RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

[silversea]

Happy November! What are you reading now?

Comments

[valoise]

I finished Accomplished Ladies Rich Closet of Rarities by John Shirley, a 1690 guide for managing an upper class household. I mainly read it for the sections on cooking and food preservation, but there were significant sections on having and raising children (more than usual for this kind of book) and vast numbers of recipes for cosmetics and medicine.

I'm also about halfway through with Final Orbit by Chris Hadfield. Part of a series of Cold War thrillers set in an era that extends the Apollo program beyond its original ending. Hadfield, as usual, uses his career as an astronaut to bring authenticity to the action in space, but this time it feels like the character development isn't quite as strong. Still enjoying it, though.

[thepasteldyke]

Oh, the recipes for cosmetics and medicine sounds interesting, what kind of ingredients were there in the makeup they used in this specific book? Food preservation tips sound great though, I asked my grandma a little about that cus I needed a better way to preserve my carrots than last year (only had one styrofoam box, not nearly enough space in it) and now I've got a bunch of carrots buried in sand. xD

[valoise]

The cosmetics are mostly things like how to make your hair curly or beautiful, how to remove freckles or restore your complexion. Some have really iffy ingredients (the one to stop hair loss starts with burning pigeon dung to ashes).

A lot of the food preservation recipes involve candying or drying fruits, or making marmalade, conserves, or syrups with them. You can find the 1696 edition online at https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_the-accomplished-ladies-_shirley-john-fl-1680-_1696/mode/1up

[thepasteldyke]

Oh, I am curious to look at the hair curling. (Lmao can you substitute it for horse dung, I know where to find plenty of that)

Lots of sugar! I guess it's a good contrast to how a lot of food preservation can also be done with salt. Lots of ways to preserve things. Thank you for the link!