Each week, we'll be letting you know about new releases the editors of O and Oprah.com couldn't stop reading. This Monday, we've gone back to the days of yore (and oars) with...

Silver: Return to Treasure Island
By Andrew Motion

What would Jane Eyre look like 40 years after falling for Mr. Rochester? What kind of life would they have together? It's just this kind of question that celebrated poet Andrew Motion asks about another English classic, Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. To answer it, he's written the deft, wildly imaginative Silver: Return to Treasure Island, a story set 40 years after young Jim Hawkins has returned to England with his bounty. Devastated by the loss of his wife, he drinks himself into a stupor while halfheartedly running a small inn. Not surprisingly, his only son—also named Jim—runs away to sea with his father's old map. Accompanying him is Natty, the clever yet mysterious daughter of Long John Silver, the notorious star of Stevenson's original novel. A series of high-seas adventures ensue that include everything from booby-trapped jungles to abused captives to missing precious metals. What's so fun—and gripping—about this sequel is that, first of all, you don't have to have read Treasure Island (key details are studded throughout) and, second of all, Motion shares that wickedly delightful sense of story and language of his predecessor. Every chapter crackles with energy and action. Lies, betrayals, romance, humor—expect them all. But Motion also uses this reflection on the fictional past to comment on social issues like slavery and environmentalism, which Stevenson could not. What results is a page-turner that thoughtfully questions its own world—and makes you long for a sequel to the sequel.

Read More
Check out another 19th-century adventure, The Good Thief
Join Oprah's Book Club 2.0

Photo: Courtesy of Seventh Generation

The back of a soap bottle may not seem like a fascinating read, but ignoring the label can be bad for you and the planet. I remember the first time I idly scanned the ingredient list on my dollar-store body wash. "What the heck is ethyl paraben?" I wondered. Squeaky clean and seated at a computer ten minutes later, I learned that parabens (a common synthetic preservative in soap, body wash, and shampoo) can be hormone disrupters, potentially affecting fertility. Yikes.

So when Seventh Generation, masters of eco-friendly household cleaners, launched a new line of soaps, lotions, and body washes this summer, I was game to get my suds on. Like any packaging, you should skip the marketing hype on the front ("natural," "pure," and "healthy" aren't regulated claims) and flip to the backside. Here, the science is transparent and promising: No parabens, phthalates (hormone disrupters that have been linked to increased cancer risk), or synthetic fragrances.

Equally noteworthy: This line is one of the first to qualify as a USDA Certified Biobased Product. The new seal discloses the percentage of materials that are made from renewable plant and marine elements versus petroleum products. All certified products must meet a threshold of 25 percent renewable resources, but Seventh Generation's mandarin-scented body wash, for instance, is 93 percent plant-based. Consider it a clean routine that leaves no residue of environmental guilt. ($4 to $8, seventhgeneration.com)

Photo: Thinkstock

If I could collect one thing, it would be other people's collections. I love to go to someone's home and discover a collection: the wacky furniture-less living room full of crystal I once encountered at an open-house; the army of frog figurines greeting me when I visited a faraway uncle's apartment for the first time. Collections always seem so eloquent, like quirky illustrations of a person's soul: My husband's records are as much a part of him as his limbs. So I can't believe I've never before come across the wonderful Collection a Day project of artist Lisa Congdon, but maybe it's for the best. Now that she's already lived her Year of Collections, we get to browse through all 365 collections—real and imagined—at once. 

Arranged and photographed by Congdon, an arrangement of vases looks like a group of girls standing around at a party. Her drawing of vintage baking dishes resembles a small flock of expectant boats. Browsing through the blog offers the singular pleasure of readjusting your vision to see the beauty of every day objects (who knew tape measures were so beautiful?) And I especially love that she's included "imagined collections." What could be better than an imagined collection? No storage. No dusting. No limits.

Check out more of Lisa Congdon's whimsical work at her site. (Oh yeah, and for all you print media collectors, Collection a Day is a now a book.)

Read More:
What Our Cookbooks Say About Our Lives
Collecting Advice from the Antiques Roadshow Experts

Hello again, Friday! We're looking forward to the weekend and looking back on the things that made our week.



USA Olympic Swim Team parodies Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe"

Gabby Douglas, the first African-American woman to win the all-around gymnastics gold, says "Gold medals are made out of sweat, blood and tears" [via TODAY]

Next level summer reading: Book covers matched with bikinis [via Matchbook]

A NYC real estate agent finds the locations of famous album covers [via Open Culture]

This mom crafted a wedding present with the items her son left in his pockets over the years [via BuzzFeed]

Photo: Thinkstock

There must be a linty planet somewhere in the stratosphere comprised of my family's runaways: socks, receipts, pen caps, coins, the tiny felt dress-up dolls my daughter fetishizes and then regularly has to mourn once they vanish. I try to stay organized, I swear I do. But what can I do, when Planet Lost Thing has such a strong gravitational pull? It's fine—so you wear mismatched socks one day, big deal—until it's not fine, because you've lost something precious and irreplaceable. Like Molly Jo Rafferty, who lost her class ring 33 years ago, when she was a high school senior at a party on the beach.  Rafferty told The Jacksonville Daily News that she scoured the beach many times that summer, looking for her ring, to no avail. Planet Lost Thing claims another prisoner.

