Giant Pandas, Why Read Fiction, Earl Grey, Magical Treehouses & More: Endnotes 13 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.

This baby giant panda is hanging out at the Chengdu Research Base in Chengdu Shi, China.⁠ We can only assume that his agenda for the day includes eating massive amounts of bamboo and taking a break for roly-poly time. The Base was created in the 1980s with the rescue of six sick, hungry pandas. Since then, the research and education facility has bred 261 giant pandas. The Base is open to tourists and is visited by 3.5 million animal lovers each year. {more}

• It’s us, over there! In this new episode of the Geopats podcast, Dave and I explained how we choose the destinations for each season of our show, how we assess the books we recommend, and lots of other behind-the-scenes details.

• The new Veronica Speedwell adventure A Murderous Relation was released this week. (I loved it; my write-up here.) Its author Deanna Raybourn wrote an amusing, entertaining, and informative recap of royal scandals through the centuries. So bawdy!

• This short video of how globes were made in 1955 is so old-timey and cool.

• Who was Early Grey, and why do we drink his tea?!

• These knick-knacks and notebooks inspired by library checkout cards are the delightful things we all need right now.

• This piece from Harvard Business Review is packed with info on why reading fiction is beneficial and empathy-building: ‘…reading literature requires us to slow down, take in volumes of information, and then change our minds as we read. There’s no easy answer in literature; instead, there’s only perspective-taking.’

• Take a virtual tour (with great pics and smart write-ups) through the historical landmarks of San Francisco’s Chinatown.

• Spanish artist José Naranja combines sketches, calligraphy, and collage to create personal travel journals that are charming works of art packed with visual souvenirs from his adventures around the globe. And now you can buy facsimiles of his notebooks to add to your own library.

• Such a feel-good story! Sri Lankan author Sybil Wettasinghe (who is 90!) invited kids across her country to submit alternate endings for her book Wonder Crystal. And now there are 1250 alternate endings and a new world’s record.

• Is it just me, or does a recap of 12 days on the Silk Road seem super exotic and romantic?

• Daniel Mendelsohn is the author of one of my all-time favorite (an all-time toughest-to-read) books The Lost. In this essay, he explores all of Hilary Mantel’s novels and weighs in on her latest The Mirror & the Light. (I thought he was a little rough on this final book in the Cromwell trilogy, but he’s such a powerful writer, I enjoyed the essay overall. Also, I’m listening to The Mirror & the Light on audio, and it’s fantastic.)

• Don’t you want to read in a treehouse?

• This is a fun romp! What novels can teach us about getting away with murder. (I’m reading his book Eight Perfect Murders right now, and it’s excellent escapist fun.)

• Another happy story (because we need as many of these as we can get). In Beijing, bookstores are teaming up with a food delivery app to get books to people in quarantine.

• Bookish podcast of the week: The Guardian Books podcast talks to author Isabel Greenberg about her new graphic novel about the Brontës (called Glass Town), and the hosts discuss the titles nominated for this year’s International Booker Prize.

• Travel podcast of the week: The Dish is a culinary podcast that shares the stories behind dishes from around the world. In this episode, the story of Piri Piri Chicken. It’s a spicy, crispy, salty chicken dish with roots in Africa and Portugal. Plus, the scoop on Nando’s, which might be all-new for our US audience. Fun!

May you find just the right book to distract you from the news. (Wash your hands!)

Top image courtesy of Theodor Lundqvist.