Fizzy Lemonade, Fictional Bars, Roadside Poems, Brunch in Lisbon & More: Endnotes 15 July

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.

Forget everything you think you know about lemonade. Instead, imagine the vibrant taste of fresh fruit mixed with a touch of sugar and then topped with fizzy water to make it feel like a celebration. Here in Prague, we know it’s officially summer when the cafés add homemade lemonades (límonady) to their menus. They’re simple to make, and the results are very refreshing. You might mull a handful of berries with a bit of sugar or honey — or squeeze the juice from a grapefruit and a few oranges. Add sparkling water and ice, then top it with fruit garnish and a sprig of fresh herbs like thyme, basil, or mint. If you want to get more experimental and/or boozy, here are 10 ways to fancy up traditional lemonade and 15 unique lemonade recipes including pickle (!), Vietnamese Salty Lemonade (also available in Prague at Super Tramp Coffee), and lemonade pie.

• Well, this is a delight. Between June 2020 and December 2021, an artist named Roadside Senyu installed official-looking road signs across the US that display poetry. The artist’s website has photos of the poems, and Outside magazine has a lovely story about the whole shebang.

• Sprinkle a little magic dust on your day with this colorful history of rainbows. ‘Luminous, magical rainbows have captivated people’s imaginations for eons. Almost every culture has a legend about a rainbow — a myth or a rainbow goddess that far predates any science that might explain what rainbows are.’

• Books at the Bar: A Reading List of Fictional Bars, Bartenders, and Bar Flies.

• Sorta related: A Visual Tour of 35 Literary Bars and Cafés from Around the World.

• How (and Why) to Blowtorch Your Dinner, in which a travel blogger and her husband try authentic Mongolian food.

• It’s so much fun to see the notes, art, photos, and more left behind in books at the Oakland Public Library. (ht boingboing)

• A reality show that pits writers against each other seems like a really terrible idea. But Jason Reynolds, beloved author of Long Way Down, is a judge, so maybe it won’t be so bad?

• Cool event alert: Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen are the authors of The Library: A Fragile History. Publisher’s Weekly said it’s a ‘comprehensive and fascinating deep dive into the evolution of libraries… Bibliophiles should consider this a must-read.’ The authors are doing a free online talk with historian Abby Smith Rumsey on Wednesday, 20 July, at 9:00 a.m. PDT. Free registration here.

• Thrilling news from Erin Morgenstern, the author of The Night Circus:

• I’m reading the novel The Night Shift by Natalka Burians for an upcoming episode of our podcast. On Largehearted Boy, she shared the playlist that fueled her writing. (BTW, Largehearted Boy is great, and you should definitely follow the site.)

• This seems very useful: Sound Carrot is a new website designed to help kids and parents find podcasts made especially for kids. ‘Whether you want to listen to them together in the car or alone in your room — the content is all safe for younger ears.’

• No biggie, it’s just the abbey that inspired Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose:

• Here’s an excellent collection of new books in translation from Kazakhstan, Mexico, Japan, Spain, Sweden, and Cameroon.

• In Korean cuisine, banchan is a colorful array of traditional dishes that accompany a meal. Think lots of veggies that have been fermented or stir-fried, served in small bowls alongside the mains. According to Taste, banchan is everything. ‘What I like about banchan is that I think Korean food has a lot of faith in the diner. It’s almost like a deconstructed eating experience because everything comes spread out, and you, as a diner, decide what flavor and texture combinations you want to have in your mouth at any given moment.’

• Remember when I talked about Maatsuyker Island in our podcast episode about Tasmania? The current caretakers have been sharing photos and videos on Instagram, and it’s very awesome.

• News you can use! How to Travel With Just One Bag This Summer.

• If you love to eat breakfast on vacation like I love to eat breakfast on vacation, you will enjoy this imaginary trip to Portugal: Seven Sun-Soaked Cafés for Breakfast in Lisbon.

• This story about a young woman who spent a ‘priceless’ summer working on a Maine fishing boat reminded me of the novel The Alaskan Laundry by Brendan Jones. Both are outstanding reads.

New Episode of The Library of Lost Time

In each 5-minute show, we talk about two new book releases at the top of our TBR, then share a fun book- or travel-related distraction. Get all the episodes and books galore here.

For this episode, we get excited about two new book releases: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers. Then we daydream about receiving a postcard from the ancient city of Timbuktu.

Books

• The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

Distraction of the Week

• Visit the Postcards from Timbuktu website and follow them on Instagram.

• Here’s Atlas Obscura’s entry about Postcards from Timbuktu.

• Read about the last master calligrapher in Mali and the fall of Timbuktu.

May you receive an exciting communique this week.

Top image courtesy of Kaizen Nguyễn/Unsplash.