Hong Kong, Period Dramas, Fancy Coffee, Rut-Busting Reads & More: Endnotes 07 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.

This very cool mural is found on Hollywood Road in Hong Kong. It’s an advertisement for Uncle Desi Food and Sons, an Indian restaurant that’s the city’s first digital, delivery-only joint. Pakora, samosa, butter chicken, and buttery naan are just a click away. And you might be peckish after strolling along Hollywood Road. It’s the second-oldest street in Hong Kong and is a hub for trendy bars, restaurants, and art galleries. The area known as Cat Street is known for its antique shops, which date back more than 100 years to when traders and sailors would make their way here to sell goodies they’d acquired in China. Here’s a self-guided walking tour of Hollywood Street from Insight Guides.

• This is informative and amusing: A crime writer and taekwondo instructor points out the top 7 fight scene mistakes in fiction.

• The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker is a novel we love here at SSoP HQ. Its sequel The Hidden Palace is out on 08 June (pre-order it here) — and Helene shared an insightful essay about writing her new novel.

• This article about anchoresses in the Middle Ages is fascinating. ‘In a world where saints, martyrs, and visionary mystics were revered as paragons, the life of an anchoress was not for the fainthearted. Unlike the hermit, who could choose to stay in one place or to wander, the anchoress – or anchorite if male – chose to withdraw completely from the world into a life of constant prayer, self-denial and asceticism, shut up in a cell usually attached to a church.’

• Soothe yourself with this tiny, rotating bookshelf.

• Personal catnip: How Period Dramas Cast Their Castles

• Somewhat related: The 50 Best Movies Like Pride and Prejudice… where ‘like Pride and Prejudice’ has been interpreted as romantical problems, gorgeous sets, sumptuous costuming, and lots of meaningful eye contact.

• I would 100% be so thrilled to spend a few nights at the Grand Budapest and many of these other fictional hotels — although probably/definitely not The Overlook.

• News you can use: 30+ Different Types Of Coffee Drinks Every Coffee Lover Must Try

• Artist Tatsuya Tanaka creates the cutest, cleverest miniatures.

• The Center for Cartoon Studies is publishing a comic called Health and Wealth: A Graphic Guide To The US Healthcare System. It’s part of a public education campaign to ‘provide a baseline understanding of the healthcare system so people can feel a little less intimidated by its complexity and more empowered to advocate for themselves and those they care for.’ You can help!

• From Alabama To Wyoming, Here’s One Incredible Sight In Every US State — plus, 12 of the best US National Parks.

• Lots of fun ideas in this Guardian piece in which ‘regular’ people recommend the books that pulled them out of a reading rut.

• Well, this treehouse looks very nice, indeed.

• Vote on the name for the baby raven born recently at the Tower of London! I chose ‘Brontë,’ of course.

• National Geographic explains why planning a trip now is good for you, even if travel is still out there in some indefinite future.

• Our session at the Newburyport Literary Festival is now on YouTube, so you can take a virtual trip to 1920s San Francisco with us! We were joined by Jasmin Darznik, who shared insights about her novel The Bohemians. If you’re not following Jasmin on Instagram, you should remedy that immediately; she’s sharing awesome jazz age photos and videos. (You can find the rest of the sessions from that weekend on the Newburyport Lit Fest website.)

Wishing you very good coffee (or tea) and a book that whisks you away.

Top image courtesy of Pop & Zebra/Unsplash.