![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
books and yarn
May. 16th, 2009 09:10 amI'm reading historical stuff in the U.S. (Revolution - Civil War) for this Novel Idea involving a sort of self-defrocked surgeon, giant talking cats, zombies, and the voodoo king of New Orleans. With bonus wannabe serial killer, I think.
Just finished reading /Founding Brothers/, which gave me a possible what-if for settling the continent differently (of course, just having magic as part of the equation may account for it, too).
The book /Civil War Medicine/ is a fantastic review of the state of medical knowledge and logistics prior to the "American Civil War" as those not in the U.S. put it, as well as during. It has photos, too. Major organizational advances (moving away from the concept of regimental hospitals, volunteer ambulances, and the like, and toward the creation of what became MASH units, strictly dedicated ambulances services, etc.) dates to the tragedies of the first year of the war, in which administration of medical care was inadequate (cf. /Memory of Solferino/ or any book that discusses medical care during the Crimean War) and what leaders did in response during subsequent years. The Civil War was a watershed event from the perspective of organizing medical care on and off the battlefield, and the lessons of that war, according to the author, have dominated the field ever since. The modern ambulance system was created for the Civil War. The book's also good for describing how doctors were taught in that time.
Plus, hospital ships! I wonder if this story needs a hospital airship. I'll have to think about it.
Haven't done any research on the voodoo end yet.
I also picked up an interesting but ultimately unsatisfying (due to the subject matter, not the authorship) book on Nathan Hale. I'm being too hard on it, but while I deeply admire a man who went so composedly to his death for his country, I could not wave away the fact that he failed in the mission he was assigned. I can't help walking away from this book thinking Hale really wanted to die, unconsciously, and made decisions based on that desire that led to the failure of his mission. There's a reference in that book to a manual on soldiering that he was given when he took up his post as captain, so I may want to find that (don't have the name with me, today), I think. And, good for references on the nature of one's education at Yale at that time (and how early one would go to receive it), and how education was conducted in general.
I also have just started reading Diana Paxson's /The Essential Asatru/ (fast read, btw), and have a copy of the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda. Possible research for another project (Vikings! In! Space!), but also personal interest, as I already have the /Sagas of the Icelanders/ and am always interested in religious history.
And now, yarn:
Picked up a bunch of sock yarn recently, some in various colorways and some solids, for knitting as many toe-up socks from WendyKnits new book, /Socks from the Toe Up/ as I can. The goal is to participate in the knit-a-long on Ravelry.com that's doing her socks. I'm almost sure to fall off the wagon relatively soon but am hoping to get 5 or 6 pairs done before I scream and quit. There's just something about sock-knitting that I really don't enjoy that much, which is weird, because all the other knitters I know seem to LOVE them. I'm hoping toe-ups change my tune. The solids I picked up off knitpicks.com. I shopped on etsy.com for all of the colored yarns, some from temptedyarns.com (who did a colorway based on my name meaning "star" in Latin - that's real silver you see peeping out like stars in the night sky and it looks AWESOME in person and Mind's Eye Creations (mindseyeyarns.etsy.com), which, though located near me in Cambridge, was easier to order from online than actually get over there since I work 6 days a week and hole up to recharge my batteries on the remaining Sunday. (On the seventh day, children, I fucking REST.) I've also found my roving stash and bought some more roving, also from artists on etsy, like beemiceelf and snokistfarmgirl, and sheepishcreations, including some german angora rabbit that I just had to try. So I've got some new fibers to work with but am actually spinning up some old stuff out of my stash right now that I don't know what kind of sheep it is (I generally refer to such stuff as "unspecified sheep". Once I'm done with that...we'll see what comes next.
Just finished reading /Founding Brothers/, which gave me a possible what-if for settling the continent differently (of course, just having magic as part of the equation may account for it, too).
The book /Civil War Medicine/ is a fantastic review of the state of medical knowledge and logistics prior to the "American Civil War" as those not in the U.S. put it, as well as during. It has photos, too. Major organizational advances (moving away from the concept of regimental hospitals, volunteer ambulances, and the like, and toward the creation of what became MASH units, strictly dedicated ambulances services, etc.) dates to the tragedies of the first year of the war, in which administration of medical care was inadequate (cf. /Memory of Solferino/ or any book that discusses medical care during the Crimean War) and what leaders did in response during subsequent years. The Civil War was a watershed event from the perspective of organizing medical care on and off the battlefield, and the lessons of that war, according to the author, have dominated the field ever since. The modern ambulance system was created for the Civil War. The book's also good for describing how doctors were taught in that time.
Plus, hospital ships! I wonder if this story needs a hospital airship. I'll have to think about it.
Haven't done any research on the voodoo end yet.
I also picked up an interesting but ultimately unsatisfying (due to the subject matter, not the authorship) book on Nathan Hale. I'm being too hard on it, but while I deeply admire a man who went so composedly to his death for his country, I could not wave away the fact that he failed in the mission he was assigned. I can't help walking away from this book thinking Hale really wanted to die, unconsciously, and made decisions based on that desire that led to the failure of his mission. There's a reference in that book to a manual on soldiering that he was given when he took up his post as captain, so I may want to find that (don't have the name with me, today), I think. And, good for references on the nature of one's education at Yale at that time (and how early one would go to receive it), and how education was conducted in general.
I also have just started reading Diana Paxson's /The Essential Asatru/ (fast read, btw), and have a copy of the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda. Possible research for another project (Vikings! In! Space!), but also personal interest, as I already have the /Sagas of the Icelanders/ and am always interested in religious history.
And now, yarn:
Picked up a bunch of sock yarn recently, some in various colorways and some solids, for knitting as many toe-up socks from WendyKnits new book, /Socks from the Toe Up/ as I can. The goal is to participate in the knit-a-long on Ravelry.com that's doing her socks. I'm almost sure to fall off the wagon relatively soon but am hoping to get 5 or 6 pairs done before I scream and quit. There's just something about sock-knitting that I really don't enjoy that much, which is weird, because all the other knitters I know seem to LOVE them. I'm hoping toe-ups change my tune. The solids I picked up off knitpicks.com. I shopped on etsy.com for all of the colored yarns, some from temptedyarns.com (who did a colorway based on my name meaning "star" in Latin - that's real silver you see peeping out like stars in the night sky and it looks AWESOME in person and Mind's Eye Creations (mindseyeyarns.etsy.com), which, though located near me in Cambridge, was easier to order from online than actually get over there since I work 6 days a week and hole up to recharge my batteries on the remaining Sunday. (On the seventh day, children, I fucking REST.) I've also found my roving stash and bought some more roving, also from artists on etsy, like beemiceelf and snokistfarmgirl, and sheepishcreations, including some german angora rabbit that I just had to try. So I've got some new fibers to work with but am actually spinning up some old stuff out of my stash right now that I don't know what kind of sheep it is (I generally refer to such stuff as "unspecified sheep". Once I'm done with that...we'll see what comes next.
