We’re voracious consumers of culture. And each week, a member of our team shares the words, images, and beers that inspired them.

Read.// “I couldn't live where there were no trees—something vital in me would starve.” Every day, I grow to hate living in the city a little bit more. The call to be outside in nature is stronger than ever in the summer. I found the Anne of Green Gables series, written by Lucy Maud Montgomery, to be the perfect escape from it, a way to ease my urge to swap traffic noises for psithurism—a fancy word to define the sound of wind whispering through the trees. Anne’s house of dreams (or “Anne et sa maison de rêve” in the French version I’m reading) is the fifth book of the series. Published in 1917, it follows the story of Anne Shirley after she moves to a new house with her husband, Gilbert Blythe. It’s a pairing readers rooted for since they first met in the series. The story takes place in a little white house on the harbor shore that looks to the sunset, with fir trees, poplars, and white birches surrounding it. Anne’s house of dreams is my dream house and it’s like I’m getting there every time I turn the next page.

Look.// I’ve been mesmerized by this painting since I saw it in Prague National Gallery: Water Goblin, by Jaroslav Panuška (1896)—the name itself tells you everything you need to know. I happened to encounter it at the same time I was reading the Blackwater series by Michael McDowell, which helped my obsession. The same creature that haunts the fictional city of Perdido (Alabama) in the story is captured in this painting. I made sure to take a picture of it, and it stayed there on my phone, looking at me with its bulging eyes and webbed hands, like it's trying to grasp something out of the water.

Drink.// Hausbrauerei Altstadthof

It’s my first time in Nürnberg and I don’t know much about what to do in the city except for one thing: Drink a Rotbier, the city’s original red bottom-fermented beer. Hausbrauerei Altstadthof is the-place to be to have a fresh pint of malty and not-too-cold Rotbier, which goes perfectly with a pork schnitzel and kartoffelknödel (German potato dumplings)—like the ones my aunt used to cook when I was a kid. This meal was both a rush of memories from my childhood and a desire to discover more about German beer styles and history. I managed to buy a few bottles on my way out, in hope to recreate the magic of the first sip at home.