17th Century

An Adults Only Lord of the Flies

Batavia by Peter FitzSimons

February 20, 2026 by Pooja Leave a Comment

The Batavia, the pride of the Dutch East India Company, is on its maiden voyage from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies when it wrecks off just off the coast of western Australia. But the tragedy of the Batavia stems not from the forces of nature, but from the evil in men’s hearts. I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts about this story in the last couple years, and was so curious about this strange, dark story, part survival story and part true crime, that I decided […]

I should read more Susanna Kearsley

The King's Messenger by Susanna Kearsley

March 6, 2025 by Malin Leave a Comment

StoryGraph Easy Reading Challenge 2025: All Alone – Read a stand-alone book Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for this ARC. My opinions are my own. It is 1613 and Prince Henry, James I’s eldest son and heir has tragically died. Rumours whisper that it might not have been by natural causes. Queen Anna is distraught, and King James is determined to punish the guilty. Andrew Logan is one of the king’s messengers and he’s tasked with going to Scotland to apprehend Sir David Moray, […]

This was disappointing

The Witches of Vardø by Anya Bergman

July 25, 2024 by Malin Leave a Comment

In 1662, a former mistress of the king of Denmark-Norway (Norway was a Danish colony for about 400 years, for those not big into their history trivia), Anna Rhodius is sent into exile to a fortress in Vardø in the very north of Norway. She convinces herself that she has been sent there to help root out witchcraft, and if she does a good job, she will be welcomed back by the king with open arms. Zigri is the young widow of a fisherman, who […]

Travel Research Books

The Seafarers: The Atlantic Crossing by Melvin Maddocks, editor

The British Abroad: The Grand Tour in the Eighteenth Century by Jeremy Black

Traveling Beyond Her Sphere: American Women on the Grand Tour 1814-1914 by Bess Beatty

January 24, 2024 by faintingviolet 2 Comments

At work we’re in research mode, preparing for our new exhibition about travel in the 19th century. Based on my interests and previous research avenues I got handed the Grand Tour and a piece of the cruise industry as my responsibilities. For the past few weeks, I’ve been scouring all my usual resource repositories, googling some very interesting UK museum websites, and our curator made sure I had some books to work my way through. They’ve been… a mixed bag. The Seafarers: The Atlantic Crossing by […]

[got me] to a nunnery!

Matrix by Lauren Groff

Heloise & Abelard: A New Biography by James Burge

The Tigress of Forlì: Renaissance Italy's Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de Medici by Elizabeth Lev

Letters of a Portuguese Nun: Uncovering the Mystery Behind a 17th Century Forbidden Love by Myriam Cyr

July 5, 2022 by andtheIToldYouSos 2 Comments

I thought I was going to need some time to recover from the exquisite The Everlasting, but really it flung me head-first into a literal rabbit-hole. A warren. An abbey. A nunnery, if you will. Also- The Atlantic just posted a list of books that were done dirty by pandemic releases, and OF COURE The Everlasting resides within those vaulted halls. I was immediately drawn to Caterina Riario Sforza de Medici after she was mentioned several times in The Everlasting. A distant relative of her spots her likeness in the […]

In the 17th century, birds were appreciated for their beauty, and also their tastiness

Pasta for Nightingales: A 17th-Century Handbook of Bird-Care and Folklore by Giovanni Pietro Olina

March 6, 2021 by KimMiE" Leave a Comment

The common hoopoe gets drunk on fermented grapes; goldfinches suffer from epilepsy; to properly keep francolins, you must keep a small crate or case within the aviary for the birds to nestle down in. These are just a few of the handy tips that Giovani Pietro Olina offers in his 17th-century handbook on bird care, Pasta for Nightingales. This charming little tome is an English translation of a book written in 1622, called Uccelliera, which is Italian for The Aviary. The title of the English […]

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