Oracne's Brain Radio

Servants: A Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth Century to Modern Times by Lucy Lethbridge is the sort of nonfiction which intersperses selected summations and quotes from memoirs and diaries with the census and labor statistics, so it was more of an armchair journey than an academic slog. I thought I would be most interested in the Edwardian material but it turned out I was more fascinated by the slow decrease and eventual near-disappearance of servanting as a lifelong career and social class; I also was intrigued by specialized modern agencies that provide factotums and butlers to the very rich, or for special occasions. I want to read more about that; let me know if you have any recommendations. Someone should write a contemporary with a butler protagonist, perhaps falling in love with a bodyguard or a chef.

I seem to be doing more reading on my vacation that writing; I did not buckle down at all on Tuesday and Wednesday. Instead, those days involved a lot of Flight Rising and reading. However, I am catching up on household chores, and yesterday I went out and jogged. The other mornings I've gone out and walked. Our mornings are currently cold (thirty Farenheit this morning) but the trees are blooming and look beautiful as they exhale pollen everywhere. Zyrtec is my friend; I dislike the dry, stuffy feeling it causes in my nose and sinuses, but my other choice is my nose running like a faucet for the duration.

The front wall work proceeded yesterday, and today the front stairs are being demolished in preparation for the new stairs. I look forward to not having that one step that is much higher than the others, always requiring a Hup! from me when I'm carrying heavy groceries.

I received some gift cards for my birthday, and I've spent some of the bounty on Shakespeare DVDs: Macbeth with Christopher Eccleston, and the second "Hollow Crown" set with both Henry VI plays and Richard III. I barely spend any time watching my vast collection of DVDs, which annoys me a bit. Mainly what annoys me is how much money I spent in the past on things I don't watch any more, which I can't do anything about, so, onwards, time to watch more. I've never seen Henry VI, so that will be fun! And I'm in the mood for Shakespeare after reading the Judi Dench book.

The Jade Temptress by Jeannie Lin is the second of her historical romance mysteries set in Tang Dynasty China. The heroine Mingyu, a highly trained courtesan, discovers one of her highest-ranking clients spectacularly dead and must work with big, rough-hewn Constable Kaifeng to solve the mystery and maintain her reputation. She always has to walk a very narrow path socially, and in addition was accused of murder by him in the previous novel, so their relationship is somewhat fraught (he briefly questioned her using painful methods we in the modern day would call torture). Meanwhile, Kaifeng has a political enemy who wants him out of his job. The mystery is not the primary focus, and though I enjoyed the romance as these two guarded people open up to each other, just the historical detail alone makes these books worth reading; Lin is terrific about telling you a lot about the period in an unobtrusive, integral way.

English Sexualities, 1700-1800 by Tim Hitchcock concisely summarizes a whole range of research into the sex lives of people during this period as well as theories about how changes occurred. The book discusses major primary sources and their value, and provides a most excellent bibliography.

Look what came in the mail for me!

The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave-Breeding Industry by Ned and Constance Sublette. I like physical books for most of my nonfiction reading, still.

It's over 700 pages. It's totally going to hang out with Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell...though hopefully it will not languish so long unread.