I don’t know why Flavorwire would run a story like this unless they think it is extraordinary that women actually, can you imagine, WRITE BOOKS! What is the world coming to?
But this is a decent list of classic genre novels, a couple you might not have read and can stuff in your canvas tote to take the beach, the pool, or just enjoy snuggled up in your armchair.
22 Thrilling, Imaginative, and Twisted Genre Books By Women
For example:
Fingersmith, Sarah Waters
A crime novel set among Victorian-era lesbian pickpockets, this is the book that put Waters on the map as one of the creepiest and most compelling living writers.
See the whole list HERE
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Lars Leetaru
Celebrating clutter
That’s the theme of an article by Dominique Browning in the New York Times. (Link below)
And why not? Define “clutter”.
I have in a glass-fronted cabinet a couple of porcelain animals which belonged to my grandmother – every time I look at them, I remember her and smile. Is that “clutter”?
I have on a bookshelf a collection of tiny pewter items which I picked up at various places I’ve visited in my life – a tiny Mermaid from Copenhagen, a highland cow from Scotland, a petite saguaro cactus from Arizona, a dolphin from Moorea, others. I have a handful of those Swarowski animals which were all the rage a couple of decades back which I haven’t seen around for some time. One of those is in its box because one of its little fragile glass legs broke off and I haven’t figured out a way to fix it, but the rest are out there, including the one I remember getting on my 21st birthday from someone I loved.
I have a large population of plushes, joined only this last Christmas by a black stuffed Toothless (from How To Train Your Dragon). They’ve all got names, and most of them have traceable histories.
I have books EVERYWHERE – some of them purchased a month ago, some decades ago, many signed by authors who are also friends. Some were published last year, some in the 19th century. None of this is “collectible” in the sense that it is intrinsically valuable – it might fetch a couple of bucks at a yard sale, probably, if it came to that.
Is any of this clutter? Why would I WANT to live in a house which was immaculately clean but had no past, no treasures, and no soul?
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Clutter that we definitely don’t need is in our oceans, but someone, a kid just out of his teens, has a cleanup plan. Perhaps there is hope for humanity.
The world’s first ocean cleaning system will be deployed in 2016
There are five gigantic patches of swirling plastic throughout the Earth’s oceans, known as gyres, Ian Crossland writes at Minds.
Because of ocean currents, a great majority of the plastic that ends up in the oceans finds its way into these garbage patches, poisoning marine life and ending up in the food supply of the planet.
That the plastic lands in these rotating patches is a double edged sword. It is horrible, yes, and causes a multitude of problems, but it also localizes the pollutants and gives us a place to start when cleaning up.
Boyan Slat, at the age of 18, gave a riveting Ted Talk unveiling his plan to clean the pollution using passive flotation devices and the ocean’s own current. After all, “why move through the oceans, if the oceans can move through you?” In 2014, at the age of 19, he realized the plan was actually feasible, and now it’s going into effect off the coast of Japan.
Read the whole story HERE
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The other worlds of fairy tales
Take a tour of the British Academy and Folio Society exhibition of fairy tale illustrations from all over the world, exploring the idea of ‘other worlds’ from China to Native America.
Illustration by Grahame Baker-Smith from the Folio Society edition of Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant and Other Stories. – Photograph: Publisher
See all the illustrations HERE
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The other day, I wrote about “Uhtceare: An Old English word meaning ‘lying awake before dawn and worrying.'”
It was in a Mental Floss list of “10 Old English Words You Need to Be Using”
I decided to use them all:
After the second staddle of the night iI freed my pantofled toes and climbed back into bed yet again, to indulge in my customary bout of uhtceare. I must have dozed off eventually, though, because my usual feline expergefactor got me up at his accustomed hour, because he wanted breakfast. As usuall there was far too much to do and far too little time to do it in so I swallowed a few bites of breakfast on the sly and grubbled around for the car keys. It was just another day at work, with the boss mugwumping his way through the morning meeting and then the rawgabbit from the cubicle next to mine gleefully collared me to share completely idiotic gossip about things she could not possibly know anything about. It was a long time until lunch, when I could get vinomadefied out of that (but of course the idiot came with me, and then I had to stand the lanspresado her entire lunch because of course her wallet was back at the office….) Then it was back through the vomitorium and into the world again….
Read all the Old English Words HERE
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THIS ‘n THAT
Absolutely indispensable translation list you need while travelling. Never leave home without it.
“My hovercraft is full of eels” in many languages, including Elvish and Klingon.
Translations HERE
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Quote of the day
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Alma Alexander My books Email me
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