From LiveJournal to the End of the World

One of the reasons I started this newsletter was to force myself to put pen to paper, or more accurately, fingers to keyboard. Getting into a rhythm of writing at least once a week has helped me so far in 2026, and I find myself writing a bit more compared to earlier years. Not quite where I want to be, but it's a start, and these newsletters have helped me get back into the habit. I want to use both going forward, where these newsletters are solely focused on books, movies, and shows, and my blog will continue to be a potpourri of things that interest me or care enough to write about.

I used to write a lot at school and college, and then later on during the heyday of LiveJournal. After the great LJ collapse following the explosion of social media apps (Facebook, Twitter, et al) and its Russian takeover, I moved over my blog to Blogger, where it's stayed more or less dormant. I know of at least one user though who checks my old posts fairly regularly, presumably by searching for her name. Sadly, Google hasn't spent any time enhancing Blogger, adding it to their long list of projects that were either killed or left to die on their own. Such is the fickle world of tech.

Alright, on to this week's books and binges!

A book

Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy

"...the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don't deceive you with thrills and trick endings. They don't surprise you with the unforeseen. They are as familiar as the house you live in. Or the smell of your lover's skin. You know how they end, yet you listen as though you don't. In the way that although you know that one day you will die, you live as though you won't. In the Great Stories you know who lives, who dies, who finds love, who doesn't. And yet you want to know again.

That is their mystery and their magic."

The quote above, from Arundhati Roy's masterful The God of Small Things, pretty much describes how I feel about the book itself. It's a book teeming with intense thoughts masquerading as words. The way she describes Kerala - the people, the culture, the goddamn jackfruits, I was completely bowled over when I read it for the first time almost thirty years ago. I was convinced I liked it because it was about my home state, but, much to my surprise, it went on to win the Booker and smash all kinds of records for books by an Indian author. I've read almost everything else she has written, which is mainly non-fiction, and have found myself agreeing with most of her causes as well, not just because of the way she wrote about them.

So, naturally, I sought out her memoir Mother Mary Comes To Me as soon as it was published, and read it in a couple of sittings in less than 24 hours. As I was hoping for, she continues to wield words with a power very few modern authors display. The book is her story, and perhaps even more importantly, her relationship with her mother. She loves her, she hates her, she cannot live with her, she cannot live without her. You do not need to know anything about the two Roys to read and enjoy the book, you don't even need to have read The God of Small Things.

The following lines resonated with me for a long while, for more reasons than one. Highly recommend the book.

"The more our world fractures into dagger-shaped shards, the more we club each other to death with our genes, our gods, our flags, our languages, the colour of our skin, the purity of our roots, our histories both true and false — the more my answer to that question (Where are you from?) remains the same: I'm here now."

A movie

Train Dreams on Netflix

I should confess that I am one of those annoying people who wait to pounce on unsuspecting folks who praise a movie, going "oh, I read the book a while back." I sometimes try to finish entire book series before the movie or show gets released, just to stake my claim of having been there before the general public got in. Does oodles to my self-esteem having gotten one over you, you know. Sigh.

Anyway, I could not do this for Train Dreams as I did not know the novella existed until after I watched the film and did a bit of digging around. The movie released at Sundance last year, and got quite a bit of critical acclaim then. It found its way to Netflix towards the end of the year, and is quite a wonderful film. It stars Joel Edgerton as Robert Grainier, logger and railroad worker from the Pacific Northwest in the early twentieth century. Only an hour and forty minutes long, it takes its time showing us Granier's life, his stoic approach to work and family, and the tragedy that awaits him. It never lapses into sentimentality, and stays grounded in the moment. It's about loss, about searching for meaning, and about not providing all the answers. Watch it when you have the time, and keep your phone away. It's worth it.

A show

Plur1bus on Apple TV

So you like movies, you like shows. You know that shows with women as the main characters are worth watching. You have your Sex and the City, your Grey's Anatomy, your Buffy, or if you are feeling adventurous, your Fleabag and your Killing Eve. But what if I told you there is a show with only one real woman character - not just in the scenes relevant to the character, but in the entire world the show is set in? And that the character is not particularly likeable, quick to anger, and behaves badly almost throughout the first season? Or rather, acts like a normal person would, not like a teevee lady.

