Secrets of the NYPL, a Jane Austen Musical, Istanbul Cats & More: Endnotes 10 April

Secrets of the NYPL, a Jane Austen Musical, Istanbul Cats & More: Endnotes 10 April

Friday, 10 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 jaunty feline above is strutting the alleys of Istanbul, Turkey. Cats are cherished in Istanbul, and it’s estimated there are about a million of them in the city. The #catsofinstanbul hashtag on Instagram is a treasure trove of adorable furriness, and the organization with the same name is supported by about 300 volunteers who act as ad hoc kitty caregivers. See more photos here and watch a trailer for the documentary KEDI, that follows the hijinks of seven Istanbul cats.

  • Entertainment alert for tonight (10 April): Enjoy the FREE premiere of Pride & Prejudice: The Musical — 6:30 p.m. ET with a rebroadcast at 10:30 p.m. It’s a new adaptation from Paul Gordon, who gave us Jane Eyre: The Musical. (Fun fact: I listen to that soundtrack all the time.

  • The University of Notre Dame addresses the question, What good is literature?: ‘During engaged reading, we compare the protagonist’s actions to what we’d do in a similar situation, or what we’ve done in the past. We practice making decisions that have consequences….’ (Of all the articles I’ve read on reading and empathy, this is the most comprehensive.)

  • This is beautifully written and quite poignant: Writer Lauren Markham on the last train trip before everything changed.

  • Our dear friend Anne over at Modern Mrs. Darcy has been hosting the Stay at Home Book Tour. Some of your favorite authors with new releases are talking about their books and answering questions on Zoom. If you miss the live events, you can catch all the replays right here.

  • Whoa! Cozy British villages (that may or may not be the sight of poisonings over tea that are investigated by a cleverer-than-she-seems heroine), before and after the pandemic lockdown.

  • Let’s save some bookstores! What started as a spreadsheet is now an app… The new Save Your Bookstore app is a crowdsourced list of bookstores and the services they’re offering: gift cards, curbside pickups, free deliveries. The app was created and is run by a volunteer team — and you can add your local indie to the database!

  • Beware the deadly curse of the Petrified Forest!

  • When I was a kid, my family drove from Pennsylvania to Florida for a vacation every winter. And we always stopped to see the mermaids at Weeki Wachee Springs.

women dressed as tigers underwater

May your spirits be buoyant, and your books be immersive.

Top image courtesy of Maria Teneva.

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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.
Every Friday, we share our favorite book- and travel-related links. This week, we've got the best hangouts in Chicago, streaming shows from UK National Theater, a short story from Andrew Sean Greer, and more.

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