Greetings Treat-A-Weekers,

Did you think I’d forgotten you, this blog and what we are together? Never! Now, before you say to yourself, “summer’s over lady, what’s with the title of this blog post?” you should know that I read, watched, and heard some true gems this summer. Even though summer is now almost a memory, I had to share my finds belatedly. I do so because even though we are now in the heart of pumpkin-spice-latte-drinking season, these sources of comforting escapism are worth indulging in any time to escape the blues, blahs, and bombast we are surrounded by on the regular.

Books

Normal People by Sally Rooney

I fell in love with this book. It is a simple story filled with complex, genuine emotions and is about two main characters, Marianne and Connell, who grow up in the same small town in Ireland but whose lives and very beings could not be more different. The duo nonetheless finds themselves drawn to each other at pivotal stages of their lives as young adults and the results make for often tragic, sometimes uplifting and always engrossing reading. I rooted for these characters individually and as a couple despite being unsure if they were “right” for each other. Rooney did such a masterful job of making Marianne and Connell likeably vulnerable with each other and for the reader despite they many mistakes they make. If you’ve ever wondered what the point was of a relationship that brought with it equal measures pain and joy, this novel answers that question.

When Life Gives You Lululemons by Lauren Weisberger

If you are looking for fluffy, fun reading candy – think a mash up of Desperate Housewives meets Real Housewives of Beverly Hills set in Greenwich, CT – look no further. When Life Gives You Lululemons centers around sharp, bitingly-funny Emily Charlton, the British former assistant to Miranda Priestly (of Devil Wears Prada) as a now sometimes-bored, married PR Exec looking to give her career a boost after loosing some VIP clients. Enter her best friend Miriam, a Greenwich lawyer turned stay-at-home Mom who is looking to revive her mojo and Miriam’s friend and former supermodel, Karolina Hartwell who is involved in the PR battle of her life, against the monied, outrageous backdrop of Greenwich and surprisingly both hijinks and some meaningful forty-something nuggets of wisdom emerge.

Music

Golden Hour by Kacey Musgraves

This is the 4th album by Kacey Musgraves and it’s my favorite. I have been listening to the entire album (how often does that happen anymore?) on repeat for much of the summer. I recently turned my girls on to it as I began driving them to and from their multitude of activities after the start of the school year. Why do we love Golden Hour so? R says it’s “relaxing.” S says the rhythms are catchy. I think the words of these songs are so honest, so touching that combined with Musgraves’s sweet voice and the hypnotic folk-sy music, Golden Hour gives me all the feels. My favorite songs on the album are Lonely Weekend (best line: “I’ve got a million things to do, but I haven’t done a single one”) and the haunting Oh, What A Word (refrain: “Oh what a world, don’t want to leave, all kinds of magic all around us it’s hard to believe. Thank God its not too good to be true, oh what a world, and then there is you.”) . Check it out — it’s worth a listen even if you are not a country or folk fan. My friend Alefiya who is into 70s and 80s music and totally different musical genres recommends it too!

Television

Four Weddings & A Funeral, the Hulu TV series, created by Mindy Kaling

Loosely based on the movie, which unbelievably I have never seen (I think the title turned me off), Mindy Kaling (who y’all know I love) has created this romantic, funny, nine-epsiode TV series set in present day, glamorous and charming London. The twist? An African-American female protagonist (Nathalie Emmanuel, who incidentally could be Meghan Markle’s doppleganger) plays Maya an American politico in London looking for and possbily finding love with a British Muslim of Pakistani descent, Kashif Khan (played by Nikesh Patel) but only if they can somehow overcome the fact that Kash is engaged to Maya’s best friend Ainsley when the pair first meets. This series is great fun to watch not just for the love story, but because of all the wonderful, endearing side characters in it. My friend Namratha and I loved Kash’s Dad, Ainsley’s British BFF Gemma, and Kash’s childhood friend Basheer. The humor, storylines, and color in all of its forms that appear throughout Four Weddings make it a serious treat to watch.

Okay, there you have it, friends, my summer 2019 treats in review. Hope you enjoy them even if you are wearing cozy socks on the couch instead of flip flops on the beach.

Very truly yours,

M