Welcome to Plur1bus, the next masterclass in television from Vince Gilligan, he of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. It stars Rhea Seehorn, who plays Carol Sturka, a well-known author of fantasy fiction. An alien virus strikes the earth and very quickly spreads everywhere, leaving just a dozen (or so) people who are strangely unaffected. The virus doesn't do the usual fictional virus thing where people turn into flesh-eating zombies. Actually, hold on. You might want to watch the show to check if what I said is true. Suffice to say that Carol is unlike almost everyone else in the world because of the virus, and she feels very, very alone.

The show faced a lot of criticism because of how Carol was depicted, as people felt she should have been more likeable. I'd argue this criticism would not exist if it was a male character, as there are hundreds of shows where the leading man is an obnoxious misogynistic heel, but is loved by everyone. My other hot take is that the show is actually about AI, which you actually get to realize fairly quickly without Gilligan bringing it up even once. The second season is due a year or two later - a very long wait, but from what I've seen so far, is sure to be worth it. Highly recommended.

Coming Up

The Power by Naomi Alderman

Kalamkaaval

The Pitt on HBO

Have a great week!

Credit Scores Primer

 I had started what I envisioned as a series on financial literacy back in October of last year, when I wrote about credit cards. The target audience was my kids - primarily my daughter, who, much to my surprise, is a full-fledged adult now. To her er..credit, she did not prod me for the next installment, so I thought I’d surprise her with one today.

This post is about credit scores, another vital factor in understanding your financial health. The same caveat as before applies: I am not a finance professional, and none of this should be taken as financial advice. Everything on these pages can be found across hundreds of thousands of blogs, TikToks, and books - there’s zero original content here, just a father's curated version.

What is a Credit Score?

 

The best way to think of a credit score is as a financial GPA, one that changes over time just as your grades did at school. It is essentially a three-digit number representing your creditworthiness. It serves as shorthand for lenders (banks, credit card companies, and even landlords) to assess the risk of lending you money. The higher the score, which typically ranges from 300 to 850, the more trustworthy you appear to the financial system.

The score isn’t just for loans, either. A strong rating is often a prerequisite for renting an apartment; landlords use it to gauge the likelihood of rent being paid consistently. You might have seen this as a new college graduate where a landlord asks for a guarantor (usually a parent) if your score isn't established yet. Some utility and cell phone providers will even waive security deposits if your history is excellent.

In the long term, the primary advantage is securing lower interest rates. The difference between Poor and Excellent tiers can be massive. Over the life of a mortgage or car loan, a high score can save you tens of thousands of dollars in interest.

Who creates these scores?

 A credit score is not generated by a single entity, but rather by a combination of data collection agencies who deal with specialized mathematical models. In the United States, three major national credit bureaus - Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion - are responsible for gathering data on consumer financial behavior. These companies collect information from lenders, utility companies, and your public records to create a report, which is a detailed history of your financial activity. If it sounds a bit creepy, that's because it is. Your data is definitely out there and it is being used to rate you, whether you like it or not. However, understanding this is critical for you to see how to use it to your advantage,

Now while the above bureaus hold the data, they do not create the score itself. That task typically falls to the Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO), or VantageScore. These companies use proprietary algorithms to analyze the data provided by the bureaus and distill it into the three-digit number that's your score. As each bureau may have slightly different information, and lenders may use different versions of the FICO or VantageScore models, it could happen that you might have different scores depending on which source is being consulted. I remember when I was looking at a car loan and was happy with my FICO score (used by most lenders) but surprised when the car dealership checked my Vantagescore, which was a bit lower. From what I understood, the Vantagescore tracks trends better, which some lenders like to check.

How do you find your score?

The easiest way to find your score is to check your bank or credit card app. Most institutions provide a free credit score feature within their app, which is updated monthly and free to view. Some of them offer a bit of detail, which can help you identify areas to improve your score.

You also have third-party services like Credit Karma which provide free access to scores and offer simulation tools which you can use to run what-if scenarios. Be warned though that these services are quite spammy, and will offer you up-sell products (like tax software or high interest loans). They need to make a profit too!

