MUST CALENDAR: JANUARY 2023

MUST CALENDAR: JANUARY 2023

MUST READ

Age of Vice
Equal parts crime thriller and family saga, transporting readers from the dusty villages of Uttar Pradesh to the urban energy of New Delhi, Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor  is an intoxicating novel of gangsters and lovers, false friendships, forbidden romance, and the consequences of corruption.It is binge-worthy entertainment at its literary best.

The Blue Scarf and Other Stories
In The Blue Scarf and Other Stories, we meet young women from small-town India trying to find themselves in the big cities that they have moved to. Even as their dreams, desires and ambitions jostle for space in cramped hostel rooms, work cubicles or dead-end marriages, our protagonists carve out moments of solace and solitude, sometimes encountering profound moments of clarity and compassion. Translated for the first time into English by Kamayani Sharma, Anu Singh Choudhary's earnest, intimate storytelling will move readers its quiet brilliance.

The Shards
Bret Easton Ellis’s masterful new novel is a story about the end of innocence, and the perilous passage from adolescence into adulthood, set in a vibrantly fictionalised Los Angeles in 1981 as a serial killer begins targeting teenagers throughout the city. Gripping, sly, suspenseful, deeply haunting, and often darkly funny, The Shards is Ellis at his inimitable best.

The Bandit Queens
A young Indian woman finds the false rumours that she killed her husband surprisingly useful—until other women in the village start asking for her help getting rid of their own husbands. Filled with clever criminals, second chances, and wry and witty women, Parini Shroff’s The Bandit Queens is a razor-sharp debut of humor and heart that readers won’t soon forget.

MUST WATCH

The Pale Blue Eye
The Pale Blue Eye is adapted from the 2003 novel of the same name by Louis Bayard. It tells the story of veteran detective Augustus Landor who, in 1830 West Point, New York, investigates a series of murders at the United States Military Academy with the aid of Edgar Allan Poe, a young military cadet. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Christian Bale and Harry Melling as Landor and Poe respectively, along with Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones, Harry Lawtey, Simon McBurney, Timothy Spall, and Robert Duvall. Its streaming release is on January 6, 2023, by Netflix.

You People
Follows a new couple and their families, who find themselves examining modern love and family dynamics amidst clashing cultures, societal expectations and generational differences. Directed by Kenya Barris, which he co-wrote with Jonah Hill. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Eddie Murphy, Hill, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lauren London, Sam Jay, Molly Gordon, Mike Epps, Nia Long, Deon Cole, Rhea Perlman, and David Duchovny. You People is scheduled to be released on January 27, 2023, by Netflix.

Cunk on Earth
Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker is returning to Netflix with as a mockumentary series. In a Netflix and BBC collaboration, Brooker will produce Cunk on Earth starring one of his longest-spanning characters – Philomena Cunk, played by Diane Morgan. Philomena Cunk will show us how far humanity has come — or maybe not — in this British mockumentary tracing the history of civilisation (mostly) on January 31.

 

MUST LISTEN

12
Ryuichi Sakamoto has announced his new solo album 12. It’s due out January 17 via Milan Records. 12 is the first non-soundtrack solo studio album from the Japanese composer since 2017’s Async. Sakamoto recorded the album in 2021 and 2022, and the track titles reflect the dates that the compositions were written. 

Gloria
Gloria is the upcoming fourth studio album by English singer and songwriter Sam Smith, scheduled to be released on 27 January 2023 through Capitol Records. Smith stated that the album "feels like a coming of age" and got them "through some dark times", and expressed a hope that it could also be a "beacon" for listeners.