Dramatic Translations, Night Trains, Spring Flowers, Pretty Bookshelves & More: Endnotes 08 May

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.

Those hot air balloons are floating over the chimney rocks and cliffs of Cappadocia, Turkey, at sunrise. Every morning most days of the year, 100 hot air balloons launch just before dawn to drift over the fairy-tale landscape below. Formed by volcanoes and erosion, these natural formations were expanded by locals into a network of tunnels and underground cities thousands of years ago. Learn more about this World Heritage Site.

• These full-screen, gorgeously shot videos take you into The Hidden Worlds of the National Parks. Let the lovely intro wash over you, then choose among stunning excursions to Kenai Fjords (Alaska), Hawai’i Volcanoes, Carlsbad Caverns (New Mexico), Bryce Canyon (Utah), and Dry Tortugas (Florida). (I was seriously blown away by these videos.)

• Pop quiz! Design a camper van to reveal your best road trip..

• Is breakfast the most literary meal of the day?

• This is a fascinating look at the high security and high stakes of translating a blockbuster, best-selling novel into multiple languages simultaneously. It reads like a thriller! ‘Carole Delporte, a 37 year-old French translator, flew to Milan on a job for which she had been carefully screened, and finally selected. Only her husband and two young daughters back home in Paris were allowed to know where she had gone. After checking into her hotel, Delporte made her way to an imposing modernist building in an industrial sprawl on the outskirts of the city. When she arrived, she was led to the basement, where two security guards put her phone and handbag in a locker. She then entered a large room where a team of 10 people from six different countries were typing away…’

• I am eleventy-million percent OK with re-reading favorite books right now. And it’s not just me.

• Don’t feel like this needs much of a sales pitch: The Enduring Romance of the Night Train

• I’m drawn to colorful flowers more than usual this year. Here are 25 spring flower photos from around the world. Take a deep breath and enjoy.

• This simple tool provided me with so much fun in, like, one second. It’s the 19th-Century Trope Character Generator, and it’s a delight. Byronic Parson who is in Love with a Duke! Bumbling Governess who is Heir to a Great Fortune! Foreign Suitor who is Prone to Conniptions!

• Enjoy these sweet illustrations of minimalist bookshelves in The New Yorker. (Thank you, Ellen!)

• The Honorable Miss Phryne Fisher is a heroine for the ages, both on the page and on television. Here are 10 episodes of the show that flirt a bit with the supernatural while showcasing fab outfits and solving crimes in Melbourne.

• My recent Weekend Getaway post recommended The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, a novel set in Salem, Massachusetts with ties to the witch trials. Thanks to our reader Ronda, I can now direct you to this online archive and documentary project of the trials — including transcripts from the courtroom.

• Did you know there’s a TV adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse? And according to LitHub, it’s not too bad.

• In last week’s Endnotes, I linked to an excellent piece about the works of Holbein. Then one of our readers (Thank you, J/N!) pointed me to this AMAZING lecture about Holbein’s painting The Ambassadors.

• Um… did you know there’s a company that will help you host a virtual murder mystery party?! Ghost Ship Murder Mysteries provides a host that’s in character to guide the party, clues, music, and instructions, and your guests use Zoom (and texts and email) to share info, receive clues, and nab the murderer.

• Another stage production of Jane Eyre — this one is far more traditional — will be available for online streaming this weekend. The Blackeyed Theatre show was touring the UK. Now, it’s premiering online Sunday 10 May and will be available to watch FREE until Sunday, 17 May. Get the viewing info here.

• These photos of Bookmobiles are sure to make you smile.

• Bookish podcast of the week: Vox.com’s Ezra Klein Show delivers an epic conversation with Madeline Miller, author of well-reviewed and much-adored novel Circe.

• Travel podcast of the week: Let the Amateur Traveler podcast whisk you away to Bulgaria with this conversation about why it’s a fascinating place to visit. (Then lose yourself in the atmospheric novel The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova.

Literary Festivals Online

Three major book conferences recently announced that their programs will be available online for free. It’s an introvert’s dream come true!

• Hay Festival Digital: 18-31 May: interactive events with more than 100 award-winning writers, historians, and innovators, celebrating the best new fiction and non-fiction.

• Book Expo Online: 26-29 May: conversations with authors and BookExpo Buzz sessions (Adult, YA, and Middle Grade) that explore the breakout titles expected to become bestsellers.

• Book Con Online: 30-31 May: featuring sessions throughout both days with authors and publishers to give you behind-the-scenes peeks at debut books and favorite titles. Plus, ARC giveaways, quizzes, trivia, and more.

May you be inspired to learn some new stuff and revisit your favorite stories.

Top image courtesy of Mesut Kaya.