- The Frank Gardner Story (UK)
- Truth Seekers (UK)
- Ratched (USA)
- Bake Off (UK reality cooking competition)
- The Undoing (USA)
Radio/Podcasts:
- BBC Radio 4, Lights Out, From the Ashes of New Cross (UK)
- BBC Sounds, The Wedding Detectives
New music:
- some kind of peace, album by Olafur Arnalds
October 2020
All the books I read in October:
- Transfer Window by Maria Gerhardt
- Outside Looking In by T C Boyle
- Clothes and other things that matter by Alexandra Shulman
- The Sickness by Alberto Barrera Tyszka
- Sisters by Daisy Johnson
- When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife by Meena Kandasany
- Dear Reader: The Comfort and Joy of Books by Cathy Rentzenbrink
- The Pear Field by Nana Ekvtimishvili
The films I watched in October:
- Wadjda (Saudi Arabia, 2012)
- Enola Holmes (UK, 2020)
- The Screaming Man (L’homme qui cri) (Chad, 2010)
- As I Open my Eyes (Tunisia, 2015)
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (rewatch) (USA, 1975)
- Supa Modo! (Kenya, 2018)
- The Wedding Ring (Niger, 2016)
- Time (USA, 2020)
- Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (USA, 2020)
- Beetlejuice (rewatch) (USA, 1988)
- Dhalinyaro (Youth) (Djibouti, 2019)
TV I watched in October:
- Misfits season 1 (UK, 2009): obscenely funny
- Misfits season 2 (UK, 2010): plots getting sillier, but still obscene and hilarious. I love Robert Sheehan
- Ghosts season 2 (UK, 2020): gentle and funny
- The History of Writing (documentary, UK, 2020): informative and impressed with their pre-COVID travel budget
Podcast listened to:
- Futile Attempts by Kim Noble – tragicomic and surreal
September 2020
Books:
- Katherine Mansfield short stories
- Summerwater by Sarah Moss
- Negative Capability by Michele Roberts
- The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey
- Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me by Kate Clanchy
- The Great Godden by Meg Rosoff
- The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes by Janet Malcolm
- On Time and Water by Andri Snaer Magnason
Film
- Teenwolf
- Midnight Traveler
TV
- I Hate Suzie
- The Politician (season 1)
- The Art of Japanese Life
- Us
- Simon Schama on The Romantics
August 2020
Books:
- In Extremis: The Life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin by Lindsey Hilsum
- Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Red Dust Road by Jackie Kay
- Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg
- The Past by Tessa Hadley
- My Mansfield Project by Kirsty Gunn
- A Death in the Neighbourhood by Susannah Berne
- Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin
Film:
- A Private War
- Much Much Amore
- Team America
- Burn After Reading
TV:
Mandy (comedy series)
July 2020
Books:
- When Time Stopped by Ariana Neumann
- Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
- Frank Bowling by Elena Crippa
- Harald Sohlberg: Infinite Landscapes
- On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
- The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
- The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
- Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
Film:
- Cook Off
- The Lives of Others
- Honeyland
- Logan Lucky
TV:
- A House through Time
- Space Force
- The Crown season 3
Podcast:
- Cautionary Tales
June 2020
Books:
- Thirteen Months of Sunrise by Rania Mamoun
- Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
- Golden Child by Claire Adam
- The Discomfort of the Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld
- Arid Dreams by Duanwad Pimwana
- Holiday Heart by Margarita Garcia Robayo
- Pale Rider by Laura Spinney
- A World Gone Mad: The Wartime Diaries of Astrid Lindgren (1939-45)
Film:
- The Great Beauty (2013)
- For Sama (2019)
- Best in Show (2000)
TV
- Mallory Towers
- The Big Flower Fight
- Age of the Image
- Hollywood
- Killing Eve (rewatch)
- Staged
- What we do in the Shadows
- I May Destroy You
May 2020
Books:
- Oranges are not the only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
- The Pact We Made by Layla Alammar
- The Long Drop by Denise Mina (audio book)
- Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig
- The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
- Restless by Kenneth Moe
- Face It by Debbie Harry (autobiography)
TV:
- Normal People
- Hospital: Coronavirus Special
- Upload
- Sewing Bee
Film:
- Gloria Bell (2018)
- Free Solo (2018)
- Loveless (2017)
- Knives Out (2019)
Podcast:
- The Last Days of August
April 2020
Books:
- Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (re-read)
- Actress by Anne Enright (audiobook)
- Green Smoke by Rosemary Manning (kid’s book!)
