Endnotes 04 July: Sparklers, Literary Hotels, Wimbledon, Ice Cream Cookbooks, Seattle Noir & More

My favorite reading- and travel-related links of the week

[photo: Ian Schneider/Unsplash]

Hello, friends!

Is it even summer if you don’t write your name in the dark with a sparkler?

Some historians say we have Byzantine architect Callinicus of Heliopolis to thank for sparklers. He invented ‘Greek Fire’ — fire sticks meant to be shot at enemy ships. The incendiary liquid he created was nearly impossible to extinguish.

And/but in China during the 7th century, bamboo sticks were filled with gunpowder to produce light and a big boom. Eventually, that evolved into dipping bamboo into a slurry that threw off pretty sparks, without the accompanying bang. Fast forward about 1200 years, and you get wunderkerzen, the German version of a sparkler that replaced bamboo with wire, but kept the original gunpowder.

Today, sparklers are made from a wire coated in a (safely) flammable paste that burns at 1800°F to 3000°F (1000 °C to 1600 °C). The color of the sparks changes based on the metallic fuel: Iron delivers an orange/red glow, aluminum and magnesium burn white or yellow, and titanium shoots off silver sparks. This Wired magazine videowill arm you with facts you can share at your July Fourth cookout.

The artists Tobias Kipp and Timo Pitkamo put all that science to use in their pyrography: portraits drawn with lit sparklers.

Far less extreme and super fun, here are tips for photographing sparklers so you can capture the magic in images. This poem does the same with words:

Sparklers by Barbara Crooker

We’re writing our names with sizzles of light

to celebrate the fourth. I use the loops of cursive,

make a big B like the sloping hills on the west side

of the lake. The rest, little a, r, one small b,

spit and fizz as they scratch the night. On the side

of the shack where we bought them, a handmade sign:

Trailer Full of Sparkles Ahead, and I imagine crazy

chrysanthemums, wheels of fire, glitter bouncing

off metal walls. Here, we keep tracing in tiny

pyrotechnics the letters we were given at birth,

branding them on the air. And though my mother’s

name has been erased now, I write it, too:

a big swooping I, a hissing s, an a that sighs

like her last breath, and then I ring

belle, belle, belle in the sulphuric smoky dark.

A brief programming note:
Dave and I will be in the States for a few weeks to take care of some family stuff. I won’t be publishing Endnotes for the rest of July, but I do have other posts lined up for the next few Fridays. The Tuesday Tea discussion posts will happen every week as usual! And we’ll be back to podcast production as soon as we can.

Take good care out there!

Endnotes: 04 July

Oooh, who doesn’t love a bookish topic that could start an argument?! Sprayed Edges Are Everywhere and I Hate Them. For the record, I do not have an opinion on sprayed edges. (But I will happily go to the mat for my dislike of long chapters!)

If you take your journals and notebooks seriously — who amongst us doesn’t? — I think you’ll enjoy this essay about Techo Kaigi. ‘During a Techo Kaigi (which means ‘notebook meeting’ in Japanese), you meet with yourself to reflect on your current notebook systems and whether they’re running smoothly. If your notebooks have become too overwhelming or are being neglected altogether, Techo Kaigi is the time to sit with these issues and do something about it.’

Get ready to add to your must-visit list: The 20 Best Literary Hotels in the World. The Hotel Emma in San Antonio looks dreamy.

Wimbledon by the Numbers — 40 miles of racket strings, 55,000 balls, 2.5 million strawberries, and more.

If you listened to our guest appearance on this summery episode of the What Should I Read Next podcast, you know that Dave is a big fan of the Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Cookbook. He’s also ready to build out our cookbook library with these three new ice cream cookbooks for summer 2025.

These photos of a dinner party in a river are very appealing:

deanbaldwinlew

A post shared by @deanbaldwinlew

I was recently a guest on the Books with Betsy podcast. It was such a fun chat! We got into the specifics I look for in a great read, my early reading memories, go-to authors, the books that made me cry, and more aspects of the reading life.

Recommended by Sarah Perry, the author of The Essex Serpent: 5 Best Gothic Novels. (For more Gothic yumminess, here’s my list of 43 Gothic novels with a strong sense of place.

News you can use: Atlas Obscura answers the question How Do I Pack Light for a Long Trip?

If you enjoyed our recent podcast episode National Parks: Go Outside and Touch Grass, you might be interested in this collection of interesting nonfiction stories about US national parks.

Eater has a tasty report on the award-winning food at the State Fair of Texas. Dubai chocolate funnel cake! Vietnamese corn dogs! Brisket-and-cheese-stuffed pretzels! Pop Rocks frozen margarita!

THESE MINI SCULPTURES ARE ADORABLE!

Are you one of the three million people who read Jennette McCurdy’s memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died? If yes, you’ll be glad to know Jennifer Aniston will star in a 10-episode series adaptation of the book.

Rainy Noir: The Crime Fiction of Seattle. ‘Who doesn’t love Seattle – we’ve all been sleepless there in person or onscreen, those Pike Street Markets, the majestic Pacific… a big city, but never quite feeling like a crowded city. What could possibly go wrong in such a seemingly calm, placid metropolis? Somehow, crime writers always find trouble…’

LitHub on why this summer might be just the right time to read a doorstopper book. ‘Summer is about leisure, and… reading is the ultimate leisure activity.’

Write your name on the night in sparkles.