It feels like we'll never see each other again

...given how obvious James’s affection was in public, nobody at court doubted what was happening in private. George [Villiers]’s contemporary Sir Henry Rich allegedly turned down an advantageous post in the King’s Household because he did not want anybody to assume he owed his position to his looks or an intimate relationship with the King. [loc. 5901]

A biography that doesn't shy away from James' homosexuality, but treats it as an integral part of his character. Becoming King of Scotland at the age of 13 months, his childhood was full of trauma:( Read more... )

'Going the way of the dinosaurs' should really mean becoming undeniably awesome, rather than sinking into inevitable extinction.

Subtitled 'On the Road with Old Bones, New Science and our Favourite Dinosaurs', this is Switek's^* account of various dinosaur-related trips across the United States. Along the way, the author discusses the demise of Brontosaurus, deemed a misclassification of an Apatosaurus fossil (a decision that was reversed in 2015: My Beloved Brontosaurus was published in 2012); reveals their childhood fascination with dinosaurs; discusses dinosaur fighting, mating and parenting; dinosaur physiology, and why those old accounts of dull, slow-moving brutes is probably wrong; dinosaur vocalisation.

I found eyeliner in the Arab world’s deserts and in the savannas of Africa, in the hair salons of Iran, and in the alleyways of Kyoto. I found it on the faces of Indian storytellers, Latin American freedom fighters, and Palestinian activists.

A surprisingly wide-ranging and fascinating cultural history of eyeliner, from Queen Nefertiti (an influence on the author as a teenager) to New York drag queens. It begins with her own experiences as a British-Lebanese teenager, and covers the different types of eyeliner -- kohl, sormeh, kajal, and more, each with different origins and recipes -- and the manifold reasons for which people wear it. ( Read more... )