Seventeenth Century Europe
City of Light, City of Poison
One of the advantages (or disadvantages depending on the day) of hanging out with writers and spending time on the internet fringes of the publishing industry* is that you have advance warning of books before they reach the bookstores. Sometimes the wait is torture. Holly Tucker‘s latest book, City of Light, City of Poison: Murder,…
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The Day(s) The Music Died
If you’ve been hanging out in English-speaking corners of the internet, you are doubtless aware that April 23, 2016 is the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death. (In one of those weird little coincidences that historians and poets love, he may well have been born on the same date 52 years earlier since he was…
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In Search of Sir Thomas Browne
There are times when the book I read isn’t the book I think it’s going to be.* This happened to me recently with science writer Hugh Aldersey-Williams’ In Search of Sir Thomas Browne. I expected a biography. And I had Browne confused with someone else altogether, though I am no longer sure who. Possibly Robert…
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