Five things we heart for the month of July...

By: Elizabeth Bougerol

Stacey Kent may have been born in New Jersey and make her home in London and Colorado, but heart lies firmly in Paris. Bowing to her massive popularity in France, the jazz chanteuse has released Raconte-Moi (Blue Note), a collection of songs sung in the language of Baudelaire that goes down as easily as an icy kir on a warm day.

Airfare is guttingly expensive right now. Thankfully, the doorstop-thick cookbook Recipes From an Italian Summer (Phaidon) offers more than 400 easy, authentic recipes culled from the Italian cooking bible The Silver Spoon and plenty of atmospheric photography—it’s the next best thing to springing for a getaway to the Boot. $39.95.

Out of Print Clothing is a brilliant enterprise, combining doing good with retail therapy: Buy a t-shirt featuring great classic book-cover graphics—from Lord of the Flies to Lolita--and you’ll contribute to the company’s mission: In 2010 alone, they plan to donate 20,000 books to impoverished nations via Books for Africa. $28 each.

French music-history maven and sampling king Dimitri From Paris turns to the 1970s roots-of-disco Philadelphia scene for his fifth release, Get Down With the Philly Sound (BBE Records). Mining the archives for work from icons like Teddy Pendergrass, Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes and the Jackson 5, he delivers a breezy, funky double-disc soundscape that’ll inspire you to (re)discover the originals.

We’re loving designer Thomas Paul’s fervor for all things nautical right now, and especially enamored of his Scrimshaw plates—very ye olde sea captain, and gorgeous against worn wood. And they’re lightweight melamine, meaning they’re perfect for using as kickabout outdoors-ware. $32 for a set of four designs at velocityartanddesign.com.