The Dust Jacket

News, reviews, and recommendations from a professional book schlepper and full-time nerd.

[bhloomest]

[manuscripts-dontburn]

[savaravah]

lalettricediunavolta  

[huariqueje]

Self Portrait  -  Tove Jansson 1914-2001

[polkadotmotmot]

Destiny Oyibode - Building My Vocabulary, 2025 - Acrylic on canvas

[littlealienproducts]

Magpie Bookmark by k8laurel

[freckles-and-books]

Off with their heads!

[detroitlib]

Cover and illustrations from Wild Flowers and Where They Grow by Amanda B. Harris.  Sixty illustrations by Miss L. B. Humphrey.  Boston: D. Lothrop and Company, 1882.

[lascitasdelashoras]

Landis Blair

[fictionadventurer]

One of my biggest literary pet peeves is when historical or history-inspired fiction pretends that "courting" is a synonym for "dating". Usually it's just a one-to-one word swap--in a modern context, these characters would be dating, but this is olden times, so they call it courting instead. Sometimes they'll pretend there's a shade of difference, and that courting is a more serious exploration of marriage or something. But I read a lot of fiction that was actually written during these historical eras, and the word "courting" is never used like that.

Two people do not decide that they are "courting". One person decides to "court" someone else. It's an action, not a stage in the relationship. A man decides to court a woman because he wants to encourage her to have romantic interest in him. He's trying to win her favor. It's not an exclusive relationship--a woman could be courted by multiple men at once. She'll spend time getting to know the guy who's interested in her, but they won't officially define their relationship as one where they only show romantic interest in each other. If they reach a point where they want it to be exclusive, that's when you propose.

There's no middle ground--either you're getting to know each other, or you're committed to marrying each other. This idea of a period where you kind of commit to each other until you decide you definitely want to get married is a modern one, and it occurs in eras where they use the word "dating" to describe it. The closest equivalent I can think of are times and places where they'd talk about a couple "stepping out together", but they're still not calling it "courting". Words have meaning, and the word "courting" has never meant that, so stop using it that way!

[starfieldcanvas]

the other mild historical disjoint i run into is when people talk about dating in the fifties like it automatically meant exclusivity. the whole reason we have the expression "going steady" is because the default was to or "go around with" or "go out with" multiple people. not in the sense of being in a stable polyamorous vee, but in the sense that archie is actively "seeing" both betty and veronica during the entire time the two girls are competing for his attention and they're both seeing other guys to make him jealous, and nobody involved considers this "cheating."

bizarrely, America has in many ways gotten more conservative about dating since World War II.

[the-dust-jacket]

In 1943, my (future) grandpa proposed to my (future) grandma. She accepted, but informed him that she had a date on Thursday and she intended to keep it.

[enjoypaitings-deactivated202409]

Béla Czene (Hungarian, 1911 - 1999) - Young Girl with an Album, 1968

picture resolution 1417 × 1062

More by #béla czene enjoypaitings

[simena]

Anders Peter Christian Aigens

[slowspinningredemption]

lemony snicket's a series of unfortunate events (for adult readers)

the cavernous conference room

the terrible teams call

the sinister spreadsheet

the barbarous bank balance

the eerie emails

the belated bills

the gruesome grocery shop

the malicious meal plan

the woeful website

the mysterious malaise

the dreadful deadline

the perilous prices

the nefarious newsfeed

[the-forest-library]

[vintagepromotions]

'Bring Home the World in Books'

National Association of Book Publishers poster (c. 1920). Artwork by Paul Honoré.

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Cover of the April 28, 1945 edition of the Saturday Evening Post by Mead Schaeffer.

This is a bronze sculpture of William Shakespeare by John Quincy Adams Ward in Central Park. It was created in 1870 and unveiled in Central Park in 1872. Four thousand dollars towards the funding of the statue was raised at a benefit performance of Julius Caesar on November 24, 1864, performed by the sons of Junius Brutus Booth (Junius Brutus Booth, Jr., Edwin Booth, and John Wilkes Booth) at the Winter Garden Theater.

Photo: Etsy

[glorious-spoon]

honestly i think the selling point of romance for me (and where it usually fails to land) is 'can i imagine these people sharing an in-joke'

like, are they in cahoots. can they laugh together. do they have a similar enough or at least complementary enough outlook that they can connect over something being funny (even if it's funny in a fucked up way! sometimes those are the best in-jokes!)

that's not necessarily true love in and of itself, but it does feel like an essential component to me

[the-dust-jacket]

“It was strange how the dullest party could be enjoyed because there was one person present whose eyes could be met for the fraction of a second, in wordless appreciation of a joke unshared by others: almost as strange as the insipidity of parties at which that person was not present.”

—Georgette Heyer, Sylvester: or, the Wicked Uncle