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Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 201 of 444 of A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812
"Martha never mentioned these divorces or any others in the diary. Still, her quiet entries suggest the realities of maritime marriage. After a delivery at Nathan Burges's house, she wrote drily, 'Her husband is at Sea if living.'"
Mar 09, 2026 11:51AM Add a comment
A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 100 of 444 of A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812
"A delivery in Hallowell was a kind of muster, and Martha Ballard was both captain and clerk."

So beautiful.
Mar 08, 2026 08:01AM Add a comment
A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 79 of 654 of Moby-Dick
"I saw under the mask of these half humorous inuendoes, [sic] this old seaman, as an insulated Quakerish Nantucketer, was full of his insular prejudices, and rather distrustful of all aliens, unless they hailed from Cape Cod or the Vineyard."

I have so much respect for this man already.
Feb 28, 2026 01:49PM Add a comment
Moby-Dick

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 87 of 444 of A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812
The endnote(26) on this page leads me to an oral history report: "Appropriately, this story was passed to me orally (via telephone) by Arlene Gilbert, who got it from Maud Mosher, who got it from Ethel Riccius King, who wrote down the words of Parthenia Porter Folsom, Pamela's daughter."
Feb 25, 2026 02:48PM Add a comment
A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 53 of 444 of A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812
"Beyond the physical comfort of hot tea or a soothing syrup was the comfort of an idea: Nature offered solutions to its own problems."
Feb 24, 2026 09:02AM Add a comment
A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 56 of 654 of Moby-Dick
"Queequeg was George Washington cannibalistically developed."

VIVID
Feb 23, 2026 05:52PM Add a comment
Moby-Dick

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 15 of 654 of Moby-Dick
"Abominable are the tumblers into which he pours his poison."

Sounds like Malört...
Feb 14, 2026 02:14PM Add a comment
Moby-Dick

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 255 of 590 of The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
"They were key to crushing revolts by enslaved people and buttressing enforcement of the slave codes, laws that maintain the racial hierarchy by banning black people's access to firearms, literacy, and unfettered movement. Southern delegates worried that placing control of the militias in the hands of Congress was risky because the federal government could decide not to fund or arm the state militias."
Aug 09, 2025 09:16PM Add a comment
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 179 of 590 of The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
The Capitalism chapter especially explains the root of the behaviors re: the pencil in James
Jul 31, 2025 11:50AM Add a comment
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 171 of 590 of The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
"The 1812 case Hezekiah Wood v. John Davis and Others concerned the situation of John Davis, a Black man born to a mother who had never been enslaved. According to the law of matrilineal descent, this should have established Davis's own freedom, but Wood, an enslaver who claimed Davis as his property, argued he had purchased Davis before his mother had proven her freedom. The Court sided with Wood." Terrible.
Jul 28, 2025 08:00PM Add a comment
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 17 of 590 of The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
About the Declaration of Independence's mention of slave rebellions: "As several historians have pointed out, unlike modern writing, which often places the most important information toward the top, during the colonial period, listing this grievance last in the document indicated its importance."
Jul 23, 2025 09:00AM Add a comment
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 11 of 339 of Uncultured: A Memoir
"But the thing nobody ever tells you about the shepherd analogy is that shepherds always eat their sheep in the end."
May 24, 2025 10:53AM Add a comment
Uncultured: A Memoir

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 131 of 415 of The Keeper of Happy Endings
More proof that this was written by a non-Bay Stater: "We drove out to the cape to celebrate."

EVEN MY PHONE AUTOCORRECTED THE CAPITALIZATION ON CAPE AND MADE IT "Cape" BECAUSE IT'S SO OBVIOUS
Dec 15, 2024 02:42AM Add a comment
The Keeper of Happy Endings

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 261 of 368 of The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel
"At the same time, Macron seemed perfectly at ease in his interactions with Angela Merkel, 24 years his senior—exactly the same age as his wife, Brigitte Macron."
Jan 01, 2023 09:55AM Add a comment
The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 232 of 352 of Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks
Houston goes on and on about irony marks from Anglophone countries but there is a mark (the temherte salq) straight from the Cradle of Humanity!
Jun 21, 2022 08:56AM Add a comment
Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 182 of 352 of Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks
Buried in these chapters about other punctuation marks are details about yet more characters like the hedera!
May 02, 2022 09:42AM Add a comment
Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 146 of 352 of Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks
This is the best explanation I've read for the difference between the em and the en dash, although now I feel like a hypen-minus abusing typographic fraud.
Apr 08, 2022 03:52AM Add a comment
Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 117 of 352 of Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks
I remember the one character in Doonesbury (when I read it in the Sunday funnies) who was always an asterisk!
Apr 07, 2022 06:51PM Add a comment
Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 250 of 312 of American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans
A plaque near his grave in Boston reads, "Winthrop dedicated his life to the creation of a model Christian community [and he] died at age 61 years in 1649, no doubt a disappointed man."

!!!!
Jan 23, 2022 10:40AM Add a comment
American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 130 of 312 of American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans
[Winthrop] also argued that a code of colonial laws was prohibited by the charter, which required making "no laws repugnant to the laws of England." Bremer notes, quote much of what was done in New England was, indeed, repugnant to the laws of England, but as long as that practice was customary and not mandated by the state, the letter of the charter provision was not violated."

This explains A LOT.
Jan 23, 2022 07:31AM Add a comment
American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 12 of 368 of The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel
Have to check this back in for now...
Jan 19, 2022 05:31PM Add a comment
The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 108 of 272 of Mother for Dinner
Checking it back in for now
Oct 13, 2021 06:05PM Add a comment
Mother for Dinner

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 190 of 287 of Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World, #1)
It's adorable and hilarious that she's so baffled by this hug!
Apr 02, 2021 08:56AM Add a comment
Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World, #1)

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 166 of 287 of Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World, #1)
"I'm just telling you that just because that Neizghání taught you there was one way to skin a cat, it don't mean it's the only way to skin a cat. Or that a cat's gotta be skinned at all."

Ooooh!
Apr 01, 2021 08:17PM Add a comment
Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World, #1)

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 155 of 320 of Cries from the Lost Island
Oh hey, teff!
Jan 25, 2021 10:10AM Add a comment
Cries from the Lost Island

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 291 of 338 of Gods of Jade and Shadow
SHE WALKS A LONELY ROAD
Jan 19, 2021 05:32PM Add a comment
Gods of Jade and Shadow

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 137 of 338 of Gods of Jade and Shadow
Interesting how Casiopea felt relieved at the anonymity of Mexico City where Martín felt insulted by it...
Jan 17, 2021 05:50PM Add a comment
Gods of Jade and Shadow

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 35 of 338 of Gods of Jade and Shadow
Black and white decorated house belonging to a man dressed in gray. NOTHING TO SEE HERE FOLKS NO SYMBOLISM AHEAD
Dec 22, 2020 08:38PM Add a comment
Gods of Jade and Shadow

Alyssa True
Alyssa True is on page 58 of 242 of The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
Did not expect Irish desertion during the Civil War in my book about the Oxford English Dictionary!
Dec 07, 2020 09:58AM Add a comment
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

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