Sunday Paper Recommends—Week of August 16, 2026
This week at The Sunday Paper, we’re sharing a new book, podcast, and show that we believe will add inspiration to your days. We hope these suggestions open your heart and mind and encourage you to come together for meaningful conversations.
What We’re Watching
What do you do when a grandfather you never met leaves you an island? For Annie Jacobson, the answer starts with packing a bag and ends with a summer that upends everything she thought she understood about her family. Sterling Point follows Annie as she trades New York City for a remote lake town thick with existing friendships, unexpected attractions, and secrets no one bothered to mention. There, she falls in with a tight-knit group of locals who seem to know more about the man’s history than she ever did, and one connection among them changes everything. As the days stretch on, long-standing loyalties and new romances start pulling her in directions she never anticipated. Watch all eight episodes of Sterling Point, now streaming on Prime Video.
What We’re Reading
Think about the last “relaxing” vacation photo you posted. Kathryn Jezer-Morton has a theory about the extra hour you spent staging it: it’s not vanity, it’s compliance. In The Story of Your Life, the longtime Cut columnist digs into the algorithm-driven habits that have reshaped how we document milestones, homes, breakups, and beliefs, arguing that our platforms now function less like scrapbooks and more like machines demanding resilience and triumph on command. She sits down with real people who admit to things most of us would never say out loud, like editing a baby’s acne out of a photo—confessions that reveal just how deep the performance runs. Pick up The Story of Your Life, out now, and you may never caption a sunset the same way again.
What We’re Listening To
We have funerals for death and playlists for breakups, but nothing for the friend who just stops calling. On this episode of 1A, host Jenn White sits down with psychologist Marisa Franco, NPR’s Rhaina Cohen, and therapist Gina Moffa to name a loss most people carry in silence and rarely see reflected back at them. The three dig into why friendship endings hit the nervous system as hard as any other loss, why our culture gives romantic breakups a script and gives this nothing, and what it actually takes to grieve someone who’s still very much alive. Listeners call in with their own stories throughout, turning the hour into something closer to communion than commentary.
Listen Now
For even more from Marisa Franco, check out her interview with The Sunday Paper on creating deeper friendships!
Sunday Paper Recipe
Grilled Hoisin-Harissa Lamb Chops & Plums with Herb Salad
When I was growing up, our kosher meat was delivered once a month from Chicago; we picked it up from a local synagogue. “Shopping” for dinner often meant heading out to the extra freezer in the garage and removing the package we planned to cook on any particular night. Lamb chops were a special treat then, and they still are now. The simple hoisin-harissa glaze is the crowning glory here; brush on toward the end to prevent smoking. The herb salad can be served alongside or on top.
Serves: 4
Cook Time: 35 Minutes
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons Harissa (page 15 or store-bought)
3 plums, halved
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for brushing
8 to 10 baby lamb chops (2 to 21/2 pounds)
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
1 cup dill fronds
1 cup picked mint leaves
1 cup picked parsley or cilantro leaves
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
Directions:
- In a small bowl, combine the hoisin and harissa. Heat a grill or grill pan over medium-high heat.
- Season the plums on their cut sides with salt and pepper. Brush the hot grill pan with oil, then grill the plums, cut side down, until softened and grill marks are visible, 3 to 4 minutes; transfer to a large plate and loosely cover with foil. Season the lamb chops with salt and pepper and grill until light grill marks appear, 2 to 3 minutes per side for medium-rare. Brush the tops of the chops with half the hoisin-harissa mixture, flip, and grill the underside until the sauce caramelizes slightly, 30 seconds. While the underside is grilling, brush the tops with the rest of the mixture, flip, and grill for 30 more seconds. Transfer to the plate with the plums, lightly cover to keep warm, and let the chops rest for 5 minutes while you make the salad.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the lime juice, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and the olive oil. Add the herbs and onion and gently toss. Season the chops with more salt; serve with the plums and herb salad.
Excerpted from Zariz: 100 Easy, Breezy, Tel Aviv-y Recipes by Adeena Sussman with permission of Avery, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © Adeena Sussman, 2026.
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