Oodles of books this week, many longlisted for awards and others bestsellers. And the topics are wide-ranging: non-fiction and fiction, plus one cookbook for delicious simple desserts. Also! Many fall capsule wardrobe finds as promised that are trends worth investing in, and at wonderfully reasonable prices. There are three films of note, each premiering today, one an adaptation of a film first debuting in 1979 based on a bestselling book published in 1901, the other takes us New York City and the other documentary is drawing applause. Still there is more!

Books

—Beyond the Prescription: A Doctor’s Guide to Taking Charge of Your Health by Dr. Lucy McBride 

This new book is a welcome source of information that provides insight into the world of medicine, which often makes us feel like transactions rather than the human beings we are. In Beyond the Prescription, Dr. Lucy McBride explains how, in a world where “modern health care prioritizes transactions over relationships, screens over stories, and data over context”, there is more to learn and thus a middle road to navigating the world better to both ease our mind and ensure we are taking care of ourselves properly.

“McBride refuses the false choice between conventional medicine and wellness culture. Instead, she offers a practical middle path built on health agency: the capacity to make informed decisions aligned with your values while advocating effectively for support.

“At the center is a five-step process that moves you from redefining health on your own terms, through mapping your full health ecosystem and understanding how you personally approach care, to asking for help more effectively and making peace with what you cannot control. McBride then maps health as an interconnected ecosystem with four pillars:

-INFORMATICS (health data + your biography and lived context)
-INPUTS (everything you consume, including supplements and medications)
-INFRASTRUCTURE (movement, injury, disability, and the body that carries you)
-INSIGHT (mental health, brain health, and the unconscious stories that drive behavior)”

—I’ll Take the Fire: A Novel by Leila Slimani (translated by Sam Taylor)

Released in May and already prompting much curiosity and praise from reviewers, Leila Slimani’s autobiographical novel I’ll Take the Fire tells the story of “Mia Daoud [who] yearns to be free. Growing up in socially conservative Morocco, her imagination fired by her banker father’s charisma and political idealism, her doctor mother’s feminist example and social conscience, and the boundless possibilities suggested by her favorite authors, she learns to go after what she wants, even if it means jumping through fire to get it. Determined to be true to her sexuality and to differentiate herself from her adoring younger sister, she sets out in search of her place in the world, from Casablanca to Paris to London, and against the backdrop of era-defining events like the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11, guided by a preternatural sense of justice and an unerring instinct for what makes her feel most alive.”

—The Fine Art of Lying: A Novel by Alexandra Andrews 

From the critically acclaimed author of Who is Maud Dixon? comes a new novel (released in May) that is already a national bestseller. The Fine Art of Lying centers around Clare Bart, and the plot thickens when she “finds herself at the scene of a gruesome murder and a stolen masterpiece.”

Married into “the cultured world of Manhattan’s Upper East Side . . . despite her best efforts—including a half-finished PhD, abandoned when her daughter Sadie was born—Clare secretly can’t help but feel like an imposter in Jed’s one-percent, Park-Avenue life. When the well-connected wife of her husband Jed’s new boss introduces her to influential friends—a curator here, a gallerist there, an aficionado abroad—Clare feels an essential part of herself coming alive again. And when she discovers that an important work painted by the subject of her unfinished dissertation is hanging in the brownstone of a seductively attractive dealer, she believes fate is leading her where she belongs.” That is, until she stumbles into a murder scene.

—Imagine That: Transform How You Think, Feel, and Live with the Science of Imagination by Cassandra Vieten PhD 

Being released next week, in Imagine That, psychologist and imagination scientist Dr. Cassandra Vieten “makes a radical claim: imagination is not just for artists and dreamers, it’s the operating system behind how all of us think, act, and live. And it exists within everyone.”

“Drawing on her original, cutting-edge neuroscientific research, Vieten introduces the concept of imagination neurodiversity: the idea that each of us has a unique set of strengths and tendencies that can be understood and activated. This book is your map to that inner world, and the key to unlocking new possibilities in every area of life.”

British Finds

—The Palm House: A Novel by Gwendoline Riley

This new book, which was recently announced as being chosen for the longlist of the Booker Prize, has me intrigued. Set in London, “Laura Miller and Edmund Putnam have been friends for a long time. Theirs is a happy meeting of minds, with long evenings spent huddled in an ancient pub by the Thames, where they share office gossip, reflect on their teenage passions, and lament the state of the world. Recently, though, Putnam has been harder to reach: He has lost his father, and the magazine to which he has dedicated his life has been hijacked by an insufferable new editor, Simon ‘Shove’ Halfpenny.

“Laura has her own problems: Living in London, a beautiful but also indifferent city, with a prickly mother to manage and a tricky past to contemplate, she finds that day-to-day life presents its difficulties. And as Putnam starts to sink into despondency, she must try to bring him back.”