A third option is to check AnnualCreditReport, a free credit report service from the three credit bureaus I listed above. They are required by federal law to provide every consumer a free copy of their credit report each year, but these agencies now provide it weekly. The catch is that they do not give you a free score, just the underlying data that is used to generate your score (FICO or Vantage).

Regularly checking your score is a key part of your financial hygiene. You can use it not just to prepare for a loan, but to check against identity theft or reporting errors. You could have a scenario where a bad actor has used your Social Security Number, or maybe a financial institution still shows a paid-off loan as an open debt. These things happen a lot in real life, so it's up to us to be on the lookout.

What factors into a score?

 Your credit score is built from several distinct categories of financial behavior, each carrying different weight. The most significant component is your payment history, which accounts for 35% of the total score. This metric tracks whether your bills were paid on time. Even a single missed payment can have a disproportionate negative impact, while a long history of timely payments provides the strongest possible foundation for a high score.

The second most influential factor is your credit utilization, making up 30% of the score. This is the ratio of your outstanding balances to your total available credit limits. For example, if your credit card has a limit of $1000 and the amount you owe is $300, the utilization is 30%. Experts generally recommend keeping this ratio below 30%, as high utilization can signal financial distress. As I mentioned in the post about credit cards, always try and pay off your credit card statement by the due date for the full amount.

Other contributing factors include the length of credit history (15%), which rewards those who have maintained accounts over many years, and the credit mix (10%), which considers the variety of accounts held. Your credit cards, student loans, auto and home loans contribute to this mix. Finally, your new credit (10%) looks at how many new accounts have been opened recently. Frequent applications for new credit can lead to what are called 'hard inquiries', which may temporarily lower a score. Some institutions like American Express do a 'soft pull' when you apply for an additional card, but most applications will lead to a hard inquiry.

How do you improve your score?

To use a cliche, improving your credit score is a marathon rather than a sprint. The most effective strategy is the consistent use of automation to ensure no payment is ever missed. You absolutely need to setup autopay for every credit card statement or loan repayment from your bank account. Building a good credit file involves maintaining older accounts and using them occasionally for small, manageable purchases that are paid off in full each month. This demonstrates to lenders that credit can be managed responsibly without accruing unnecessary debt.

Monitoring the score is equally important. Checking your own score, like the soft inquiry I mentioned above, does not affect your rating and can be done through most banking apps or through the agencies discussed earlier.

Ultimately, maintaining a healthy score is about demonstrating reliability and restraint. By keeping balances low and paying bills on time, you'll build a rating that provides you with flexibility and savings for decades to come. Onward!

