A history of marriage

It’s only been in the past 200 years that people in the West married for love.  Before that, marriage was for purely practical reasons.  “But,” you’re wondering, “didn’t people fall in love?”  Sure they did.  Just not with their spouses.  Adultery used to be normal — at least for men. Read more…

Musicophilia

Oliver Sacks was one of my favorite science writers.  (He died a couple of years ago, sadly.)  He was a neurologist, best known for the book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.  He wrote about things we’d learned about the workings of the mind through people who’d suffered Read more…

The ladies in red

I’m a textiles nerd.  I spin, I knit, I weave.  I love the feeling of being connected with thousands of ancestors.  I’ve read a few books on the subject of textile history, of course, but I doubt most of my readers care about the technical stuff.  So instead I’m going Read more…

The Science of Shopping

When you go to a retail shop, especially a chain store, everything you experience is planned from the moment you walk in.  Fortune 500 retailers have actually hired people to follow shoppers around and watch what they do.  Here’s a few things you don’t think about. — Store temperature.  Dressing Read more…

Sorry I’ve been quiet…

I spent this week sick with a cold, so my reading has been limited to absolute fluff with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.  I’m feeling a little better today, though, so I’m skimming through a couple of books I’ve read already on a subject y’all might find interesting.  Stay tuned!

Alcohol in early America

The short version: from colonial times until the mid-1800’s, white America was drunk. Really drunk.  Like, most of the time,  especially the men. But even the women and children made our modern-day party animals look like lightweights in comparison. The longer version: Rum, gin, and brandy were thought medicinal.  And Read more…

Mauve

This is the first book I’ve read specifically for this blog.  Being a milestone, I wanted it to be a good one, a perfect example of how the books I read sound dull at first but are fascinating and involve world-changing events. So I chose a book about the color Read more…