If you’ve ever searched kitchens on Pinterest and then briefly considered a full renovation before bedtime, Studio McGee is for you. The interiors brand has quietly become one of the more reliable references for how people actually want to style their homes. Now a new collaboration with Kohler brings designer sensibility into the bathroom. What makes their Claude collection so persuasive is its refusal to chase trends, instead applying Studio McGee’s talent for timelessness to the details that matter most. Kohler, on the other hand, does what Kohler does best: make sure everything works properly. Peruse the line for inspiration, and leave with an inevitable project: you start pricing tiles. The rest tends to follow. (kohler.com) —Jennifer Noyes

N/Naka—Niki Nakayama and Carole Iida-Nakayama’s one-Michelin-star kaiseki temple in Culver City, California—is among the most celebrated restaurants in the country, with a reservation waitlist to match. N/Soto, their izakaya-style follow-up in West Adams, is what a go-with-the-flow Friday night was made for. Where N/Naka demands months of advance planning, a willingness to surrender your evening, and a particular bon vivant relationship with your credit card, N/Soto asks only that you show up. The menu features heavy hitters from sashimi and kushiyaki to hand rolls, and carries all of the seasonality and flavor you’d expect from this team without the tasting-menu frills. The cocktail menu (hello, Japanese aperitivo!) is also not to be missed. (nsoto-la.com) —Rachel LeSage

Whether or not you’re afraid of heights, I am certain you shivered a bit when you first saw the famed black-and-white photograph of 11 Rockefeller Center workers sitting on a beam, eating and smoking high above the Manhattan skyline. Christine Roussel, a Rockefeller Center archivist, decided to investigate exactly how this photo came to be, and Lunch on a Beam is the delightful result. The photograph of workers perched on two I beams 840 feet off the ground was taken on September 20, 1932. The photographer, however, remains unknown, and the ironworkers unidentified. A veteran ironworker insists to Roussel that the setup is safe, thanks to the steel cable visible on the right that is attached to a derrick—tell that to a non-ironworker. Roussel pursues many leads to identify the men, explores the culture of ironworkers and work during the Depression, and by book’s end she and the reader are pretty confident she nailed 10 of the names. Lunch on a Beam is part personal journey, part social history, and wholly engrossing. ($35, amazon.com) —Jim Kelly

The third film in director Éric Rohmer’s series Comedies and Proverbs, Pauline at the Beach explores the emotions (and delusions) around summer love. About to divorce her husband, Marion (Arielle Dombasle) takes her 15-year-old cousin Pauline (Amanda Langlet) to spend the summer at a beach house in Normandy, where she runs into her ex-paramour Pierre (Pascal Greggory). Marion soon finds herself caught in a lopsided love triangle between Pierre’s obsession and a bachelor’s indifference, while Pauline has her first summer fling. From listening to the adults’ long evening debates to spending afternoons at the beach with her petit ami, Pauline begins to shape her own beliefs about boys and love. Set against the allure of the French seaside, Pauline at the Beach is a satisfying slow burn, at once a cinematic observation of summer romance and a master class on dialogue. (criterionchannel.com) —Eve Eismann

Of all the ways in which smartphones have insidiously infected our lives, surely it’s their presence in the bedroom that ranks among the gravest violations. Even with Do Not Disturb and Sleep mode switched on, just having a powered-up phone on your bedside table to use as an alarm clock feels invasive. I’d thought about making the switch to an analog alarm clock but hesitated as I tend to play ocean sounds on my phone to fall asleep. Discovering Loftie, however, has been something of a revelation. Combining the best of old and new tech, their brilliantly designed alarm clocks have allowed me to abstain from phone use in the bedroom entirely. Aside from featuring a terrific array of nature sounds, it also has a built-in night-light, which has surprisingly become an essential feature for me. ($229.98, byloftie.com) —Spike Carter

Summer technically starts this weekend—and I know exactly who I’m emulating this year: Sally Jay Gorce, the protagonist of the 1958 semi-autobiographical debut novel by Elaine Dundy. The Dud Avocado explores the misadventures of the exuberant, uninhibited, and pink-haired Gorce, who hitches a flight to Paris, “hell-bent on living,” as she says. A cross between Carrie Bradshaw and Holly Golightly, Gorce embodies the joie de vivre of being a girl-about-town: frolicking from the Ritz to Le Select, Montparnasse to Biarritz, in search of the next cocktail party and paramour. Her suitors, drawn by her ineffable popularity, range from bohemian artists to Italian diplomats. All of this excitement aside, you don’t read Dundy’s novel for its plot but rather for its sharp, magnetic, and hilarious narration. Don’t believe us? What if we told you Groucho Marx, Gore Vidal, and Ernest Hemingway were avid fans? ($17.95, amazon.com) —Maggie Turner