Cultural Reads 29: The Henna Artist, Donkeyote & Neanderthals

Happy Tuesday All,

And welcome to the Cultural Reads newsletter, a bi-weekly book, music, and movie recommendation from different countries all around the world.

You can find all editions of the newsletter in the archive.

In this week’s newsletter: India, Mongolia, Spain & Uzbekistan

🎙️ Magnolian (Mongolia)

Magnolian is the second most popular Mongolian artist after folk-metal band The Hu.

In contrast to The Hu, Mangolian’s indie-folk songs are much calmer. He sings in both English and Mongolian.

My favorite song is Өвөлжөө (meaning winter)

📙 The Henna Artist (India)

At seventeen, Lakshmi flees from an abusive marriage and ends up in the pink city of Jaipur, India. She starts working as a Henna artist and manages to build relationships with the city’s upper class.

One day, a girl suddenly appears on her doorstep, claiming to be her younger sister. Since she built her livelihood on her ability to keep her past hidden, her sister’s arrival becomes a massive threat to everything she has created.

You can find The Henna Artist on Amazon.

🎞️ Donkeyote (Spain)

Donkeyote is a heart-warming documentary about an Andalucian farmer who wants to travel to the United States with his dog and donkey.

The film shows the South of Spain’s beautiful landscapes, the man’s odd journey preparations, and his relationship with his human and animal family.

The story is also surprisingly funny because of the protagonist’s innocence and unusual travel plan.

You can rent the movie for $3.99 on Amazon.

💸 My First Million Newsletter & Podcast

This week’s newsletter promotion is My First Million.

The newsletter and podcast explain how entrepreneurs got their first million dollars. One of my recent favorites is the breakdown of Triathlon Athlete Rich Roll‘s success.

If you’re interested in more from the same creators, I’d recommend checking out their finance & economics newsletter.

🌏 Top Songs Uzbekistan

In the previous weeks, I featured a top 3 popular songs from countries around the world.

It seems more useful to share a playlist instead, so this week I present to you popular songs from Uzbekistan.

If you know of any good playlists, please share them with me by replying to this email!

📚 One Sentence Book Takeaway

Before humans killed the Neatherthalers, they had sex with them. 

That’s why nowadays, most people are ~4 percent Neanderthal. This was later refined to 1.5 to 2.1 percent

The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

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