The Books, Music, and Low Stakes Creative Projects That Got Us Through the Week

Happy 4th of July weekend! But there’s still not much to celebrate about America right now. On Friday, the Supreme Court struck down the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program and used a bogus case to rule that a Colorado anti-discrimination law violates the First Amendment rights of people who don’t support same-sex marriage. But hooray for freedom and all that? Whatever. We hope you at least get to enjoy a long weekend—so here are our recommendations for what to enjoy if you’ve already torn through the second season of The Bear.

If you’d like to recommend something for next week’s edition, drop it in a comment here, or email it to us at [email protected] with the subject line “Jez Recs.”

A book full of great, weird, often supernatural-angled short stories: A teen grows Hermes-esque wings from her ankles; a simulation service offers augmented dream-like hallucinations (but there’s a catch: you can’t spend time with dead people that you knew); a body-printing machine makes death not only temporary, but attractive in a way. Fu’s prose is clear and wise even on heavy subjects—I highlighted a section of “The Doll” when the narrator contrasts his lack of experience with tragedy (as “a boy to whom nothing bad had happened, all suffering unreal as comic book gore”) with that of a friend (“a child to whom many bad things had happened, who relished any story where he was not the victim”). —Rich Juzwiack

Transatlatnic is based on the true but little-known story of Varian Fry, an American journalist for the New York Times, and Mary Jayne Gold, an American heiress, who helped smuggle over 2,000 Jewish refugees (many of them famous artists, writers, and academics) out of Marseilles after France was invaded by Germany in 1940.

This Netflix series fell criminally under the radar—the story itself is remarkable, and I spent hours in between episodes looking up everything I could about Fry, Gold, Albert Hirschmann, Lisa Fittko, as well as the long lists of artists they helped save like Andre Breton, Max Ernst, and Marc Chagall. The casting is fantastic (except, unfortunately, for Gillian Jacobs who does fine as Gold but, next to the rest of the cast, looks like she was just dropped into a period piece) and Lucas Englander, who plays Hiarschmann, is super hot. Do NOT sleep on this series—even if everyone else already has. —Lauren Tousignant

Where being mindful about mental health for some entails unplugging from the internet, for me, more recently it’s meant just plugging into more things that aren’t Twitter. Thus, I’ve recently fallen down the sweet, soothing rabbit hole that is culinary TikTok, which is somehow especially relaxing to me as someone who willfully cannot cook. And the page of one TikToker in particular simply has me hooked: @mxriyum’s feed features the most enchanting cooking and baking videos I’ve ever seen, with backdrops, plating, and ambient music that make all of it feel like you’re watching a live-action fairytale. From decadent raspberry cheesecake and reproductions of In-n-Out’s classic burgers, to video upon video of Ramadan meals you can practically taste through your screen, it’s a perfect TikTok account to watch while unwinding and dreaming of living in a magical forest full of beautifully plated food. —Kylie Cheung

I’ve been spiraling since Olivia Rodrigo announced that her sophomore album GUTS and a new single were in the works and I’m happy to report that her latest single “Vampire” has only furthered my spiral in the most whimsical way. Coupled with a new music video directed by Petra Collins and shot in a blue-hued, campy Twilight aesthetic, Rodrigo is back with a vengeance, and to that sophomore slump, I say, “Whomst?!”

The song is about some older dude who gaslit her into thinking they were in love (rumored to be either DJ Zack Bia or Adam Faze, who was 26 when he connected to an 18-year-old Rodrigo), accompanied by a haunting melody that builds into a manic, Vampire Weekend-sounding explosion of a finale. Though the chorus lyrics “Blood sucker/fame fucker/bleeding me dry like a goddamn vampire” are intended to shame some predatory man lurking in the shadows, they also aptly apply to predatory companies who suck their workers dry of ideas, morale, and value! New anti-work anthem just dropped? —Emily Leibert

One more time for the folks in the back: Watch The Bear.

This show is most known for its explosive scenes—stab wounds, shouting matches, car crashes—but it’s the quieter moments that really fucking move you. Two men carefully crafting desserts in a spotless kitchen. A woman being gifted a knife (not the same one implicated in the stabbing). The empathy of a character who you thought was a massive weenie up until the final episode. The paring of mushrooms.