- The Wall by Marlen Haushofen
- English Monsters by James Scudamore
- The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
TV:
- Tiger King (true crime series on Netflix)
- National Theatre live, Jane Eyre
Film:
- Hairspray (2007)
- Gloria (2013)
March 2020
Books:
- Baho! by Roland Rugero
- The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste
- The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates (audio book)
- Loop by Brenda Lozano
- Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls
- A Small Revolution in Germany by Philip Hensher (audio book)
- The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
Film:
- The Cat Returns (Studio Ghibli)
- Kiki’s Delivery Service (Studio Ghibli)
- Contagion
Art exhibition:
- Among the Trees at the Hayward Gallery, London
TV:
- Bonus Family (Swedish comedy drama) on Netflix UK
- Intelligence (UK comedy series on Sky)
- Breeders (UK comedy series on Sky)
February 2020
Books:
- Gill Hornby, Miss Austen (audiobook)
- Jeanine Cummins, American Dirt
- Christine Craig, Mint Tea and Other Stories
- Bernd Brunner, Winterlust: Finding Beauty in the Fiercest Season
- Yasmina Khadra, The Attack
- Deborah Levy, The Man Who Saw Everything
- Bohumil Hrabal, Too Loud a Solitude
- Deborah Orr, Motherwell
- Velibor Čolić, The Uncannily Strange and Brief Life of Amadeo Modigliani
Films:
- The Lighthouse
- Parasite
- Dolittle
Exhibition:
- Léon Spillaert at the Royal Academy of Arts, London
TV
- Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened
January 2020
Books:
- Sinéad Gleeson, Constellations
- Romesh Gunesekera, Suncatcher
- Graham Greene, Brighton Rock (audio book)
- Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House
- Jane Harper, Force of Nature
- Ismail Kadare, Broken April
- Michèle Gazier, Virginia Woolf
- Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy
- Ismail Kadare, The Doll
- Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Fleishman is in Trouble
- Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other
- Claudio Morandini, Snow, Dog, Foot
Film:
Exhibition:
- Troy: Myth and Reality @ The British Museum
- Dora Maar @ Tate Modern
TV/podcasts:
- Avenue 5
- The Windermere Children
December 2019
Books:
- Andrés Barba, Such Small Hands
- Frances Carey and Max Egremont, Portrait of the Artist: Käthe Kollwitz
- Mariama Bâ, So Long a Letter
- William Miller, Gloucester Crescent: Me, My Dad and Other Grown-Ups
- Nathalie abi-Ezzi, A Girl Made of Dust
- Hans Christian Andersen, The Snow Queen and other stories
- José Eduard Agualusa, A General Theory of Oblivion
- Rachel Cusk, Coventry (essay collection)
- Nora Ephron, I Feel Bad about my Neck
- Ben Lerner, The Topeka School
Film:
- Cats
Exhibitions:
- Käthe Kollwitz at the British Museum
- Nam June Paik at the Tate Modern
- Tim Walker at the V&A
- Rembrandt’s Light at Dulwich Picture Gallery
TV/podcast:
- His Dark Materials (UK TV dramatization)
- Upright (Australian comedy series)
- Pose (US series by Ryan Murphy, second season)
November 2019
Books:
- Irmgard Keun, The Artificial Silk Girl
- Robert Harris, The Second Sleep
- Tété-Michel Kpomassie, An African in Greenland
- Han Kang, Human Acts
- Hanne Ørstavik, Love
- Ahmed Saadawi, Frankenstein in Baghdad
Film:
- Non-fiction
- Spider-man: Far from Home
- Greener Grass
- The Chambermaid
Exhibition:
- Jide Odukoya, Turn it Up: On Paradoxes at the Horniman Museum
TV:
- UK TV comedy series Ghosts
- UK drama Gold Digger
October 2019
Books:
- Margaret Atwood, The Testaments
- Scholastique Mukasonga, Our Lady of the Nile
- Zadie Smith, Grand Union (short story collection)
- Emilie Pine, Notes to Self (essay collection)
- Elizabeth Taylor, Mrs Claremont at the Palfrey
- Mary Costello, The River Capture
- Marjane Satrapi, The Complete Persepolis
- Ann Patchett, The Dutch House
Films:
- Joker
- Monos
- The Guilty
- The Farewell
- Blades of Glory
Exhibition/art:
- Into the Night: Cabarets and Clubs in Modern Art, at the Barbican, London
- Kara Walker’s installation in the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall
TV:
- UK comedy series Motherland
September 2019
Books:
- Salman Rushdie, Quichotte
- Tove Ditlvesen, The Copenhagen Trilogy
- Mary Beth Keane, Ask Again, Yes
- Samanta Schweblin, Fever Dream
- Peter Pomerantsev, This is not Propoganda
- Tea Obreht, Inland
- Leila Slimani, Lullaby
Films:
Exhibitions:
- Dora Maurer at Tate Modern, London
- William Blake at Tate Britain, London
- Felix Vallotton at the Royal Academy, London
- Helene Schjerkbeck at the Royal Academy, London
TV shows:
- UK comedy series State of the Union
- UK comedy series Defending the Guilty
August 2019
- Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys
- Jane Gardam, Old Filth
- Oyinkan Braithwaite, My Sister, The Serial Killer
- Hannah Rothschild, The Improbability of Love
- Mick Herron, Slow Horses (Slough House series, book 1)
- Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone
- Genki Kawamura, If Cats Disappeared from the World
- Tove Jansson, The True Deceiver
Film:
- Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Exhibition:
- Olafur Eliasson at Tate Modern