Superb Owls, Steampunk Towers, and Heated Hockey

Week of February 1, 2026  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

February is the weirdest month. It's shorter than the others, even if you account for that extra day which leaps in every few years. This is the month when winter rolls up its sleeves and gets down to work, cranking down temperatures and blowing snow all over your precious driveway. February boasts of hosting the Grammys and the SuperbOwl, two American festivals which are little seen and little regarded outside of this country. Well, maybe not the Grammys, but I feel they have lost their relevance compared to previous years. Valentine's Day shows up as well smack in the middle of the month, which is apparently celebrated as Cow Hug Day in India these days. The month also features two birthdays from this household, both within five days of each other and both of which I will sadly have to miss this year thanks to upcoming travel. A superb owl Here's to a short month and a shorter intro to this week's books and binges!   A book The Books of Babel series by Josiah Bancroft I have never been a fan of the steampunk genre, both in books and in movies. I've always found them confusing, with their emphasis on Victorian-era aesthetics, full of corsets, gas lamps, and gadgets made of wood, copper, and steel. So it was with some amount of trepidation that I started reading Senlin Ascends, the first in the Books of Babel series by Josiah Bancroft. However, the writing turned out to be excellent, and the fantasy yarn that Bancroft weaves goes beyond corsets and gadgets, though you do see a lot of the latter. The story centers around a mysterious structure called the Tower, visited by a school headmaster called Thomas Senlin, and his newly-wed wife Marya. They get separated before entering the tower, setting up the quest for Senlin which covers pretty much the entirety of the series. The world-building is fantastic, and the overall commentary on the nature of tyranny and despots in particular resonated with me. The one complaint I had was that the intricate descriptions of gadgetry and the various kingdoms that form the tower take time to visualize, which honestly is not surprising for a work of fantasy. I enjoyed reading all four books, and would recommend them to anyone who is interested in world building and fantasy in general.   A movie Jay Kelly on Netflix If there's one thing that Hollywood loves, it's movies about itself. About its stars, the troubled writers, the auteur directors, the reclusive heroines, and oh the handsome men who wrestle with their inner demons yet put on a cheery smile in front of the camera. Netflix's Jay Kelly is about such a man, the dashingly debonair George Clooney seen here playing himself. It is a pathetic excuse of a movie masquerading as high drama. It's made by Netflix after all, who instructs filmmakers to repeat their plots three to four times because their target audience is presumably distracted by their phones while watching. Adam Sandler is just about okay, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup and a few others have minor roles, and Clooney appears as himself in almost every scene. A painful, infuriating watch, with no sentimental value. Not recommended.   A show Heated Rivalry on HBO/Crave Alright, let's get this out of the way, shall we? The show Heated Rivalry on HBO has a lot of sex. The show doesn't quite fade to black after a long kiss, or switch to two flowers gently brushing against each other either. The fade does happen, but the next scene features the same two people indulging in intense, passionate sex, shown in graphic detail. If that's not something you'd want to watch, then this show is probably not for you. However, you should know that sex in this show is not random titillation; it actually drives character development. The two leads learn about each other and, crucially, about themselves. It doesn't leave you feeling sleazy; it leaves you with a smile and a spring in your step, thankful for some romance in the world. The show is based on the second in a series of books called The Game Changers, by Canadian author Rachel Reid. The backdrop is the fictional major hockey league called, well, Major League Hockey (MLH), where two rookie players get drafted into Montreal and Boston (yay) sports franchises. They play against each other, with each other, and develop feelings for each other. It's well-written, brilliantly shot, and has two of the hottest young actors to grace TV screens. Recommended.   Coming Up It Was Just An Accident Have a great week! Sunday, February 1, 2026 Of Voices, Villages, and Vigilantes We are a month into this newsletter now (!!), hoping no one's noticed the week that was skipped over. Thanks to all nineteen of you who cared enough to hit the subscribe link, and the three who were added without their consent but still haven't cancelled, being the good wife and children they are. Speaking of, how do you folks pick the content you consume? Is it recos from friends? Critics you like? Subreddits, podcasts, blogs, vlogs, newspapers, that weird aunt who vaguely smells of ginger and garlic and has a thing for Russian playwrights? I get mine from all the above, and am constantly on the lookout for more. I am a big fan of the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR for instance, and while I may not always agree with their views, the pop culture artifacts they review are almost always worth a look. I also have