strawberries and sunlight
postcard 16: on a mini seasonal guide of books, movies, and music for summer
Sophia and Grandmother sat down by the shore to discuss the matter further. It was a pretty day, and the sea was running a long, windless swell. It was on days just like this--dog days--that boats went sailing off all by themselves.
prelude
The briefest and slipperiest of the seasons, the one that won't be held to account - because summer won't be held at all, except in bits, fragments, moments, flashes of memory of so-called or imagined perfect summers, summers that never existed.
—Summer, Ali Smith
Happy Weekly Postcard Sunday! I’m so happy to finally be posting again after a month break.
I am not the biggest fan of summer (because of the humidity and heat and feeling sticky sweat every time), but I love the idea of it. So here is my curated list of listens, reads, and watches for the hottest season of the year:
LISTENS // For me, summer sounds like the outro of Chiquitita. The beat of Supercut. The intro of Brazil. Any song that feels drenched in sunlight, like something you can listen to while sitting on a beach on the hottest day, eating strawberries.
Here are six other playlists of mine that I have on repeat in the summer!
READS // I’ve made two guides on this already, but I’ll mention them here as well.
Here is my general summer reading guide.
And here is my hyperspecific summer reading guide with about 80 books.
Some summery books I want to read before the season ends are: Heat Wave by Penelope Lively, Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann, Three Summers by Margarita Liberaki, Vigil Harbor by Julia Glass, The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch, Cursed Bread by Sophie Mackintosh, Bluets by Maggie Nelson, The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene, and My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante.
WATCHES // My summer watches are a bit more complex than my spring watches because they’re divided into three categories. First: early 2000s romantic comedies (but special mention to Set It Up). Some of my favorites are: 13 Going on 30, 10 Things I Hate About You, 27 Dresses, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, The Proposal, and Palm Springs.
(this is my letterboxd! add me!)
Second are melancholy movies that feel like the late summer breeze. I watch these whenever I journal and still feel pensive, or whenever I want to watch something thoughtful (and sad).
And third are raunchy comedies. I usually am pretty impartial to them, but some are really funny and really good. Like that famous Animal Farm quote goes: “all raunchy comedies are equal but some raunchy comedies are more equal than others”.
….or something like that.
interlude i: what i read this week
I just got back from vacation, so I am still settling into my normal reading rhythm. I am reading Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (which I still cannot believe I get to read early!!!!!), but finished reading a few other books. I read A Certain Hunger by Chelsea Summers, which I rated four stars. I knew I’d like this one (so much that I put it on one of my album as books), so I’m glad I wasn’t wrong!
I also read None of This is Serious by Catherine Prasifka, Life Ceremony Sayaka Murata, On Freedom by Maggie Nelson, Ghost Forest by Pik-Shuen Fung, The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, and Catching Fire by Daniel Hahn since the last time I posted.
I also read more, but I am forgetting the titles! I’ll upload them all on my Goodreads sometime this week.
Here are ten articles you should read this week:
interlude ii: what i watched this week
I will update my Letterboxd sometime this week, but some movie highlights from the last month were: Yi Yi, Certain Women, Petit Maman, The Fallout, Wild Child (rewatch), and Ocean’s 8 (rewatch).
Some video essays I watched: this video on merch, this video on the World Wonders, this video on Easy A, this video on color theory, and this video on The Kiss by Gustav Klimt.
postlude
things i love: parfums de marly’s oriana, ali smith’s season quartet, ralph lauren bear tote bag, recipes with peaches, korean photobooth pictures, anything blue.
love,
elle
This is perfect thank you <3
i really love your recommendations!!