Michelle Athy's Blog

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden is a historical fiction published in 1997. It was adapted into a movie starring Zhang Ziyi and Michelle Yeoh, released in 2005. I watched the movie once, thought it was okay but not spectacular, and shrugged it off as completely forgettable. I’d wanted to see the movie because … Continue reading Reading Memoirs of a Geisha

In between reading Memoirs of a Geisha (you can follow my continual Twitter thread on my reading of this book, if you’re so inclined; it’s largely me being annoyed by it) and watching the Japanese historical film Tengaramon today with my mother, Japanese history and Japanese history in media is on my mind today. I’ll … Continue reading Watching Tengaramon

April showers bring May flowers, they say. In my case, New York City looks like it’ll more fully open back up in the coming months, which will be great because I miss being out of the house, out of my immediate neighborhood. 19. Pretty Good Number One: An American Family Eats Tokyo by Matthew Amster-Burton. … Continue reading April Reads

In 1805, a man named John Anthony became a naturalized citizen of Great Britain. According to this Wikipedia article, British citizenship at the time included those born on British soil and in Britain’s territories and colonies. An Act of 1772 said that children born abroad to a British father were considered citizens. Everyone else needed …

Princess Charlotte was born on January 7, 1796 in London, the first (and only) child of George, the Prince of Wales, and his wife (and first cousin) Caroline. George was bummed that Charlotte wasn’t a boy and then three days after her birth, changed his will so that the bulk of his money was willed … Continue reading Princess Charlotte of Wales

I increased my 2021 reading goal from 20 to 30 because I hit 15 books by the second week of March and…there’s still a lot of 2021 to go. 11. Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn. 5 stars. Fiction/Romance/Contemporary. 12. The Duchess Deal (Girl Meets Duke #1) by Tessa Dare. 3 stars. Fiction/Romance/Historical Romance/Regency 13. Dreaming … Continue reading Books 11 to 18

In 1814, after leaving England and her social isolation and her stupid husband, Caroline traveled. She visited Brunswick, she went to Switzerland, and she headed to Italy. In 1815, she bought a house on the shores of Lake Como. She’d acquired a male servant named Bartolomeo Pergami along the way. From 1816, Caroline traveled some … Continue reading Caroline of Brunswick, Part II

I was having a long text chat with a friend over the weekend about a book she’s reading, Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino. I think she started sharing bits of that book because a) she was super into it and b) because I’d been saying how much the short The Picture of Dorian Gray was … Continue reading Female Character Musings

Caroline of Brunswick’s story is just sad, y’all. She was born as a princess of Brunswick, a place kind of in the middle of Germany, on May 17, 1768. Her parents were Charles William, Duke of Brunswick, and Augusta of Britain, George III’s older sister. Caroline was raised in the midst of a nasty marriage; … Continue reading Caroline of Brunswick, Part I

Now, where did we leave Queen Charlotte? Ah, yes. The 1770s were a tumultuous time, since us Americans were fighting our revolution against them. Charlotte and George, though, were having a lot of kids. After Prince George (born 1762; the Prince Regent and later George IV), they had Frederick (1763), William (1765 who later became … Continue reading Queen Charlotte, Part II