this self-imposed "minimum consumption time" for art. It's usually the first thirty pages for a book, though there are times when I've given up after the first two hundred (I'm looking at you, book eight of Malazan Book of the Fallen). With a movie it's usually the first five to ten minutes, as most movies introduce themselves fairly well in that timeframe. I have found that a lot of the Hindi movies from the last few years do not last more than five minutes, though. Your mileage may vary, of course. I try to watch the entire first episode of a show before giving up, as shows often have a twist or a gimme-more gimmick at the end of the pilot - a hook that's supposed to make you quickly click on the 'Next Episode' button. The first episode of Paradise is a great example, if you want to try one out. Alright, on to this week's books and binges! A book Hitman Omnibus Edition, Vol 1 My introduction to Garth Ennis was through the groundbreaking Preacher series, the one that took a chainsaw to your concept of Christianity, God, and Texas, not necessarily in that order. I had found it explosively funny at the time, and an ode to male bonding and friendship. I don't think it holds up as well now though, but it still remains one of the most prized comic book series in my collection. I then went on to read Ennis' run on Punisher MAX (vicious, brutal, testosterone-pumping) and The Boys (superheroes get the chainsaw this time around), and liked them too. I could spot his recurring themes by then: nihilism, cynicism, grit, war, Ireland, dark humor, and tough men making tough choices. Hitman has all of the above, with the humor and camaraderie dialed up. The main character is Tommy Monaghan, a hitman who could have been at home in the pulp novels we discussed in the previous newsletter, with his hard-boiled character, laconic outlook, and x-ray vision plus telepathy thrown in as bonus. He lives in the DC universe, which allows Ennis to bring in some of their best known characters and take the piss out of each one of them. With the possible exception of Superman, who is the one superhero Ennis hasn't really skewered. I should confess that I have not yet read Vol 2 of the Omnibus, which I'm told is even better than the first, but I mean to correct that shortly. Recommended. A movie Su From So (Kannada, on Hulu/Jio Hotstar) There is a particular genre of movies, especially in Indian cinema, which centers around the village. We like them because they remind us of an innocent, simple, happy past - one which never really existed, truth be told. We were young then, not exposed to problematic issues of caste, bigotry, and misogyny, and lived inside a protective bubble created by our parents. That said, years later, we need those moments of innocence, particularly now when everything around appears sordid and malevolent. I would happily go back and rewatch a Peruvannapurathe Visheshangal on a Friday night after another week of soul-crushing brought on solely by reading the news. Su from So is that kind of movie. It's the directorial debut of JP Thuminad, and does not feature any major stars (as far as I could tell). Set in a coastal village in Karnataka, it has a bunch of characters who are not quite the stereotypes you'd expect. The humor is lighthearted, the plot takes a shape of its own as the characters develop, and it's just emotional enough to leave an impact. The subtitles are thankfully not trite, and you do not need to know Kannada to enjoy the film. You finish the movie with a smile on your face, reminding you to ask your mom to watch it if she is able. Recommended. A show Delhi Crime (Hindi, Netflix) Let's go back to malevolence, shall we? If you were in India in 2012, or reading news about India in 2012, you would know what I mean. The Nirbhaya case remains a watershed moment in Indian history - probably the first time the entire nation raised its voice against violence towards women. There have been numerous similar incidents later on, almost numbing our collective consciousness, but this one still lingers. The Deputy Commissioner of Police who led the Special Investigation Team tasked with solving the crime was Chhaya Sharma, already known for her work in investigating the Baby Falak case and exposing the human trafficking network that enabled it. Her bio is outstanding, if you want to check it out. Delhi Crime Season One is all about the Nirbhaya case, and is a banger of a procedural. It stars Shefali Shah as DCP Vartika Chaturvedi (stand-in for DCP Sharma), the ever-dependable Rajesh Tailang as her second-in-command, and a host of other actors who flesh out the characters they portray with remarkable zeal. I was particularly fond of the tenacious cop Sudhir (played by Gopal Dutt) who takes time to talk with victims and passers-by, searching for any possible clue that would help the investigation. The show does not veer into theatrics and pretty much stays the course of a good cop show featuring humanized police doing their job. This was true of the second season as well, where the plot was about a gang terrorizing the elderly in Delhi. I felt the third season, based on the Baby Falak case, faltered a bit with its plot despite adding two good actors in Mita Vashisht and Huma Qureshi. I'd recommend the first two seasons, but don't go into the third expecting the same. Coming Up Have a great week! Monday, January 19, 2026 Of Platforms, Pulp, and the Pain of Shoveling Ever since moving to Massachusetts, I constantly complain about the