This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.Welcome back to The Daily’s Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic writer or editor reveals what’s keeping them entertained. Today’s special guest is Lily Meyer, a staff writer who has published stories about the wisdom of Holden Caulfield, why making America’s houses bigger may have been a mistake, and the Seinfeld theory of fiction.Lily recommends watching The Sheep Detectives for a heartwarming mystery, listening to any song by the Hold Steady, and reading Brother of the More Famous Jack, by Barbara Trapido, if you want a good cry and a laugh.— Stephanie Bai, senior associate editorA good recommendation I recently received: My friend Eliza Brooke—a freelance culture writer who often covers movies—told me to watch The Sheep Detectives, which I had assumed was for children, but I trust her. I was absolutely charmed by the film and, at the same time, quite moved by its exploration of how we think and talk about death. Also, it’s a whodunit, and I love whodunits. Hollywood, could we please have fewer sequels and prequels and remakes, and more peaceful detective stories?The upcoming arts event I’m most looking forward to: I can’t wait to see the Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock show opening at the Met this October. I love abstract expressionism, and ever since I read Mary Gabriel’s Ninth Street Women—an exceptional group biography of five abstract expressionist painters, including Krasner—I’ve been fascinated by the arc of her career, which included creating government-sponsored public art during the Depression, making mosaics in the Long Island house she and Pollock shared during their marriage (meanwhile, he got an entire barn as a studio), and the flowering of her own painting practice after his death. Of course I’m excited to see the Pollock paintings at the Met too, but I’m most eager to see the Krasners.An actor I would watch in anything: Greta Gerwig. I saw Frances Ha, the gorgeous, bittersweet ode to female friendship that she starred in and co-wrote, a few weeks after I graduated from college—that is, at a moment when I was heartbroken about no longer living with my closest female friends—and I imprinted on her like a baby duck.The best work of nonfiction I’ve recently read: Vivian Gornick’s The Romance of American Communism. Gornick, a “red-diaper baby” raised in the working-class Jewish Bronx, set out to interview former Communist Party USA members and militants about what their political activity meant to them, years after the party had lost most of its following. The result is a surprisingly beautiful and often wrenching reflection on belief, belonging, self-delusion, and sacrifice.An author I will read anything by: Too many to name, so instead, I’ll give you a translator. I try to read—and believe I have read—everything that Megan McDowell translates. Her taste is impeccable, her style is flawless, and she works with some of the greatest Latin American authors writing today: Mariana Enríquez, Samanta Schweblin, Alejandro Zambra, and many more.A quiet song that I love, and a loud song that I love: “It’s Gonna Be Easy,” by the Texas outlaw-country singer Doug Sahm, is a soft, melodic lament for a relationship the singer wishes would be easier to forget. (A recommendation to go with it: Callie Collins’s novel Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine, whose protagonist is loosely inspired by Sahm. Like the song, the book is a gentle heartbreaker.)A loud song is “Waiting Room,” by my D.C. hometown heroes Fugazi. My husband and I asked the DJ to play it at our wedding, and the resulting mini–mosh pit is one of my favorite memories of the night.A musical artist who means a lot to me: The Hold Steady. I’ve been going to their shows since I was 14, and seeing them live is the closest I’ve ever come to a religious experience. Hold Steady fans are real diehards, and the band’s lead singer, Craig Finn, believes fervently that—as he shouts at every single show—“we are all the Hold Steady.” He’s right: We are.Something I recently revisited: I’m revealing a lot about my high-school self here, but one of my absolute favorite novels as a teenager was Chang-rae Lee’s Aloft, whose hero, Jerry Battle, is a New Jersey dad hiding from his emotions about family and aging by flying private planes. I revisited it before reviewing Lee’s new novel, A Tender Age, and was relieved that I loved it even more than I did at 15.A favorite story I’ve read in The Atlantic: I’m not sure if “favorite” is the right word here, but Spencer Kornhaber’s essay about the singer Lizzo and her downward mobility has been haunting me since I read it. Spencer, I want you to know that introducing me to the concept of the Khia Asylum was not nice!Something delightful introduced to me by a kid in my life: My toddler recently became obsessed with the book Chirri & Chirra, written and illustrated by Kaya Doi and translated from Japanese by Yuki Kaneko. It is so delightful. Doi’s illustrations are lovely, and the heroines’ sweet little adventure through the forest is a dream day. At the end, Chirri and Chirra go to a forest concert, and my daughter loves to sing “La-la-la” along with me as I read—it’s the best.The last thing that made me cry: Brother of the More Famous Jack, by Barbara Trapido. It’s a sharp, generous tale of yearning and innocence, and its descriptions are my favorite kind, economical and precise. Its plot twist made me cry, but so did the intensity and joy of its narrator’s longing.The last thing that made me snort with laughter: Also Brother of the More Famous Jack. I’m telling you, you need to read this book.Here are three Sunday reads from The Atlantic:Americans are spending luxury dollars for dive-bar service.Logging in was never supposed to be this complicated.A reverse Ellis IslandThe Week AheadMayday, an action comedy about an American pilot stranded in Cold War Russia who teams up with a former KGB agent (out Friday on Apple TV)Season 2 of The Gentlemen, a crime-comedy series about an aristocrat and his partner expanding their criminal empire into Italy (streaming Thursday on Netflix)The Disappearers, a novel by Marlon James about a group of gay men whose lives are transformed after a mob attack in 1988 Kingston (out Tuesday)Essay20th Century Fox / GettyWe’re Living in the World Dolly Parton BuiltBy Spencer KornhaberDolly Parton’s death at age 80 comes at a time when her influence seems at its peak. Country music is surging, female singer-songwriters are on top, and audiences seem hungry for honest idiosyncracy—for figures who, like Dolly, transmit their inner truth to mass audiences in a voice that’s clear yet scraggly. But Parton’s greatest legacy is existential in nature. Piling on wigs and feathers, she showed that you can be yourself while playing a character.Read the full article.More in CultureWhy was this Looney Tunes movie almost shelved for good?Party in the (downwardly mobile) U.S.A.The painter who shaped RothkoPortrait of the artist as a movie starWhat a bicentennial baby knowsThe absolute pleasure of Tim CurryCatch Up on The AtlanticPeter Wehner on the wrath of MAGATrump plans to buy midterm ads about his own record.The Qataris gave Trump an airplane. He crippled their country in return.Photo AlbumMarch 1, 1949: “Farmer Mrs. Maud Lee and her daughter Pat enjoy elevenses at their farmhouse in Keynsham, near Bristol, with their pet lamb Betty.” (Burchell / Fox Photos / Getty)Explore some weird, wonderful photos from the 20th century compiled by Alan Taylor last year.Rafaela Jinich contributed to this newsletter.Play our daily crossword.Explore all of our newsletters.When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.