Review: A Million Years in a Day

Hello dear reader(s) and welcome back to another weekend instalment of Nessa reads and reviews! At the beginning of the month I posted my December reading list and Greg Jenner’s A Million Years in a Day: A Curious History of Daily Life has been one of my picks. Side note: if you’re wondering how that’s coming along – I’m actually doing rather well. I just have to finish one and a half book and I can cross everything of the list. The reviewing portion of the process is a little slower as usual. 🙂 Getting back to A Million Years in a Day, I finished it a few days ago and I finally have the afternoon off to type my thoughts about the book. Unfortunately, because I hurt my back a few days ago, there won’t be a lot of photos. And quite frankly the book looks like it’s been through 2 world wars 😀 because I’ve been lugging it my backpack for a week. So perhaps it’s better you don’t see the state of it 🙂

 

Review: The Uskoks of Senj

Hello dear reader(s) and welcome back to another instalment of Nessa reads and reviews. I’m really excited about this review because this is the 50^th book I’ve read this year for my Goodreads challenge! 🙂 It’s also the book that took me the longest to finish! I started it on May 1^st and finished it on November 21^st! That’s over 6 months! >_< The reasons it took me so long to finish wary from: I didn’t have time… I wasn’t in the mood… I got lost in the footnotes… However, that doesn’t imply that the book is dull or drudgery; on the contrary the subject is fascinating, well researched and marvellously written. Academic books simply take me longer to read because of the richness and complexity of the work. I’ll touch on that subject a bit later.

 

The Historian’s Apprentice: The Birth of a Thesis

Hello dear reader(s) and welcome back to my blog! I hope you had a nice summer, that you’re ready for autumn and some cooler weather. Instead of the usual instalment of Nessa reads & reviews, today I’m going to write about something else. In case I didn’t bore you to death with this on Twitter (shameless plug – you can find me @NarratriceNessa 🙂 ) I recently graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy in Split. I’m a newly minted mag. educ. hist. et mag. educ. angl.; which basically means that I’m a certified teacher of history and English. The final step toward my master’s degree consisted of writing a thesis in my chosen field of study and the thesis’ defence in front of a tripartite board of faculty professors.

 

Review: Empires of the Sea

Hello dear reader(s)! We made it through January which, according to lore, is the most depressing month of the year. Bravo us! For the beginning of February, in this instalment of Nessa reads books and writes reviews (NRBWR),  I’m reviewing the last book I read in January: Roger Crowley’s Empires of the Sea: The Final Battle for the Mediterranean, 1521-1580. It’s a mouthful. Have you noticed how all history books have gigantic (sub)titles? A single title is never enough, they just have to add a gigantic subtitle that explains where and when this is taking place. Can you imagine epic fantasy authors doing that? Game of Thrones: The Causes of Westeros’ Civil Wars 298-300 AC. OK, not my best work, but I tried though! 😀

 

Musings on Face Paint and beauty

Mascara, blush, rouge, lipstick, makeup… Common words and common enough objects; you can find one of these things in a woman’s handbag along with many other beauty products and knickknacks. 🙂 Makeup surrounds us and nowadays it is easily accessible and caters to any budget. From the cheep and cheery (or is affordable the more appropriate word?) to the very luxurious ones. Whatever your budget or desire you’ll find something for yourself.

But as with any common object that we use daily we rarely stop to think about its origins and history. Come now tell me how much do you think about the history of a fork or spoon or a chair? I’d wager you don’t think about it at all. 🙂 And after all why should you? The history of everyday objects is not taught in schools. It is neither glorious nor relevant enough to be a part of the history curriculum filled with Europeocentric diplomatic history, men and wars. We barely manage to fit women and other cultures in there. I apologise if this is not the case in your country, but this is (in my opinion) a pretty good estimation of Croatia’s history curriculum.