And this is certainly random:
Well, “random” would not be the best word, since it’s clearly intentional. Nevertheless, as we say, no accounting for taste!
We hit a couple of estate sales on Saturday, and this was in the same house as a collection of fur coats, a collection of wigs, a huge collection of shoes including a couple of pairs of thigh-high boots, and a bedroom in low-budget but clearly defined French Regency style.
She knew what she liked, that’s for sure.
Random:
Well, scratch that. I just looked at my “random” file (I send myself emails with that as the header) – and every link is to a rather substantive article that deserves more attention. So let’s move on to some hopefully coming attractions:
Over the past few days, I’ve read two novels.
and
Of the two, American Mermaid was far better, but even that would only get about a 3.5/5 from me. It was hilarious in parts, intriguing in structure and intent, but ultimately didn’t cohere – although it’s quite possible I’m also not smart enough to grasp how it did, actually cohere.
I’ll be back later to talk about them both.
I just got Generations: Age, Ancestry, and Memory in the English Reformations on Interlibrary Loan, and I’m looking forward to diving into that:
This book examines England’s plural and protracted Reformations through the novel prism of the generations. Approaching generation as a biological unit and a social cohort, it demonstrates that the tumultuous religious developments that stretched across the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries not merely transformed the generations but were also forged by them. It provides compelling new insights into how people experienced and navigated the profound challenges that the Reformations posed in everyday life.
Alexandra Walsham investigates how age and ancestry were implicated in the theological and cultural upheavals of the era and how these in turn reconfigured the nexus between memory, history, and time. Generations explores the manifold ways in which the Reformations shaped the horizontal relationships that men, women, and children formed with their siblings, kin, and peers, as well as the vertical ones that tied them to their dead ancestors and their future heirs. It highlights the vital part that families bound by blood and by faith played in the making of current events and in recording the past for posterity.
Drawing on previously untapped archival evidence, in tandem with a rich array of printed texts, visual images, and material objects, this study offers poignant glimpses of individual lives and casts fascinating light on how families were both torn apart and brought closer together by the English Reformations.
Over the past week or so, I’ve also watched:
Season 3 of Happy Valley and season 2 of The Bear.
I wrote about season 2 of Happy Valley – 7 YEARS AGO! – here. Sad to say that season 3 was not nearly as good as the first two. Rather a disappointment in fact.
I watched season 1 of The Bear last year, but never wrote about it, I see. I suppose that’s because the watching occurred in a time of busy-ness and transition (no, not that kind) and the chance just slipped away. Well, I’ll correct that. I have thoughts.
Heading to the Catholic Marketing Network trade show later today (it’s gathering here in town). Signing books, etc.