Hello! This is where I share things that I enjoy: my backlog of articles about awful millennial start-ups and remote Arctic towns; nice books that don't make it onto best of lists; and films to watch and think about. There's a time and place for serious stuff, but this... isn't that. Enjoy!

Article: Personal History: Four Years in Startups by Anna Wiener, published by the New Yorker (September 2019)
Anna Wiener worked in publishing, but in her mid-twenties she felt hungry for new experiences (and a better salary). So she joined a tech start-up and spent the next few years in Silicon Valley. This article is an abridged version of Wiener's recent memoir Uncanny Valley (which I also recommend) and recounts her first foray into start-up world, as well as the ennui and uncertainty of being young and stuck. I love Wiener's writing; she dissects the cult of tech with ease.
Note: I listened to this (and most articles I mention here) on Audm, an audio subscription service featuring recordings of select pieces by major publications. Great if you hate reading on screens as much as I do.

Book: The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt, translated from Dutch by Laura Watkinson
Yesterday my mum called to say that the TV adaptation of one of my family's favourite books has landed on Netflix, so: read the book! This is a Dutch YA/children's classic from 1962 about sixteen-year-old Tiuri, an aspiring knight, who is tasked with delivering a letter to the king of another country. I (and my brothers, and my parents) read this in the German translation in the 1990s, and I have reread it so often I essentially know it by heart. It was finally translated and published in English in 2013, and hailed as a great discovery. And: there is a sequel! The Secrets of the Wild Wood is just as brilliant and features a pivotal chess game. Both books are super absorbing, fun, adventure-packed and just... lovely. Yes, for adults too.
(I watched the first episode of the Netflix adaptation and it has almost nothing to do with the books: they gave it magic, a prophecy, and an almost supernatural save-the-world vibe where the book is old fashioned in its boy-on-a-quest simplicity. Sad times.)
Note: This book is published by Pushkin Press in the UK. If you can, buy your book directly from the publisher or from local bookshops (many of whom deliver). In the UK, you can use Hive to support bookshops directly. Ebooks are available here (Penguin Random House) and here (Kobo, who carry most ebooks and are not Amazon).

Film: Shirkers (Sandi Tan, 2018)
This is an essay/documentary film about a film Tan and her friends made as teenagers in 1992. Intended to be Singapore's first road movie, it instead became a mystery. Tan traces what happened to the film, her friends and her own aspirations, and along the way shows us a changing Singapore, 90s underground culture, and the manipulative man who was responsible for the disappearance of the film. The standout is the beautiful, wholly unique visual language of the 1992 film, Tan's frank conversations with her friends, and the dreamy music composed for the original film. A great film to watch with someone else (maybe via Netflix Party, which lets you synchronise what you're watching and adds a groupchat so you can discuss in real time).
Shirkers is streaming on Netflix.

Other: Yoga with Adriene
It's simple: Adriene does yoga on youtube and I love her. It feels like there are two types of people among my friends: those who already love Adriene, and those who are about to discover her. If you're not doing yoga, I cannot stress enough how useful it is in times like these. In my home, we're doing her 30 days HOME series (with the cat climbing under and over us).

That's it for now. Let me know if there's something you think I'll love!

Take care,
Theodora