Crime Fashion, Jollof Rice, Bridgerton Locales, Hogmanay & More: Endnotes 01 January

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.

Happy 2021! We’re looking forward to sharing lots of great books, inspiring stories, and virtual travel adventures with you in the coming year. Thank you for being part of our world.

• It’s rare for fashion to play a major role in fiction, but when it’s handled well, it’s very impactful. This essay takes a look at why classic crime fiction was obsessed with fashion. ‘Like any good PI, Billie Walker uses clothes strategically, to hide a concealed weapon, to stand out or shrink back in a room, to slide convincingly into the glamourous, high end of town, or the usual rough dosshouses and dives. In a pinch, she’ll use a hat pin as a weapon, or a silk slip to wipe prints.’

• This essay about the trials of living during a pandemic — through the lens of Aunties and jollof rice — is gorgeous and full of feels. (Here’s our recipe, in case you want to make a pot this weekend.)

• Whew! This literary quiz from The Guardian is tough! (I only got 26/55 correct.)

• Photographer Andrea Jones went on a grand (and dangerous) adventure to get these photographs of Ruvaal Lighthouse on Islay, an island just off Scotland’s west coast. ‘I’ve been on shoots in Brazil, the Outback, all over the world,’ she said, ‘and yet this was probably the hardest place to get to.’

• The photos from Dakar fashion week are so colorful and chic.

• Something to look forward to! PBS will air two new documentaries about Agatha Christie in 2021. Publisher’s Weekly has the scoop.

• Can you pass this flight attendant exam?!

• This Little Free Library in Antarctica gives me heart-eyes emoji.

• For all your corseted romance needs: filming locations from the Bridgerton series and a playlist of all the pop songs covered in the show.

• From CrimeReads: The best traditional mysteries of 2020.

• Fashion designer Pierre Cardin died this week, but his art lives on. His Bubble Palace is truly an ultra-modern playland — can you say interconnected terracotta igloos?! And these photos of his far-out, space-age fashions from the 1960s give me so much joy.

• Bookish podcast of the week: In this episode of the Modern Fairies podcast from the University of Oxford, the hosts share traditional stories of fairies who help humans. (See all their podcast episodes here.)

• Travel podcast of the week: In this episode of the Simply Scottish podcast, you’ll learn all about the traditions of Hogmanay, aka, Scotland’s New Year’s Eve celebration. So much great music!

You made it to the new year. Cheers to you!

Top image courtesy of Gia Oris.