Love By The Tenth Date (2017)

As is so often the case in a romantic comedy, the premise is what can be a combination of annoying and what drives the plot. There are four black female co-workers of an online, upscale magazine who all have various issues within the relationship department, and it is the advice column of their boss that sets them into a dating challenge to prove to themselves and each other who can handle a real relationship. Gabby is plagued by a hurtful breakup in the past that she never completely let go. Her circle of influence that consists of three other women and two males in questionable relationships themselves, constantly give her controversial advice about how to go about building a successful relationship. All bets are on the table when Gabby is challenged to make it to ten dates with the same person. Not only is she eligible to win cash money, but she also gets to keep her job by providing a storyline that her boss, as well as the magazine’s readers will fall in love with. With renewed excitement, Gabby comes up with a plan to up her game and little does she realize that her longtime roadie, Dante, who has secretly been in love with her forever, silently wishes he wasn’t her confidant having to listen to every cringe-worthy detail of her dates. As the movie progresses all the women have various issues with preconceived ideas about love and relationships that get in the way of happiness until they are able to let go of them and let their heads take a back seat to their hearts.

The Arrogant Ape by Christine Webb

I have read a number of these sorts of books, where the reader is urged to think of things in a different way and I continue to read them, one because they show up on lists of books that are worthy of reading, and two because while I am largely in the land of the already converted, I learn a thing or two and it makes it overall worthwhile to have read, although it is slow going because my pervasive thought is yes, I agree. This is one such book. The author has spent years researching the rich social, emotional, and cognitive lives of our closest living relatives. She exposes the ways that many scientific studies are biased against other species and reveals underappreciated complexities of nonhuman life—from the language of songbirds and prairie dogs, to the cultures of chimpanzees and reef fishes, to the acumen of plants and fungi. With compelling stories and fresh research she gives us a paradigm-shifting way of looking at other organisms on their own terms, one that is revolutionizing our perception both of them and of ourselves. Is this new? No it is not. Darwin considered humans one part of the web of life, not the apex of a natural hierarchy. Yet one might that we are the most intelligent, virtuous, successful species that ever lived. This flawed thinking enables us to exploit the earth towards our own exclusive ends, throwing us into a perilous planetary imbalance. The opposite approach, the author posits, is a better, sustainable way of life with the potential to heal and rejuvenate our shared planet.

Tamayo Contemporary Art Museum, Mexico City, Mexico

The Tamayo Museum (Museo Tamayo) was founded by Ruffino Tamayo in 1981, when the Mexican artist donated his own works, in addition to a massive collection of international contemporary art, with the goal of showcasing 20th-century art for the public. My favorite part of the whole museum was Tamayo’s collection of his own work that he hand picked to be on exhibit in the museum. The building, designed by Mexican architects Teodoro González de León and Abraham Zabludovsky, is made of reinforced concrete and white marble stone and is located in Chapultepec Park, a vast green space in Mexico City. The low-slung design and natural tones allow the building to hide in and among the trees. Inside, glass walls and light wood floors make the gallery spaces feel contemporary, open, and spacious.

Well-curated exhibitions change throughout the year, but the focus is always on contemporary and modern art, be it painting, video installation, and mixed-media, nicely bridging the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Occasionally, there are also interactive exhibits. There are always seasonal exhibits. The museum is basically divided in half, with its permanent collection and new, temporary shows. The space itself makes for easy transitions between the wings and the central courtyard; a few steps sunken into the ground often feature sculpture.

