Need a great book to read, album to listen to, or TV show to get hooked on? The Flavorwire team is here to help: in this weekly feature, our editorial staffers each recommend the cultural object or experience they’ve enjoyed the most in the past seven days. Click through for our picks, and tell us what you’ve been loving in the comments.
Red Moon by Benjamin Percy
I’m currently up to my ears in Benjamin Percy’s new novel Red Moon. It’s a dark, political spin on the werewolf novel that I just can’t seem to put down. Actually, I have to go back to reading it. — Emily Temple, Literary Editor
Is Your Love Big Enough? by Lianne La Havas
Last Wednesday, I went to see Lianne La Havas, a soul and folk singer from London, play the Music Hall of Williamsburg. I’ve been listening to her somewhat laid-back album Is Your Love Big Enough? for a while on Spotify, but I wasn’t prepared for her live performance. La Havas’ voice is gorgeous, subdued – but not timid. What starts as a quiet and soft falsetto swells to bigger, belted notes that pack a real punch of emotion. Standout tracks include “Don’t Wake Me Up,” “Forget” (which smacks of Janelle Monae), “Gone,” and “Au Cinema.” — Chloe Pantazi, Editorial Intern
“Clive James: By the Book” (New York Times) and Which Way Is the Front Line From Here, directed by Sebastian Junger
I enjoyed this week’s Q&A with Clive James in the NYT Book Review. Typical James: “I found her book unputdownable, although I might have said the same about a pot of glue.” And everyone should see Sebastian Junger’s documentary Which Way Is the Front Line From Here about conflict photographer and documentarian Tim Hetherington, who was killed in Libya a couple of years ago. It’s showing Thursday night on HBO. It’s about why we go to war, what the human toll is for people on the front lines and those covering it and Hetherington’s work specifically — including Restrepo, the film he and Junger made about soldiers in Afghanistan. — Elizabeth Spiers, Editorial Director
Bachelorette, directed by Leslye Headland
Bridesmaids has been called “the female Hangover,” but if that’s the kind of movie you’re looking for, you might be better off with last year’s Bachelorette. Currently streaming on Netflix, the dark comedy stars Kirsten Dunst, Lizzy Caplan, and Isla Fischer as a trio of grown-up mean girls who celebrate their sweeter, less attractive high school friend’s (Rebel Wilson) wedding by drowning their jealousy in a pile of coke and accidentally tearing up her dress. Thus begins a wild night spent running from bridal boutiques to strip clubs to ex-boyfriends’ childhood homes in a desperate quest to fix the gown — and a movie that isn’t afraid to put unsympathetic characters front and center. — Judy Berman, Editor-in-chief
The Short Films of David Lynch
Criterion made the short films of David Lynch available for free on Hulu this week. Lynch started his artistic career as a painter at Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and wanted to set his figures in motion. Combining sculpture, painting, drawing, and animation, he developed dreamlike visions that have been reborn in various forms throughout his feature film works. I admire that kind of tenacity and obsession. — Alison Nastasi, Weekend Editor
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
After reading fellow Flavorwire intern Chloe’s great article about Jean Rhys at The Paris Review, I decided to introduce myself to Rhys’ work by reading her final and best known novel, Wide Sargasso Sea, which tells the story of how the wife of Jane Eyre‘s Mr. Rochester, Bertha Antoinetta Mason, came to be the mad woman in the attic. It’s poignant and incredibly sad, and perfect for anyone who’s ever been unsatisfied with a character being dismissed as simply “crazy” or “bad.” — Julia Pugachevsky, Editorial Intern
Archer (FX)
I’m unbelievably late to this party, but I discovered this series during my latest round of Netflix mining, and my standards for animated series are forever raised. The writing is fabulous, the humor refreshingly crude, and my inner Arrested Development fangirl freaks out whenever they reunite former costars like Jeffrey Tambor and Jessica Walter, albeit in cartoon form. I’ll be eagerly awaiting the recently concluded Season 4’s arrival on DVD. — Alison Herman, Editorial Intern
I See Seaweed by The Drones
This has barely been off my stereo since it was released in March, but for whatever reason, it’s gone back onto super-high rotation this week. This Australian band specializes in rock ‘n’ roll that’s both viscerally compelling and packed with dense, intelligent, fascinating lyrics — this is their fifth studio album and arguably their best, eight songs that address subjects as diverse as global warming, Google Street View, and the poor little Russian space dog Laika. — Tom Hawking, Music Editor
One of the great promises of the internet – connecting known things and making them accessible from anywhere – is present in this brilliant app, which gives us radio stations from all over the world. Whereas before you had to live somewhere and dial it in, here you just look it up – BBC, NPR, Hot 97, the stations you used to listen to as a kid and at college, and all sorts of broadcasts from Africa, Asia, Australia, North and South America, Europe, and even Antarctica. — Mark Mangan, Flavorpill Co-founder