Easter Peeps, Poetry Month, Arctic Train, D&D, Retro Swears & More: Endnotes 07 April

Easter Peeps, Poetry Month, Arctic Train, D&D, Retro Swears & More: Endnotes 07 April

Friday, 7 April, 2023

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.

rule

Fun fact: About two-thirds of Peeps lovers start devouring the sugar-coated creatures by biting off their heads. Monsters! Peeps — now available as chicks and bunnies at Easter time — are made by the Just Born candy company in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It’s named for its founder Sam Born, a Russian immigrant who started the company in 1917. As his candy empire grew, he acquired the Rodda Candy Company, although Just Born was ‘primarily interested in that company for the jelly bean technology.’ Jelly Bean Technology! Today, Just Born makes about 5.5 million peeps in various colors and shapes. But back in the day, it took about 27 hours to make one tray of Peeps. They were made by hand, squeezed through a fluted steel tip in chick shapes, then left to air-dry. Hungry for more? Take a bite of this sweet history of Peeps, or watch a few of the cuties being blown up in a microwave.

 
  • In case you somehow missed the news we’ve been trumpeting all over social media this week: Ron Charles, book critic for The Washington Post and my personal writing hero, wrote a lovely mention of Strong Sense of Place in his newsletter last Friday. If you’re not already signed up, I urge you to treat yourself to his weekly newsletter; it’s free and you don’t need to be a WaPo subscriber. He writes about books, poetry, publishing news, and lots of other wonderful bookish things with humor, insight, and just the right amount of snark when it’s required. Sign up here.

  • April is National Poetry Month, and LitHub has an epic post with 103 poetry links to get you started.

  • I’m attracted to this Arctic Rail Odyssey like a magpie likes shiny things. NBD, it’s just a 3-week train journey from London to the Arctic and back again.

  • The Edward Gorey House in Massachusetts announced their exhibit for the season. It’s Dressed to Kill: Edward Gorey and the Social Fabric. ‘Dressed to Kill explores the sartorial world in which Gorey’s illustrations and books live, and the rapidly changing world in which he lived in — and how he dressed for it.’

black and white illustrations of edward gorey fashions

  • Dave recommended Kelly Link’s new story collection White Cats, Black Dogs in a recent episode of our mini-podcast The Library of Lost Time. This Q&A with the author is great. ‘Humor and horror are both doors into story for me — and inside a story, they’re paths to understanding or rearranging situations in which otherwise I (and perhaps the reader) might be overwhelmed in the most uninteresting ways.’
 
 
 

New Episode of The Library of Lost Time

In each mini-podcast episode, we discuss two books at the top of our TBR, then share a fun book- or travel-related distraction. Get all the episodes and books galore here.

illustration of a man with exclamation points above his head

In this episode, we get excited about two books: Jane & Edward by Melodie Edwards and Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto. Then Dave invites us all to get delightfully nerdy about punctuation. [transcript]

 

Should you throw an interrobang into an email this week?!

Top image courtesy of Matt Benoit/Shutterstock.

Want to keep up with our book-related adventures? Sign up for our newsletter!

keep reading

Every Friday, we share our favorite book- and travel-related links. This week, we've got retro NYC travel tips, Tillie Walden's new graphic novel, the joy of rereading, Swiss design hotels, Victorian lit, and more.
Every Friday, we share our favorite book- and travel-related links. This week, we've got Chris Pine's literary recs, a romcom essay, applying to writing residencies, street art, a chat with Tillie Walden, and more.
Every Friday, we share our favorite book- and travel-related links. This week, we've got the best books adaptations, Czech pastries, a beautiful ghost ship, food in Roald Dahl books, Édouard Manet, and more.

sharing is caring!

Can you help us? If you like this article, share it your friends!

our mission

Strong Sense of Place is a website and podcast dedicated to literary travel and books we love. Reading good books increases empathy. Empathy is good for all of us and the amazing world we inhabit.

our patreon

Strong Sense of Place is a listener-supported podcast. If you like the work we do, you can help make it happen by joining our Patreon! That'll unlock bonus content for you, too — including Mel's secret book reviews and Dave's behind-the-scenes notes for the latest Two Truths and a Lie.

get our newsletter
We'll never share your email with anyone else. Promise.

This is a weekly email. If you'd like a quick alert whenever we update our blog, subscribe here.

no spoilers. ever.

We'll share enough detail to help you decide if a book is for you, but we'll never ruin plot twists or give away the ending.

super-cool reading fun
reading atlas

This 30-page Reading Atlas takes you around the world with dozens of excellent books and gorgeous travel photos. Get your free copy when you subscribe to our newsletter.

get our newsletter
We'll never share your email with anyone else. Promise.
follow us

Content on this site is ©2024 by Smudge Publishing, unless otherwise noted. Peace be with you, person who reads the small type.