Batgrl: Bookish Hooha

Last we left the (non) saga I had already decided what (paper) books to bring with me on this leg of the move and was thinking about bringing more - as usual. And of course I forgot something. This time it was about packing clothes - winter clothes take up a buttload of space in a suitcase. I've been living in really temperate climates in the southern US (eastern and western) for several decades now, and so it was easy to forget that I've been able to pack loads of stuff that's thin but that jackets and sweaters are different beasts. Not to mention wearing multiple layers in each outfit.

So I narrowed myself down to two books. One - A Woman of No Character - I'd already mentioned. But the other was a book in my pile of 20+ that I've been meaning to read for ages. As in back in my grad school film reading days. 

Without Lying Down: Francis Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood

by Cari Beauchamp

wikipedia link: Francis Marion

Anyone trying to tell you women haven't always played a part in the film industry? Hasn't been reading their history. True they weren't always given as much credit and many film history books tend to just give most of them a mention or two and not much more. Which is why I bought this book in the first place.

Of course I didn't end up reading it on the plane. Why? Because today airplanes give you a tiny, tiny amount of room in your seating area. This means that you have to grab things you'll need from your carry on before you tuck it under the seat. Getting back into that bag is nearly impossible to do - not comfortably anyway, and not so that you can easily look inside - you only have a matter of inches to work with. Which is why ereaders are so wonderful - I read bits of different books on the flight just for the variety.

For the curious those were:

J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales

I snagged the multiple volumes from Gutenberg - not sure which one I was reading. Old fashioned spooky tales, not really scary.

During the Reign of Terror, journal of my life during the French Revolution

by Grace Dalrymple Elliott and E. Jules Meras

I read a bio of Elliott and have been meaning to read through her words, even though she's not what you'd call perfect with all the facts. I got my ebook via Internet Archive I think - anyway here's the Google Books link, because I am momentarily too lazy to hunt that other one up.

Tales From Bow Street

by Joan Lock

Bought via Amazon sale, am enjoying the various crime stories. It's always weird to read about how the English preferred having armed robbers roaming the streets over a central police force, because of the fear of a government police organization. (Right, there can be abuses, but armed robbery seems a lot to put up with to avoid such an authority. Not to mention that all the previous systems already had abuse - bribery, etc.)

Bedlam: London and Its Mad

by Catharine Arnold

Bought via Amazon sale, only just peeked at the intro.

Punchline about the packing bit: I'm someone that has had to pay extra for overweight suitcases solely due to having heavy books in them. (This has happened more than once.) And this time I had to pay again, because winter clothes are heavy. And there was only one book in that suitcase. Seems so wrong. (Also overweight bag rates have gone up more than double since a year ago.)