Venice Film Fest, Book Bans, Swimmable Cities, Austin Crime Novels & More: Endnotes 29 August

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 Venice Film Festival is on! It runs from 27 August through 06 September — here’s everything you need to know about the Venice Film Festival. It’s the world’s oldest film festival; since 1932, it’s been celebrating great movies, and odds are good that a film that premieres there now will be in Oscar contention later. Here are 12 exciting movies premiering at the Festival. Almost as much fun as the films? The glamorous arrivals of celebrities on water taxis. Ripe for discussion: Vogue has the best 107 Festival looks of all time. (Emma Corwin at #8 will never not crack me up, and the one I would love to wear is #11 on Isabele Huppert. I covet shiny things like a magpie. Bjork’s hair at #91 wins everything.)

• Fun fact: There are a lot of insects named for writers.

• The ‘Crime in the City’ column at CrimeReads heads to Austin, Texas. ‘[Austin] is pretty hipsterville in parts, and The Live Music Capital of the World, says the tourism board, and is reportedly one of America’s safest cities. But Austinites, all 962,000 of them, do apparently have time for serious series reading, it seems—cold brews, iced coffee, and a good stack of detective novels.’

• Sorta related: Top 30 things to do in Austin this August.

• My must-click headline of the week: The Pirate Who Penned the First English-Language Guacamole Recipe. This essay is fascinating from stem to stern. Here’s a tasty bit: ‘… when one gifted pirate permitted himself a curiosity for food, he played a pioneering role in spreading ingredients and cuisines. He gave us the words tortilla, soy sauce, and breadfruit, while unknowingly recording the first-ever recipe for guacamole.’

• Tangentially related quiz: How well do you know rice dishes around the world? I got 10/13.

• Oooh, I love these pairings of novels and nonfiction that address similar topics from Modern Mrs. Darcy.

• What makes a city swimmable? ‘For a city to boast clean natural swimming facilities, it must overcome three main barriers: shipping controls, sewage redirection, and advanced filtration. It’s no surprise many are in Europe, where robust legislation dictates high standards for water quality. Many swimmable cities have also found design-led solutions to create safe environments for wild swimming. Here are five leading the charge.’

• In this episode of The Library of Lost Time, I talked about the life-changing croissant at the new-ish bakery Moon in Paris. Feast your eyes on this:

• After a run-in with Dracula, what’s left to do? The 15 best things to do in Transylvania, Romania. (The Turda Salt Mine has an ethereal beauty!)

• This piece from The Guardian about book banning in the US is a (well-written) bummer. I choose to use it as a reading list. ‘According to the American Library Association’s analysis of its 2024 data, the majority of book censorship attempts are now originating from organised movements. Pressure groups and government entities that include elected officials, board members and administrators initiated 72% of demands to censor books in school and public libraries. Between 2001 and 2020, such groups challenged an average of 46 titles per year. Last year, they challenged 4,190 titles in 12 months.’

• Cleanse your palette with this cheery comic about all the wonderful things books can be.

• And maybe treat yourself to these darling cocktail napkins embroidered with literary heroines.

Reading is an act of resistance.

Top image courtesy of Diego Gennaro/Unsplash.