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Died on this day in 1238 aged 27 Joan of England(my toy,wikipedia). The daughter of King John, Joan married King Alexander II of Scotland when she was only 10.

Born on this day in 1526 to William Carey and Mary Boleyn, Henry Carey(my toy,wikipedia). Henry may have actually been the son of Henry VIII, as his mother was Henry's mistress, but was never acknowledged as such. He was an MP and an officer in the army.

Reading Wednesday

Finished:
Sardar, Ziauddin - Mecca: The Sacred City

This is a history of Mecca (perhaps obviously...). I previous knew nothing about Mecca other than "Mohammed was born there" and "Muslims go on pilgrimage to there" (so I have nothing to compare this book to); the book was an interesting read. Mainly I learned that Meccans have fewer names than famous people, and are divided by ethnicity and faith into groups that not infrequently come to war; so... that's a lot like Europe then. Sardar concludes with talking about Mecca today; to his dismay the Saudis have redeveloped it completely - bulldozing many centuries old buildings in favour of expensive new sky scrappers.

Current:
Walton, Jo - the Just City

I've borrowed this from fivemack, which obviously means it gets promoted to the top of the "to read" pile, so I can give it back. Also because Jo Walton writes excellent books and I really really want to read it. But I've only just started it so have nothing to say about it other than "yay"

Next:
Probably Hurley,Kameron Rapture: Bel Dame Apocrypha. Because I had it on pre-order and it just showed up. Squeeee. This is volume three (of three, I think) and I read and very much enjoyed the first two.

A lot of people are talking about avoiding reading straight white men for the year, I think this is a noble aim because reading books by a greater diversity of authors is a great way to find more awesome books. I'm not going to do it though, mostly because I fully intend to read all of the Hugo nominees (pretty much guaranteed at least some of them will be straight white men), but if I'm looking for new authors to read I shall try to be on the look out for more non-white writers.

Read so far this year:
Mecca; Sardar, Ziauddin - born in Pakistan, lives in London
Bending; Christina, Greta - woman
Gulp; Roach, Mary - woman
Small Change Trilogy; Walton, Jo - woman
(I think that's it, my eReader remembers the order I read things in but not the date; blasted object).

I think the last thing I read by a white man was Diamond's the World until Yesterday.