Ancient Egypt, Breaking in Books, Solo Travel, Sister Stories & More: Endnotes 02 May

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.

The statues above are found in the Abu Simbel complex which houses The Great Temple of Pharoah Ramesses II. It was carved into a mountainside in southern Egypt in the 13th century BCE. Outside, four enormous statues of Ramesses II guard the door (with smaller carvings of his wife and children at his feet). Inside, additional statues of the ‘greatest pharaoh of ancient Egypt’ dominate the central hall leading further into the temple depths, where another statue of Ramesses shows him taking his destined place among the gods. This video takes you on a tour of the temple and shows what it might have looked like 3000 years ago. For more virtual Egyptian adventures, listen to our podcast episode Egypt: Ancient Antiquities, Fiery Djinn, and the Lure of the Nile. I also heartily recommend this episode of the After Dark podcast. Dr. Campbell Price, aka my favorite Egyptologist, is in the studio to ‘unpick fact from fiction, and get to the bottom of’ the curse of King Tut’s tomb.

• Who first said ‘The pen is mightier than the sword’?

• Pretend I Never Sent You This is a fun comics blog, and this sweet intro comic is a good place to start.

• Whoa. I’m 57 years old, and I did not know this technique for breaking in books without breaking the spine. (I’m a notorious spine-buster.)

• The (super charming, force of nature) actress Tracy Ellis Ross has been taking the same solo trip to the Bahamas since 1997. ‘It defined for me how solo travel can allow you to just be… The trip taught me to enjoy the quietness of my own company.’

• Save this for later! 12 Hidden Gems in Paris You Won’t Find in Guidebooks. (Harry’s Bar and Marché des Enfants Rouges look so good to me!)

• Condiments are the lazy cooks best friend, and I concur that Asian sauces are among the best. This is a pretty good list, but where, oh where, is the chili crisp?! (Dave and I come up with excuses to eat this one as often as possible.)

• The textile tags in the exhibition Ticket Tika Chaap: The Art of the Trademark in the Indo-British Textile are stunning. There’s a really nice write-up of the exhibit on the Museum of Art & Photography website: ‘If you stepped into a bustling Indian bazaar, or market, in the late 19th or 20th century, looking to buy cloth, your eyes would be drawn not to fabric, but to paper — a glossy, multicoloured label affixed to nearly every length of cloth. Each label would have had a different image: a dancing elephant that made you laugh, a familiar deity that invited devotion, a reclining woman in a lush garden who stirred longing, or a steamship that inspired dreams of distant shores.’

• From Electric Lit: 7 Books About Long-Lost Sisters. ‘That’s the thing about sisters in particular: they have a way of showing up in each other’s lives (sometimes rather chaotically) no matter what forces have separated them. And even when kept apart, they still manage to shape each other.’ For more: 9 Books That Explore the Messy, Complicated Reality of Sisterhood.

• Olivia Rutigliano from CrimeReads argues that Joshua Bowman should be the next James Bond. Hmmm… My pick: Jameela Jamil. It’s time for a non-White Bond, and why not gender-flip the whole enterprise? Also, look at her in a tux. Fierce.

• We could not be more excited about the exhibition Wes Anderson: The Archives at London’s Design Museum. Runs from November through July 2026. ‘Over 600 objects will bring together the director’s meticulous craft of filmmaking through original storyboards, polaroids, sketches, paintings, handwritten notebooks, puppets, miniature models, dozens of costumes worn by much-loved characters, and more. Highlights include a candy-pink model of the Grand Budapest Hotel, the vending machines from Asteroid City, the FENDI fur coat worn by Gwyneth Paltrow as Margot Tenenbaum in The Royal Tenenbaums, and original stop motion puppets…’

• The fiction editor at Kirkus has been immersing herself in all things Jane Austen. I 100% agree with her assessment of audiobook narrator Juliet Stevenson’s storytelling skills. ‘The vivid vocal personality she creates for each character underlines Austen’s humor and precision, making it easy to follow the narratives as they loop in and out of various perspectives.’

• Whoa. Don’t sign me up for this! An unsettling AI Agatha Christie is here to teach you how to write.

• Must-click headline: Betty Is the First Dog to Scale All of Scotland’s Hundreds of Mountains and Hills.

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.

In this episode, we get excited about two new books: The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig and I See You’ve Called in Dead by John Kenney. Then Dave talks about the stellar winners of the 2025 Pen America Awards. [transcript]

Links

• The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig

• Invasive by Chuck Wendig

• I See You’ve Called in Dead by John Kenney

• Truth in Advertising by John Kenney

• Writer’s Digest interview with John Kenney

• The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float by Farley Mowat

• Pen America website and Instagram

• Pen International website

• Pen American Literary Awards Finalists

• Dead in Long Beach, California by Venita Blackburn

• With My Back to the World: Poems by Victoria Chang

• On Freedom by Timothy Snyder

Parts of the Strong Sense of Place podcast are produced in udio. Some effects are provided by soundly.

The pen is mightier than the sword. — Edward Bulwer-Lytton (from his play Cardinal Richelieu)

Top image courtesy of Dmitrii Zhodzishskii/Unsplash.