Laura > Recent Status Updates

“It has been more than a decade since the contents of the New York Public Library were actually in New York. Their exact location is now classified, but this has not reduced – rather, it has enhanced – user-access.”

The first week of October, 2025, the New York Public Library made it so that people all over the United States could access banned books by getting a library card.

inculcate: to teach and impress by frequent repetitions or admonitions

Barely started and I am wishing an editor had worked on this book.

gelid: icy; extremely cold.

sough: a moaning, whistling, or rushing sound as made by the wind in the trees or the sea
soughing: (of the wind in trees, the sea, etc.) make a moaning, whistling, or rushing sound

peroration: the concluding part of a speech, typically intended to inspire enthusiasm in the audience

‘Your driving is unique,’ says Anchor. ‘But I cannot say it gives me confidence. We will change places.’

farrago: a confused mixture

pulchritude: beauty

nard: A flowering plant of species Nardostachys jatamansi, in the valerian family, that grows in the Himalayas and is used as a perfume, an incense, a sedative, and an herbal medicine.
A fragrant oil from the plant, formerly much prized

suzerainty: the right of a country to partly control another
(the dominant power allows tributary states to be technically independent but enjoy only limited self-rule)

Where the subordinate party is called a vassal or tributary state, the dominant party is called a suzerain. The rights and obligations of a vassal are called vassalage, and the rights and obligations of a suzerain are called suzerainty

mulcted: extract money from (someone) by fine or taxation, or extract money from (someone) by fine or taxation

pellucid: translucently clear

scorbutic: affected with scurvy

atavistic: relating to or characterized by reversion to something ancient or ancestral

gulch: a narrow and steep-sided ravine marking the course of a fast stream

coeval: having the same age or date of origin; contemporary or a person of roughly the same age as oneself