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

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.

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.

• So soothing! Suitcase Magazine rounds up 12 of the UK’s most inspiring literary destinations.

• Read an excerpt from the upcoming novel The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict, a fictional account of when Agatha Christie went missing for 11 days in 1926. (Can’t wait for this book to be released in December! It’s available for pre-order.)

• We’re smitten with this slim and elegant Wildsam Field Guides from Arcadia Publishing. Each volume focuses on a single destination and, in addition to the usual recommendations for places to eat, stay, and sightsee, also includes cultural essays and fiction.

• Why, yes! These photos did make me want to visit Budapest.

• 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.

• How much do you know about Halloween traditions around the world? (I only got 8 right!)

• Banshee vs. specter vs. ghoul — Meriam-Webster gives us the history behind 8 Halloween words.

• Scottish illustrator Sarah Coomer has drawn 100 days of really lovely ghosts.

• We just treated ourselves to a gift that won’t arrive until 2021. It’s a deluxe box set edition of Dracula, but instead of a book, it’s made up of reproductions of the documents that tell the story – letters, diaries, telegrams, maps, newspaper clippings – all collected in a leatherette briefcase. It’s available from Beehive Books.

• Electric Lit argues that Carmilla is better than Dracula. We say we’re thrilled to live in a world that has both. Why choose?! (Our reviews: Carmilla, Dracula.)

• How about the 50 best, worst, and strangest Draculas of all time?!

• Create a haunted house and get a Gothic book recommendation. (And yes, I got Jane Eyre.)

• 8 scary podcasts to listen to this weekend.

• Smithsonian Magazine gifts us with the cultural history of the Addams Family.

• Let’s end the Halloween hijinks with my favorite Halloween tweet ever:

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

Top image courtesy of Matias Planas/Shutterstock.