For Your Consideration

15 Suggestions (The Bus 8.20)

Welcome aboard The Bus!

The Stop

For today’s Stop, I thought I’d honour this time of year’s penchant for lists by jumping feet first into the trend and creating one of my own. Consequently, what follows are three short lists of five albums, books and films/television shows I’ve enjoyed this year and would recommend to anyone looking for, well, a recommendation. Some of these are are new releases, others old; some I’ve listened to, watched or read before; others I first discovered this year. So, for your consideration … here are 15 suggestions.

Street Art (Ravenna, Italy)/21 October 2025/Photo: Bryan Padrick

Five Albums - 3 New and 2 Old, All Live

What more can I say? Three outstanding live albums released in the same year from three of my favourite groups - Pink Floyd, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Radiohead - is a gift by any standard.¹ They’ve all been on heavy rotation - the Cave album was only released on Friday and I’ve already listened to it about a dozen times - but I’ve also included two older albums I found myself revisiting frequently this year. The Cure’s Paris is one of my all-time favourite live albums, and I can’t hear it without being transported back to some late, late evenings in my ‘upstairs’ apartment in the mid-90s. As a Dead fan who discovered their magic rather late, the Dick’s Picks series has been essential to my education, and while there are countless standouts from those 36 releases,² Dick’s Picks 10 - documenting one of the final concerts of arguably one of the Dead’s best touring years - is nothing less than joyful. Want proof? Check out the conversation Garcia’s guitar is having towards the end of ‘Looks Like Rain.’

Five Books - Old and New

I read Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice (2006) when it was first published, and while I’ve seen Paul Thomas Anderson’s film adaptation a few times, I hadn’t revisited the novel. Casting about for something to read on a trip to the States, I thought it might be worth rereading, and - as expected - it did not disappoint.

For several years now, I’ve been teaching Hamlet to my A level students, and have yet to remotely come close to exhausting the play or losing interest in its layered complexity. Whether viewed existentially, psychologically, or through a feminist, queer or historical lens - there’s a reason this is one of literature’s most famous works. It never disappoints and continues to establish itself as my favourite Shakespeare play (though Othello is a close second).

Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia (1993) was a great discovery this year, and Robert Macfarlane’s Is a River Alive (2025) was - true to form - a fascinating personal and philosophical exploration centred on the question of whether a natural entity, such as a river, can be considered a living thing.

Ian McEwan’s What We Can Know (2025) was one of my favourite new books this year. A study of knowledge - and how the present impacts the way we see the past - it is a gripping story of not-too-distant future scholars looking back at our time, incorrectly believing they are able to piece together the truth. It also pairs very well with Arcadia.

For more information: Arcadia (Wikipedia), Hamlet (Folger Shakespeare Library), Inherent Vice (Guardian Review), Is a River Alive? (Guardian Review) and What We Can Know (Guardian).

Films/Television - From then and now

From the time I learned Paul Thomas Anderson was rumoured to be adapting Pynchon’s Vineland (1990),³ I was geared up to see One Battle After Another (2025) the moment it was released. I found the film excellent, and thought Anderson’s decision to update the novel’s setting from the early 1980s to present-day California worked particularly well. It also helps that the film is anchored by strong performances from everyone, and while DiCaprio is great - Sean Penn’s performance is nothing short of revelatory.

Riot Women (BBC, 2025) was a recommendation from one of Karen’s colleagues, and we both agreed it was one of the better things we’ve seen on television this year. It’s a great blend of humour and pathos, with a little violence, punk rock, heartbreak and police corruption thrown in for good measure.⁴

I started watching Ozark (Netflix, 2017-2022) a few years ago, but constantly changing time constraints at home and work kept me from getting past Season 2. In April I decided to rectify this and over many late nights became engrossed in what quickly became one of the most satisfying television series I’ve watched. Frighteningly, I see myself in the main character - I mean, wouldn’t I do the same for my family? It’s brilliant throughout, and the subtle arc involving Jonah at the very end is just the cherry on top. Highly, highly recommended viewing.

Though long ago The Simpsons became a parody of itself - a reality I guess is unavoidable for a show that has lasted so long - this in no way diminishes the quality of the show in its heyday. Because when The Simpsons was good, it was great - and Season 4 (1992-1993), containing such gems as ‘A Streetcar Named Marge,’ ‘Marge Versus the Monorail,’ ‘Mr Plow’ and ‘Whacking Day’ is certainly from that time. One of the best reasons to have a Disney+ subscription.

I was slightly late to Saltburn (2023), and watching it came with a lot of hype. And though there remain a few lingering questions, I thought - from the infamous bathtub scene to the disturbingly satisfying dénouement - it completely worth the time. Yeah, it’s certainly - in today’s parlance - concerned with maintaining a ‘vibe’ - but that criticism’s irrelevant with performances as strong as those from Barry Keoghan and Richard E Grant. Plus, it’s just nicely twisted.

For more information: One Battle After Another (Guardian), Ozark (Wikipedia), Riot Women (Wikipedia), The Simpsons Season 4 (Wikipedia) and Saltburn.

All of these are available - though access depends upon which country you’re in - on different streaming platforms.

The Thought

Today’s Thought is from the American fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction writer Ray Bradbury (1920-2012). I thought it apropos, and believe the sentiment extends beyond books to include film, television, music, art, etc….

‘You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.’

If you have a thought on this Thought - or any part of today’s issue - please leave a comment below:

And that’s the end of this Stop - I hope you enjoyed the diversion!

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Until the next Stop …

1. This is particularly true when the Pink Floyd remastered release contains my favourite version of ‘Echoes’ - formerly available only on scratchy VHS copies of Live at Pompeii. Roger Waters is a prick by any standard, but the bass on this track is hypnotic.

2. Dick’s Picks 29, in particular.

3. Anderson also filmed Inherent Vice (2014), a faithful adaptation of a supposedly unfilmable author’s work. It’s brilliant - Joaquin Phoenix is outstanding in the lead role - and one of my favourite films. But I am biased. Vineland is my favourite Pynchon novel, and the subject of a Stop: The Bus 3.38 (7 August 2023).

4. Also highly recommended are HBO Max’s Hacks (2021-present) and Netflix’s The Four Seasons (2025).