Film

This summer marks 50 years since the release of Jaws and with it the birth of the summer blockbuster. While a rewatch of the sharp-toothed classic is never a bad idea, here are three new films well worth your time.

‘JurassicWorld Rebirth’
Gareth Edwards

After the lumbering missteps of Colin Trevorrow’s increasingly intolerable sequels, Jurassic World Rebirth promises to be a sleeker, grander soulful beast with director Gareth Edwards’ knack for tension and spectacle.With Scarlett Johansson fronting a cast that features Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey, it’s finally time to recapture the magic of Spielberg’s original.
‘JurassicWorld Rebirth’ is released on 2 July. To read more about it, turn to page 49

‘The Shrouds’
David Cronenberg

Elegant, eerie and intimate, this macabre tech-noir lingers in the mind like grief itself. Vincent Cassel gives an understated performance as Karsh, a bereaved widower whose invention lets the living survey the dead’s rotting bodies. With sterile spaces, a haunting Howard Shore score and an intriguing central mystery, all contained within Cronenberg’s obsession with flesh and metal, it’s an elegant meditation on love and decay.
‘The Shrouds’ is released on 4 July

‘Materialists’
Celine Song

Song follows up her charming love triangle Past Lives with another look at a woman caught between two romantic prospects. Dakota Johnson stars as Lucy, a New York matchmaker torn between Pedro Pascal’s dashing wealthy suitor and Chris Evans’s emotionally raw ex. Song’s script skewers the transactional nature of dating while honouring the highs and lows of genuine connection. With its gauzy A24 polish and Song in both writer and director mode, this is the thinking romantic’s summer must-see.
‘Materialists’ is released on 16 August

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Books

With the lazier schedule of the summer months – and the possibility of time to get away and reset – comes the prospect of unencumbered hours to get stuck into a great book. From chefs and politicians to fashion designers and authors, we asked 10 interesting people which book they’d encourage others to pack for a holiday. These novels, short stories and non fiction reads offer entertainment, escapism and, in many cases, fresh perspectives on life. A visit to the beach can expand your horizons in more ways than one.

01.
‘Dead Wake’ by Erik Larson
Selected by Gabrielius Landsbergis

Larson’s non-fiction account of passenger ship Lusitania is a beautifully rendered picture of war, trauma and hope. This thriller is told from multiple vantage points. Though I knew the ending, I still hoped against history that the protagonists survived. Beyond the human story, it’s a political meditation on how long it took the US to act and at what cost. It resonates today. How many lives could have been saved if America chose to lead when it mattered most?
Landsbergis is the former foreign minister of Lithuania

02.
‘Os Sertões’ by Euclides da Cunha
Selected by Tomás Biagi Carvalho

Os Sertões (or Rebellion in the Backlands) recounts the War of Canudos, a civil conflict that took place in northeast Brazil five years before this book’s publication in 1902. The story combines poetic beauty and emotion with the precision and rigour of science. The descriptions of the backlands, climate, fauna and flora, the rivers that flow into the sea and the favelas always endear me to my country.
Biagi Carvalho is editor and founder of ‘Amarello’ magazine

03.
‘Garden Bulbs in Color’ by J Horace McFarland LHD, R Marion Hatton and Daniel J Foley
Selected by Cecilie Bahnsen

I found this 1938 book in a vintage bookshop. It is made for amateur gardeners, like me and my son. I’ve enjoyed reading the tips and the history of bulbs, as well as the charts for size and planting depth, as we have spent the spring planting tulips. The most inspiring parts are the illustrations. The flowers bloom outside their frames like floral collages of inspiration.
Bahnsen is a Danish fashion designer

04.
‘The Political Thought of Xi Jinping’ by Steve Tsang and Olivia Cheung
Selected by Benedetta Berti

I found this book compelling, insightful and highly educational. Ideology is certainly not the
only factor shaping political behaviour, yet underestimating its importance comes at great risk. In a world of growing strategic competition, which is underpinned by markedly distinct views of global order, this book sheds light on the evolving “Xi Thought” and its influence on both the People’s Republic of China and the rest of the world.
Berti is the director of policy planning at Nato

05.
‘The Chronology of Water’ by LidiaYuknavitch
Selected by Aline Asmar d’Amman

Books are the foundation of my architecture practice; necessary to the mental construction of every project narrative and space. Sometimes, a book is such a magical encounter that its resonance inspires a dedicated space, floor to ceiling, walls to textures. Case in point: this memoir. I know that there will be many readers looking to outswim pain or traumatic experiences this summer, just as Yuknavitch did.
Asmar d’Amman is an architect and the founder of Culture in Architecture

