Hollywood's Cinerama, Tofu Magic, Mystery Novels, Em-Dash & More: Endnotes 24 March

Every Friday, we celebrate the weekend — and all the reading and relaxing and daydreaming time ahead — with Melissa's favorite book- and travel-related links of the week. Why work when you can read fun stuff?!

This post is part of our Endnotes series.

The Cinerama Dome is a movie theater at 6360 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. It opened on 7 November 1963, just in time for the world premiere of the film It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. The Cinerama is the only concrete geodesic dome in the world! It’s based on the dome designed by R. Buckminster Fuller; more here and here. At a groundbreaking ceremony in July 1963, cinema stars including Spencer Tracy, Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney, and Edie Adams donned hard hats, then got to work with picks and shovels to kick off construction. The theater is closed for renovations now but is expected to re-open later this year.

• Another reason Chris Pine is the best Hollywood Chris: 15 Books Chris Pine Thinks Everyone Should Read.

• Treat yourself to this essay by Amy Tector — part of the Meet Cute Missives essay project — about listening to Bridget Jones’ Diary with her teenage daughter. ‘Both Helen Fielding and — yup, I’m talking about her in the same breath — Jane Austen, find the perfect balance for a smart, satisfying rom-com: satire, laughter, sentimentality, and compelling characters you identify with. They’re both writing about worlds where flawed women attempt to navigate unfair systems with humanity and humor.’

• Sort of related: The Rosenbach is offering an online class Reading Jane Austen’s Emma with Juliette Wells, starting 03 April. Juliette Wells is Professor of Literary Studies at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, and the author of Reading Austen in America and A New Jane Austen: How Americans Brought Us the World’s Greatest Novelist.

• Also related: Steventon House, the Austen family’s Georgian home in Hampshire, is for sale! (It’s the property where Jane wrote Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, and Sense and Sensibility. Alas, the actual rectory building where she worked is gone.)

• These photos give you a peek inside an abandoned Gothic crypt in a Scottish forest.

• America Doesn’t Know Tofu. The opening paragraphs of this essay are fantastic and will transport you to a restaurant in Guiyang, China.

• Sometimes, you just want to look at pretty bookshops and libraries. (Gratitude to Joyce C. for sharing this with us.)

• News you can use: 10 Tips For Applying to Writing Residencies. ‘Most of the factors that decide a person’s acceptance are settled before they write their application — namely, the quality of the work, its alignment with the mission of the residency, and their personal qualifications as a writer. But a weak application can get a very established writer passed over with little more than a second thought…’

• If you’re a mystery fan, you might like these 8 mysteries told from multiple perspectives and crime novels set against the backdrop of reality shows.

• I thoroughly enjoyed this interview with award-winning cartoonist Tillie Walden and Vermont’s new Cartoonist Laureate. Stay to the end for excellent advice about being your own biggest fan.

• I have a known em-dash problem (in that I love em-dashes very much — perhaps too much). Here are tips on using the almighty em-dash, plus a reminder that ‘It can do anything, but just don’t try to make it do everything.’

• See more of Raquel Rodrigo’s art on the artist’s website.

• Neat! The only known film footage of Mark Twain.

• From the National Trust for Historic Preservation: 9 Places Where Women Made History. Meet Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte of the Omaha Tribe, the first Native American to earn a medical degree, and Mary Cardwell Dawson, the founding director of the National Negro Opera Company, and seven other remarkable women.

• 11 Beautiful Succession Filming Locations You Can Visit IRL.

• Read extracts from all 13 books on the International Booker Prize 2023 longlist.

• So colorful! 15 of the world’s rainbow-colored places.

New Episode of The Library of Lost Time

In each mini-podcast episode, we discuss two books at the top of our TBR, then share a fun book- or travel-related distraction. Get all the episodes and books galore here.

In this episode, we get excited about two books: The Company by J.M. Varese and Sweet Enough: A Dessert Cookbook by Alison Roman. Then Dave shares stories from a recent trip to the Shetland Islands. [transcript]

Links

• Visit J.M. Varese’s website and Instagram.

• Smithsonian Magazine: Arsenic and Old Tastes Made Victorian Wallpaper Deadly.

• The Dickens Project at UCLA.

• Interview with Alison Roman, author of Sweet Enough.

• Snacking Cakes: Simple Treats for Anytime Cravings by Yossy Arefi

• The beautiful and very helpful website Shetland with Laurie, plus her Instagram and Patreon.

Read a poem out loud. It feels good.

Top image courtesy of James Kirkikis/Shutterstock.