Dominion by Addie Citchens

Dominion means supreme authority, sovereign power, or complete control over something, in this case it is the dominion of men over women--it is exercised not only through violence, but through charisma, piety and the banality of male entitlement. Set in the fictional town of Dominion, Mississippi, at the turn of the millennium, the novel follows the Winfreys, a prominent Black church family whose putative grandeur conceals a deep and hereditary decay. Sabre leads the largest congregation in the state from the pulpit of Seven Seals Baptist church, dispensing wisdom through sermons and local radio broadcasts, exuding the oily confidence of a man convinced that God speaks exclusively in his register. The longsuffering Priscilla writes those sermons, raises their five sons and silently maintains the machinery of his authority without ever receiving credit for it. Their youngest child, Emanuel – known universally as Wonderboy – is beautiful, gifted and terrifying: a prodigious athlete with the voice of an angel. Unfortunately his true nature is dark and dangerous. The action unfolds through the alternating perspectives of Priscilla and Diamond, Wonderboy’s teenage girlfriend. This is neither light nor hopeful, but it does feel real. An impressive debut novel.

Goat (2026)

Ok, so the animation in this movie has been called stunning and dizzying—I would agree with the later assessment, in that the action moves so fast I had trouble keeping up. One reviewer liked it to the Spider verse animation, which I also found to be too much, and I would agree. Will Harris (voiced by Caleb McLaughlin) is a goat who has grown up dreaming of playing professional “roarball”, a fiercer and faster version of basketball. But Will is a “small” and roar players are all “bigs” – powerful beasts such as rhinos and horses. Will’s hero and the star of his favorite team, the Thorns, is a panther called Jet, a champ close to retirement but determined to win the league. When Will gets a shot at joining the Thorns, he is laughed at, underrated but undeterred. The rest of the plot unfolds in an entirely predictable manner. The movie has real-life inspiration: basketball star Stephen Curry, who was repeatedly told at the start of his career that he was too skinny and too small to make it as a pro. Curry is a producer here, and has a performing role. But in spite of this connection, Goat comes up lacking.

Son of Nothing by Yann Martel

I think this book, which is composed in an unusual manner, benefits greatly from the recent release of Christopher Nolan's movie retelling of the Odyssey. This is set before that, during the Trojan War, but the revisiting of Homer's work overall and the linked epic poems of the Iliad and the Odyssey have been revived for a greater audience. a Canadian classicist, Harlow Donne, has been offered a year’s fellowship at Oxford University. His wife, Gail, has a full-time managerial job, and they have a seven-year-old daughter, Helen. Who will pour out her breakfast cereal and pick her up from school while Harlow is away? He and Gail quarrel. He leaves for England, and Gail tells him to not come back (unlike with Penelope, who waits Once Harlow gets to Oxford, the narrative shifts its form and becomes odder and more interesting. His prescribed task is to help sift through and translate a hoard of ancient papyri from Oxyrhynchus, in upper Egypt. It’s that he comes to believe are a long-lost epic poem. It relates the story of the Trojan war, but not, as Homer tells it, from the viewpoint of princely warriors and gods. The protagonist is a common soldier, a “son of nobody” named Psoas. This is a novel that contains the actual poem. The Psoad makes up half of the book in terms of word count--the poem’s fragments are printed across the top half of the pages, while below the line are footnotes, in which Harlow sets out to comment on the text, but is soon finding in it prompts for reminiscences about his relationship with Gail, and reflections about his home life addressed to his daughter. The two narrative strands – the ancient epic and the modern domestic drama – tug at and distort each other, until finally they merge in a doubly mournful conclusion.

Caracol De Mar, Mexico City, Mexico

This is a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant. We stayed in the Condesa neighborhood on our recent trip to Mexico City, and this was an easy walk from out apartment. Chef Gabriela Camara’s hospitality and vision shine the brightest at the newest iteration of the restaurant (it apparently had moved), which welcomes guests with bar seating and cocktails on the first floor and a stunning salon filled with natural light on the top floor. The downside of the space is that it has a lot of hard surfaces and is really quite loud. The culinary ethos remains, with sustainability and seasonal seafood at the core and all-time menu favorites in tow. Order the green mole risotto and the fish tacos—they were both delicious, and the side sauces are a high point.

