Angoulême, Austen's Letters, Gotham Book Prize, Lumen HQ & More: Endnotes 07 February

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 pretty spot is in Angoulême, France. Those neo-Gothic spires in the background are atop the Église Notre-Dame d’Obézine, a 19th-century church modeled on Paris’ Sainte-Chapelle. The glimpse of wall in the foreground is part of the ramparts — dating from the Late Roman Empire! — that surround the city. We visited for just one night last week, on the tail of the Angoulême International Comics Festival. We were there to visit with a friend and wander the charming cobblestone lanes that inspired Wes Anderson’s film The French Dispatch. (If you’re also a fan of that movie, here’s the scoop on specific shooting locations and the design for the café that figures in the plot.) We started our evening at a bar with tables in a quiet alley where we tried Pineau des Charentes for the first time. It’s a cognac-based aperitif that’s been made in the region for about 400 years. It’s a little sweet, a very pretty amber color, and goes down super smooth. After that, we took a break from baguettes and cheese for legit, homemade Chinese food at A La Cantonaise; the homemade pork buns were dreamy: fluffy outside, savory-sweet pork inside. Angoulême is the street art capital of France with murals on the building facades and comics posters on every possible surface. We rested our heads at the Hôtel du Palais, housed in a former 18th-century convent (and facing an ornate fountain and the Palais du Justice), felt equal parts whimsical and haunted, which is just the way we like it.

• Whoa. Did you know that Jane Austen wrote thousands of letters during her lifetime — but we only have 160 of them?! Here’s why.

• Sorta related: To celebrate Jane Austen’s 250th year, The Austen Connection Substack is hosting The Great Jane Austen Read-Along. The fun starts with Northanger Abbey: ‘We’re ready for flirting and talk of muslin, the crowded Bath balls, the talk of horrid novels, the frenemies and the Thorpes, and wandering the corridors while making cringey accusations in an ancient abbey.’

• Every Taylor Jenkins Reid Book, Ranked — From Daisy Jones & the Six to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

• The ‘one weird trick’ that can help you keep notes on your favorite books.

• These tiny hand-knit sweaters are ridiculously adorable.

• We were hooked on the first season of Severance and are very excited to watch S2. Wallpaper magazine takes us inside the Lumen offices.

• Sometimes you just need to look at pretty things: The 57 Most Beautiful Places in the World.

• Claire Diaz Ortiz is an author who ‘invests in startups and mothers some sub-humans.’ She also reads a LOT — and her book recommendations are top-notch and wide-ranging.

• Antidote to doom-scrolling: a literary crossword puzzle from Electric Lit.

• These playful re-workings of old master paintings are pretty delightful.

I just feel like you need to see this:

• I love eating, reading, and reading about eating. Maybe you do, too! Here are some recommendations for super tasty food blogs/newsletters.

• Apropos of nothing: 30 ‘Golden Visas’ Americans Can Use to Move Abroad.

• Oooh, it’s time for the Gotham Book Prize again! Awarded by P&T Knitwear, an independent bookstore on the Lower East Side, the Prize recognizes writers who celebrate what makes New York City so special. This year’s finalists are, as expected, awesome.

• The prevailing wisdom for writers is to never start a book with the weather. As a counter-argument, I present Jane Eyre: ‘There was no possibility of taking a walk that day… the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further out-door exercise was now out of the question.’ And also this: a mini weather-forecasting gadget that tells you the weather via literary quotes.

• Perhaps my favorite link of the week — the letters of the alphabet as geography.

Wishing you a little bit of whimsy.

Top image courtesy of Gökçe Okur/Unsplash.