Culture

Daughter of the Reich is author Louise Fein’s first novel, but if you hadn’t been told that beforehand you wouldn’t be able to tell. Her novel is like a beautifully painted masterpiece that explores how people blindly followed their leaders without asking questions, and how even during those tumultuous times love could still be found. 

Netflix announced today that a surprise documentary on Michelle Obama will be released on May 6th. It follows the former first lady on her 34-city book tour she took last year to promote her memoir Becoming. The documentary, also called Becoming, will offer a rare and up-close look at Obama’s life. 

If you are used to going out to live theatre, the current pandemic is probably making you miss it more than ever. Acast.com is trying to change that though, by bringing weekly podcasts of new short audio plays written by top playwrights.

Even when the world isn’t shut down due to a pandemic, you probably won’t be able to get out and go to every museum exhibit you really want to see. There might be many reasons for this, with the first and foremost being travelling to different cities or countries isn’t always possible. Thankfully these days museums have started curating their exhibits online, giving you a chance to see what you might not normally be able to see. Here are some of our favourite online exhibitions you won’t want to miss.

Award-winning novelist Sheena Kamal’s latest continues the story of her protagonist Nora Watts, and like her previous work it’s hard-hitting, action-packed and a genuine entry into the world of noir fiction.

Audible is well known for the being the world’s largest library of audiobooks, but they’ve started moving onto other forms of spoken word as well such as radio and TV programs. They’ve also started supplying audio only series, and now they’ve nabbed Paul Rudd to star in their latest.

On March 24th The Internet Archive launched what they are calling a “National Emergency Library”, and through it they starting making 1.4 million books available for free online. Is what they are doing a good idea though? Or are they violating the authors copyright?

Patrick Stewart is well known for playing Captain Jean Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation and its spin-off Star Trek: Picard, as well as playing Professor X in the X-Men series of films, but he is also a well known Shakespearean actor. While most of the world is in isolation due to the Covid-19 virus and looking for ways to keep themselves entertained, Stewart has decided to give them another things to look forward to. He’s set to post a new reading of a Shakespeare sonnet every day until the pandemic crisis is over.

Let’s face it, being stuck at home isn’t exactly a lot of fun. Sometimes you run out of books to read or movies to watch, and you want something a little different. Thankfully we live in a time where the internet can help us out with that. From virtual tours of museums and galleries, to live concerts and plays, there are plenty of things you can do from home that you wouldn’t have been able to do even a few short years ago. Here are some of our favourites. 

A good book will stay with you once it’s done. You’ll think about it over and over, and want to talk to others about it. A truly classic book won’t fade either, and in many cases you’ll want to pick it up soon after you’ve finished it. Here are some novels that fit that mold, which everyone should read at least once in their lives.

From sports, to concerts, U.S. political rallies and even film releases, events all across the globe are being cancelled or postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and now the most celebrated music festival in the US has confirmed that it will not be taking place next month. Officials for Coachella released a statement yesterday that the annual event will be moving from April to October in attempts to curtail the virus outbreak.

Tate Britain is preparing an exhibit of Aubrey Beardsley’s work, who is considered by many to be the enfant terrible of 1890s London. As part of the exhibit, which will showcase nearly 250 drawings by the artist, is the artist’s only attempt at oil painting. As you would come to expect from Beardsley’s work, the piece is rather odd, and in this case in more ways that one.

There comes a time every year when you take a look at the concert listings to see who might be coming to your city. Sometimes you want to catch a purely nostalgic act, or sometimes it’s the latest big star, but typically every year has some act that you wouldn’t mind plunking down a little of your hard earned money to see. Here are some of the big names that will be touring this year.

Dan Brown is well known as the author of The Da Vinci Code series of books. The hero of those novels is Robert Langdon, who uses a series of skills to solve ancient mysteries. The novels have been a huge hit over the years, but for the moment Brown is moving away from the series to focus on a new project that uses a different set of skills. This fall he’s set to release a children’s picture book, that will be accompanied by a classical music album. 

Thanks to Parasite making history this year at the Oscars, the spotlight on Korean films and other works of art is stronger than ever. The most recent of these is the new novel by best-selling Korean author and screenwriter Seo Mi-ae called The Only Child.