Summer Reading List
A comprehensive list of all the media to watch, read, and listen to for a summer that is fab, weird, and romantic!
For the Supper Team, summer is the peak of nostalgia - a full tilt throwback to grade school fantasies that puts on the rose-colored glasses and has us in our "Everything is Romantic" bag. ICYMI, nearly every themed soirée we throw is inspired by film, art, or music. This is our full list to prepare you with ALL the context for Supper Summer, getting you to a place of 2007 wistful nostalgia and ready to romanticize this summer.
THE SCREEN - SILVER & SMALL
1. Sex & The City
Episodes: "Boy, Interrupted" (Season 6, Episode 10) & "Escape From New York" (Season 3, Episode 13)
Rotten Tomatoes: 77% (Series)
Sex & The City - for all of its faults, is a cultural touchstone for all the girls who occupy the space between fabulous, snarky, and romantic. Their summer episodes are where the fun shines through. We love Samantha-centric, antics-heavy episodes like "Boy, Interrupted" (Season 6, Episode 10) - it hits the nail on the head.
TLDR: It's the one where Samantha can't get into Soho House and pretends to be the British, Annabelle Bronstein (accent TO DIE FOR!)
2. The Parent Trap
Rotten Tomatoes: 86%
Lindsay Lohan is our titular summer icon - whether it's Herbie Fully Loaded or Freaky Friday, you really can't go wrong with a little Lindsay for a true summer VIBE. Our second-ever Supper theme was "Supper Camp - An ode to Summer Camp nostalgia," and it's coming baaaack!
TLDR: Lindsay Lohan x2 are separated at birth by the forever hot dad Dennis Quaid and top-tier fabulous frazzled-British-woman mom Natasha Richardson. They meet at the world's cutest summer camp and decide to get their parents back together - chaos ensues. Shout out to Meredith Blake & Chessy, y'all are the real heroes here.
3. Mamma Mia
Rotten Tomatoes: 55%
This movie has it all: vibes, Meryl Streep, and ABBA. That's really all you need to know.
4. Ever After
Rotten Tomatoes: 91%
Ever After is the deep-cut Cinderella retelling of your dreams. Drew Barrymore crossed the picket line, but we are willing to look past that for one film and one film only - Ever After! A truly '90s medieval Cinderella story with a bit of historical context, all the dry humor, off-kilter accents, and costuming that is just too damn good. Plus, Leonardo da Vinci. It's worth a watch.
TLDR: Drew Barrymore's Cinderella is snarky and capable in this adaptation as Danielle. She has a run-in with Prince Henry as he is attempting to flee to avoid an arranged marriage to Princess Gabriella of Spain. They have a cute confrontation, and the rest is history with a tried-and-true Cinderella story featuring no true fantasy but all the magic in a historically rooted Cinderella insertion.
5. JOHN WATERS - Cry-Baby & Pink Flamingos
Cry-Baby Rotten Tomatoes: 72%
Pink Flamingos Rotten Tomatoes: 81%
The Supper Team is deeply influenced by our love for our artistic predecessors. The drama, silliness, and vulnerability of folks creating art all their own is just so cool. John Waters is the epitome of going for it—a Queer Icon & the King of Camp, we look to him often to bring some lightness to the drama of dining!
For the first-time John Waters viewer, we present 'Cry-Baby': a prim and proper schoolgirl goes against her mother's wishes when she dates a motorcycle-riding juvenile delinquent—a young Johnny Depp (hot and we feel complicated about it).
For the tenured Camp consumers or babes that want to full send, we offer you "Pink Flamingos."
TLDR: A bizarre woman (Divine) and her misfit family compete with a Baltimore couple (David Lochary, Mink Stole) to be named the filthiest people alive.
CULTURED READINGS
Honestly, who thinks the summer reading lists were feeding us in the ways we were needing? Not me! Summer is our reading season (especially in TX!). There's nothing like a little summer introspection and main character fantasizing, so here's what we think will get those wheels turning...
1. A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers
Two summers ago, I made a list of ONLY fem and ideally international authors, which led me to the Weird Lit genre—surrealist, dark, and cuttingly funny! The mind of a woman is just so fab, and Chelsea G. Summers takes it to the next level with A Certain Hunger.
TLDR: Food writer Dorothy Daniels, who is also a convicted serial killer, narrates the story of her crimes from prison, moving back and forth in time between her life behind bars and the life that led to her imprisonment: specifically, the food she ate, including eating men.
2. Puss Puss Magazine
The magazine for fashion, art, culture and cat lovers.
This international mag takes art and culture to the quirky earthy heights of fashion with spotlights on artists doing thought provoking work. From their most recent edition covering Jenna Lyons & Marina Abramović to, Mia Khalifa, Natasha Lyonne & Devon Lee Carlson - we are obsessed with their honest centuring of the opinionated cool girl and what they’re passionate about.
Find with friends of the club Keep Looking Shop!
3. Words From Eliza
The substack of the our favorite renaissance woman and Binchtopia co-host, Eliza McLamb.
Eliza, the woman you are! Brought to me by way of Tiktok during the tender year or 2020, Eliza struck me with her sharp takes and vulnerable approach to uncovering the truth about womanhood and growing up. This only grew when she started her podcast with Julia Hava (an icon we will be sure to speak on soon!) where they embody the mind of philosopher meets gen-z girly pop.
Take a deeper dive into the mind of a mastermind with Words from Eliza - covering everything from leaving the first place you planted roots as an adult to the blight of having a body (specifically a big-titted one).
SUPPER SUMMER PLAYLIST
Inspired by our fave media that celebrates summer romanticization, reflection, and nostalgia, this playlist brings you a blend of past hot-100 tracks and fresh hits that’ll have your looking whistfully out the window and strutting.
