Budapest, Historical Lit, Victorian Piers, Piranesi Book Club & More: Endnotes 11 June

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.

That is the achingly beautiful skyline of Budapest at sunset. Specifically, it’s the view from the hilly Buda side of the Danube, looking across to the architecture of Pest. The domed Neo-Classical building with two bell towers is St. Stephen’s Basilica, which (in)famously displays the mummified hand (called the ‘Holy Right) of St. Stephen (István), the country’s founding king-saint. The bell towers house six bells: five small ones in the north tower and the Great St. Stephen bell in the south. It’s the biggest bell in all of Hungary (!) and is rung just twice a year: at 5:00 pm on 20 August (to commemorate the day it was consecrated) and at midnight on New Year’s Eve. {more}

• Where are my historical fiction fans? You want to see the shortlist for the 2021 Walter Scott Prize. (I am 100% here for The Mirror & the Light.)

• What it was like to fly Concorde in the 1970s. ‘The atmosphere in the cabin was one of an exclusive club, and it was because these were the people who controlled the world, controlled the world’s finance and the world’s trade. It was such an incredibly unique experience, and you were going faster than rifle bullets, twice the speed of sound. It was just a fabulous time.’

• You definitely want to read about the library in South Korea that was inspired by the human brain.

• This spoof on regency romances is a delight:

• The Grolier Club is ‘America’s oldest and largest society for bibliophiles and enthusiasts in the graphic arts.’ I think you’ll like this online exhibition of American menus from 1841-1941. Among other fussy dishes, the attendees at the National Typographical Union Banquet on 5 May 1859, enjoyed ‘Boned Chicken with Truffles’ and ‘Aspic of Oysters á la Royale.’ The 101st US Infantry menu for ‘Christmas Dinner, somewhere in France, 1917’ is marked by deliciously dark humor.

• Sorta related: Travel+Leisure shares the 10 oldest restaurants in the world. If using this list as a guide for an around-the-world eating tour is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

• Gimme: A Guide to British Rural Detective Dramas, Ranked by Their Alarming Murder Per-Capita Rates.

• The morir soñando from the Dominican Republic is ‘better than a cranked A/C.’ Is this your new favorite summer drink?

• This true story about a stolen Roman gold ring, snarky stone graffiti, and JRR Tolkien’s inspiration for The Lord of the Rings is a RIDE.

• The romantic reputation of Tangier as a haven for spies, superstars, and scam artists is irresistible (at least in our imaginations). Make a batch of this Moroccan El Minzah Orange Salad and enjoy CrimeReads picks for the best crime novels set in this Moroccan city.

• Yes, please, and thank you, I would like to time-travel to a Victorian seaside pier for fun in the sun.

• The idea of a one-chapter-per-week book club is very appealing. Joy Marie Clarkson, the voice behind the podcast Speaking with Joy, is hosting a summer book club for the novel Piranesi by Susanna Clark. Get all the details here.

• Created by Australian artist Louisa Bufardeci, Ground Plan is a painting that visualizes the population of each country as a room on a floorplan. It’s not the world map you’re used to, and it’s very cool.

• The Castles and Manor Houses of Cinema’s Greatest Period Films.

• The free With Love From Sweden newsletter is well-written, is packed with lovely photos, and will transport you to Sweden via email each week.

• I will be wearing this mask exclusively in public from now on.

Why not indulge in something endearingly ridiculous this week?!

Top image courtesy of Marco Meyer/Unsplash.