Personal Wreck Week: List #4

***For the friend who really needed this list earlier in the summer, because she had actual vacation time.***

(Dear friend, my first impulse was to just give you a long list of musicals. Wouldn't that have been hilarious? No?)

Reminder: Click on Rec. #s (where available) for more information. The other recommendations will eventually get their own posts, as well.


To Read

1. Last Night at the Lobster, by Stewart O'Nan (Rec. #8): The audio version of this is excellent for a commute. It might make you feel better about your own job.

2. The Bowl Is Already Broken, by Mary Kay Zuravleff (Rec. #46): This profile of a fictional Washington, D.C., museum is a nice balance of the global and the personal.

3. Mr. Chartwell, by Rebecca Hunt (Rec. #85): Hunt's debut novel is imaginative in the right places, perceptive in the right places, and funny in the right places.

4. A Few Corrections, by Brad Leithauser (Rec. #117): A novel set mostly in Michigan. It's not about how the state is dying.

5. Not the End of the World: Stories, by Kate Atkinson: Yes, Atkinson also wrote a collection of unsettling stories. They're kind of George Saunders-esque.

6. The Witch of Exmoor, by Margaret Drabble: This novel sharply explores the conflicts between political ideology and everyday life, in the context of one family with a missing matriarch.

7. Calamity and Other Stories, by Daphne Kalotay: The stories in this solid collection shine pinpoints of light on pivotal moments in ordinary lives.

8. The PowerBook, by Jeanette Winterson: From the vantage point of 2000, the author leapt into the future of the internet.

To Watch

1. Shameless (Rec. #14): It's fun for the whole family. Including your dog.

2. Wait Until Dark (Rec. #26): Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin face off.

3. The Princess and the Warrior (Rec. #71): A fable of life in a psychiatric institution.

4. The Business: This IFC television series from 2006 is a caustic and clever look at the workings of a film production company.

5. The Daytrippers: Hope Davis, accompanied by her family (including Anne Meara, Parker Posey, and Liev Schreiber), drives to the city to confront her husband. Lots of good sister scenes.

6. The Spanish Prisoner: A con, some murder, and corporate intrigue, as written and directed by David Mamet.

7. The United States of Tara: You wouldn't necessarily expect the episodes to be half an hour, but they are, which means you could likely find yourself watching a whole season in one sitting.