Over the past fortnight or so, I watched three new films that could not have been more different—Michael, The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Project Hail Mary—and yet each was entertaining and thought-provoking in its own way, with Michael and Project Hail Mary being visually stunning as well. They were the kind of films that stay with you long after you leave the theatre. In my experience, the best films—including the lesser-known but equally good ones—always offer something to think about and talk...

I can never guess the culprit in Agatha Christie novels until Hercule Poirot lays it all out at the end. Likewise, I didn’t see the twists coming in The Silent Patient (2019), even if at times they might have seemed obvious. Just not to me. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention; so absorbed was I in this cleverly crafted psychological thriller. Alex Michaelides’ debut novel, to use a cliché, pulls you in from the start with an unsettling theme: thirty-three-year-old Alicia Berenson, a once-famous...

Last month, I finally did the inevitable. I went to an optometrist—rather my wife took me to one—to get my eyes checked. I’d been squinting for a while but refusing to acknowledge the obvious. I wasn’t happy , of course. Up until that day, I’d been resisting the visit because I wanted to go without glasses till I turned sixty, which was only seven months away, and boast about it. Now, I was left with a humbling: “I was almost sixty when I got my first glasses.” I suppose I could live with...