Naomi Wolf’s latest book, Outrages, was supposed to be released in the United States on June 18, 2019. In May 2019, BBC host Matthew Sweet had Wolf on his show and challenged her misinterpretation of a key legal term. One argument in the book is that legislative changes in 1857 institutionalized homophobia in the United… Read more →
Averill Earls
Averill Earls
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Historian Witches and Scientist Vampires: Can We Be Deborah Harkness When We Grow Up?
Historian-witches, vampire-scientists, and a world where you can get a tenure-track job at an Ivy and fancy fellowships at Oxford just because you work hard and have great hair? You guessed it: we’re talking A Discovery of Witches. Please excuse our numerous exclamation points! A Discovery of Witches is the first book in Deb Harkness’s… Read more →
Feminist Science Fiction? The Power, Red Clocks, and The Salt Line
When Laura put out the call to the Nursing Clio team for Beach Reads essays, I didn’t think I’d have anything this summer. Not that I wasn’t reading; I always have a long summer reading list, including a lot of trash, science fiction, and new books from my favorite authors. I just didn’t think there… Read more →
Gilded Age Decadence and Decay: A Review of The Alienist
I’ve been pretty excited about the coming of TNT’s adaptation of Caleb Carr’s The Alienist since the announcement last summer. I read the book – and hated it – last year with my book club. That discussion was a fun one, because we love to hate a book. Our biggest qualm was that the author… Read more →
Explicit: Censorship, Sexology, and Sexuality in Independent Ireland
When the Irish Free State created the Censorship of Publications Board in 1929, they were arguably asserting their independence.1 By taking control of information, and defining standards of morality and decency through banned literature, censorship was in fact a rejection of colonial rule. Much of the independent Irish identity hinged on a sense of moral… Read more →
Talking Sexing History
Averill Earls: Welcome to the wide and wonderful world of podcasting, Sexing History! Gillian Frank and Lauren Gutterman: Thanks so much! AE: Long time fan, first time interviewer. You both know I am a big fan of your digital and traditional history work, and I am psyched about your podcast. What inspired you to launch… Read more →
Quinine, Magic Pollen, and the British Empire in Fiction
Hands down, my favorite book of 2016 (and possibly ever) was The Watchmaker of Filigree Street. I read it with my Dessert Book Club, and every member either loved it or found some degree of enjoyment in it.1 And believe me — in the DBC, our tastes vary greatly, and it is rare that we… Read more →
I did the unthinkable. I saw Fifty Shades Darker. In theaters. By myself.
It was just as bad as I thought it would be. I can get past the ridiculous plot, the #NotMyChristian controversies, and the people who insisted that it can’t be a very romantic movie if the leads have no chemistry. I will also forgive the editors for lacking finesse in the storytelling, which seemed to… Read more →