We're Mad About (and on Behalf of) The Bachelorette!

Plus, the Summer Bestsellers of the 1950s, and revisiting the wildest looks from the last season of Selling Sunset.

First, an apology: It feels like a sin to be running a piece about summer bestsellers after Labor Day, especially when my very own methodology defines “summer” as Memorial Day through Labor Day. Mea culpa! This little number was meant to wing its way to you sooner, but then Blake Lively started acting like a weirdo and the Lopez-Afflecks divorced¹ and, as they say, we had to hold for breaking news. But now we’re back, and we’re getting into the Delorean and zipping way, way, way, way waaaay back in time to the 1950s to see what books hit the top of the New York Times bestsellers list every summer of that decade. (Previously, we’ve visited the 1960s, 1970s, ‘80s, ‘90s, and the first decade of the current century.) As was the case for the 1960s, we have far fewer books hitting the top slot each summer than we saw in later years. I still don’t know if that’s because fewer books overall were published, or because media coverage was different then, or what — perhaps a powerful witchcraft wa…