The Unofficial Start to Summer

I spent Memorial Day Weekend the sexiest possible way: at a national student math convention in Chicago—impossible to beat that, right?! I hope you were doing something that brought you (or at least someone you love!) a lot of joy.

But if you had a rainy disappointing one, I’ve got a little sunshine for your inboxes today. To mark the unofficial start of summer, I’m doing a bonkers five book giveaway! Huzzah! It includes two signed cookbooks by absolute legends—Jose Andres’ Spain My Way and Hillary Sterling’s Ammazza. And then three happy books to start summer off right—an advance copy of Grace Reilly’s Yes, Chef; a signed copy of Jane Costello’s Forty Love; and of course a signed copy of The Slow Burn from me.

To sign up, go to this form. You just have to be an email subscriber and you can get extra entries by reposting the giveaway on instagram.

Now onward to summer reading!

This is the time of year where so many books come out (because of course publishers want to maximize ‘beach read’ time), that it’s almost impossible to keep up. But today, there are two brand new books that I got to read early and already know are some of my favorites of the year.

Alexa Martin is an auto-buy author for me, and her newest is the kind of transporting romcom we all need. By the Bootstraps is about a woman who buys a farm in Texas and falls in love with a man who desperately wants to outrun his family’s ranch dynasty. If you, like me, are obsessed with Beyonce’s Cowboy Cater then this book is for you. Really if you love any funny, swoony love stories, this book is for you. I ‘m obsessed with this one!

And if you want to go to the beach, Francesca Cocchi’s Have a Great Summer is also a must-get. It’s about a woman who’s sick of her Jersey shore hometown and has to face the man whose family restaurant was the site of all her teenage infatuated summers. It’s a pure injection of summer and nostalgia and warm breezes. I read this book in one sitting and just adored it.

You’ve seen it in our giveaway, but Jose Andres has a new book out, Spain My Way, and if you want to spend a little time learning a new cuisine, you couldn’t have a better guide.

In terms of cooking, I’m at that moment where my kids are complaining that I’m making asparagus every single day. But it’s hard to help it when the produce starts to shine! One of my favorite recipes is this super easy asparagus and goat cheese tart from my cook book, Bring It! It’s one of those perfect recipes that look complicated but are actually just sticking a few ingredients together.

I live in New York with two die-hard Knicks fans, so it’s a pretty happy time generally in our house. And while I’m not a huge sports person, I do really enjoy the absolute mayhem of happiness that comes from a long-suffering team finally having a good run. New Yorkers have been showing up around MSG in droves, just to feel excitement together, and not much can be more beautiful than that!

And something else a bit delightful that I came across—as though chess isn’t hard enough, now there’s a group that plays underwater. Why? Who knows. But it certainly gave me a chuckle.

Thank you for being here and looking to books for a little hit of joy. I hope you’ll sign up for and share the giveaway!

And by the way - the winner of the poll in the last newsletter for a bonus chapter was Nico by a mile. So I’ll be working on my little bonus chapter for all of you very soon. Until then, thanks for reading!