Archive - Adam's Notes

The Strange Case of Mary Carleton

Friday May 29, 1663 was a holiday, King Charles II’s birthday—though in his diary, Samuel Pepys accidentally put it down as the anniversary of Charles’s…

Aug 28 •

Two sophisticated novels for adults... and one with dinosaurs

Adam's Notes for August 21, 2025

Aug 21 •

Journeys to Renaissance Italy... and Yorkshire, for some reason...

Adam's Notes for August 14, 2025

Aug 14 •

“I find myself a very rising man”

Pepys Show: August 1662

Aug 7 •

July 2025

Summer reading roundup

Adam's Notes for July 31, 2025

Jul 31 •

Why can't the King command the rain?

Pepys Show: July 1662

Jul 24 •

Eric's Notes: Robert E. Howard, Grettir the Outlaw, and the origins of two-fisted Weird Fiction

I’m a big fan of Eric Williams’s blog, where he posts his read-throughs of classic pulp fiction.

Jul 10 •

Q&A with Ivy Grimes, author of The Ghosts of Blaubart Mansion

This week I spoke with Ivy Grimes, whose debut novel The Ghosts of Blaubart Mansion was recently published by Cemetery Gates Media. It’s about a pair of…

Jul 3 •

June 2025

The Righteous Anger of Venetians

Or, the Bezos-Ariosto connection

Jun 28 •

Pepys Show: June 1662

Pirates, a scam, maggots, and voyeurism––this one's got it all!

Jun 26 •

Three for the working class

Adam's Notes for June 19, 2025

Jun 19 •

At the Trough with Laurent Carbonneau

Adam's Notes for June 12, 2025

Jun 12 •

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