READ WATCH PLAY EAT: MY FAVORITES OF 2023, Part 2 of 2

Books, Screen, Music, Games, Podcasts, Restaurants

Le livreur et sa cliente by Emmanuelle Léonard, from an exhibit I loved

Second half of what entertained, nourished and inspired me in 2023. First half here. Had to leave a lot of wonders off and if folks like these might do another halfway into the year to reduce the overload. Enjoy!

READ

Love, lust, loyalty—it’s all here, Singapore style, in this fantastic collection of short stories. Chia has written amazing novels and poetry—check out Cordelia if you can.

Learn more here.

Paraphrasing from my blurb: Nothing explains our vexed world quite like Cuba and no one anywhere writes more prophetically about Cuba than Iván de la Nuez.  As in all of his finest work CUBANTROPIA delivers you beyond your old horizons into a realm of startling possibilities. 

Learn more here.

As I said on fb: this is the type of deeply-researched orthogonal scholarship that I love and SAMURAI IN THE LAND OF THE GAUCHO exposed me to a history and writers I knew little to nothing about. Hagimoto's analysis of the politics of whiteness vis-a-vis the Japanese-Argentinian nexus aligns with what I've learned about the history of Japanese immigrants to the Dominican Republic.

Learn more here.

Lehane, Boston, crime, racial strife—what else do you need to know? This one is beyond red-hot.

“Because truth hurts, truth costs, truth upends your world.”

Learn more here.

As I wrote on fb: Marie Ndiaye has been tearing it up since her novel ROSIE CARPE, but it was when she won the Prix Goncourt for THREE STRONG WOMEN that most folks realized a nova had been born. VENGEANCE IS MINE is her latest and it is Ndiaya at her most ferocious. This unnerving novel about a sensational murder case, the woman lawyer defending the killer, and her undocumented Mauritian housekeeper is thrilling, elusive and full of fury. "Yes, darling, and you're the one who's killing me with your doubts, your skepticism, your cruelty, I don't recognize you." Ndiaye is a future Nobel winner for real.

Learn more here.

WATCH

Tayo Giwa and Cynthia Gordy Giwa’s film is documentary at its most excellent. The Sun Rises in The East charts the rise of The East, a pan-African community organization founded in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, in 1969. The same way we need Samuel R. Delany in order to truly understand Time Square in all of its dimensions, we need The Sun Rises in The East to truly understand Brooklyn and the African diasporic activism it inspired.

Learn more here.

Originally a graphic novel by British screenwriter Paul Tomalin that was then turned into a series, this is a mystery-thriller that unfolds across four London timelines: Victorian 1890, the Blitz 1941, contemporary 2023 and dystopian 2053. It’s a mashup of Alan Moore’s From Hell, Watchmen, and V for Vendetta, and yet impossibly it works.

Learn more here.

The less said about director Damián Rugna’s twisted film, the better. Not only does this Argentinian terrifier give no fucks, it’s also a perfect example of smart compelling worldbuilding.

PLAY

Cradle to the Grave Podcast

Starting with his birth year 1971, Erik Hanson discusses the Ten Top horror films of each year of his life will all sorts of guests. Best idea for a podcast ever. Also, fantastically done. Also, I’ve been a guest and loved it.

Learn more here.

EAT

If you’re in the Providence, Rhode Island area, Milena Pagán’s bagel shop, Rebelle, and her cafe, Little Sister, are amazing. (Rebelle will soon have a sister store in Cambridge.). Puerto Rican raised, Pagán is an MIT grad, a James Beard semifinalist.

Learn more here and here.