Recommendations
Things I love
Books, films, music, and shows I find myself recommending constantly. Updated when something new earns a place here.
Books
A heist novel disguised as a meditation on beauty and loss. One of the great ones.
Formally unlike anything else. Heartbreaking in the best possible way.
About repression and regret told through the quietest possible narrator.
A letter from a dying father to his young son. The writing is devastating.
Enormous and brutal and unlike anything I've read. Not for everyone.
Films
A film about authenticity that is itself a copy of nothing.
Perfect in almost every frame. About looking and being looked at.
The best science fiction film about language ever made.
A film about the poetry in ordinary life. Nothing happens and everything does.
Vicious and funny and impeccably designed.
Music
The album I return to most. Dense, furious, completely original.
Quiet devastation. I've cried to this more than I care to admit.
Solo folk at its most intimate. Like reading someone's diary.
Surprisingly literary. Sublimely Californian.
Grief as a sound. Not easy listening but deeply necessary.
Shows
The best writing on television in years. Shakespearean in disguise.
Season one is a masterclass in sustained tension.
Two series. Perfect from start to finish.
Formally daring and emotionally ruthless. One of the bravest things made for TV.
The best metaphor for work-life balance ever committed to screen.