winter. It's too long, running for a solid six months from November through April. It's bitterly cold, with temperatures dipping into negative territory - in Fahrenheit - every January and February. Shoveling snow is literally a pain in the backside even if you use a snowblower, and that too one which obstinately refuses to turn its head when you need it. Massachusetts Man endures pain trying to maneuver an obstinate snowblower And yet. And yet there are some days when you stand near the window overlooking your backyard, cuppa in hand, stunned. I know I will keep complaining about winter, about the cold, the frigid air. But I am also thankful for moments like these which I do not want to ever take for granted. Alright, on to this week's books and binges! A Book You already know what Enshittification is about - the title is pretty much self-explanatory. Cory Doctorow talks about how almost all tech platforms deteriorate over time: first, they are good to their users. Next, they throw users under the bus to bring in business customers. Third, they throw those customers under the bus to make a ton of money for themselves. He provides examples from all the companies you can think of (Facebook, Amazon, Google), and walks through the process with data and examples to back up his theory. Unlike a lot of other books though, he provides a couple of ways to solve this problem, through the right of exit and the end-to-end principle. The book is oriented towards (or perhaps against) the tech industry, but I would wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone. You do not need a tech background to feel angry as you read, and a teeny bit hopeful as you finish. A Movie So, about the French. I use the term loosely, as some of these folks are not, strictly speaking, of French origin, though their most famous films have been in the language. I have not come close to watching their entire filmography but I have absolutely loved the ones I've seen of Truffaut, Renoir, Melville, Varda, Tati, and our homme du jour, Godard. I'd actually watched the American remake of Breathless (Richard Gere) before I watched the original (Belmondo). And since you might ask, no, please don't bother. The French New Wave (or Nouvelle Vague, as you might have guessed), emerged in the 50s and was championed by some of these auteurs, stemming from the magazine Cahiers du Cinéma. All this to say that the Richard Linklater creation Nouvelle Vague on Netflix is an ode to these movies. It's a lovely, fun film about film. About art. About Godard for sure, but also about creating something totally new, going against established norms and expectations. It's shot similar to the movies of that era, in black and white and in French. I watched the entire film with a big stupid smile on my face, in love with the movies all over again. Highly recommended. A Show I grew up on a diet of all genres, but one that I enjoyed the most was pulp. You know, books written by folks like John D McDonald, Elmore Leonard, Ed McBain, Robert B Parker, and if you go back a bit more, Jim Thompson. They usually have covers with fonts like the one below, and feature all the usual noir elements - a woman (sultry), a man (hard boiled), and a twisty, winding, often incomprehensible plot (unimportant). The Lowdown is in the same vein, with a dash of humor thrown in. It features an incredible Ethan Hawke playing a "truthstorian" in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a white man who cares (the worst type, according to a few characters in the show). Its plot takes several twists and turns, people aren't who they seem (but of course), and you are not quite sure if every loose thread was wrapped up at the end. But you enjoyed the ride. Recommended. Coming Up Have a great week! Sunday, January 11, 2026 AI Nightmares, Poetic Cinema, and Belfast Cops We made it to week two! Thanks to all of you who clicked on the subscribe link and wound up finding this post in your mail. So to speak. I have been following a few artists/writers on Instagram for several years, especially since I jumped ship from Twitter. Folks like Brian K. Vaughan, Jeff Lemire, Stephen King, and Pia Guerra. Pia has been doing editorial cartooning for over fifteen years now, contributing to The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and the occasional MAD Magazine issue. She is better known though for her breakout work on Y: The Last Man, collaborating with Brian K. Vaughan. Y was the first comic series that I ever read from start to finish, and has stayed a firm favorite. So, when Pia announced a year-end clearance sale of some of her pages, I couldn't resist. I got in touch with her, paid for a page after consulting with Satya, and carefully unwrapped it yesterday. I don't usually collect comic art, but this felt special. The published & the original Alright, on to this week's books and binges! A book Karen Hao's Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI covers pretty much what it says on the tin. It's incredibly well-researched, diving deep into the environmental costs of AI as well as the human element. I hadn't fully considered the colonialism aspect she highlights, specifically the labor and economic impacts on the Global South, which was an eye-opener. It reads like a book written by an engineer-turned-journalist (which is exactly what she is). The tech is interesting, as are the machinations behind closed doors. Highly recommended, no matter where you stand on AI and its implications. A movie