From time to time, instead of my usual email with one big idea you can read in 3 minutes or less, I share with you the best of what I’m reading, watching, and exploring. Enjoy!
A concert I’m excited about
Jewel. My friend and multi-hyphenate creative Jewel is on tour this summer. Her music—particularly her song, “Who Will Save Your Soul”—was formative in my teenage years. And her memoir, Never Broken, blew me away as a soul-stirring odyssey of resilience and finding oneself. I’m excited to experience her magic live in LA on July 26th, where she’ll be lighting up the stage alongside Melissa Etheridge. You can find her full tour schedule here. If you see me at the LA show, please say hello!
Books
Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell. The perfect beach thriller. This gripping dark mystery follows Laurel, whose daughter Ellie vanished ten years ago. The missing child/grieving parent genre is overcrowded, but this novel cuts through the noise. Lisa Jewell’s masterful storytelling not only held my attention from start to finish, but also turned me into an instant fan—I rushed to get another one of her books as soon as I turned the last page.
Films
The Beast (2024). [Amazon Prime | Apple TV+] A spectacular dystopian sci-fi film about a future where emotions are engineered out of human existence. It’s captivating, it’s weird, and it’s everything in between. This reviewer put it well: “A cautionary spectacle about what happens to a world in which people become so afraid of rejection that they eliminate any possibility of love; a world that so thoroughly inures itself to the threat of oblivion that everyone living in it might as well be dead already.”
Shows
Ripley. [Netflix] Based on the same classic novel behind The Talented Mr. Ripley, this limited series follows a con man as his life spirals into deceit, fraud, and murder. It’s slick, it’s stylish, and it’s addictively watchable—even better than its cinematic predecessor.
Music
VHS Collection. Perfect summer listening. Some of my favorite songs include “Waiting on the Summer”, “One”, and “The Dark.”
Related
Bold