This is recommended, especially if you want to lean into seafood, and the sound level didn’t sound like a negative. Of the two seafood restaurants we ate at, this one was more upscale and had more memorable accompaniments to the dishes.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

I finished this book a couple of days ago and am still not sure what I think of it. I read several reviews and there is a sense that this is a book that you love or you hate--and I think for me it is a mixture of both, which is maybe the hallmark of psychologically successful story telling. In broad strokes, this is a book about parenthood, white privilege, and the thin line between right and wrong. It is set in Shaker Heights, a planned community in the greater Cleveland area, and in Elena Richardson there is a holier-than-thou attitude that they are just that much better than everyone else because their community is set up to win. She has a spouse with a successful law practice, Trip is a star athlete, Lexie is popular and smart, Moody is shy and smart, and then there is Izzy, who nobody understands--and here is where it gets weird--everyone marginalizes. She is a stranger in her own home. The Richardson's have a rental property which is also in Shaker Heights--they provide affordable housing in a good neighborhood and Mia, an artist who works odd jobs to get by and her teenaged daughter Pearl. Their arrival shuffles the deck for the Richardson family. Moody has a crush on Pearl, Pearl has a crush on Trip, Lexie befriends Pearl in the way that all popular girls who need something do--she uses her and sees herself as helping her, Izzy finds a kindred spirit in Mia, and Elena becomes obsessed with discovering Mia's secrets, of which there are many. At the end of the day, I didn't know quite what I thought about all this, and then two days later decided that was in fact the point, and any book that makes me think this much has something going for it.

His, Hers, and Ours (2026)

The hook for me to watch this romantic dramedy over any other was that it is adapted from a Terry McMillan is invovled. I haven't read anything by her since the 1980's but very much enjoyed Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back, so when my spouse is on call and I watch a movie that wouldn't be on his top 10 list, this got me interested. The things I like about this, which are features of the author's work, is that it focuses on the lives of creative successful black people who are family oriented. In other words, normal brown skinned people and the whole cast is black and brown people. The story is that a divorced woman and a widower have children who are in love with each other--which neither of them is quite ready to face their kids growing up and having adult feelings and relationships that might invovle sex. So they are doing a terrible job with that transition AND they fall for each other, which mortifies their children in a way that is predictable but also kind of hilarious--the teens are close relatives of their parents and so it stands to reason that they might also get along--I know that doesn't happen all that often in real life, but it certainly seems like it could, what with shared gene pools and all. The story is competently told, but while the teens have some ease and chemistry with each other, the adults are a bit stilted--we never really get to their inner thoughts and plans--so it is is a movie that skims along the surface rather than doing a deeper dive.

Quartet In Autumn by Barbara Pym

Someone asked me recently where I get ideas for the books that I read, and I gave what was probably too long an answer for what the asker was looking for, and quite sparse for the reality of the myriad of pathways into getting on my reading list, but one of them is Ann Patchett's If You Haven't Read It Is New To You Friday vlog series, where she and various authors who come to her store to do events offer up books that you m ight have overlooked--which is often the case for me, and this is one such book. If you ever start to think you are well read, check this series out, it will tether you back to the earth immediately. I am more or less immune to those thoughts because I live in a UNESCO City of Literature, where practically every third person on the street has read more than I have, and that is bolstered by the undergraduate population, who are young and haven't yet had the time. In any case, this gem from 1968 comes from that source. The book centers on Letty, Edwin, Marcia and Norman — four ageing clerks working in the same unspecified London office, all on the verge of retirement and all living alone. This book is not cluttered up with unrequited love, or indeed any love at all. The four main characters’ lives are drained of love. That one of them once offered to make a cup of tea for one of the others is what counts for kindness and warmth in their desiccated lives. Yet we gradually develop an affection for them as we watch them live out their isolated existences — especially over Christmas, when they somehow get through the dreaded day alone or foisted on charitable relatives or neighbours. Very gradually we realise that, really, they have no one in the world there for them but each other. Every scene in this novel manages to be simultaneously hilarious and almost unbearably bleak. And yet, here I am, recommending it to you.