Readers, what’s catching your eye on Netflix or Hulu? Which books do you think should be added to everyone’s reading list? Got a favorite artist, recipe, or how-to video? Please write to us here – with your name, location, and recommendation — to share your hump day recs, which we will feature in future Wednesday editions.
Watch: “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.” To mark the recent death of American actress Louise Fletcher, check out the film that made her famous as the evil Nurse Ratched. It's a superb picture that won the top five awards at the 1975 Oscars, including Best Director (Milos Forman), Actor (Jack Nicholson in a perfect role for him), and, of course, Actress — Fletcher. My favorite moment by far is the ballgame scene. — Carlos
Watch: “The Terror.” As the weather turns cooler, it’s a good time to curl up with a wool blanket and watch AMC’s “The Terror.” This series delves into the ill-fated Franklin expedition’s search to find the Northwest Passage. Based on the fictionalized account by Dan Simmons, Season 1 will leave you cheering for the success and survival of the crews aboard the Erebus and Terror … sadly to no avail. — Tracy
Read: “The Leopard” by Giuseppe di Lampedusa. “Don Calogero's tail coat, Concetta's love, Tancredi's blatant infatuation, his own cowardice; even the threatening beauty of that girl Angelica: bad things; rubble preceding an avalanche.” Here is the much-celebrated novel its author did not live to see published, the story of a Sicilian aristocratic family gradually coming face to face with doom at the moment of modern Italy’s violent birth. — WillisRead: what “Putin’s brain” thinks. Just how much influence the radically conservative nationalist Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin really has on Vladimir Putin is unclear, but his ideas about waging a global war against what he calls “liberal totalitarianism” and “globalism” are immensely popular among the far right in Europe and the United States today. Here’s a recent summary of his current views and aims in a piece by the Canadian-born intellectual Michael Millerman, who literally wrote the book on Dugin. — Alex