TBR Reads: Spring 2024
Or, Amy's attempt to read three more books while the greenery blooms!
Admittedly, the last couple of months have been slow with reading. I’ve been sick and trying to design products in anticipation of setting up an Etsy store, but generally I’ve just felt horribly unproductive in both this newsletter and other facets of The Bookish Historian brand.
To that end, I’ve made a minor change to the newsletter frequency in the hopes it’ll give me some space to breathe as well as hopefully (finally) get around to writing regularly.
Bookish posts will come every Monday: Book reviews, books I’m excited about, favorite authors, items from my TBR list, things of that nature.
Issues of MBH will come every other Friday: Centered on a theme (something you may have noticed in the last couple of issues), I’ll offer some historical background on the person, place, or theme, a book on that particular topic, and a related historical artifact or object. Additionally, I’ll include a round-up of history and bookish headlines and articles from around the web.
It’s my hope that this streamlines my content creation and keeps readers wanting to come back for more. More than anything, I want to post regularly and want you to view this as something worth reading.
So, thank you. Thank you for reading, thank you for subscribing, thank you for supporting me as I’ve been fumbling along the way. I know, I’m probably harder on myself than anything, but *shrugs*.
Shifting gears, I’ll be sharing some of the books I’m eyeing to read this spring. Cat Jarman’s The Bone Chests is at the top of my list. There are a couple of other historical non-fiction pieces as well. Enjoy!
TBR Picks for Spring 2024
TBR Pick #1: The Bone Chests
Cat Jarman. William Collins. 357 pages. 2023.
A number of mortuary chests containing the remains of Anglo-Saxon and Norman royalty and clergy line the nave of Winchester Cathedral in England. Writing on the chests notes that those contained within the decorated wooden chests include William II, Cnut the Great, Emma of Normandy, six other kings, and three bishops. In December 1642, during the English Civil War, Parliamentary forces destroyed the contents of the cathedral, including some of the original ten chests, scattering the remains across the cathedral floor. Centuries later, a team of archaeologists and anthropologists from the University of Bristol gathered to conserve and research the remains. Bioarchaeologist and historian Cat Jarman recounts this conservation journey and explores the history of the people behind the remains in her groundbreaking book The Bone Chests.
TBR Pick #2: The Royal Women Who Made England
M.J. Porter. Pen & Sword History. 234 pages. 2024.
Fresh off other Anglo-Saxon-centric books I’ve read recently (like my recent review of Tim Clarkson’s Æthelflæd: The Lady of the Mercians, I selected another one likely to grab my interest: M.J. Porter’s The Royal Women Who Made England: The Tenth Century in Saxon England.
Porter chronicles the stories of Anglo-Saxon women about whom the historical record speaks little. I’ve written about Æthelflæd before - the daughter of Alfred the Great. But there also exist the lesser-known daughters, sisters, mothers, and other female relatives of Anglo-Saxon rulers. My hope is that The Royal Women offers these women a voice of their own.
TBR Pick #3: The Perreaus and Mrs. Rudd: Forgery and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century London
Donna T. Andrew & Randall McGowen. University of California Press. 346 pages. 2001.
Sensationalist journalism has captivated audiences for the last couple of centuries, especially regarding true crime. Take, for example, the media hype around such criminals such as Jack the Ripper, Belle Gunness, H.H. Holmes, and O.J. Simpson. In 1770s London, another story gripped the headlines: the forgery case involving the brothers Robert and Daniel Perreau and Daniel’s mistress Margaret Rudd. Why was forgery such a felonious crime? Carissa Hamoen writes that “Forgery in eighteenth-century London was more than a crime of opportunity; it completely undermined the economic, social and political orders of that society.”1 The Perreaus and Mrs. Rudd offers a look into a cause célèbre during a time preceding televised court proceedings and its effects on London society.
I look forward to sharing my thoughts on these at a later time! Thanks for reading!
Cheers,
Carissa Hamoen, “Forgery: Legislation Gone Mad or Legitimate Social Threat?", Constellations 3, no. 2 (2012), https://doi.org/10.29173/cons17203.