Weâre in the first week of the New Year, in the throes of looking for new ways to be version 2.0 of our last yearâs selves. There are suddenly more people hovering at the treadmill. The rum-soaked plum cakes of December are making way for dal khichdi and detox tea, and youâre springing up from your office chair every 20 minutes like an overgrown Jack in the Box to stretch and fix your posture. What riches will 2026 bring? Culture-wise, thereâs much to look forward to.
For starters, all that TimothĂ©e sighting of the season will culminate in the arrival of Marty Supreme in theatres later this month. Jacob Elordi season, too, continues with Wuthering Heights (February) and the Ridley Scott-directed The Dog Stars (March). In music BTS will return with a new album. If December was spent obsessing over the Canadian TV series Heated Rivalry and the Rachel Reid books that sparked it, maybe itâs time we turn to literature that has nothing to do with horny hockey players. The wonderful Ali Smith (her Seasonal quartet is the pride of my bookshelf) returns with Glyph, a companion novel to her 2024 book Gliff. Julian Barnesâs Departure(s), out later this month, is said to be his last book, while Asako Yuzuki, whose novel Butter created quite the flutter when its English translation was published in 2024, is ready with Hooked, another novel centred on food. Come now, hit refresh.
