Best Swimming 2026, Summer Reads, Tiny Books, Rivals Picnic, Similes & More: Endnotes 29 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.

If warm weather has you daydreaming about splashing about in cool water — or wintery weather in the southern hemisphere has you craving warmer climes — we’ve got you covered with daydreamy beaches and pools to keep you cool IRL or your imagination. First up: The list of 50 best beaches in the world for 2026. It was determined by nominations which were then rated on details like uniqueness, wildlife, natural scenery, tranquility, water quality, and more. (I would personally include accessibility to great snacks.) This travel site picked its top five from the list, and it’s hard to argue with pink sand, penguins, and cliff-lined coves. (And here’s the TimeOut list of top 30). If a pool is more your thing, Town & Country backs up their argument that the world’s greatest pools are about more than just swimming (‘A great hotel pool has almost nothing to do with exercise. It is theater. A place to see and be seen…’) But then, Triathlete magazine answers back with the world’s 12 most beautiful swimming pools that make you want to swim. You might also enjoy 11 lazy river resorts around the world, the 19 most spectacular hotel pools in Europe, and the prettiest hotel pools in the United States. For something more exhilarating, here’s a guide for where to wild swim this summer. Or for something completely different, perhaps you just want to gaze at pretty pools whilst keeping yourself (and your book) out of the splash zone. To that end, here are photos of Wes Anderson-esque swimming pools and pics of serene, symmetrical pools by artist Soo Burnell.

• Some well-curated lists to build your summer TBR: The Hay Festival asked thousands of readers to share their favorite books to create the pleasure list, a collection of 39 great books. LitHub offers 10 novels you need to read this summer. If that’s too many options and decision fatigue gets you down, here are five must-read books of the summer from the editor of the Five Books website.

• YES! The new summer reading bingo from What To Read If has landed. Elizabeth’s categories are always so much fun: beach setting, trade books with a friend, graphic novel, book that made you laugh, and more. (LitHub also has a fresh take on a summer reading challenge.)

• I clicked so quickly: The Top 10 Animal Sleuths. ‘…after several pots of tea and more than one good scolding from my own feline colleague, Hylia, here are my favorite animal sleuths of all time.’

• Respect; this level of commitment and nerdiness is to be admired. Let us raise a glass to the archivists who make the minutiae magical. This Archivist Has Saved 175,000 Articles from 30 Years of Writing about Magic: The Gathering. ‘Named after a Magic card, the Library of Leng is a new searchable database of writing about the card game. It pulled old Usenet articles, hobbyist posts from old websites saved in the Internet Archive, and updates from publisher Wizards of the Coast that are routinely scrubbed from existence.’

• Some of the smallest books at the world’s largest library…

• Jet lag can be a real drag. According to this WaPo travel writer, there is an app that really does seem to help. (gift link)

• ‘If you want to participate in Pat Perry’s new photo project, you’ll have to get comfortable heading outside, grabbing a few friends, and preparing to hunt low and high for obscure spots in your neighborhood. The Detroit-based artist recently launched Liminal Bingo, a communal photo hunt designed specifically for people ages 5 to 105 living in boring places or exciting places.’ Colossal magazine has all the details and the sweet art so you can play in your neighborhood.

• I loved S1 of the series Rivals based on the book by Jilly Cooper (and, as I explained in this podcast episode, the audiobook is fantastic fun). We’re doing a rewatch before we dive into S2, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t completely smitten with these tips to throw a picnic Dame Jilly Cooper would be proud of. ‘Eating outside does something to appetite and to mood that’s hard to explain rationally – food tastes better, conversation flows more easily, time moves differently. The French have their grand traditions around it, the Italians their equivalent, but the British version – blustery, cheerfully impractical, aggressively determined to enjoy itself despite the weather – has a particular charm that’s all its own.’

• Related: Meet the three real-life rakes who inspired Jilly Cooper’s most irresistible rogue Rupert Campbell-Black. ‘Described as the most handsome man in England, Rupert Campbell-Black seduces his way through a portfolio of women across the various books in the series, captivating readers and viewers alike with both his disarming charm and outrageous cruelty…’ and in a 2024 interview, Cooper revealed the real men behind her fictitious hero.

• A Look at the Martha’s Vineyard Locations That Made Jaws the Ultimate Summer Movie. #bestsummermovie

• I’ve been a Barry Manilow fan since 1978, when I learned how to play ‘Even Now’ on the piano. This interview is so good, I learned things about the singer-songwriter I didn’t know. (It’s worth clicking just for the photos.)

• Tangentially related: Inside the Homes of Vintage-Obsessed Modern Showgirls Keeping Las Vegas Kitsch Alive. ‘A new wave of financially independent female entertainers — the very women who might have once taken orders from the men in charge — are now snapping up those time-capsule residences and reimagining them with flamboyant decor that keeps the kitschy ethos of the city alive, one velvet wall, mirrored ceiling, and lava-rock lounge at a time. In Vegas today, the showgirls are holding the cards.’ Again, the photos!

• Word-nerd fun! Here’s an analysis of the similes in 200,000 novels.

• The play Jane Eyre Convention sounds really great! ‘The show is set at the world’s first ever Jane Eyre Convention, where we find a group of slightly neurotic Brontë-aficionados gathered to reenact scenes from their favorite novel.’

• When tabletop games and literature collide: Prose & Cons. It’s described as ‘Cards Against Humanity’ with an English degree, but ‘one that the whole table can play without anyone needing a content warning.’

• I love that we live in a world with a poet-in-residence at the Guggenheim. ‘I want to think about the way language, story, and song circulate through time and space.’

• ‘The haunting at the heart of the Gothic is the unbearable truth at the heart of empires: they rest on slavery and genocides, land theft and resource extraction. The lords and ladies in English manors and Southern plantations would prefer not to think too deeply upon this. But the violent truth insists. Repressed, submerged, it bubbles up in Gothic form.’ Author Kyle McCarthy on how the gothic is a gateway to literature’s most enduring themes.

• And we end with a silly quiz: Which classic should you read this summer? I got Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland which I gotta say: Not a bad idea.

Wishing you a great summer read and a summer breeze.

Top image courtesy of Fylkesarkivet i Vestland/Unsplash.