Widow's Bay, Textile Library, Summer Novels, Historic Sandwiches & More: Endnotes 19 June

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.

I saw the movie Jaws at our neighborhood theater — an actual stand-alone theater with a balcony — when it came out, and I’ve been chasing that summer-movie high ever since. The new series Widow’s Bay — starring the irresistibly charismatic Matthew Rhys — comes very close. A quirky cast of characters, dark humor, family secrets, a deep understanding of horror tropes, and an island setting that should be idyllic but is menacing instead, all combine to deliver pure entertainment. Let’s talk about that location! In the world of the story, it’s a fictional island off the coast of New England, a town with Martha’s Vineyard aspirations and Roanoke Colony vibes. In reality, the show was shot in various towns in Massachusetts, including Gloucester, Rockport, and Worcester; People has a nice report on that, and Atlas of Wonders lines up real buildings with shots from the show. The island is a character in the show. Here’s how the set design and characters’ costumingcontribute to the sense of place. Fan theories about what is actually going on with the town’s supposed curse abound (beware spoilers in these links if you haven’t watched yet): good recaps of those here, and here. Want to keep the spooky fun going? Here are 15 Books Like Widow’s Bay and a rendering of the Widow’s Bay brochure that pops up in the plot.

• Obviously, I clicked on this as quickly as possible: The English art of the witty put down is unmatched. ‘We would cross the street to avoid a lout, hooligan or thug. But what about a rogue, rake, rotter, scoundrel, or cad?… An intimate understanding of the endless idiosyncrasies of the well-honed insult is something that makes us uniquely English — together with our propensity for taking nothing too seriously at all.’

• Handy! LitHub has compiled the Ultimate Summer Reading List, based on 25 other reading lists from literary heavy-hitters. (The most recommended book? Land by Maggie O’Farrell.)

• Related: I also enjoyed this list from Shayne’s Bookish News that’s filled with titles that, for me, get at the heart of that special feeling of summer reading.

• Barry Enderwick is eating his way through the past, one pan bagnat at a time, which requires two days, but winds up ‘crazy good.’ (Pssst… the pan bagnat might be the ‘ultimate sandwich.’ Recipe here.

• This is a fun look at the history hidden in place sight in Prague.

• Um… I would very much like to have dinner in this glamorous Pullman car repurposed as a restaurant on the grounds of a grand estate in Ireland.

• This is such a pretty book-related art installation! Artist and reader Es Devlin has created the Library of the Four Winds, an illuminated, revolving structure filled with 250 books she loves. ‘The books on display are hers, and are not only well leafed, but covered in annotations accumulated over years of reading. I tend to only read with a pencil in my hand, she says. I either underline things or I get in a rage with them and go, No! next to them.’ (A previous book-related work is 2025’s Library of Us on a beach in Miami.)

• Another interesting instance of a library: BLUE: The TATTER Textile Library is an art installation and research library for textile arts. Follow the library on Instagram for pretty/inspiring things.

• Very cute and genuinely helpful: a visual guide to chili peppers of the world. ‘…from wild origins to cultivated forms, illustrated with 176 hand-drawn peppers.’

• Continuing the culinary travel: a culinary guide to the US, based on each state’s favorite dish. The New Jersey entry — Taylor ham, egg, and cheese on a hard roll — made me so nostalgic for my childhood summertime vacations in Cape May, NJ.

• How well do you know the world’s famous staircases? I only got 7/12, but I don’t care because the photos are awesome. (And the stairs on the Rock of Guatapé are terrifying. Nope, never, no.)

• The 20th-century New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield is considered one of the leaders in literary modernism. A new collection of her short stories was recently released, and this essay makes a great case for picking it up. ‘Oh, to live in a room filled with the objects described by Katherine Mansfield. To arrange her combs, playing cards, and enamel boxes, to try on the most amusing orange coat with a procession of black monkeys round the hem. This would be joy enough, but why limit ourselves? In the kitchen, our hostess has lined the counters with cream puffs, chocolate custard, champagne, almond fingers and some yellow pears, smooth as silk.… no writer has made quotidian treasures spring off the page quite like Katherine Mansfield.’

• Author Katherine Center’s 6 favorite books about love and romance. Her new book The Shippers is about two childhood friends who go on a family cruise for a wedding, and relationship hijinks ensue. Sounds like a lovely summer read!

May your summer vacation be more like Less or A Room with a View and less like Jaws or Widow’s Bay.

Top image courtesy of Michael Denning/Unsplash.