Culture consumed each month

August 2020

Books:

• In Extremis: The Life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin by Lindsey Hilsum

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:

• Jojo Rabbit
• Little Women
• Capernaum
• Booksmart
• The Personal History of David Copperfield
• Atlantics

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:

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:

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:

• Rojo

• Pain and Glory

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