Last Days of Summer

The last beach read of the season, brain science and whipped tofu

Recommendations for the week ahead: what to read, watch, eat and more.

📚 In anticipation of the series coming out September 10 on Netflix, I am reading “The Perfect Couple” by Elin Hilderbrand. It’s a blend of mystery, romance, and family drama set against the picturesque backdrop of Nantucket. The novel centers around the wedding of Celeste and Benji, a seemingly perfect couple whose plans for a flawless wedding are derailed when the maid of honor is found dead in the ocean just hours before the ceremony. This triggers an investigation that unravels the secrets and lies hidden beneath the surface of this wealthy and outwardly idyllic community. It’s a perfect end-of-summer beach (or city) read. I expected more of an “Undoing” vibe, but it’s written very much in Hilderbrand’s voice.

📺 “Presumed Innocent” on Apple TV a legal thriller based on Scott Turow’s novel published in 1987. The story follows Rusty Sabich, a prosecutor, who finds himself at the center of a murder investigation when his colleague and former lover, Carolyn Polhemus, is brutally killed. When evidence begins to point to Rusty as the prime suspect, he is forced to navigate the legal system he once trusted, now as a defendant himself. The novel delves deeply into the mechanics of the legal process, providing an unsettling look at how justice is pursued—and sometimes manipulated—in the courtroom.

📰 What is the Millennial Midlife Crisis Novel?

We Millennials are worried about lifelong debt, compounded by unfavorable winds in the gig economy and a threadbare social safety net. Physically, we face climate catastrophe, and the rise of fascism. Spiritually, we flail about in quiet, Internet-exacerbated, always-be-optimizing desperation. That is, these are your midlife concerns if you’re a very, very lucky American.

🎧 Hidden Brain: “Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.” I especially loved an episode on being alone.

👩‍🍳 It’s unreasonable hot in Prague — I am not even thinking of using the oven, and if you know me, you know I love my oven. The whipped tofu is a lifesaver (I don’t exacly follow this recipe, usually also add roasted garlic to it and a generous pinch of Zaatar). I make a sort of hummus bowl with it, toping if off with greens and veggies — delicious.

My farmers market is full of pumpkins and that can mean only one things — summer is almost over. My skin is just starting to get that sun-kissed glow. I am both sad and happy at the same time, but mostly just glad the sales are over. I have gotten completely insane over discounts this season — so much for being mindful.

I am excited for autumn and back-to-school feeling. I made a list of fall(y) books I am going to read, saved a bunch of recipes for cooler weather, bought an English countryside jacket for long morning walks with the dogs. I don’t have the dogs but it’s the idea that counts (The British Tweed Company and Barbour would quite possibly bankrupt me if I had dogs). And than there is a ceramics course I am taking. There is so much to look forward to.

I often rush time. It’s a bad habit I am working on. Summer is still here, so I am going to properly enjoy the last days of it: drink Aperol, drink rose (sounds like I am going to just drink a lot), wear florals (because a girl can look like a field of poppies if she wants to), eat al fresco, maybe even listen to Lana del Ray for a bit of hot wired melancholy. It’s going to be wonderful.

xo