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... just busy juggling life. I've spent much time and money at the chiro lately (there's not "too" about it, when it comes to quality of life/mobility issues, and thankfully our health plan covers some of it.) I keep telling myself not to feel like an idiot for falling on the stairs and starting this whole mess, but let's just say it's a work in process. I've been feeling a wee frustrated because it's spring, and and the cleaning bug has set in, but I'm having to ice and elevate alot lately, so I've got a major case of the fidgets.
Bright side: I've been able to do a bit more reading. I just finished The Birth House by Ami McKay. I've read alot of books that are really invested in the evil modern patriarchal medicine squashed the old women's wisdom/magic flat theme but this book isn't that sort of polemic. It's the story of a life, one with perhaps a few too many coincidental collisions with real-world historical events, but it's so warmly written, the narrative so engaging, that such things are easily forgiven. This isn't a book that overly romances the past; it pokes those of us in the present and reminds us of just how recently the standards of women's rights, modern conveniences and medical practices were established. Set in Nova Scotia in the early 20th C its language and characters give us a peephole into another time and place; full of folklore and flowing descriptives, it's a enthralling read - I was hooked from the first pages. I got this one from the library but now it's out in paperback, I think I'll be picking up a copy of my own.
I've just started Alexander at the World's End by Tom Holt. He's a hysterical, historical writer who knows his stuff (he read Ancient History at Oxford) and I've found a few other of his books (like Who's Afraid of Beowulf) thoroughly giggle-worth. I'm barely into this one and I'm already snickering. A sample of Holt's Euxenus' opening words....
Consider Alexander, and consider me. Both of us came a long way to die, but my journey wasn't like his; mine led me out of vast tracts of folly and into a small village on the borders of wisdom.
Once, when I was young, I believed in democracy. When I was a little older, I believed in oligarchy, government by the enlightened few; after that, in monarchy, the rule of the philosopher-king. Now I believe only in drainage, public sanitation and clean water.
Oh yes; I've come a lot further than Alexander.
I'm looking forward to enjoying the rest of the book!
Bright side: I've been able to do a bit more reading. I just finished The Birth House by Ami McKay. I've read alot of books that are really invested in the evil modern patriarchal medicine squashed the old women's wisdom/magic flat theme but this book isn't that sort of polemic. It's the story of a life, one with perhaps a few too many coincidental collisions with real-world historical events, but it's so warmly written, the narrative so engaging, that such things are easily forgiven. This isn't a book that overly romances the past; it pokes those of us in the present and reminds us of just how recently the standards of women's rights, modern conveniences and medical practices were established. Set in Nova Scotia in the early 20th C its language and characters give us a peephole into another time and place; full of folklore and flowing descriptives, it's a enthralling read - I was hooked from the first pages. I got this one from the library but now it's out in paperback, I think I'll be picking up a copy of my own.
I've just started Alexander at the World's End by Tom Holt. He's a hysterical, historical writer who knows his stuff (he read Ancient History at Oxford) and I've found a few other of his books (like Who's Afraid of Beowulf) thoroughly giggle-worth. I'm barely into this one and I'm already snickering. A sample of Holt's Euxenus' opening words....
Consider Alexander, and consider me. Both of us came a long way to die, but my journey wasn't like his; mine led me out of vast tracts of folly and into a small village on the borders of wisdom.
Once, when I was young, I believed in democracy. When I was a little older, I believed in oligarchy, government by the enlightened few; after that, in monarchy, the rule of the philosopher-king. Now I believe only in drainage, public sanitation and clean water.
Oh yes; I've come a lot further than Alexander.
I'm looking forward to enjoying the rest of the book!
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