—Professor T, season 5, PBS

I thoroughly enjoy this show, having come late to Professor T, once I began watching it, I quickly caught up on all of the previous seasons. Starring Ben Miller (from the original first seasons of Death in Paradise) as the genius Jasper Tempest, a Cambridge University criminologist with OCD, it was just announced that early access to Season 5 will begin on August 9th, with the season airing on television beginning October 18th. Find all of the seasons and episodes here, and watch the trailer here.

—Divide and Rule: Royal Women and Their Battles by Catherine Mayer

I read a review of this new book by journalist Catherine Mayer in the Financial Times and quickly put it on my to-be-read list. “Mayer examines the lives of the central players, and the echoes and parallels that have run throughout history. The stories of Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I, Victoria, Elizabeth II, Diana, Camilla, Kate and Meghan uncovered by Catherine Mayer are far more fascinating, poignant, surprising and enraging than any of the myths. Divide and Rule reveals these extraordinary women in all their complexity, charting their achievements, quirks, kindnesses, cruelties and profound influence.”

—The Vivisectors: A Novel by Missouri Williams

Another novel that was recently chosen for the longlist of the Booker Prize looks to be a mystery, a social commentary and simply just an wonderful read. The Vivisectors, with first-person narrative given by a reclusive academic, is set “in a famed but crumbling university city overrun by nature, where power is held in a fragile balance between academics and a contingent of rogue gardeners. The narrator of The Vivisectors spends her days propping up the career of her needy and fraudulent professor boss. Then a controversy ruptures her careful routine: Adam, a contrarian student and an obsession of the boss, comes into heated conflict with a young professor, with both men claiming discrimination. The crisis subsumes the university, though the narrator is unmoved―not even the attempted suicide of her estranged mother has been enough to dispel her lack of engagement with the world. But when her boss commands her to befriend Adam, the narrator finds herself both caught up in the events threatening to tear the city apart and increasingly drawn to the alluring student at the heart of it all.”

Below are the two covers, the UK version on the left, and US on the right.

Cookbooks

—Sheet Cakes!: More Than 50 Exceptional Cakes to Make in One Pan by Zola Gregory

Keep it simple, but keep it sweet and delicious! That is easy to do with this new cookbook sharing more than 50 sheet cake recipes and this carrot and ginger cake immediately grabbed my appetite’s attention. In Sheet Cakes!, Zola Gregory shares “nostalgic, unique, and downright delicious recipes. [Teaching readers] how to use the humble sheet pan to its full potential—crafting not only no-fuss single-layer rectangles, but roll-up cakes, and layered cakes, too.”

Décor

—Cozy Earth’s Candles, 20% with special TSLL code

Last week on Instagram, I shared a new candle I have been enjoying in my living room. As a sponsor of The Simple Sophisticate podcast for quite some time, I was tickled to learn Cozy Earth now sells candles. The opportunity to try one out solidified what I had hoped. Made of a soy and coconut blend wax with a cotton wick, they are great quality, burn evenly, and offer a subtle scent. The presentation in which the wax is held is aesthetically attractive as well.

My 20% coupon code is applicable to all of Cozy Earth’s products, so whether you are looking for candles, beach towels, slippers, or pajamas, you will save significantly. Use SIMPLE at checkout to enjoy 20% savings on your order.

Films

—Cookie Queens

Step inside the world of the Girl Scouts with Cookie Queens. “It’s Girl Scout Cookie season, and four tenacious girls strive to be a top-selling ‘Cookie Queen,’ navigating an $800 million business in which innocence and ambition collide.” Co-produced by Archwell Productions (the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s production company), discover how this childhood group’s annual main event brings joy, pain, and pressure. Have a look at the trailer below and look for it to premiere today in theaters.

—Late Fame

Willem DeFoe stars in a new film about a seasoned artist and legendary New York poet, Ed Saxberger, whose work was long forgotten until “an eccentric group of young creatives, reigniting his artistic passion.” Then enter Greta Lee, playing an actress who has an intriguing role to play in the story’s telling. Have a look at the trailer below and look for it in theaters today.

—My Brilliant Career, Netflix

Australian readers may know this film’s premise well because, in 1979, the first film, adapted from celebrated Australian author Miles Franklin’s novel of the same name, published in 1901, was quite the success. A prominent feminist of her time, the book was autobiographical in many ways, as the brilliant career the film centers around is the wish by young Sybylla to be a writer, but society and her family’s wish, and need, are for her to marry to stabilize the family due to her father putting them in financial dire straits. But she refuses. Let the tension and the plot’s unfolding begin! Now a new adaptation will be released on Netflix this coming Thursday, August 13th, and it looks to be a treat. Have a look at the trailer below.

~Psst: Did you know that Miles Franklin is a woman? She chose it, which is actually her name, but her full name is Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin.

—One Night Only

A romance for the tail-end of summer. One Night Only stars Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner as Allie and Owen, “two love-starved strangers who crash into each other in an ever-so-slightly fictionalized New York City.”

“Recently dumped Owen and hopeful romantic Allie, they both feel a spark when they meet, but a series of missteps and side quests complicate their night, keeping them apart. As they each race toward and away from each other across the city, they just might discover that the one thing they want most is closer than they think.” Have a look at the trailer below and look for it in theaters beginning today.