06.
‘River Spirit’ by Leila Aboulela
Selected by Yassmin Abdel-Magied

This historical fiction about Sudan mirrors the current moment in many ways. It is beautifully written and, for readers who might not know a lot about the country, it’s a wonderful entry point. It has nuanced characters and, though it’s historical, it feels very contemporary.
Abdel-Magied is a Sudanese- Australian media presenter and writer

07.
‘The Story of San Michele’ by Axel Munthe
Selected by Amy Poon

This extraordinary book is composed of vignettes that span the author’s experiences as a society physician, an animal lover and a doctor during cholera outbreaks. He ultimately rebuilds the ruined Tiberian villa of San Michele, perched high above the shimmering Bay of Naples on Capri. Full of charm, wit and wisdom worn lightly, it’s a mesmerising read. I came across it more than 20 years ago; it made me believe in magic.
Poon is the founder of Poon’s London

08.
‘Sixty Stories’ by Donald Barthelme
Selected by David Shrigley

I was introduced to Barthelme’s short stories when I was about 17 years old. They challenged what I understood to be literary conventions in a way that was tremendously exciting.They were punk rock but at the same time clever and strange. I later heard people call this style “postmodern”. Whatever postmodernism is or was, there was something about this version of it that moved me. Start with “On Angels” and maybe you’ll see what I mean.
Shrigley is a visual artist

09. ‘Spent Light’ by Lara Pawson
Selected by Vijay Khurana

This is an exquisitely written flight through a woman’s mind, as she considers the objects in her life: a second-hand toaster, an egg timer, a collection of dog fur. This is a book about noticing, a book that shows how the mundane things we surround ourselves with connect us to structures of cruelty but also to love and each other.
Khurana is an Australian writer and author of ‘The Passenger Seat’

10. ‘The Third Plate’ by Dan Barber
Selected by Brad Carter

This book looks at farming that’s sustainably minded and produces delicious seasonal food. It hit me hard at the time as everything I was applying to my restaurant was in this book. Barber shows why good practices make a good dinner.
Carter is a celebrated chef

11. ‘Monsoon’ by Asma Khan 
Selected by Fadi Kattan 

Monsoon is the ideal cookbook for summer. Khan’s magical writing takes us on a journey into the depths of her native Bengal. The aromas of the kitchen are mesmerising. Be it at home or on holiday, this book is an invitation to enjoy Indian cuisine at a leisurely pace and in any mood. I can already imagine the crispy crack of the lentil fritters or the cooling kaddu ka raita (pumpkin raita) on a sunny day. 
Kattan is a chef and the co-owner of restaurant Akub 

12. ‘The Book of Tea’ by Kakuzō Okakura
Selected by Charlie Casely-Hayford

Okakura’s exploration of the tea ceremony as an art form deeply resonated with me. It illuminated how simplicity and imperfection can be celebrated. The book’s meditation on the West’s pursuit of dominance over nature and the East’s reverence for its subtle rhythms continually informs my creative process. It reminds me to appreciate the profound in the everyday.
Casely-Hayford is a menswear designer

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Exhibitions

The airy rooms of a gallery provide escape and inspiration on a hot summer’s day. Here, we pick the best exhibitions this summer to capture your imagination. They might even help you cool off.

‘Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting’
National Portrait Gallery, London

Stare at a Jenny Saville portrait and you’ll swear the subject is alive under those luscious strokes of paint, such is the clarity and visceral power of her craft. With Saville’s brush, eyes pierce, blood pulses and skin reveals gorgeous, bruised hues. More humane than Lucian Freud’s, her work is a celebration of flesh in all its ungainly forms. Anyone doubting the power of 21st-century figurative art should prepare to dissect the work of one of Britain’s greatest living painters.
‘The Anatomy of Painting’ runs from 20 June to 7 September

‘The Magical City: George Morrison’s New York’
TheMetFifthAvenue, NewYork

A Native American who grew up in rural Minnesota during the Great Depression before later training as a painter in Paris and Antibes, George Morrison’s path to Manhattan was not a well-trodden one. With 25 large-scale paintings and archive materials, this exhibition will celebrate his loose connections to mid-century icons such as Willem de Kooning. It
will also explore Morrison’s fondness for Fauvist-like colour combinations and map-like dissections of the landscape, revealing a singular talent.
‘The Magical City: George Morrison’s New York’ runs from 17 July to 31 May 2026

‘The Architecture of Sou Fujimoto: Primordial Future Forest’
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo

In the past 25 years, Hokkaido born Sou Fujimoto has developed into one of Japan’s leading architects and most influential thinkers. Respectful of nature and the built environment, his designs play with semi-open spaces and encourage us to rethink how we interact with the world. Through photos, plans and scale models, this first major gallery survey will ask big questions while laying out Fujimoto’s stimulating answers.
‘Primordial Future Forest’ runs from 2 July to 9 November