The Bear is a full-body experience. It’s the shit you’ll need to talk about to your friends and colleagues afterward, and maybe even your therapist (in a good, cathartic way I swear). When asked to pick your favorite character, you simply will not be able to. Just one?? The food is so beautiful! The soundtrack will wreck you! Redemption arcs will astound you! So yeah, like everyone is already saying, watch it. —Sarah Rense

Like most people who spend too much time on the internet, one of my primary pastimes is critiquing the choices of rich people who earn more money than I can even conceptualize. Bella Hadid turning herself into ’90s Carla Bruni? Kinda sad, but I also kinda love it. Billionaire JK Rowling still having a Twitter account? I’d refuse to even learn what Twitter is if I could afford to be in her shoes. Jennifer Aniston signing on to do Smartwater and Aveeno ads? If I had Friends residuals, I’d never work again in my life! I also have similarly complex and useless thoughts on home design, despite the fact that I will likely never own a home (thank you, Supreme Court, for ruining my dreams of being able to pay off my student debt before I retire, however tenuous those dreams were).

Thus, Architectural Digest’s home tours are the perfect intersection for my opining. I’m not a devotee, though I happily peruse them when the YouTube algorithm feels fit to serve them to me. However, this week, my colleagues gave me a gift: a ranking of the 21 of the most absurd ones, from Lenny Kravitz’s working farm in Brazil, to Gwenyth Paltrow and her collection of cast iron pots, to Zedd, who I’m convinced lives in a repurposed office park. They are perfect mindless holiday weekend viewing that, if you’re like me, will also have you chuckling about how you’d absolutely never do your built-ins like that. —Nora Biette-Timmons

I have never before admitted this online but *gulps* I am a longtime Elin Hilderbrand reader. There it is. I’ve said it. I like death and divorce narratives that exclusively take place on Nantucket and see a white, cisgender female protagonist of a certain tax bracket experiencing a crisis. Phew. If you do too, Hilderbrand’s latest offering delivers all of the aforementioned, but it also features—for the first time in this author’s two decades long career—a very queer subplot. Happy Pride!

There’s heart, haughty middle-aged housewife drama, and heaps of the most vivid descriptions of meals I can only afford to salivate over on the page. I devoured it in two days. —Audra Heinrichs

I bought this deck on a whim while spending too much money at a new bookstore. I had some gouache and watercolor supplies being neglected, and it seemed like a low stakes way to start making art again. Art that didn’t matter and wasn’t necessarily even good, but art that would open up my brain again! I looked at this like a visual version of The Artist’s Way, which encourages regular journaling and writing to get the juices flowing. It worked! I’ve even been doing it with colored pencils, which are a much more mobile medium. Pull a couple cards, stick em in your mobile art kit, and you don’t even need inspiration as you’re waiting for an appointment or on a long ride. The card gives you the first step. —Caitlin Cruz

The movies Barbie and Oppenheimer come out on the same day, July 21, and social media is making the most of this rivalry between very different films and, presumably, audiences. It’s styled as Boppenheimer or Barbenheimer. The studios behind the films about the iconic doll and the inventor of the atomic bomb didn’t budge on the release dates and people are talking about doing double features, while others are pushing for a Barbie box office victory. The timing collision has led to face splits, cinematic universe crossovers, and general meme-ry. (Yes, the Empire State building weighed in.)

Someone even made a 2024 Electoral College map showing a scenario in which Barbie would win, and one Barbie supporter pleaded: “If you’re in line to see Barbie STAY IN LINE!!! (Meanwhile, Tom Cruise is very mad that no one seems to care much about his latest Mission: Impossible installment, which comes out about a week earlier. Stay mad, Tom!) Anyway, I already have my Barbie tickets. —Susan Rinkunas

I have grown so obsessed with Sammi Jefcoacte—a U.K.-based influencer who’s style, aesthic, and general cool-as-fuck vibe is essentially everything I wish I was. Her “Get Dressed With Me” toks have her pairing structured, luxury pieces with things like leather harnesses and black latex tops, always adding bright pops of colors with her stacks of gold charms and jewelry, and designer handbags. She also has an incredible shoe and perfume collection, always has the raddest and most intricate nails (that she always documents as “It’s my favorite day, new nail day”), and preaches that you should always just wear whatever the fuck you want.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt this strongly or this inspired by a style icon. She’s essentially a high-fashion rocker/biker/domintrix idol and my god, does she make me want to bleach my hair, get 100,000 tats, move to London, and never look back. —LT