Tuesday, January 19, 2010

What I'm Reading #25

Picked this up yesterday, it's Tracy Chevalier's latest novel (think, "The Girl With The Pearl Earring"). It's the story of the friendship between Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot. Mary was the source of the children's rhyme "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" in the early 1800's one of the most prolific discoverers of fossils in the world. She is (along with her brother Joe) responsible for finding the first Ichthyosaurus, and Plesiosaurus off of the beach of their native Lyme Regis in the south of England. Little is know of her in actuality. It is know that she was friends with Elizabeth. Tracy takes that fact, the pursuit of fossil's and the era and weaves a compelling and marvelous story. I've only read the first three chapters, but can't hardly put it down.

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