Amy Brady, PhD
@amybrady.bsky.social
Writing a book about maps | Wrote a book called, Ice: FROM MIXED DRINKS TO SKATING RINKS—A COOL HISTORY OF A HOT COMMODITY | historian & journalist | Newsletter: "Library of Wonders": https://libraryofwonders.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-library
This El Niño is making California the new Florida.
Vaska Raeca@vaskaraeca.bsky.social · last yr."The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities" details how American cities, particularly New York and Miami, are unready or unwilling to confront the climate crisis and the cost to people, the built environment, and the natural world of rising seas. #booksky
Had the great pleasure of interviewing Caroline Bicks, author of MONSTERS IN THE ARCHIVES, for Library of Wonders. The book contains her account of what she found the year she spent digging through the private archives of Stephen King #LibraryOfWonders libraryofwonders.substack.com/p/the-archiv...
Someone asked me why I'm writing a book about maps in 2026. I explained that even in our digital age, they function as battlegrounds over sovereignty, national identity, and truth--highlighting political riffs better than almost any other tool. Anyway, this is Google Maps now:
Someone asked me why I'm writing a book about maps in 2026. I explained that even in our digital age, they function as battlegrounds over sovereignty, national identity, and truth--highlighting political riffs better than almost any other tool. Anyway, this is Google Maps now:
The original Dr Seuss: a children's book from 1838 which only uses words with one syllable: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/nursery-lessons-in-words-of-one-syllable-1838/
The horse-riding librarians of the Pack Horse Library Project in Hindman, Kentucky, around 1940. This was a genuine New Deal initiative established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression.
From NASA: It happened again! Here's Phobos passing in front of the Sun as seen by the Perseverance rover from the surface of Mars on Aug. 12. science.nasa.gov/photojournal...
Most Challenged Books Every year, the American Library Association compiles a list of the books most frequently targeted by censors based on reports from the field and media coverage. www.ala.org/bbooks/frequ... Banned books at PG: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/books... #censorship #BannedBooks
Many thanks to Anna Holmes at @lamaterial.com for interviewing me about icy cocktails and why so many Los Angeles bartenders are now importing their ice (and why, on occasion, even I will pay more for a fine cocktail if the ice is high quality!) lamaterial.com/p/luxury-ice...
L.A. Cocktail Bars Are Importing Ice From Japan
At L.A. cocktail bars, crystal-clear Japanese ice has become a luxury ingredient prized for its shape, density and slower melt.
lamaterial.com
The Lost Vocabulary of Whaling - A forensic glossary AFTER 250 YEARS OF EXPLOITATION, what remains is a graveyard of vocabulary and tools. By Sarah Sax Art By Ella Frances Sanders orionmagazine.org/article/the-... Books about Whaling at PG: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subje... #books #whaling
Many thanks to Anna Holmes at @lamaterial.com for interviewing me about icy cocktails and why so many Los Angeles bartenders are now importing their ice (and why, on occasion, even I will pay more for a fine cocktail if the ice is high quality!) lamaterial.com/p/luxury-ice...
L.A. Cocktail Bars Are Importing Ice From Japan
At L.A. cocktail bars, crystal-clear Japanese ice has become a luxury ingredient prized for its shape, density and slower melt.
lamaterial.com
This is an extraordinary paper: incredible evidence that Ancient Egyptian Princesses were badass warriors.
Frontiers | Bioarchaeological reassessment of Dahshur royal skeletal remains from the Late Middle Kingdom (c. 1850–1700 BCE)
IntroductionThis study addresses the underutilization of bioarchaeological approaches in Egyptian research by reevaluating six royal skeletal remains (King H...
frontiersin.org
Love this essay about the need for writers to steal time to write. No one will give it to you! In @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/stealing-tim...
Stealing Time: In Praise of Writing at Dawn, at Midnight or Whenever We Can
At 5 AM and it’s me and the birds. This is how I like it: when the house is asleep. Outside, the slow rumble of a sanitation truck. A lone scooter screams down the block. Sometimes a helicopt…
lithub.com
did you know that the English words druid, trust, truth, betroth, and truce all share a root word with “tree”? this reflects the longstanding spiritual and symbolic significance of trees in many European cultures
As #Wimbledon kicks off today, here's a look at some centre court action circa 1613 — from a 17th-century "friendship book". More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/boys-will-be-boys-playing-around-in-a-17th-century-friendship-book
I am over the moon to announce that I was accepted into a Millay Arts core writing residency later this fall to work on #herebedragons. What a luxury to write in such a soul-filling place.
African wildcat experiences ice for the first time and has the most adorable surprised reaction you'll ever see
New photo donated! It's of historic cats!! We know their names!!! This is Topsy and Toby at Stapleford, 1920. Thanks to the archive, their adorable little faces will live on in our collection forever.
The flying cat ("Die fliegende Katze") according to a German book about birds and other flying animals from 1763. #catcontent
I have been forwarding this edition of @billmckibben.bsky.social's newsletter to everyone I know. The impact of Musk and Trump's cuts to USAID didn't hit right away, but they are hitting now. And in Somalia and the DRC it looks a lot like racist culling. billmckibben.substack.com/p/a-question...
A Question of Margin
And there's so very little.
billmckibben.substack.com
Here it is, a Bluesky exclusive: The goth legends of baby birds The best baby American Coot encounter of my life, 2hrs next to a pond dangling my camera less than an inch above the water, cut down to the best 8 secs, and slowed down to 25% speed, and set to Clan of Xymox' "Jasmine and Rose" 🪶 🐣
Still thinking about this (from @ferrisjabr.bsky.social 's Becoming Earth): "a single gallon of gasoline represents 100 tonnes of ancient life, roughly equivalent to 20 adult elephants". I knew it was big, but never worked it out. A tank of petrol is a LOT of ancient life. +1 reason to electrify!
