Jayne ,'Serenity'
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
From what I understand, a lot of the European version of Mongol history is wildly inaccurate. I haven't studied it in depth, but I find that plausible (even trying very hard to set aside my deep-seated Mongols! My people! bias)
I could not get very far into the Mongoliad (I might have finished a chapter, but I might not have) because of my bias, so. Grains of salt.
I'd always thought they were pretty much barbarians, but this book makes them sound a lot more civilized than I'd assumed.
I had a fun moment in the SCA where a medieval Frenchwoman was mocking my Viking household as being barbarians, and I sneered back and said, "At least we take baths." She slunk away.
hah! and if I remember correctly, it was an Italian - Catherine d'Medici - who introduced forks to France.
She was in the book! reminded me of the Greek story ... Atalanta?
And I hadn't realized she inspired Turandot (one of my favorites, for the music more than the story). There's a theory that, since Puccini died before completing the opera, it should have had a different ending.
I highly recommend the movie Mongol [link] for a sympathetic portrayal of Genghis Khan. It's terrific.
My German ancestors are legendarily the descendants of Mongols that came conquering through the area, and some of my Russian ancestors are less legendarily Tatars, so I take a proprietary interest.
I am not sure if there is anyone else on the board who lives in New York State, but not in/near New york City, but I recently found out that anyone in the state can sign up for a library card for the New York Public library, and then have access to their e-book collections through overdrive (which are far superior to my local library, as hard as they try). It is a financial godsend for someone like me who eats romances and mysteries at about 1 every two days because of my long commute on public transport.
Maybe other states with one big city and a large rural population have something similar? (Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis/St. P aul, Atlanta, maybe Dallas or Austin?)
Texas residents can get a MY Link card from the Houston Public Library and user their Overdrive collection. I don't know whether other Texas cities offer something similar.
Oh, that's very cool!
ETA And the SF Public Library resident requirement is just the state. I never would have thought to check!
And Oakland
This is so exciting! I want to travel around the state collecting library cards!