Current reads

Longing. Longing for travel, nature, adventure, freedom, and the meaning of life. This is the feeling that is released when reading John Strelecky’s book Life Safari. The bestselling author describes the journey of a young American named Jack who crosses the African continent on foot in search of his Big 5 for Life--his five goals in life. On the journey, Jack meets the wise old woman Ma Ma Gombe, who accompanies him on the month-long journey through the wilderness of Africa and shares her wisdom of life with him. The book encourages the reader to ask himself what his own goals in life are. A book with depth, lightness, beauty and meaning. Worth a journey to read! LC 

by Nicole Perlroth is definitely on my to-read list before the year run outs. It made my tip of the month following indepth research and conversations with top-experts including the author Perlroth during the course of a cybersecurity training I participated in recently. The book is a New York Times Bestseller and has also won the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award. If you’re looking for an entry point into the subject matter of cybersecurity and the cyberweapons arms race, then this is a must-read and comes highly recommended. AO

Technically I can’t recommend this just yet as I haven’t attempted to solve it just yet, but I find the concept fascinating: is a mystery novel/puzzle where readers have to cut out all the pages to rearrange them in the right order to discover the names of the victims and the perpetrators of six murders. This went viral on Tiktok a few months back and only a handful of readers worldwide have been able to solve the story since its publication. I figured that the long dark winter would probably be the best time to start working on this one. Note that the book is specifically made to have all its pages ripped/cut out, so if you don’t like cracking book spines, maybe this isn’t for you. TH 

Digital highlights

It is hard for satirists in the UK to keep up with the revolving door at No 10 Downing Street. On his followed up his biting Boris letters with a Liz Truss diary, written in the tone of a, not very smart, teenage girl. What he will do with Rishi Sunak remains to be seen. Meanwhile, the Boris letters, often written in a fake Churchillian voice with hilarious misuse of Latin, have been collected in a book titled that will be published on 31 October. DR

Listen to this

The new album from Swedish psychedelic band Goat, Oh Death, is a thrilling in-your-face collection of eclectic tunes that range from the brilliant funkiness and jazz sax noodlings of Under No Nation to the tribal drums and glam rock guitar motoric of Do The Dance and the krautrock of Blow The Horns. Not exactly easy listening, but fabulously wild. DR

Björk a few weeks ago brought out her 10th album, Fossora, which centers around… fungi. With beautiful aesthetics and an elaborate maze of instrumentals, the Icelandic singer takes us into the particular space of life and death that fungi occupy, to process life events like new love or the death of her mother. I particularly loved the pronounced beats and her strong vocals on this album, especially in Atopos. TH

Essential viewing

Among my favourite recent discoveries is the BBC Two show Cunk on Britain, after clips of the 2018 show starting popping up all over social media. Now back with Cunk on Earth, Diane Morgan, in the role of dim-witted and ill-informed interviewer Philomena Cunk, delivers punchline after punchline of utter nonsense, including stubborn interrogations about “the Soviet Onion” (yep). Morgan’s deadpan delivery is something to admire for sure, as is the mixture of lovely landscape shots and completely erroneous information shared in every sentence. TH 

I loved The Durrells (2016-19), an adaptation of The Corfu Trilogy by Gerald Durrell. The series is based on the years that the British naturalist spent as a child on the idyllic Greek island with his family. From matchmaking efforts to mishaps with animals, season one had me in stitches. The characters are eccentric and lovable, everyday events are transformed into amusing adventures, and the scenery is gorgeous. LL

For foodies

For the lovers of good charcuterie boards, wine and kitsch decoration, in Bonnevoie is a lovely place to visit on a weekday night. With a more private space in the basement, the brasserie offers quality wine and food in a relaxed setting. TH

Creep of the month

In light of Halloween, I couldn’t resist throwing this one into the mix. Lithuanian photographer Eugenijus Kavaliauskas recently won one of the 57 Images of Distinction in Nikon’s , and it’s hard to “un-see” his . There’s something humbling when you stop and consider just how much ants could have evolved beyond their current capacity…thank goodness they’re as tiny as they are! NG