Every fortnight the Tharunka editorial team compiles the best media we’ve been avoiding and/or complementing our studies with. Have fun!
Podcasts/Music
Henry: Perfectly Imperfect (podcast, 2017-present, by Christine Chen and Regina Fang). Fantastic wholesome chats on mental health and self-improvement from two Asian-American women who’ve become heavily involved in arts and media entrepreneurship.
Axel: I’ve listened to ‘Shrike’ from Hozier’s 2019 album Wasteland, Baby! over three hundred times (literally) in the past fortnight, with occasional interludes of ‘As It Was’ and ‘Nina Cried Power’, so I guess that’s a recommendation for the whole album.
Jo: As part of my (ironic) Glee rewatch, I have been extremely enjoying listening to comedy podcasts about the show (and behind the scenes). The Gleewind podcast is great for recapping episodes, and the Showmance podcast (run by the actors who played Artie and Tina) is a great interview series of the Glee cast recalling memories from their time on the show.
Saafiyah: ZABA (album) – Glass Animals – Listened to the entire album on repeat for approximately 24hrs, I have no regrets.
Books
Axel: Forever advising that The Raven Cycle (four-book series, 2012-2016, by Maggie Stiefvater) is superb. It’s a YA/NA fantasy series that’s simultaneously so easy and enjoyable to read, and so enriching and complex.
Jack: Stephen Kotkin’s doorstopper biography of Stalin. Despite how densely packed and research this 1000+ page study seems, prepare for some new twist or some new exciting interpretation on each page.
Jo: Having recently devoured the Stan TV show Normal People, I have just begun reading the original book by Sally Rooney. Although it is early days, it seems that the slow but moving romance between two Irish teens that was rendered so beautifully in the show, is also going to enchant me in the book.
Saafiyah: Just finished The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. Don’t let the Goodreads score of this book turn you away from reading it, I’d give it a 4.5.
Movies/TV shows
Jack: Re-watching old Die Hard movies. Although great, they’ve all aged in an incredibly funny way.
Jo: I am writing a column for Tharunka about all the female-directed movies I watch this year. My most recent watches include Anna Rose Holmer’s The Fits, a coming of age story about a young black girl (Royalty Hightower) torn between the masculine world of boxing and the feminine world of teen girl dance troupe’s. I also enjoyed Australian director Sophie Hyde’s Animals the tale of two best friends living in Dublin, and the recently-passed Lynn Shelton’s film Laggies, a comedy about a twenty-something Keira Knightley, struggling to get her life together.