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.
Happy Peter Pan Day! This holiday sprinkled with fairy dust is celebrated every year on 9 May — the birthday of Sir James Matthew Barrie, the Scottish novelist and playwright who gave us the boy who never grows up (and Tinkerbell!). Peter Pan first appeared in the author’s novel for adults The Little White Bird, a collection of vignettes set in iconic London locations. Peter is described as ‘betwixt and between’ a bird and a boy. According to scuttlebutt, the character of Peter Pan may have been based on Barrie’s older brother, who died in an ice skating accident just one day before his 14th birthday. Later, Barrie made Peter the star of his play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up. It debuted in 1904 at London’s Duke of York’s Theatre (still around, BTW) and was such a hit, the play and tales from The Little White Bird were smushed and expanded to become the 1911 book Peter and Wendy. These characters have so captured readers’ imaginations, the story has been adapted into a pantomime, a 1924 silent film, the 1953 Disney classic animated film and 2003 live-action version), a stage play (Hello, Sandy Duncan!), an ice-skating show, a TV special, and various retellings and sequels — all of which prompted LitHub to ask, Why Does Hollywood Keep Returning to Peter Pan?. You can read the original book on Gutenberg.org — in 2020, SP Books, a publisher specializing in reproductions of iconic manuscripts, put out a gorgeous version of Barrie’s handwritten book with illustrations (like the one at the top of this post). Finally, the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library has shared highlights from its J.M. Barrie Collection online, including very awesome sketches of costume designs from the original 1904 stage production.
One of my all-time favorite episodes of Strong Sense of Place is this one about museums — so I was pretty happy to see this list of novels in which death comes calling at museums with four new-to-me titles on it.
This Jane Austen quiz — but I’m hanging my head in shame because I only got 6/10.
In this episode of The Library of Lost Time, I recommended the fantastic story collection Exit Zero by Marie-Helene Bertino. You can read her story Viola in Midwinter free online! (Psst… I agree with everything in the intro on that post.)
So timely, so fun:
Oh, this house in Tangier is so dreamy. ‘Halfway up Old Mountain in Tangier, my home Gazebo gazes down over a seemingly infinite stretch of brilliant blue, the meeting point of two oceans, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The garden that drops towards the sea is a paradise of towering palms, umbrella pines, plumbago, datura lilies, bougainvillea, agapanthus. Terracotta paths are dappled with shade.’
Hmmm… you probably need this Daphne du Maurier Pencil Set.
When we saw a Dolce & Gabbana exhibit at the Grand Palais in Paris earlier this year, each gallery had a different scent to accent the fashions, lighting, and other details. Turns out, lots of hospitality brands are using aromas to create experiences. (BTW, the D&G exhibit will next be shown in Rome, in case you fancy a trip to Italy.)
Remember when we talked about Sri Lanka in this episode of our podcast? Dave and I are still daydreaming about when we’ll get to visit there. Suitcase magazine ideas about where to sleep, eat, and explore in Ahangama, Sri Lanka.
I loathe that this seems relevant to our interests, but here we are: How to Protect Yourself From Phone Searches at the US Border. ‘Customs and Border Protection has broad authority to search travelers’ devices when they cross into the United States. Here’s what you can do to protect your digital life while at the US border.’
I didn’t expect to find myself thinking, ‘Wow, that’s a great idea!’ as I read this post about the benefits of owning multiple e-readers. A light Kindle that’s always in my purse? Tempting.
Poetry is not a luxury. ‘I’m obsessed with words. I always have been. That was the breakthrough, to realize that I just am filled with sentences already. Poetry is almost like a little bite, a little song, and I just love the way poems can condense an emotion or really express one.’
Bookstores’ latest release? Beer, wine, dinner, coffee, and a unique aesthetic. Yes to all of it. (Shout-out to my mom for sending me this article.)
Titles to add to your TBR: The Washington Post picks for 10 noteworthy books for May and the 2025 Edgar Awards Winners.
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: One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune and My Friends: A Novel by Fredrik Backman. Then Dave talks about the inspiring exhibits at American Writers Museum in Chicago. [transcript]
Online Exhibits at the American Writers Museum
Get Lit Happy Hours and the Grown Up Book Fair on 13 May.
Parts of the Strong Sense of Place podcast are produced in udio. Some effects are provided by soundly.
Top image courtesy of SP Books.
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