The Week In Recommendations 8.23.23
A gripping true crime pod, elevated basics, a novel you'll read in a day, and Sofia Richie Grainge-approved skincare.
This is the free edition of Rich Text, a newsletter about cultural obsessions from your Internet BFFs Emma and Claire. If you like what you see and hear, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Our latest podcast was about season 2 of “The Summer I Turned Pretty”! Rich Text is a reader-supported project — no ads or sponsors!
While Claire is out on maternity leave, we’ll be featuring guest recommendations from some of the coolest tastemakers we know. This week, that guest is Sami Sage, the co-founder and CCO of Betches, and the host of “Morning Announcements.”
Sami has been reading… 📖
“Yellowface” by R.F. Kuang. Part of my job at Betches is moonlighting as the book picker for the Betch Lit Society newsletter (I know this is a well-read community so I feel no shame in asking you to sign up to get biweekly recommendations and follow on Instagram!), and this week I chose “Yellowface,” which I sped through in less than a day. This was squarely in carry-the-book-around-until-it's-done territory. If you read and loved “The Plot,” here's your next dose.
Sami has been watching… 📺
The new “Real Housewives of New York”! I didn't have the highest hopes for the new RHONY, but it won me over in just a few episodes. After what feels like years of truly precarious drama on my favorite Bravo shows, the reboot is light, absurd, and low-stakes, but not so low that you don't even care to pick a side. I try to not dub housewives as favorites or "good" or "bad" because there are no heroes on reality TV and I've been burned many times, but it seems like this cast has lots of potential to be good AT housewives. I'm excited to see where it goes!
(Editor’s note: We did a whole podcast on the new RHONY a few weeks ago with Jessica Goodman! You can check it out here.)
Sami has been listening to… 🎧
I'm loving Olivia Rodrigo's new song “bad idea right?” “Sour” is a no-skip album for me and I can't wait for “GUTS.”
Sami has been buying… 🛍️
Chanel can fully credit Sofia Richie (Grange) for making me aware of their Les Beiges skincare line, where I discovered this product. Great coverage, not too thick or sticky, everything you want in a concealer. Plus, it comes with its own brush, which allows me to delude myself that this is economical.
Emma has been reading… 📖
’s deep dive into sorority rush TikTok, specifically Bama Rush, on her newsletter . I have long been fascinated by Greek Life, even though it’s not something I ever participated in. (I actively applied to colleges where sororities and frats were of little to no importance.) Rush, specifically at a place like University of Alabama, involves so much overt performance — of gender, of class, of whiteness — in a way that exposes how constructed all of these things are and how invested parts of our culture are in maintaining their hierarchies.“Contemporary Greek life is at once far more complex than the stereotype and also deeply rooted in that stereotype. It’s incredibly ornate and deceptively simple. It’s all so deeply, deeply American,” writes Petersen, explaining why so many of us are so fascinated by the subculture, even if it feels disconnected from our daily lives.
Emma has been watching… 📺
I went down a dark rabbit hole of E! original romantic comedies over the last week. First Hulu suggested that I watch “Ms. Match,” about an aspiring screenwriter Athena who works as a professional dater, coaching hapless men on how to find a real connection, and in the process maybe finding one for herself. Once I watched it straight through, the algorithm knew it had me, so it recommended “Maybe It’s You,” about two college besties who decide to try and date each other after each going through a devastating breakup. (Starring “Jane The Virgin’s” Brett Dier!) My final watch was “Arranged Love,” which follows Meera, who fled an arranged marriage to go off to the States and pursue her CEO startup dreams, but ultimately needs to go back home to get her inheritance — and brings a fake husband with her as backup.
While I wouldn’t call these movies great rom-coms, I will say that they scratch an itch I always have, and are certainly a step up from Hallmark fare.
Emma has been listening to… 🎧
Season four of the investigative true crime podcast “Over My Dead Body” just started. This season, “Over My Dead Body: Gone Hunting,” dives into the story of high school sweethearts Mike and Denise Williams. In December 2000, Mike went out on a hunting trip to Lake Seminole and never returned. What seemed like a drowning / gator incident, turned into something much darker; a story of infidelity and murder that spanned decades. This season seems to be reclaiming some of the magic that season 1, about the murder of Dan Markel, had for me. Both take place in Tallahassee, and both are ultimately stories about relationships more than murders.
Emma has been buying… 🛍️
This basic knit rib tank from Quince. I absolutely love Quince for quality basics, and I realized recently that I am low on basic tank tops that I can layer and wear with trousers and jeans during the transitional season and into fall.
Also… photos! A few weeks ago I went to New Mexico with my boyfriend, and we met two of our best friends and their baby at Los Poblanos, a dreamy lavender farm / inn with an insanely delicious farm-to-table restaurant, Campo, on the property. (Helmed by a James Beard award-winning chef. Cannot recommend enough if you’re ever in Albuquerque.) On a whim, we hired an incredible local photographer, Cam Storie, to do a professional photo shoot with the 5 of us and it was BEYOND worth it. (Shout out to Cam!!!) We all are so overly documented these days that I had forgotten how cool it is to have a moment in time captured in a beautiful setting by a real artist — a moment that isn’t a wedding or engagement or baby shower.
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