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Olga of Kiev: Brutal Saint and Revenge-Seeker
I recently finished listening to an audiobook version of Lars Brownworth’s The Sea Wolves: A History of the Vikings. Ever since I fell in love with Uhtred of Bebbanburg (to the point where I made a pilgrimage to Bamburgh in Northumberland, which is the inspiration for Bebbanburg) I’ve wanted to learn more about the Viking age. Lars Brownworth has some great medieval-era podcasts, and when I saw the book pop on up Scribd, I suspected it would be a good short history. And it didn’t disappoint. One of the characters I learned about, though, was Olga of Kiev (890-969). This woman showed that brutality during this period wasn’t just a…
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In Praise of Home Economics
I took Home Economics from 7th grade through my senior year. We actually had two different home ec classes – one was for cooking, and the other focused on things like managing a family (I remember a fascinating unit on how birth order impacts personalities), paying bills (and which bills you definitely need to pay first if you can’t pay them all), and sewing (somehow the shorts I was sewing came out with one leg longer than the other – I blame the pattern). Anyway, all through my years of taking Home Ec, which was required, I made fun of it. I got detentions because I made fun of how…
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The Week in Books: Scribed and Siena
Each year I set a reading goal for number of books I will read, and I try to average about one a week. This year I set it for 55. After years of having a young kiddo in the house, working my own business, being perpetually exhausted, and only daydreaming about the times when I used to luxuriate in bubblebaths with my Kindle, 2021 is turning into a calmer year, and I expected I would be able to read more. I have a stable contract and don’t need to hustle so hard, my child is sleeping and amusing herself independently, and so I set a big juicy reading goal of…
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Thursday Book Chat: Bernard Cornwell and the Warlord Chronicles
I first started reading Bernard Cornwell back around 2010. It was his novel Agincourt, which I had picked up in Waterstones at Picadilly, and was immediately hooked. I began to search him out and devour everything he wrote, catching up on all the Last Kingdom books especially. I just finished his trilogy on the Arthurian legend, The Warlord Chronicles, and it was a bit of a tough slog, to be honest. These are some very early Cornwell books, and I can see his development as an author through to the present day Uhtred books. He uses some of the same techniques to keep us interested – for example, ending paragraphs…
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The Week in Books: Hilary Mantel, and series reading…
I’ve been doing books in units the past few months, immersing myself in a topic or series. I haven’t read this way since I was a kid with series like The Babysitters Club, or Anne of Green Gables when I got older. As an adult, I just drift around from topic to topic, with no structure other than the huge To Be Read list I have (which, thanks to NetGalley, grows at about 15 books a week! Gah!). But last year I started doing immersive series reading again with the Poldark books. First I binged on the series, then I binged on the books. The TV shows had been recommended…
