It’s been almost a year since my last big singing, so for the past month or so I’ve had Sacred Harp on the brain in a major way. And since the next best thing to singing Sacred Harp is reading about it, I’ve been doing just that. First came a non-fiction, A Sacred Feast: Reflections…
Tag: history
Review: The Pun Also Rises
What exactly is a pun, and why do they exist? What’s the point of them? And should they be considered the highest form of language…or the lowest? For the answers to these and other questions, look no further than The Pun Also Rises: How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History, and Made Wordplay More…
Review: Year of Wonders
In the fall of 1666, whispers of a horrible plague are spreading even faster than the disease. When an infected bolt of cloth makes its way to the small village of Eyam, its citizens make a brave decision to quarantine themselves in hopes of stopping the spread of the disease. But as fall drifts into…
Review: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
19th century China was not an easy place and time for women. They were useless to their parents, and could only become worthy by bearing sons for their husbands. Most of a woman’s life was spent above-stairs in her family or in-laws’ home, sewing and talking with the other women of the household. Some girls…
Review: Letters of a Woman Homesteader
In 1909 Elinore Pruitt Stewart and her young daughter left Denver, Colorado for the prairies of Wyoming. The land is wild— its inhabitants only marginally less so—and ranching as a single woman in difficult. Letters of a Woman Homesteader includes letters from Elinore to her former employer — a snapshot of three years’ time spent…