Haldon Belvedere, The Gilded Age, Cross-Writing, Introvert Comics & More: Endnotes 28 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.

Haldon Belvedere (a.k.a., Lawrence Tower) is found in Devon, England. It sits atop the Haldon Hills, delivering epic views of the surrounding countryside from its Gothic windows. The triangular tower was built to honor Stringer Lawrence, an 18th-century English soldier and the first Commander-in-Chief in India. Inside, you’ll find a larger-than-lifesized statue of Lawrence dressed as a Roman general because… why not? The rooftop battlements are accessible via a spiral stone staircase! Start planning your trip: the grounds are free and open to the public — and there’s a holiday rental apartment on the second floor.

• Dave and I were delighted to be guests on the Prague Times podcast, a show dedicated to exploring life in Prague. Listen in as we talk about what inspired Strong Sense of Place, how we choose the books for the show, and the curse of counting books.

• This headline cannot be improved: Highly Anticipated Cookbooks Delayed Because… They Probably Sank.

• This piece includes excellent advice for how to establish a sense of home in a new-to-you city. There’s good stuff like how to make your house a home, how to integrate into your neighborhood, how to connect with other people, and more. I’m definitely going to apply these tricks when we finally emerge from the isolation of The Weirds.

• Have you watched The Gilded Age yet? HBO is releasing an official Gilded Age podcast after each episode — and the National Trust for Historic Preservation takes you behind the scenes at Lyndhurst, the 19th-century mansion that’s a star of the show.

• I love the very practical and reasonable (and respectful) tips in this article: How To Think About Travel in 2022. ‘We are where we are: in a pandemic in the midst of a wave of infections from a dangerously transmissible variant. We’re all tired of Covid’s looming presence and effect on every aspect of life, but it’s no good pretending things are back to normal. A destination list is of no use if you can’t get there — or if you’re being irresponsible in doing so… we offer our thoughts on how to approach travel in a year of deep uncertainty.’

• This gave me a much-needed laugh:

• 100 Best Books to Read by Women Authors.

• This is surprising and very moving: If You Were an Elephant…. ‘… the world would be a brighter, smellier, noisier place – and you would be a better, wiser, kinder person.

• The website Taste Atlas lets you take a world tour with your tastebuds. Enter a food or a location, and it serves up tasty ideas. For example, when I typed in the Middle Eastern egg-and-tomato dish shakshuka, in return, I got a gorgeous photo and description; a list of the 10 most popular Tunisian dishes; the Dr. Shakshuka restaurant; and a list of 100 egg dishes from around the world.

• Sara Nović is the author of the excellent novel Girl at War. Her latest True Biz will be released 05 April. It’s a ‘transporting novel that follows a year of seismic romantic, political, and familial shifts for a teacher and her students at a boarding school for the deaf.’ As a thank you for pre-orders, Sara commissioned three Deaf artists to design stickers that represent their take on the sign’ true biz.’ The results are awesome. When you pre-order the book, you get all three stickers. So cool! Preorder here. Get the stickers here.

• Have you caught the Wordle bug? It’s the first thing I do with my brain when I wake up in the morning. An enterprising Czech person created a Czech version, and I’m here to tell you it’s impossible.

• This example of cross-writing is so beautiful; click through to see a higher-res scan of the letter. (The novel The Weight of Ink features cross writing in a significant way; it’s a wonderful read, if you need to be transported this weekend.)

• 11 Spots in Germany That Inspired Famous Fairy Tales.

• Hey! It’s a quiz about comfy, cozy words!

• As a counterpoint to the current chill of the northern hemisphere, here are 8 mysteries with swampy southern settings.

• The comics by Debbie Tung about the joys and challenges of being an introvert are very… accurate. See more on her website or get your hands on her books Book Love, Happily Ever After & Everything in Between, and Quiet Girl in a Noisy World: An Introvert’s Story.

Wishing you solitude and socializing in just the right ratio.

Top image courtesy of Red Zeppelin/Unsplash.