I just read Portrait of an Island on Fire by Ariel Saramandi—a stunning essay collection about colonization, culture, governance, and climate change in Mauritius—and it reminded me of how important it is to weave the everyday into conversation about larger issues. So let me say: I’m writing to you without electricity right now, but [deletes multiple paragraphs about colonialism] I’m not going to start the first culture roundup of the year on a sour note. Rather, I want to tell you about the other books I’ve been reading and show you this stack on my desk before I get into the usual and ask what you’ve been reading, watching, and listening to.

Bread of Angels, the latest memoir by Patti Smith, is perhaps my favorite of hers, and I don’t say that lightly. I cried through almost the entire book, as it’s about growing up as a weird girl and being a reader and the feelings of her initial rock star fame and grief. I’m a big Smith fan, it should be said, even if Keith McNally wrote about her being awful in his own memoir. I got the sense from his book, which I enjoyed much more than I thought I would, that he’s simply one of those guys who likes only the most conventionally beautiful women and anyone who doesn’t fit the bill could suffer harsher judgement. But who knows! Everyone sucks sometimes.

Then there was Dead and Alive, Zadie Smith’s latest collection of work, which was very pleasurable—I loved her work on technology and algorithms, especially. I devoured the third in the On the Calculation of Volume series and look forward to the fourth coming out on the same day as my own On Eating. I also really enjoyed Grand Rapids by Natasha Stagg, a coming-of-age novel that reminded me so much of the feeling of being a teenager in the early ’00s that it was a little like staring at the sun—but good.

Below the fold, my roundup of articles, art, movies, and more for the month.