Until, that is, a vacationer recently found the ring on that same beach and returned it to Rafferty; it turns out the ring traveled less than a mile (surviving some major hurricanes) in over three decades. (For more on how the good Samaritan found the ring's owner, read the whole story.) Rafferty says, "It made me think, maybe nothing's ever lost forever." And it makes me think, maybe Planet Lost Thing is a closer, and more benevolent, place than we ever knew.

Read More:
Message in a Bottle, Finally Delivered
A Ring Saves a Life, and Other Everyday Miracles

Photo: Courtesy of Lark Fine Foods

Slurpy, drippy, creamy, sweet—what's not to love about ice cream? But by late summer, my daily diet of the frozen treat means I'm also itching for new ideas. Here are five toppings capable of transforming that bowl of vanilla (or chocolate or strawberry...) into something deliciously new.

Lark Fine Food's Scourtins
They're like...cookie crumbles
Except...they're studded with bits of black olive. The sweet-salty contrast may sound jarring, but it was love at first bite in our office. The traditional French-style cookie's olives are almost raisin-like in their concentrated sweetness. And the super-buttery, super-crumbly texture makes it easy to crush a few of these grown-up cookies (at left) over ice cream.

Spoonable Sesame Caramel Sauce
It's like...traditional caramel
Except...toasted white sesame seeds give this so-thick-the-spoon-won't-move sauce an almost chewy consistency and a subtly salty bite. I especially loved it spooned over Talenti's Double Dark Chocolate gelato, for a doubly decadent match.

Jansal Valley Basil Crystals
They're like...candy sprinkles
Except...this basil candy is made from small, hand-harvested basil leaves mixed with sugar syrup. Crunchy, colorful, and sugary, the topping also packs an herbaceous freshness that can elevate a simple bowl of strawberry ice cream.  

Photo: Thinkstock

The summer I was 20, I planned to spend two months backpacking in Europe with a friend. She was the perfect travel companion—adventurous, and yet attuned to small pleasures. As college students, we'd shared countless weekend jaunts together, planning our future grand adventures as we drove from place to place. Then, at the last minute, she apologetically demurred. I swear I only hated her for a tiny little second. Then I broke the news to my parents: I was still going. I threw myself into preparations. Eurail pass, check. Traveler's Checks (all right, it was a long time ago!), check. Hostel research, check. Hiding desperate fear from everyone, CHECK CHECK CHECK.

So it was that I joined the grand tradition of accidental solo traveling. And I found what so many solo travelers have discovered: that traveling alone isn't lonely at all, that you find yourself open to different things and much more likely to make new friends as you go. I found myself staying at the famous Shakespeare & Co. bookstore in Paris, and while working my shift to earn my night's stay (yes, I was such a wild and crazy kid that I managed to find myself with a job) I met a fellow Midwestern 20-something who had expatriated to France and showed me the town. I found myself at an all-night dance party (breakfast and all) in small town Spain; I channeled my inner Madeline at a girls-only-former-convent in Venice; a Hawaiian goth became my best friend for few days in Granada; I spent a very strange overnight train ride listening to an Indian med student's techno in an Italian dining car. And when I wanted to be alone, I was, so that I could write and draw for hours in my journal and (sorry, but I was 20), discover myself. In other words, it was an entire summer of experiences I would not have had otherwise, and, I'm sure, never will have again.

But even I have to admit, the idea of doing something like this now sounds impossible, if not terrifying. Where did that youthful bravado go? Nowadays, I just wouldn't feel comfortable bunking in a co-ed youth hostel with rowdy Norwegian skateboarders. I have a mature person's fear of death, muggings, and not getting to shower regularly. And besides, a bit of adventuring is practically de rigueur when you're 20. What about when you're 40? or 60? or...80? Enter the great Solo Traveler blog.  The site was born in 2009, when Janice Waugh found herself an empty-nester and a widow all at once. She decided to take what fate had handed her and run with it...all the way across the world. Now, as she puts it on the site,  "I travel solo and I carefully observe how I do it." 

Men! What are they thinking? We can't always answer that, but we'll be posting our favorite glimpses into their world in this space every Thursday.

Photo: Getty Images

* One of the best parts about the Olympics is how gleeful the athletes are to be there—how excited about the spectacle and how honored they are to represent their countries. There are examples of it everywhere, but we especially like how the entire American men's basketball team lined up to hug Michelle Obama after their win against France on Sunday. (BuzzFeed)

* Charlie Brown is going to Japan! (USA Today)

* Kiese Laymon documents what it's like to be "born a black boy on parole in Central Mississippi" in this powerful essay, "How to Kill Yourself and Others in America: A Rememberance." (Cold Drank, via Gawker)

* Prolific and celebrated writer Gore Vidal passed away this week at 86. Flavorwire has collected his best zingers, including: "Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say and not giving a damn." (Flavorwire)