Mental Sampler 35
When I saw my name on the hurricane list this year, I feared that if it made the news, it would be a terrible one because it would be later in the season. It was a strange premonition because the name had been used in other storms, though none like this.
My heart hurts seeing the destruction and reading the death counts.
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I read two books set in Oxford at the same time. The first was The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman, the 9th book in Lyra’s world, an alternative, steampunk-ish Oxford. The second was Susie Dent’s Guilty by Definition, a modern mystery in actual Oxford.
As I switched from book to book, I kept landing in the same Oxford places. Lyra was staying at The Trout. The characters in the other book go to The Trout. Lyra visits Godstow Abbey, and so do the other characters. They both walk up Cornmarket and cross Port Meadow. It made me confused every time I ended up reading about the same place in two different books on the same day.
2 comments
Those authors should have spent more time in Oxford!
My name has come up frequently as women out there being terrible to others in the last few years. If it keeps up, they’ll eventually change from Karen to my name. Sorry you got a terribly damaging namesake hurricane rather than one that just fizzled out somewhere in the Atlantic.
Having finally got to Oxford, I am looking forward to reading the Philip Pullman novel. I’ve read Susie Dent’s book and enjoyed it. I think reading them both at one time might be confusing though! Especially moving from the fantastical to the modern day. I’ve just started watching Down Cemetery Road with some fantastic actors, and that is also set in Oxford. I think it’s on Apple.