Favourite Stuff

Favourite Short Stories

• The Reunion by John Cheever – Very sad story about a boy who suddenly understands what an asshole his father is. The classic epiphanic moment.
• Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro – Expansive as a novel, with rounded characters.
• Prelude by Katherine Mansfield
• At the Bay by Katherine Mansfield – The best Mansfield stories were the ones she wrote just before she died.
• Hooks and Feelers by Keri Hulme – Hulme’s best, in my opinion.
• Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx – one of the few short stories to make me cry. Normally, short stories don’t give you time to feel such emotion.
• Come Walk With Me My Lovely by Matthew Condon
• The Booster Shot by Peter Goldsworthy
• An Affair of the Heart by Frank Sargeson – a sensitive and thought-provoking look at love between an underage girl and an old man.
• Fun With a Stranger by Richard Yates – a portrait of a sad, lonely old school teacher who has lost all sense of fun. Her idea of an end of year celebration is to buy the class each an eraser.
• A Glutton For Punishment by Richard Yates – A man is fired from his job and considers keeping this from his wife until he finds another one. But she knows him well, and when he gets home she is able to guess for herself.

Novels

• Prey by Michael Crichton
• Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller
• The Bone People by Keri Hulme
• The Post Birthday World and We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
• Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
• The Beach by Alex Garland
• Tenderness by Robert Cormier
• The Thornbirds by Colleen McCullough
• Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You by Peter Cameron

Non-Fiction

• The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf
• The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
• The Janet Frame autobiographies
• Human Instinct by Robert Winston
• Status Anxiety by Alain de Boton
• Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
• The Pope’s Children by David McWilliams
• My Place by Sally Morgan

Movies

• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – Okay, so it’s another story about a peppy girl who’s sent into the life of a miserable man to cheer him up… But THIS is the best of its type. Original and heartbreaking with a wonderful song by Beck at the end: Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime. (The only Beck song I enjoy, as it happens, so not his usual fare.)
• Brokeback Mountain – Now that Heath Ledger is dead it seems even sadder.
• Revolutionary Road – faithful to the book and equally enjoyable.
• American Beauty - What can I say? I love me a good suburban film
• Milk – Happened in the year I was born. Makes me feel old.
• The Wrestler – ouch
• Junebug – I didn’t enjoy this the first time I saw it but loved it the second time after someone had pointed out its virtues to me.
• Juno – Diablo Cody writes young adults so well.
• Away From Her – based on an Alice Munro short story. Read that too.
• Million Dollar Baby – lovely story arc
• Samson and Delilah – If you only ever see one Australian film make it this one.
• Moon
• Transsiberian – an enjoyable thriller
• Proof – a girl nerd
• Wolf Creek – It’s NOT based on a true story as claimed at the start, but it’s scary enough anyway.
• The Girl in the Cafe – I’m a big fan of Bill Nighy and Kelly MacDonald. Also of Richard Curtis, and then he went and put out that crappy Christmas film. Yeah, you know the one.
• Saw – but I can only stomach the first one)
• 28 Weeks Later – better than 28 Days Later
• No Country for Old Men – faithful to the book. I can’t usually watch movies over and over, but this one is scary every time BECAUSE I know what happens!
• Jindabyne – the weirdest ending ever
• Beautiful Kate – you really feel like you’re in the Australian outback. Also has an excellent soundtrack.
• Deliverance
• Miss Potter – beautiful English scenery
• Derailed (2005) – doesn’t get a great score on IMdB but this thriller worked for me
• Sixth Sense – what a pity M Knight Sylaman can’t seem to match this effort
• United 93
• Seven
• Once Were Warriors
• Kenny – well, I found it hilarious the first time. My humour includes a bit of the scatological, but as I said to my poo-averse work colleague, this film isn’t really about port-a-loos. It’s about how we treat service workers in our society, people who usually don’t get a second glance.
• Hud – I’d only ever seen Paul Newman on the side of a jar of mayonnaise, and now that mayo tastes better.

Documentaries

• The Times of Harvey Milk: Excellent as a companion to the film Milk, which is much more recent. (1984)
• Touching the Void: Everyone has to watch this one. The story has become part of modern culture, referenced by Marian Keyes etc. I can’t listen to Boney M without thinking of this story though. Not that I listen to Boney M…
• The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters: One of my friends has since met this dude in person after achieving world champ status in Galactica. (I’m name dropping now.) If you we hooked on arcade games as a kid (or older!) there’s much to be enjoyed in this film.
• Grizzly Man: This dude obviously had bi-polar disorder or schizophrenia. A sad demise.
• Aileen Wuornos: The Selling Of A Serial Killer (1993): You’ve probably seen Monster. If you ‘enjoyed’ that, you may be interested to learn what happened to Aileen Wuornos when she became involved with some religious nutters who adopted her after she was incarcerated. Another reminder that real life is weirder than fiction.
• The Confessions: a very sad but enlightening one hour documentary about how four men were forced to confess to the rape and murder of a young woman, even though it’s clear that none of them had anything to do with it. Recommended to me after a post about the fictional Australian film ‘The Interview’ starring Hugo Weaving, which explores the issue of forced confessions, bullying and intimidation by the powers that be.
• The Future Of Food: a scary but fascinating two-part documentary. Makes me want to take up gardening. Almost. Follow the link and watch online for free.
• Hot Cities: an excellent eight-part series about the present effects of climate change on cities around the world. (BBC)

Albums

• The Best of Leonard Cohen
• The Best of Bob Dylan
• Alabama 3 Acoustic and Unplugged
• Eric Clapton Unplugged
• The Best of J. J. Cale
• Everything ever done by Gotye
• Various Small Fires by Paris Wells

Soundtracks

• The Mission
• Both of the Kill Bill Soundtracks
• Frida
• The Sopranos
• Six Feet Under

TV Series

• Six Feet Under (every season is equally great)
• The Sopranos (needs to be watched more than once)
• Big Love (but they should’ve stopped after season three)
• The United States of Tara (also has a great soundtrack)
• Mad Men (hurry tfu with the next season already!)
• Breaking Bad (don’t talk to me about season four – we don’t got it here yet)
• Grumpy Old Men
• Grumpy Old Women (my favourite subject is Germaine Greer)

Podcasts

• Saturday Mornings With Kim Hill (Radio New Zealand)
• Dr Karl (Triple J)
• Triple J Hottest New Music (Triple J)
• Stuff To Blow Your Mind

If anyone has any recommendations based on what you see here, feel more than welcome to leave a comment below!