Woah. I had no idea what to expect out of this book, but it was clearly written in the time around the 2016 election. There was so much hope in this book. Hope and fear and feeling and wishing for this alternate universe in some form or another. This was the book I was expecting, but also not at all the book I was expecting. Casey, you wonderful, wonderful human being – thank you for this! Interestingly, what comes to mind about this book is a quote I heard this morning from Kate DiCamillo in […]
Book Review: One Day in December
Well – as far as premises go, this one was pretty contrived. I typically am fairly okay with a contrived story line as long as it is well told. Unfortunately, that was not what I experienced with One Day in December. The story has a basic take-off point: Girl has bad day, girl gets on packed bus, girl sees boy sitting at bus stop, boy sees girl, neither of them actually get on/off bus to meet the other, girl spends a year looking for boy. Girl finally meets boy at a party and is introduced […]
BOTM: December 2019
Hey all! It’s that time of month again! My Book of the Month box has arrived! (Okay – note here that I said again and yet… I’ve never done one of these posts before! And yet – “again” is certainly true… This is my 36th box from Book of the Month.) This month I chose Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. Because I’m also a BOTM BFF (I did say 36 boxes), I got an extra book for my birthday. I chose The Glittering Hour by Iona Grey. Ever since I chose Red, […]
2019 in Books: The Full Rundown
Since 2019 (as described in my last post) was the year of the book, I wanted to do a full rundown of everything I read this year. I read so many books I couldn’t put down – and I’m not even sure I’ve actually got them all on this list, but I think I’ve got most of them. So here we go: Currently Reading: The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett The Shortest Day: Murder at the Revels by Jane Langton Best of the Lot: My Favorites Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by […]
2019: Year of the Book + A Review of The Starless Sea
If 2019 is nothing else, I would say it became the Year of the Book. I’ve always considered myself an avid reader, but this year was above and beyond what I’ve read in the past (or at least, since homework made reading for fun more difficult to find time for). 2018 was almost The Year of the Book. (It certainly started that way between The Philosopher’s Flight and The English Wife – both books I could not put down.) However, 2019 will get credit for the sheer number of good books I read that I […]
Rocky Markets in History
When you see an NPR headline like this one (“Dow Suffers Record-Breaking Christmas Eve Losses”) and the you see a follow up headline a couple days later like this one (“After Big Losses, Markets Stage a Post-Christmas Rally”), it’s very easy to be reminded of an earlier time. That first article actually went so far as to compare the lost ground to periods of severe market unrest, such as 2008 and 1931. And to be fair – they’re not wrong. These have been some pretty terrifying moments for people with money invested in the stock […]
The Spirit of Historical Inquiry
I was listening to TED Radio Hour last month for a re-airing of an episode entitled, “The Spirit of Inquiry”. What fascinated me was how science-based the episode was. And yes, to a certain extent I could understand why it was so science-based. But here is where I would like to take that thought and bring it even further: Most of us were taught in school that the reason we should believe in science is because of the scientific method. Scientists follow a method and this method guarantees the truth of their claims. […] The […]
Watching the Bubble Burst
What are the warning indicators that come before an economic bubble pops? What can we learn from the economics of earlier times? I can’t say I ever went into studying history with the intent at looking at money. For some reason, I spent a good deal of time thinking that understanding money was not a capacity I had. Things have changed a bit, and strangely it is my addiction to tea that did the trick. Looking at the history of one of the most traded commodities of the 18th century inevitably lead to studying the […]
Dear Madam President: A Response
I can’t exactly call this a book review. The only review-like thing I can really honestly say is that Jennifer Palmieri’s book, Dear Madam President: An Open Letter to the Women Who Will Run the World, is exactly what I needed after the year and a half we have been through since the results of the 2016 election. I was drawn to the book after hearing an article or podcast (potentially NPR?) mention it – specifically her chapter on “Nod Less, Cry More”. I was intrigued. But there was so much more in here than just sage, […]
New Posts at On King Street: Mercy Otis Warren
I have two new blog posts up at On King Street: Mercy Otis Warren: An Introduction “Set Mrs. Warren down in her own Habitation”: Tracing the Footsteps of Mercy Otis Warren