What I Loved This Week (107)

I'm all about a twisty beach thriller, an unexpected TV gem and another "Nicole Kidman type of show this week.

No AI was used! If you liked this issue, click on the heart button! That’s the biggest praise you can give me. You can also buy me coffee here if you’d like.

A note before we start: I’m taking some weeks off to enjoy my cozy time abroad in the mountains. I’ll see you soon :)

📚What I Read and Loved

Saltwater: I’m more of a beach thriller than a beach romance reader. Saltwater was twisty, set in Capri, and kept me guessing until the end. If you need a vacation companion, this one is pretty great.

In 1992, Sarah Lingate is found dead below the cliffs of Capri, Italy, leaving behind her three-year-old daughter, Helen. Despite suspicions that the old-money Lingates are involved, Sarah’s death is ruled an accident. And every year, the family returns to prove it’s true. But on the thirtieth anniversary of her death, the Lingates arrive at the villa to find a surprise waiting for them—the necklace Sarah was wearing the night she died.

Haunted by the specter of that night, the paranoid, insular Lingate family begins to crack, and Helen seizes the opportunity with the help of Lorna Moreno, the family assistant. But then Lorna disappears, and the investigation into Sarah’s death is reopened. Everyone who was on Capri thirty years ago remains a suspect—Helen’s controlling father, Richard; her rarely lucid aunt, Naomi; her distant uncle, Marcus; and their circle of friends, visitors, and staff. Even Lorna, her closest ally, may not be who she seems. As long-hidden secrets about that night boil to surface, one thing becomes clear: Not everyone will leave the island alive.

📺 What I Watched and Loved

Dept Q: What a treat! This Scottish show follows the newly created Dept Q and the misfits that run it (Netflix)

The Better Sister: Another Nicole Kidman-type of show¹ has graced the small screen. This time, Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel (B+ actresses) play estranged sisters who need to reunite after a murder is discovered in the Hamptons (affluent zip code) (Prime)

💕 Micro-Joy

Coffee with this view. Enough said

✅ To-do List

• Best beach reads

• New thrillers

• Summer reading challenges are not only for kids

• Best new TV shows

🐰 Rabbit Holes I Went Into

• If you read anything this week, please read

  The Real Sarah Miller
  account of her Ayahuasca experience. WOW

• Deep diving on my fave Agatha Christie character via

  Reda Rountree (she/her)

• I’ve always been very interested in Amelia Earhart, partly because I spent sixth grade in a catholic boarding school run by nuns in her hometown of Atchison, Kansas (by far the most bizarre thing about me). This article is both captivating and shocking, and it contains new details.

• This is a beautiful account of the resilient power of hiking

• What’s in the People’s Notes App?

🧜🏼‍♀️  Articles and Bits I loved

• Things to do before the PSL season hits

• How to travel when the USD is weakening

• Everyone is quitting alcohol, but trying new things to replace it with

• We are not bored, but we should be via

  Elle

😄 Free Happiness

• Masculine touch

• Never TMI

👋🏼 Classifieds

• Each morning, The Sample sends you one article from a random blog or newsletter that matches up with your interests. When you get one you like, you can subscribe to the writer with one click. Sign up here

• Don’t clutter your inbox with newsletters, be like me and use Meco, and read all your favorite newsletters in the same place. It’s life-changing.

1. As referenced last week, this type of TV has its own genre. This is what I call a “Nicole Kidman show”, even if she isn’t headlining. These shows are good because there’s a formula behind them: Bright visuals, movie A-listers, rich WASPy settings (Hamptons, Nantucket, Bay Area, etc.), and most are based on bestseller women’s fiction. Some similar shows that come to mind: Big Little Lies, Apples Never Fall & The Perfect Couple, and of course, last week’s Sirens.