Alcott's Thrillers, Posh Estates, Fairy Tales, Paris Cocktails & More: Endnotes 03 April

Alcott's Thrillers, Posh Estates, Fairy Tales, Paris Cocktails & More: Endnotes 03 April

Friday, 3 April, 2020

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.

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That glowing structure above is the Yellow Crane Tower on Snake Hill in Wuhan, China. The current tower was built in 1981, but a traditional tower has existed in this spot in various forms since AD 223. It was immortalized in poignant verse by 8th-century poet Cui; read the poem here. The tower is marked with four Chinese letters that read ‘Mu Ji Tian Chu’ and mean ‘amazing heaven.’

quarantine travel posters
Posters by artist Jennifer Baer
  • We love Andrew Sean Greer’s novel Less so very much. From all accounts, the author is as lovely a human as his protagonist Andrew Less. Greer recently released a FREE short story on Apple Books called Hush Now, a ghost story about twins forced to stay indoors during the polio epidemic. (I just read it, and it’s very atmospheric; poignant, not scary). To find it, open the Books app on your iPhone and search for the title. Easy-peasy.

  • JSTOR is an archive for 12 million (!) academic journals and books. Some parts of the archive are free, but others require a subscription. It’s one of our favorite resources to research quirky topics. Right now, full access to the journal Fairy Tale Review is FREE. There are 16 volumes that include hundreds of fairy tales for your comfort reading needs.

  • Related: 20 places that are straight out of fairy tales

  • I’ve been a fan of Wil Wheaton since his Star Trek: The Next Generation days. He’s also an excellent audiobook narrator, so he’s recording stories in the public domain to entertain us. The Ghost of Harrowby Hall is a satirical ghost story for easy listening.

  • This ‘at-home’ version of The New York Times 36 Hours feature is really cute.

  • We are firmly on Team Hilary Mantel. Here’s our review of the first book in her Wolf Hall trilogy, and we’re currently reading the final installment The Mirror & The Light. In this lecture, she talks about how she created her version of Thomas Cromwell.

Cheers to you! We hope your time at home is as comfy as it can be.

Top image courtesy of Matee Nuserm/Shutterstock.

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Every Friday, we share our favorite book- and travel-related links. This week, we've got bawdy royal scandals, inspiring travel journals, a journey on the Silk Road, how to get away with (fictional) murder, and more.
Every Friday, we share our favorite book- and travel-related links. This week, we've got so many free book options, a War and Peace bookclub, needlework as an act of resistance, Bram Stoker's other novels, and more.
Every Friday, we share our favorite book- and travel-related links. This week: a day in the life of a bookseller, virtual garden tours, literary paper dolls, Britain's naughtiest dogs, Scottish Highlands, and more.

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