Books

• Robert Byron, Europe in the Looking Glass
• Tim Parks, Italian Neighbours
• Tim Parks, An Italian Education
• Italo Calvino, The Road to San Giovanni, translated by Tim Parks
• W. Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up
• Andrea Camilleri, The Shape of Water, trans. Stephen Sartarelli
• Andrew Camilleri, The Terracotta Dog, trans. Stephen Sartarelli

Exhibits

• “My Dearest Sweet Love: Christopher Isherwood & Don Bachardy,” Schwules Museum, Berlin
• Parco Archeologico di Baratti e Populonia, Piombino, Italy
• Galleria Barberini, Rome
• Centrale Montemartini, Rome
• “Dentro la strada novissima,” MAXXI, Rome
• “Maria Lai: tenendo per mano il sole,” MAXXI, Rome
• “Paola Pivi: World Record,” MAXXI, Rome
• “Al norte de la tormenta: i capolovari della collezione dell’IVAM di Valencia,” MAXXI, Rome
• “Olivo Barbieri, Paolo De Pietri, Petra Noordkamp: Terre in movimento,” MAXXI, Rome
• Villa Farnesina, Rome
• “Robert Mapplethorpe: The Sensitive Lens,” Galleria Corsini, Rome
• “Chiara Dynys: Enlightening Books,” Mattatoio, Rome
• Musei Capitolini, Rome

Books

• Georges Simenon, The Hand, translated by Linda Coverdale
• W. Someset Maugham, Up at the Villa
• Jamie James, The Glamour of Strangeness: Artists and the Last Age of the Exotic
• Jacques Roubaud, Poetry, Etcetera: Cleaning House, trans. Guy Bennett
• Natascha Sadr Haghighian, How to Spell the Fight
• Haytham El-Wardany, How to Disappear, trans. Jennifer Peterson & Robin Moger
• Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Heads of the Colored People
• Beppe Severgnini, Mamma Mia! Berlusconi’s Italy Explanied for Posterity & Friends Abroad, trans. Giles Watson
• Beppe Severgnini, Off the Rails: A Train Trip Through Life, trans. Anthony Shugaar
  

Exhibits

• Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
• Pergamonmuseum, Berlin
• Neues Museum, Berlin
• Altes Museum, Berlin
• “Heike-Karin Föll: Speed,” KW Institute for Contemporary Art
• “Anna Daučíková,” KW Institute for Contemporary Art
• “Image Bank,” KW Institute for Contemporary Art
• Museum für Naturkunden, Berlin
• “Biester der Zeit – Lynn Chadwick, Katja Strunz, Hans Uhlmann,” Haus am Waldsee, Berlin
• “Bani Abidi: They Died Laughing,” Gropius-Bau, Berlin
• “Garten der irdischen Freuden,” Gropius-Bau, Berlin
• “Kerker der Phantasie,” Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg, Berlin
• “Klee und die Abstraktion,” Museum Berggruen
• “Gustave Caillebotte: Maler und Mäzen des Impressionismus,” Alte Nationalgalerie

Films

• Dolor y gloria, directed by Pedro Almodóvar

Books

• Grace Chia, Mother of Questions
• Cyril Wong, The Last Lesson of Mrs de Souza
• Andrew Martin, Early Work
• Joshua Ip, Sonnets from the Singlish
• Gina Apostol, Gun Dealers’ Daughter
• W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence
• Edmund White, Skinned Alive

Films

• Hellzapoppin’, directed by H. C. Potter

Exhibits

• “Food for the Eyes: The Story of Food in Photography,” C/O Berlin
• “Elfie Semotan: Contradiction,” C/O Berlin
• Bildergalerie, Sanssouci, Potsdam

Books

• Daryl Lim Wei Jie, A Book of Changes
• Ng Yi-Sheng, Eating Air
• Stefania Heim, Hour Book
• Laurie Lee, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning
• Darius James, Negrophobia: An Urban Parable
• Jayanti Sen, Looking Beyond: Graphics of Satyajit Ray
• Georges Simenon, Red Lights, translated by Norman Denny
• Claire Tham, The Inlet
• Forrest Gander, Be With
• Georges Simenon, The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By, trans. Siân Reynolds
• Georges Simenon, The Mahé Circle, trans. Siân Reynolds
• Georges Simenon, The Blue Room, trans. Linda Coverdale
• Jason Wee, The Monsters Between Us
• Cyril Wong, Satori Blues
• Cyril Wong, The Dictator’s Eyebrow
• Sandra Liu, On Poems On

Films

• Le mystère Koumiko, directed by Chris Marker
• 기생충 (Parasite), dir. Bong Joon-ho
• 万引き家族 (Shoplifters), dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda

Books

• L. S. Asekoff, Freedom Hill
• John Gaskin, The Traveller’s Guide to Classical Philosophy
• Cyril Wong, ed., Here and Beyond: 12 Stories
• Irish Murdoch, Nuns and Soldiers
• Raymond Roussel, The Alley of Fireflies and Other Stories, translated by Mark Ford
• Lavinia Greenlaw, Questions of Travel: William Morris in Iceland
• María Gainza, Optic Nerve, trans. Thomas Bunstead
• Catherine Lim, Little Ironies: Stories of Singapore
• Daniel Swift, The Bughouse: The Poetry, Politics and Madness of Ezra Pound
• Cyril Wong, The End of His Orbit
• Jennifer Anne Champion, Caterwaul

Films

• Reversal of Fortune, directed by Barbet Schroeder
• The Hitch-Hiker, dir. Ida Lupino
• The Lavender Hill Mob, dir. Charles Crichton
• Private Life, dir. Tamara Jenkins

