Book Review: The Lost Apothecary

 

Caroline's quest:

"As distraught as I'd been in the last few days, I felt more alive in London--enveloped in an old mystery, an old story -- than I could remember feeling in years. I resolved to continue digging. To push through the dark and look inside of it all."

After learning that her husband has been faithful, Caroline goes on a trip to London by herself. Even though the trip was supposed to be an anniversary trip with her husband, Caroline goes alone and embarks on a personal quest.

The novel is empowering because it features a character who wants to reshape her circumstances.

Much of the novel is about pushing past the surface veneer and seeing the secrets that lie below. After going mud larking, Caroline finds an artifact, a blue apothecary jar with an engraving of a bear. This object reignites her love for history and scholarship that she had long repressed. Before marrying James, she had wanted to pursue a degree at Cambridge in the U.K.

Caroline learns the dreadful truth about the apothecary jar when she does research and even uncovers the centuries old apothecary and its relics. The apothecary register told the story of women who came to the shop seeking help and redress from men who had wronged them

Both a historical mystery and a thrilling treasure hunt, The Lost Apothecary intrigues readers on many levels. The apothecary, Nessa, is a historian recording the stories of women whose stories would otherwise be forgotten. In uncovering Nessa and Eliza's story, Caroline breaks free from her past and reconnect with her dreams.

Most of the story is realistic but there is a hint of the supernatural in it as well. 

Poems with a scientific bent

 

This month I'm focusing on poems with a scientific bent. I found a poem by David Hathwell, "Hidden Force Observed" (2015) that employs scientific themes.

 

Here's a poem written by a poem by a poet who is new to me, Charlotte Turner Smith, but its written much earlier(poets.org).

 Sonnet XLIV ("Sonnet Written in The Church Yard at Middleton in Sussex")

Press’d by the Moon, mute arbitress of tides,
    While the loud equinox its pow’r combines,
    The sea no more its swelling surge confines,
But o’er the shrinking land sublimely rides.
The wild blasts, rising from the Western cave,
    Drives the huge billows from their heaving bed;
    Tears from their grassy tombs the village dead,
And breaks the silent sabbath of the grave!
With shells and seaweed mingled, on the shore,
    Lo! their bones whiten in the frequent wave;
    But vain to them the winds and waters rave;
They hear the warring elements no more:
While I am doom’d—by life’s long storm opprest,
To gaze with envy, on their gloomy rest.

 

I love the phrase "mute arbitress of tides" and "silent sabbath."

The surprise in the end is that the speaker/narrator is envious of the dead. 

Charlotte Turner Smith was a poet and novelist of the Romantic age. 

Snakes survived by going underground

Snakes widely diversified after the Chicxulub crater event that ended the dinosaurs reign. An interesting study shows that the extinction event allowed snakes to diversify, innovate, and thrive. Findings are reported in Nature Communications.

Snakes survived even though all other reptiles perished by moving underground. Their survival which researchers call "creative destruction" was the direct result of the destruction of other life forms. 

Klein, C.G., Pisani, D., Field, D.J. et al. Evolution and dispersal of snakes across the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction. Nat Commun 12, 5335 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25136-y

How one animal survived the asteroid that killed dinosaurs (inverse.com)