Photo Courtesy of Anna Chiaradonna
Whether you are hunting for your next beach read, binge-worthy TV show, or a new spot to try in Lancaster, we’ve got you covered with our round-up of summer recommendations. Check out what TCR is loving this summer!
TV Shows & Movies
Your Honor (Streaming on Netflix)
In this riveting drama, Bryan Cranston plays a New Orleans judge whose fidelity to law and order is impugned when his teenage son kills another young man, who happens to be the son of a local mob boss, in a hit-and-run. Intriguing as an English major, the limited series’ title has a literary aura. At first glance, the title points to the protagonist’s vocation however, following a more thorough analysis, it comments on a corner of human existence the narrative so intensely questions: the preservation of honor and dignity amongst arduous life circumstances. A propulsive narrative that is pleasantly philosophical, Your Honor foregrounds an ethical and moral quandary that, regardless of choice, yields no soul-satisfying conclusion. If you are looking for a series that provokes a distinct, immersive duality of thought throughout your digestion of the narrative, both seasons of Your Honor are streaming on Netflix.
—Anna Chiaradonna ‘26, Editor-in-Chief
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (Streaming on Hulu)
Originally, I fell in love with Wes Anderson’s cinematography style. Then, after watching a few of his films, I realized they had a plot. too. In my defense, I started with “Astroid City.” “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” is the perfect film to watch at the beach – despite most of the movie taking place in a fantastical boat/submarine, the marine version of a man shed – and is so comfortingly bizarre that you’ll deeply relate to it even if your brain is fried from sunburn.
— Teagan Durkin ‘26, Opinions Editor
Poirot (Streaming on Britbox)
Unless you have British-based broadcasting you’re likely unfamiliar with Agathe Christie’s “Poirot,” à show from the eighties that feels like the eighties. However, put aside the triangle-based intro video serenaded by jazz music, and you’re instantly transported to twentieth-century London, where murdered fraudsters and one magnificently mustached man await you with several thrilling seasons.
— Teagan Durkin ‘26, Opinions Editor
Books
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Ocean Vuong’s debut novel is a testament to the beauty, and danger, of words. A young Vietnamese-American’s letter to his illiterate mother, this piece is more about the process of digesting memories than it is about Vuoung communicating with his mother. A poet in craft, Vuong’s prose is stunningly lyrical and evocative, as it follows the story of his mother’s education ending at seven when her school in Vietnam collapsed after an American napalm raid. In the same way that a novel stops you from putting it down, this work forces you to take breaks and sit with the meaning of its stunningly heartbreaking lyricism. For me, this work has also provided a unique reckoning with my own country’s history, as it so strikingly illustrates the effects of generational trauma following the conflict in Vietnam. One of my favorite lines is when he insists that he and his mother were born not from war, as he long thought, but from beauty, writing: “Let no one mistake us for the fruit of violence — but rather, that violence, having passed through the fruit, failed to spoil it.”
—Anna Chiaradonna ‘26, Editor-in-Chief
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
In this novel, the author utilizes a bit of the absurd to tell the story of a woman learning how to cope with the change surrounding her career, friendship, and love. It is a beautiful story of how fate can alter one’s imagined future. I flew through the book in two days!
— Lily Andrey ‘27, Campus Life Editor
Photo Courtesy of Lily Andrey.
Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
Although I love his short story collections, reading a full-length Murakami novel is a deep dive into the thin line between the utterly surreal and the comfortingly familiar. This book encapsulates Murakami’s characters at their best: pensive yet stupid; filled with wanderlust yet confined by their own limitations; and mundanely captivating.
— Teagan Durkin ‘26, Opinions Editor
Sirens and Muses by Antonia Angress
This novel describes the life of four artists at an elite art school in New York. You become quickly attached to all the characters as their lives begin to intersect. Easy summer read.
— Lily Andrey ‘27, Campus Life Editor
Albums
Don’t Forget Me by Maggie Rogers
It’s a new(ish) album and it’s quite wonderful. It’s pop with a bit of an edge? Her music makes me feel like a girl again but also a woman experiencing life in her mid-twenties at the same time. I am neither of those things so I can’t explain it.
— Lily Andrey ‘27, Campus Life Editor
The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess by Chappell Roan.
It’s Roan’s debut, but from the quality of the songs you would never be able to tell. If you’re a fan of pop music with heartfelt queer storylines, then you’ll definitely go through the emotional rollercoaster that I did listening for the first time. Every single song joined my daily rotation because Roan is as masterful at singing as she is at songwriting. My favorite tracks are “Coffee” and “Pink Pony Club”.
— Emily Hanson ‘25, Managing Editor
Older by Lizzy McAlpine
I had never listened to Lizzie McAlpine until my friends, and I decided to go to her concert very last minute. I streamed her album “Older” for two weeks straight and fell in love with her lyrics and how well she was able to articulate universal events. The songs on this album are very heavy but she talks about real struggles and feelings in such a gut-wrenchingly beautiful way. Her lyrics when combined with her vocals and instrumentals, make for a deeply moving album that is definitely worth the listen.
— Gurbani Chawla ‘26, Contributing Writer
The Great American Bar Scene by Zach Byran
I used to hate country music so I like to think my recommendations are good for those who feel the same, but are feeling open to new things. Bryan is great for the beach or driving around on a really hot day. His lyrics make you feel deeply connected to the stories he tells and the guitar riffs are never boring.
— Lily Andrey ‘27, Campus Life Editor
Miscilenous
Iced London fog
As someone who will stubbornly drink hot tea to the point of heat stroke, rediscovering the joys of an iced London fog has soared me from any emergency room visits this summer.
— Teagan Durkin ‘26, Opinions Editor
An iced chai latte, proof that Endo’s Cafe has culinary reach. Courtesy of Tegan Durkin.
“The Miseducation of the American Boy” by Peggy Orenstein
Adapted from Peggy Orenstein’s book, Boys and Sex, this analytic essay is a collection of interviews conducted between the author and young American men as they confront the notions of manhood society sculpts for them. Orenstein uses the interviews to suggest that practicing healthy manhood is the start of eradicating sexism. I found that this piece most certainly appeals to the empathetic reader through its suggestion that society so harshly teaches young men a toxic, outdated ideal of masculinity that emphasizes aggression, conquest, and emotional detachment, helping to contextualize the current climate of American gender relations. A stunning counterpart to the feminist framework I often find myself diving into, this article is available through The Atlantic.
Endo’s Cafe
Throughout this summer, Endo’s Cafe has been an oasis as a summer student worker. With a cool chai in hand, I’ve come to deeply appreciate the cafe’s welcome vibe, with everything from a free propagation station to a jewelry store to renovated bike light fixtures.
— Teagan Durkin ‘26, Opinions Editor