Books

• Eliot Weinberger, 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei (with more ways)
• Donald Shambroom, Duchamp’s Last Day
• Marcel Proust, Swann in Love, translated by Brian Nelson
• Ross Macdonald, The Archer Files
• Eric Hansen, Stranger in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo
• Clarissa Goenawan, Rainbirds
• Jeff Jackson, Destroy All Monsters: The Last Rock Novel
• John Carreyrou, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

Film

• Peregrinação, directed by João Botelho
• Ladies in Retirement, dir. Charles Vidor
• The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, dir. Alex Gibney
• Gun Crazy, dir. Joseph H. Lewis
• Il primo re (The First King), dir. Matteo Rovere

Exhibits

• “New and Recent Painting by Mit Jai Inn,” H Galley Bangkok
• “Morrison Polkinghorne: 148913: Paths of the Lotus Ink,” Serindia Gallery, Bangkok
• “Home-Sawan Umansap: Shape of Heaven,” Number 1 Gallery, Bangkok
• “The Popula(ra)tion,” RCB Gallery, Bangkok
• “Pioneer in Video Art from Thailand, Slovenia, Norway since 1980,” BACC, Bangkok
• “Early Years Project #4: Praxis Makes Perfect,” BACC, Bangkok
• “Thosaporn Suthum, Rabin Huissen and Robert Stroomberg: Souvenir,” People’s Gallery, BACC, Bangkok
• “Watcharapong Khunart: Mongkhol 108,” People’s Gallery, BACC, Bangkok
• “Norm Yip: Beyond Skin,” RCB Photographer’s Gallery, Bangkok
• “Rafael Martinez: Limbo,” Kathmandu Photo Gallery, Bangkok

Books

• Gina Apostol, Insurrecto
• Kirstin Chen, Soy Sauce for Beginners
• Ross Macdonald, The Goodbye Look
• Ross Macdonald, The Underground Man
• Ross Macdonald, Sleeping Beauty
• Ross Macdonald, The Blue Hammer
• David Kidd, Peking Story: The Last Days of Old China

Films

• Rosemary’s Baby, dir. Roman Polanski
• Солярис (Solaris), dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
• Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia), dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan
• Moontide, dir. Archie Mayo

Books

• J. R. Ackerley, Hindoo Holiday
• Charles Portis, True Grit
• Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Ross Macdonald, The Zebra-Striped Hearse
• Grace Chia, The Wanderlusters
• Goh Poh Seng, If We Dream Too Long
• Ross Macdonald, The Far Side of the Dollar
• Kirstin Chen, Bury What We Cannot Take
• John Lanchester, The Wall
• Andrew Leslie, Oddities in Language
• Philip Jeyaretnam, Raffles Place Ragtime
• Ross Macdonald, Black Money
• Ross Macdonald, The Instant Enemy

Films

• Elle, directed by Paul Verhoeven
• Theatre of Blood, dir. Douglas Hickox
• Сталкер (Stalker), dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
• 120 battements par minute, dir. Robin Campillo

Books

• Aatish Taseer, The Twice Born: Life and Death on the Ganges
• Ross Macdonald, The Wycherly Woman
• Niviaq Korneliussen, Last Night in Nuuk, translated by Anna Halager 
• Sharlene Teo, Ponti
• Herodotus, The Histories, trans. Aubrey de Sélincourt & John Marincola
• Magnus Hirschfeld, Berlin’s Third Sex, trans. James J. Conway
• Ronald Allan, The Mystery of “A Yellow Sleuth”
• Gopal Baratham, A Candle or the Sun
• Gopal Baratham, Sayang

There isn’t much Singaporean fiction that I would recommend as interesting to a reader not specifically interested in Singapore, but A Candle or the Sun, a forthright and penetrating study of power, culture, and the state, would make that list. Baratham might not be widely celebrated in part because he followed that book up with the hilariously stupid Sayang, a ludicrous story about the danger of drugs in which everyone dies of AIDS and doctors have uncommonly poor bedside manner. Sayang also manages to hit the reader over the head with overdetermined Christian symbology, a weirdly common pitfall in Singaporean fiction.

• Franziska zu Reventlow, The Guesthouse at the Sign of the Teetering Globe, trans. James J. Conway

Films

• Зеркало (Mirror), directed by Andrei Tarkovsky

Exhibits

• National Museum of Taiwanese Literature, Tainan, Taiwan
• Anping Tree House, Tainan, Taiwan
• “Stories We Tell To Scare Ourselves With,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei
• “A Romance between Plants and Insects,” National Taiwan Museum
• “Microfossil: The Exquisite Beauty under the Sea,” National Taiwan Museum
• “Silhouette of a Great Master: A Retrospective of Chang Dai-chien’s Art on the 120th Anniversary of His Birth,” National Palace Museum, Taipei
• “Traditional Chinese Medical Texts on Life, Health and Longevity in the Collection of the National Palace Museum,” National Palace Museum, Taipei
• “Painting Animation: Along the River During the Qingming Festival,” National Palace Museum, Taipei
• “Madhvi Subrahmanian & Nandita Mukand: From Lost Roots to Urban Meadows,” The Private Museum, Singapore

Books

• Romain Gary, The Dance of Genghis Cohn, translated by Camilla Sykes
• Fanny Howe, The Needle’s Eye: Passing Through Youth
• César Aira, On Contemporary Art, trans. Katherine Silver
• Józef Czapski, Lost Time: Lectures on Proust in a Soviet Prison Camp, trans. Eric Karpeles
• Oscar Zeta Acosta, The Revolt of the Cockroach People

Films

• The Razor’s Edge, directed by John Byrum