I've always tiptoed around Terrence Malick's work, worried it might be a bit too slow or dense for me. That changed last September when I watched Days of Heaven and was completely blown away. I probably should have moved on to Badlands or The Tree of Life, but I'd recently snagged the Criterion edition of The New World, so I settled in for that instead. It features a stellar cast, with Christopher Plummer, Colin Farrell, Christian Bale, and Q'orianka Kilcher. The movie is gorgeously shot - just astounding, poetic in its appeal. It's also... a bit plodding? Parts of it actually reminded me of Indian films like Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam or Mani Ratnam's Mouna Ragam. Even with the slow pace, I'd recommend it for the visuals alone; it's basically poetry on film. A show It's a truth universally acknowledged that if you're the son of a pathologist and married to another, you're going to end up watching a lot of crime procedurals. Luckily, the genre has produced some of the best TV ever made. I don't know if Blue Lights is quite at the very top of that list, but it's pretty damn close. Set in Belfast, it follows a group of rookie cops dealing with organized (and disorganized) crime. The characters are well-defined, the plot is highly engaging, and it never insults your intelligence. I've watched all the three seasons that have been released so far, and cannot wait for the next. It might be hard to find on your favorite streaming service unless you are in the UK, but it's absolutely worth the search. I wouldn't have stumbled across it if Mujib hadn't mentioned it. Highly recommended. Coming Up Have a great week! Sunday, January 4, 2026 Now Reading, Now Showing So, I have been mulling over this for a while. Last year was when I experimented with posting screenshots of the books I read (on Whatsapp), and brief takes on the movies and shows I watched (Bluesky). I was honestly surprised when a few folks responded to these takes, and asked me for recommendations.  Now my system so far when I get these requests has been to turn it back to the person and ask them to list the last three books (or movies) that they enjoyed, which would help me think of similar books which I could recommend. However, Sindha, who keeps me sane (most of the time), gently informed me that people hate doing this. They just want a reco which they could then decide to try out - or not. I was backing them into a corner by asking them their preferences, which was what they wanted to avoid thinking about in the first place. The second related thing that happened last year was when I had dinner with a few friends and got into conversations about books, movies, and TV shows. I spoke about Slow Horses. About Murderbot. somebody somewhere. My friends asked me to write about these shows and tell them about it. These two instances made me do the mulling bit I spoke about earlier. Which led to thinking about an email format, in what was called the year of the newsletter. Substack was a no, which made me consider beehiiv, with a setting to automatically post to my blog as well just to keep that mostly ignored thing alive. Let's try this out, shall we? The idea is to list a book, a movie, and a show that I consumed. You will not need to pay anything to subscribe of course, and I intend to do this every week (ish). Let me know what works and what makes your eyes glaze over, please. Off we go! A Book Kiran Desai's The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is a novel that really gets into the heads of its two main characters as they navigate the disconnection that accompanies an immigrant experience. I could relate to how this fuels their feelings of isolation, their fragmented sense of self, the hopes and letdown that come with seeking a new identity. That said, the book was overlong and there was a point where I wanted the damn thing to end. I had purchased the hardcover and could skip my dumbbell workout when I was reading it. I wanted to like this book, I really did. I wound up putting it on my shelf with a sigh of relief at the end. Not recommended. A Movie Kishkindha Kaandam was my favorite Malayalam movie of 2024, so I knew I had to watch the new film by the same folks b. Eko is written and shot by Bahul Ramesh, and directed by Dinjith Ayyathan, two people I still don't know much about but whose careers I plan to follow with interest. Eko is supposedly the final installment of Ramesh's Animal Trilogy, following Kishkindha Kaandam and Kerala Crime Files (the TV show). This is one of those movies which you need to experience yourself, going in as blind as possible. It has a lot to do with dogs, if you must know. I liked it quite a bit despite a few misgivings, and plan to watch it again sometime soon. Recommended. A Show The Beast In Me has Claire Danes, she of the quivering lip, and Matthew Rhys, with his steady Russian/American smirk, playing two unlikeable characters doing unlikeable things - not to each other though, thankfully. It leans heavily into the "suburban noir" feel with lots of tension, good cinematography, and that constant feeling that everyone is hiding something behind their polished front doors. Rich white-people problems, mostly. I wound up liking it but will stop short of recommending it as it does fall into the trashy category. And that quiver from Danes can get grating quickly. Coming Up The Tower of Babel series by Josiah Bancroft Playing on Hulu/Disney/FX/your favorite torrent site On Netflix Have a great week!