This month has gone too quickly. There I said it. Yada yada yada *insert more sentimental guff about the fast passage of time here.* To commemorate January, I thought I would give you all a little insight to what I've loved this month. I always love to watch favourite videos and read blog posts along these lines, maybe I'm nosy but I love to see what others have liked and try a few things myself. So here are a few of the things I loved this January.

Moriarty - Anthony Horowitz
I've already raved about this book in a review earlier this month, and it just had to be in this months favourites. Head over to the review to see more about what I thought about it.

Its rare that I actually go out looking to buy new clothes. More often than not, I fall over clothes when I'm not looking for them, and never find anything I like when I am. My wardrobe has been looking old for a while, and most of my clothes were ruined by the uni washing machines and my lack of domesticity during my first year. I thought I would share with you just some of what I bought today in a Polyvore collage. This is a totally different kind of post for me, so let me know what you think!

I kind of went crazy in the Christmas sales this year and treated myself to a few books. I'm really getting into reading physical copies again, despite having sworn by my Kindle for so long! It also helps that Amazon had a great 3 for £10 offer on... I thought I would share with you what I purchased, but I'll save my thoughts and reviews until after I've read each one!

I've been a fan of Antony Horowitz's writing for a long time. I grew up (like so many others around my age) gripped by his Alex Rider series, and felt the gap in my reading list when I graduated to more 'grown-up' fiction. This made discovering his most recent novel Moriarty a pretty great start to an otherwise chilly Monday morning.

Frederick Chase, an American detective, teams up with Athelney Jones from Scotland Yard to confirm Moriarty's death after the Reichenbach Fall. They soon end up on a wild crime hunt around London looking for notorious new york criminal Clarence Devereux. But all is not as it seems...
Horowitz is one of Britain's most loved authors, so much so he has been handed the reigns to write both the new Bond and Sherlock Holmes novels. Prior to reading Moriarty, I had no idea that this was the case. The Daily Mail describes Moriarty as 'the finest crime novel of the year.' I couldn't agree more.

A truly wonderful crime novel, Horowitz has managed to weave all that the nation loves about Sherlock Holmes into a new, fast-paced adventure. Whilst Holmes is (surprisingly) only eluded to and hinted at, his usual Victorian London setting has hardly changed from Conan Doyle's works; nor have the presence of characters such as Detective Lestrade.

I can tell you know that you will very early on draw a conclusion as to who did what, when, how and with whom. But in true Horowitz style, you will change your mind at almost every chapter, and will be blown away by the time you have turned the last of the 362 pages.

I don't want to say anymore as I truly feel that reading this novel should be an experience. I picked this up expecting your typical crime thriller starring Holmes, Watson and Moriarty. But I ended up with something much more than that...

Beth x

21st century entertainment all revolves around experiencing a spectacle. Whether this be watching a TV drama, attending concerts, plays and shows, or simply visiting an attraction, we all look towards entertainment to experience something out of the ordinary. The people of Georgian and Victorian societies were no different, as they turned to the freak show instead for entertainment.

The eighteenth and nineteenth century freak show was a major form of entertainment for all walks of life. People who branded themselves as 'giants', 'midgets', 'monsters', 'animal lookalikes', (to name but a few) all marketed and exhibited themselves for money on the European freak show circuit. Whilst we would acknowledge most of the 'freaks' today as simply people with medical conditions, previously 'freaks' were something to be viewed, enjoyed and debated about.

Much like we buy souvenirs in order to preserve the memories of events and experiences we have lived through, visitors to freak shows would also want a reminder to take home with them at the end of the performance. This is where the carte de visites come in. Much like our modern day postcards, carte de visites were professional photographs taken of the performer in question. They usually had a description of the 'freak' somewhere on the card.

Whilst studying the Victorian 'freak show' in depth as part of my second year studies, I came across a couple of carte de visites that really caught my eye:

Julia Pastrana

Julia Pastrana was exhibited by her manager Theodore Lent in the mid nineteenth century. This carte de visite clearly illustrates her 'freakishness'; she gained popularity as she was overly hairy and ape like in appearance. I particularly love that she was dressed in a feminine fashion, as if to emphasize her 'freakishness.' The historian Nadia Durbach even goes as far as to link her womanly clothing and hairy exterior as a deterrent to nineteenth century women; this is what would happen if you didn't conform to the perceived role of women in society.

Incidentally, women with unusual bodies were big business in the 'freak show' circuit. Sara Baartmann, otherwise known as the Hottentot Venus, was widely admired and exhibited due to her large breasts, buttocks and genitalia.

The 1920's 'freak show' performer Artoria Gibbons was renowned for her tattooed body. Tattooed from head to toe, she drew large crowds who were astonished by the art on her body. Women were not expected to have any sort of body ink, so to be covered head to toe was quite something! It's hard to imagine that something we in the 21st century accept and encourage, was so taboo less than 100 years ago!

Artoria Gibbons

Whilst I have focused on the carte de visites of 'female freaks' (women's history seems to be a large area of interest for me), there are plenty of other images of male 'freaks' that are just as interesting and revealing. Just from looking at a couple of carte du visites it seems that we can glean a lot about the nineteenth century 'freak show' circuit. It is clear that attitudes towards women were vastly different to how they are today, and the fact that i am using quotation marks whenever I mention the work 'freak' suggests that as a society we nowadays condone such labeling of people. But one thing does remain today; we all love to witness a spectacle in our down time, and we all love to take home a piece of the action to show others. Perhaps before we condone the immorality of the 'freak show' we should all acknowledge that  the type of entertainment on offer changes with time, but our need to consume and hold onto it stays the same.

Fun history-related gifts are kind of hard to come by, most people think that its a category confined to books and 'the day you were born' newspaper excerpts. But there is so much more out there! Here are my five favourites from around the internet...