Recs #97: Ceramic sardines, good linen, and landlines
Holiday weekend edition
This is the Friday recs post at Downtime, a weekly roundup of culture, books, delights, and things on my radar for my paying readers. You should subscribe, if you haven’t already!
Morning! For my US-based readers, I hope you’ve got relaxing holiday plans for the 4th. Ours involves grilling a mountain of Korean BBQ (this is the recipe we use—the Asian pear is non-negotiable) and lots of pool time. I hope your plans are equally delicious-slash-horizontal. —Alisha
Above the paywall today: Three quick fun things I loved this week.
What’s below the paywall today: Twelve more things to read, watch, and ponder including: an iPhone trick that’s changed my screen time habits, a crunchy parenting idea I actually love, my honest thoughts on Atmosphere, a zine I loved, and my current summer uniform.
In case you missed it, Friday Recs are now just for paid subscribers. Free readers get a preview, but the full version (and all the good stuff) goes to paid subs. It’s $5/month to join—and now, these Friday posts are also completely ad-free, so it’s just you, me, and the recs.
To celebrate the two-year anniversary of Downtime, I’m running a limited-time 20% offer - get in now while you can!
THE RECS! 15 of them…
🌐 This week’s grab bag of reads, culture, and internet rabbit holes
Fabulous but wholly unnecessary: Ceramic sardines. Made in Umbria. Can be yours for $95 (each). It begs the question: has sardine mania gone too far?
Literary hidden gems: Admiring all the gorgeous covers of McNally Editions link. I can’t believe I’ve never poked around their collection before. I’m ordering The Feast by Margaret Kennedy, which
has described as The White Lotus set in postwar England. The publisher also has a curated subscription you can sign up for, which would make a great gift for the curious reader in your life.
Rashguards for kids?: This was a reader question — I have two from Minnow that I love (the Liberty fabric ones are my fav) though they can get pricey. This one from J.Crew’s is adorable and on sale for $29. I’ve also picked up this watermelon one from Gerber Baby that is adorable!
Lazy summer uniform:
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Downtime to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.