Day of the Dead, Literary Destinations, Budapest Inspiration & More: Endnotes 30 October

Day of the Dead, Literary Destinations, Budapest Inspiration & More: Endnotes 30 October

Friday, 30 October, 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.

rule

The revelers above are participating in a Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) procession in Yucatan, Mexico. This Mexican holiday is a celebration of love and respect for deceased family members that’s celebrated on November 1 and 2 — the same days as All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day in the Catholic calendar. Although there are costumes and parades involved, Día de los Muertos is not ‘Mexican Halloween.’ Instead, it’s a holiday marked by meaningful rituals and activities, including building altars, cooking special foods, donning beautiful costumes, and wearing face paint. In 2008, UNESCO added Día de los Muertos to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. {more}

  • Two bits of Jane Austen news you can use! You can read the manuscript for Austen’s Lady Susan — handwritten and in its entirety — on the Morgan Library website. It’s the only surviving complete draft of any of her novels; so cool! Then enjoy online virtual tours of Jane Austen’s House, including the house itself, the gardens, and some of the curios found in Chawton Cottage.

  • CrimeReads recommends 7 heist novels set in the world of art and 17 crime fiction series that feature real historical people as sleuths.

  • Actress Rashida Jones talks to Vogue about the joys of travel planning, even if your trip is far in the future. ‘For me, travel is always aspirational. The idea of planning to go somewhere, whether it’s tomorrow or in six months — hopefully in six months! – and the excitement that I get from aspiring to a trip is a huge part of how I interact with travel.’

  • This is such a good use of the comics form. A journalist returns to Beirut to reconnect with the past in the free nonfiction online comic Waiting for Normal.

black and white illustration of three people on a hill overlooking beirut
Image from 'Waiting for Normal' by Tamara Saade and Eleonoare *Léo Hamlin
budapest parliament building
The Danube and Hungarian Parliament. Photo courtesy of Dan Novac/Unsplash.
  • Which Brontë sister are you? (I got Charlotte.)

  • This story has everything: waterfalls, posh parties, ghosts. We just added it to this our lifetime travel list. Here’s the scoop. An abandoned (and, perhaps, haunted) hotel on a cliffside in Colombia — the Hotel del Salto — has been turned into a museum. It’s now the Tequendama House Museum, and it’s devoted to educating visitors about the historical and cultural importance of the area, including the local ecosystem of the cloud forests.

  • The fabulous Messy Nessy Chic (author of Don’t Be a Tourist in Paris) recommends 10 great movies set in Paris.

  • BabelColour has become one of my favorite Twitter accounts. They refurbish early color photography, cleaning, repairing, and enhancing the photos. They’re beautiful. This recent installment is so daydreamy.

  • Bookish podcast of the week: The History of Ghosts is a beautifully produced series from BBC Radio. In each episode, author Kirsty Logan (The Gracekeepers, Things We Say in the Dark) explores the evolution of ghost lore. It’s more about history and legends, than scares. The episode called The Whitewashed Ghost explores how the history of slavery is whitewashed in popular ghost stories, but that a ghost story with truth in the tale could have the power to do real good. It’s excellent: informative, moving, infuriating, and hopeful.

  • Travel podcast of the week: The Zero to Travel podcast has handy advice for right now: 5 cures for the pandemic travel blues.

 

Halloween Goodies

  • There was that one time that David and I dressed up as Edgar Allan Poe and the raven for Halloween.
melissa in an edgar allan poe costume
Quoth the Raven 'Nevermore.'

Wishing you all treats, no tricks, and full-size candy bars.

Top image courtesy of Matias Planas/Shutterstock.

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Every Friday, we share our favorite book- and travel-related links. This week, we've got Wuthering Heights quote or song lyric, a new online book club, virtual tours of Lobkowicz Palace, words for thieves, and more.
Every Friday, we share our favorite book- and travel-related links. This week, we've got bad bunnies of medieval art, spooky reads, retro water-skiing witches, a forest jukebox, a secret language for crooks, and more.
Every Friday, we share our favorite book- and travel-related links. This week, we've got writing books by hand, authors' fave destinations, room service love, the art of translation, free horror audiobooks, and more.

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