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Curated

Things I love.

Books, films, music, and shows I find myself recommending constantly. Updated when something new earns a place here.

01

Books

  • The Goldfinch

    Donna Tartt

    A heist novel disguised as a meditation on beauty and loss. One of the great ones.

  • Lincoln in the Bardo

    George Saunders

    Formally unlike anything else. Heartbreaking in the best possible way.

  • The Remains of the Day

    Kazuo Ishiguro

    About repression and regret told through the quietest possible narrator.

  • Gilead

    Marilynne Robinson

    A letter from a dying father to his young son. The writing is devastating.

  • A Little Life

    Hanya Yanagihara

    Enormous and brutal and unlike anything I've read. Not for everyone.

02

Films

  • Certified Copy

    Abbas Kiarostami, 2010

    A film about authenticity that is itself a copy of nothing.

  • Portrait of a Lady on Fire

    Céline Sciamma, 2019

    Perfect in almost every frame. About looking and being looked at.

  • Arrival

    Denis Villeneuve, 2016

    The best science fiction film about language ever made.

  • Paterson

    Jim Jarmusch, 2016

    A film about the poetry in ordinary life. Nothing happens and everything does.

  • The Favourite

    Yorgos Lanthimos, 2018

    Vicious and funny and impeccably designed.

03

Music

  • Fetch the Bolt Cutters

    Fiona Apple, 2020

    The album I return to most. Dense, furious, completely original.

  • Punisher

    Phoebe Bridgers, 2020

    Quiet devastation. I've cried to this more than I care to admit.

  • abysskiss

    Adrianne Lenker, 2018

    Solo folk at its most intimate. Like reading someone's diary.

  • Norman Fucking Rockwell!

    Lana Del Rey, 2019

    Surprisingly literary. Sublimely Californian.

  • Carrie & Lowell

    Sufjan Stevens, 2015

    Grief as a sound. Not easy listening but deeply necessary.

04

Shows

  • Succession

    Jesse Armstrong

    The best writing on television in years. Shakespearean in disguise.

  • The Bear

    Christopher Storer

    Season one is a masterclass in sustained tension.

  • Fleabag

    Phoebe Waller-Bridge

    Two series. Perfect from start to finish.

  • I May Destroy You

    Michaela Coel

    Formally daring and emotionally ruthless. One of the bravest things made for TV.

  • Severance

    Dan Erickson

    The best metaphor for work-life balance ever committed to screen.