One of the comments we sometimes hear about living in the “digital age” is that texts are in a state of constant revision. For better or for worse, website content can change from one day to the next, and unless there is some sort of tracking in place (as on Wikipedia), the user won’t know…… Continue reading Iterations
Category: Books
QuickPost: Citations
I recently finished reading The Anatomy Murders by Lisa Rosner. It’s a very readable look at the early 19th century Edinburgh murderers Burke and Hare, offering a great deal of context both for the Edinburgh they inhabited and the culture of medical anatomy which motivated them. I may write more on it later. What intrigued…… Continue reading QuickPost: Citations
Childrens Books
You might say this post has nothing to do with history. And you could be right. Or not. Over the past few years, the number of people I know with infants and toddlers has increased drastically. Some of the babies I knew are now toddlers, or even Going To School, and all enthusiastic about reading.…… Continue reading Childrens Books
Reading Sherlock Holmes
Preface: this was written as an entry for a contest on the blog of author Laurie R. King. I didn’t win, but thought I might post it here, with a little introduction for relevance. I grew up with mysteries as a form of entertainment: the program Mystery! on PBS, and books like the Encyclopedia Brown…… Continue reading Reading Sherlock Holmes
Lost Causes
When I’m not reading history essays and biographies, I like a good mystery (I also like a good historical romance, but that’s a story for another time). Today’s read is by an author who I’ve read before, Sharyn McCrumb, but a series I have not, starring one Elizabeth MacPherson. I’m reading the first in the…… Continue reading Lost Causes
Briefly
In June of 2010, Oxford University Press is publishing a book titled The Passport in America: the History of a Document. The blub on the book in their Spring/Summer 2010 catalogue leads me to believe that this book should offer some insight into a topic I posted about earlier – what exactly makes a person…… Continue reading Briefly
A quote, a book, a whole discipline!
One of the books I received this year for Christmas* was Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History, a book of essays on women in history. The title is her most-quoted soundbite, taken from an essay on gravestones which forms part of her first book, Good Wives. The quote, with “rarely” used in place…… Continue reading A quote, a book, a whole discipline!
An Interesting Read
The Celebrated Mrs. Woffington has brought my attention to a book titled The Garden Cottage Diaries: My Year in the Eighteenth Century . The author not only spends a year living as though in the 18th century, she does so in Scotland. This is definitely going on my to-read list!