Latin Films, Best Culture Blog & Arabic Movies
Issue #104
Happy Tuesday,
And welcome to the Cultural Reads newsletter with book, music, and movie recommendations from around the world.
In this newsletter: Latin Movies, Irish Books, Best Culture Blogs, Indian Rap, Czech Short Stories & Free Arabic Movies.
🍿 Latin American Movies
I have a Colombian partner, have lived in Brazil, Peru, and Ecuador, and speak Spanish (plus a somewhat decent Portuguese)—so it’s no secret I love Latin America.
After writing about the best Brazilian, Argentinian, Colombian, and Mexican films, I’m now sharing 12 of the best Latin American movies.
None of these have appeared on Cultural Reads before!
📗 Best Irish Books
After checking with two Irish friends, I’m proud to present to you the best Irish Books!
It includes classics like Oscar Wilde, the famous Intermezzo by Sally Rooney, but also some lesser-known picks.
🏆 Top 50 Culture Blogs
I’m thrilled to share that I’ve received my first blog award—Feedspot has selected me as one of the best culture blogs!
While Feedspot might not be widely known to everyone, it’s a major content platform that curates the top blogs, podcasts, and YouTube channels across over 1,500 categories, reaching around 500,000 monthly users.
📻 The King of the Jungle (India)
I came across a Marathi song called Jungle Cha Raja (The King of the Jungle) on A1234music.
The rapper, Mahi Ghane, belongs to the Adivasi, a community comprising over 100 million people who make up India’s indigenous population.
Her songs celebrate the dignity, resilience, and sovereignty of tribal life, rooted in harmony with forests, mountains, and rivers. They also carry a subtle critique of urbanization and so-called “development.”
📕 Oto Pavel (Czech Republic)
A friend added Death of Beautiful Roebucks (also a film) to his Goodreads, and soon after, I came across a glowing review in the paper. That weekend, I stumbled upon the collection in a bookstore and picked it up.
Ota Pavel’s short stories — sadly, not all available in English — are a remarkable blend of the mundane and the adventurous, the fun and the heavy, maintaining lightness and humor even when writing about the awful things his family endured during the Holocaust.
If I were a bookstore, I’d offer a money-back guarantee. I’m almost certain you won’t regret buying it.
🎞️ Free Arabic Movies
I’d love to learn Arabic — partly because I know so little about the Arabic-speaking world, beyond the often negative headlines.
But friends who’ve traveled to places like Jordan, Syria, or Afghanistan all say the same: they met some of the kindest people ever.
If you share the same curiosity, I highly recommend the Political Arab Cinema playlist on YouTube.
It features 37 free films, primarily from Syria, Palestine, and Lebanon — including classics such as 5 Broken Cameras and West Beirut.
Thanks to Buiten Westen (Dutch only, unfortunately) for curating it.
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