“Less than a month ago, all of August still stretched before us – long and golden and reassuring…” — Lauren Oliver
Here’s what I read, watched, listened to, and enjoyed in August, and how I’m feeling as the summer of 2025 comes to an end.
READ:
Last Twilight in Paris by Pam Jenoff — “A Parisian department store, a mysterious necklace and a woman’s quest to unlock a decade-old mystery are at the center of this riveting novel of love and survival…London, 1953: Louise is still adjusting to her postwar role as a housewife when she discovers a necklace in a box at a secondhand shop. The box is marked with the name of a department store in Paris, and she is certain she has seen the necklace before when she worked with the Red Cross in Nazi-occupied Europe —and that it holds the key to the mysterious death of her friend Franny during the war. Following the trail of clues to Paris, Louise seeks help from her former boss Ian, with whom she shares a romantic history. The necklace leads them to discover the dark history of Lévitan—a once-glamorous department store that served as a Nazi prison, and Helaine, a woman who was imprisoned there, torn apart from her husband when the Germans invaded France” (Goodreads).
The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau by Kristin Harmel: Colette Marceau has been stealing jewels for nearly as long as she can remember, following the centuries-old code of honor instilled in her by her mother, take only from the cruel and unkind, and give to those in need. Never was their family tradition more important than seven decades earlier, during the Second World War, when Annabel and Colette worked side by side in Paris to fund the French Resistance. But one night in 1942, it all went wrong. Annabel was arrested by the Germans, and Colette’s four-year-old sister, Liliane, disappeared in the chaos of the raid, along with an exquisite diamond bracelet sewn into the hem of her nightgown for safekeeping. Soon after, Annabel was executed, and Liliane’s body was found floating in the Seine—but the bracelet was nowhere to be found. Seventy years later, Colette—who has “redistributed” $30 million in jewels over the decades to fund many worthy organizations—has done her best to put her tragic past behind her, but her life begins to unravel when the long-missing bracelet suddenly turns up in a museum exhibit in Boston. If Colette can discover where it has been all this time—and who owns it now—she may finally learn the truth about what happened to her sister. But she isn’t the only one for whom the bracelet holds answers, and when someone from her childhood lays claim to the diamonds, she’s forced to confront the ghosts of her past as never before. Against all odds, there may still be a chance to bring a murderer to justice—but first, Colette will have to summon the courage to open her own battered heart” (Goodreads).
The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris by Evie Woods — “Edie Lane left everything behind in Ireland for a once-in-a-lifetime job at a bakery in Paris. Except, thanks to a mistranslation, the bakery is not in Paris, and neither is Edie. The tiny town of Compiègne, complete with its local bakery on the Rue de Paris, holds many secrets. This might not be where Edie intended to be but it's not long before she realises it's exactly where she needs to be…” (Goodreads).
WATCHED:
Acapulco Season 1 - 4 (Apple TV) — “A successful Mexican businessman reminisce to his nephew about his younger years in 1980s Acapulco, when he got his dream job working at the hottest resort in town” (IMDb).
Project Runway Season 21 (Hulu) — In twenty-one seasons, Project Runway has continually evolved. I have mixed feelings about this season. I’m happy the Heidi and Nina are back, but I’m not sure about Law Roach. Christian is an interesting mentor, but I miss Tim Gunn. The contestants are quite contentious, and I really don’t like waiting until the next episode to find out whose out.
LISTENED TO:
Cardinals, chickadees, hawks, and cicadas in our backyard
A snoring beagle on my lap
Cool jazz via Vince Guaraldi radio on Pandora — I usually crave cool jazz in the fall and as the holidays approach, but this summer, nothing sounds better in the background in the house and on the deck.
My August Instapuzzle Mini-Playlist:
Butterfly Waltz (Brian Crane)
august (Taylor Swift)
Let it Be (The Beatles)
Good Vibrations (The Beach Boys)
Sunflower Smile (Peaceful Reveries)
You Are the Sunshine of My Life (Stevie Wonder)
Sunflower (Glen Campbell)
Days Like This (Van Morrison)
August (Acoustic Instrumental, Jimmy on Guitar)
ENJOYED:
Ladies’ night out with eight amazing retired PHS women. No, I’m still not sure when I will retire, but I’m certainly “retirement adjacent”.
Spending as much time as possible with my sweet Piper. I don’t know who will miss the other more wehn I got back to school full time in the coming weeks.
FEELING:
Kind of neutral about la rentrée — I enjoyed time with family and friends this summer. I read a lot of books, snuggled with Miss Piper, and intentially slowed down. Yet, although I didn’t work all day, everyday, I did work enough that I don’t feel like I really left. The one advantage to not really getting away from school is that I don’t feel the typical back-to-school anxiety.
Frustrated with Instagram —I created a template on Canva and have enjoyed designing beautiful posts that fit together like a puzzle. This month, I noticed that my posts were cut off due to Instagram resizing from 1:1 to 4:5 — just enough to mess up my work of the past three years. I can resize the preview so that everything is visible, but now there is a white space between each line - grrrr. If you want to see what the page is supposed to look like, click here. Perhaps this is a sign that I should try something new next year.