Shopping

—&Other Stories’ Rolled Edge Boat-Neck Top, more colors

—Alex Mill’s Montmartre V-Neck Sweater in Cashmere, many colors

In TSLL’s recently released Fall Shopping Guide, I mentioned that two colors were quite prominent for the new season – chocolate and purple. And while purple was hard to find, I promised to share with you finds of purple when I came across them in upcoming This & That posts and I have two for you today! This one looks and appears it would feel wonderful on the skin. A classic style with thicker ply cashmere, Alex Mill’s V-neck Montmartre V-neck comes in a beautiful shade of purple.

—Boden’s Elsie Cashmere V-Neck sweater, 10% off

Here is the other purple find of the week, and with coupon WXNW, save 10% off the regular price of $170. A bit lighter in weight than the sweater above, choose whichever would suit your climate and preference best!

—Boden’s Kate Pleated Shirt dress, two colors

Boden has some wonderful autumn dresses at the moment, when do they not?, and this classic shirt dress in autumn hues is going fast. Made of viscose, save 10% with coupon WXNW.

—Boden’s Fae Jersey Shirt dress, short sleeves, leopard (more colors, prints)

One more dress find from Boden, and again, use the coupon WXNW to save 10%. Leopard did appear on the Fall runways, and so is popping up a bit more in collections. This midi-length dress would be a great autumn choice with a black or brown belt as modeled on the left.

—GAP’s 100% Cotton Oversized Sweater, many colors, stripes too, 20% off

—TSLL’s Annual Fall Shopping Guide, 2026 (60+ hand-shopped items!)

Have a look and save and shop your favorites in TSLL’s just released shopping guide (released on August 2nd).

—WNU’s Devon Cotton Jumper, many colors and stripes

—Alex Mill’s The Perfect Weekend Tote, canvas, monogram available, many colors and sizes

Looking for a carry-all that you can add a bit of personalization too? Alex Mill’s canvas totes with two handle lengths provide exactly this, and there are many colors to choose from.

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A work of art in dessert form.

I picked up this beauty when I stopped into Artisserie earlier this week, and I have to share that the lightness of the custard and diced sautéed pears found inside are satiating without being too rich. A layer of cake sits at the bottom of the dessert to give just a bit of stability to the bite, and oh my goodness, this sweet treat was fun to eat.

Speaking of beauty and deliciousness, take a look at the crêpe made by Jamie C. below. I neglected to share this photo, having shared a few others she captured and sent my way a couple of weeks ago, and this one, well, and upon finding it, thought it would be a great invitation to French Wee, which begins in two days here on TSLL!

So, yep! Beginning this Sunday morning, look for two new posts and each day thereafter for the entire week. Giveaways will be sprinkled throughout, exclusively for Premier/TOP Tier members (learn more about becoming a Premier member here), and of course, it is a great time to connect with fellow Francophiles. Speaking of connecting, the conversation with Premier members about all sorts of ideas regarding France is happening in August’s A Cuppa Moments. Be sure to check out this month’s conversation starter.

Now to the weekend! While the office beckons me as posts are being put together for French Week and I am nearly done with the audiobook for Savoring the Sojourn (90 pages to go! And you can still preorder signed copies here), I hope you have a wonderful few days doing exactly as you most look forward to doing. Until Sunday, bonne journée.

~I always enjoy hearing from the designers themselves about how they approach their wardrobe, and Argent’s Sali Christeson’s responses to InStyle’s How I Get Dressed are a refreshing and approachable take.

~If you are in Paris this weekend, here is a list of brocantes and other yard sales to check out. [Sortir Paris]

~A great interview with the author of all the Bridgerton novels, Julia Quinn, who sat down in Seattle’s Public Market for lunch. [Financial Times, gift link]

~Tracee Ellis Ross shares her tips for better solo travel [Travel + Leisure]

~10 things to do in Paris this August [Frenchly] And a few more from Hip Paris.

~A list to save for Edinburgh-bound travelers! A list of the best pubs. [Saveur]

~And this article is for Robin :). Discover why Biarritz is quickly becoming the summer destination of choice for the French. [Elle]

~Home/Flat Tour of the Week: It’s all about the ceiling details. Be sure to look up in many of the photos – the actual ceiling and the crown molding are breathtaking. The home, found in Nottingham Hill, has a soothing aesthetic as well. [House & Garden UK]

~A fun watch: Stanley Tucci shares his opinions about various everyday situations and common conversation points around common courtesy. And when it comes to luxury, he shares, it should be silent, not just quiet. Have a look below.

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~Explore last week’s edition of This & That, July 31st

~Please note: TSLL is supported by you, readers who take the time to stop by (merci!), peruse, and sometimes welcome into your life the mentioned and recommended finds. Affiliate links are present in this post and may earn commissions for TSLL when you make a purchase. View TSLL’s full Privacy Policy here.