Links I love

What are you up to this summer? Here at the Bogel house, we’re cramming every last thing we meant to do this summer into this last weekend before the kids start heading back to school next week—meals and coffees and outings and back-to-school shopping and much, much more. The weather’s not looking inclined to cooperate with my hopes and dreams for our final push, but I trust we’ll have a good time/get it done anyway. Wish us luck?

I hope you have something to look forward to these next few days, and that this collection of interesting reads and favorite things helps ease you into that weekend frame of mind.

My favorite finds from around the web:

I offer gift links for articles whenever possible (you may still need to create an account with the publication); if there’s no gift link and you’re not a subscriber, check to see if your library carries the publication or use a bookmarking service.

30 years of extraordinary sales. (Abe Books) 30 rare sales from Abe Books’ history. “Among them: a ninth-century manuscript, irreplaceable for its age; a first-edition Moby-Dick, coveted for its place in literary history; a moon atlas assembled over 500 painstaking evenings, prized for the obsession behind it.”

The Comforting Resurgence of ‘Grandma Hobbies.’ (New York Times gift link) “At a very basic level, I think people are looking for something to do recreationally that doesn’t involve a screen.”

15 romances that feel like summer. (MMD) It’s time for seasonal romance reading.

The 40-Year-Old Man-Child. (The Atlantic gift link) Fascinating look at Ferris Bueler’s Day Off at 40, and the movie that almost was. “The winsome Ferris, in getting to live out every teen’s fantasy, became a character to like—and someone adults and kids wished they could be. He was free.”

Bring Fireflies Back to Your Yard with These 4 Simple Changes. (Country Living) “Mostly it’s about what you don’t do, rather than what you do.”

Author or Actor: Who Should Narrate Audiobooks? (Literary Hub) “It’s not just about the words themselves; it’s about how context and reader experience can change the resonance of those words, and why readers can find different meanings in the same work. The performance of a text by a skilled narrator can tweak those meanings even more.”

Related: 18 fiction audiobooks narrated by the author. (MMD) “Novelists know how to tell a good story but that doesn’t mean they’re the best one to perform it. These talented authors can do both!”

The Care + Keeping Of A White T-Shirt. (Long Live) Linking this because she details the oxygen bleach + bluing treatment I’ve used for a few years now (thank you, Laundry Love) but wish I’d known about my whole life: it makes such a difference. You don’t have to wait till your whites are dingy to use it.

Branching out thanks to a book bingo challenge. (What Should I Read Next?) Libby strategies to avoid hold-list purgatory.

Everything you need to know about the 2026 Booker Prize longlist. (The Booker Prizes) “There’s humour and heartbreak, satire and surreality. There are fresh takes on dystopian sci-fi, royal history, the crime thriller and the campus novel. There are books about memory, mortality, metamorphosis and murder; about old lives and new worlds; about the things we hide from those around us and the limits of human understanding; about reconciliation and retribution; and about the many ways we reckon with the past.”

Matthew Macfadyen and Claire Foy to Lead Adaptation of David Nicholls’ ‘You Are Here’ for BBC and Starz. (Variety) I loved this book; it’s one of my 2024 favorites.

How a Wacky Photo Booth Gave ‘The Wedding People’ Some Laughs. (New York Times gift link) The backstory on Alison Espach’s 2024 hit The Wedding People, which I loved and adored. “Even though she kept returning to the subject of loss, she wove a certain dry wit into her work. Her books call to mind an Arnold Palmer, equal parts bitter and sweet.”

A Penn professor thought she’d sell 1,000 copies of her ‘Odyssey’ translation. She sold more than a million, thanks to Christopher Nolan. (The Philadelphia Inquirer) “I remember being very much aware that most retranslations maybe sell 1,000 copies if you’re lucky … you’re going to work very, very hard on it for five years, and then maybe a tiny number of people will read it — and of course I thought it was still worthwhile.”

Late summer, hot weather go-tos: easy breezy tank tops and tees (both XXS–3X), Anthro Colette linen pants (23–34; I just noticed these are on sale in a bunch of colors; full-length also on sale), Kut from the Kloth linen shorts (XS–XL), Violette_FR bisou balm (Bêtise or Mon Cheri), Merit mascara, and Supergoop! Unseen Sunscreen.

When Friendship Is the Real Love Story. (Electric Lit) “The intense intimacy of friendship is having a moment in contemporary fiction. But this is only the latest wave in a long literary tradition.”