An extract from The Witch’s Guide to Pregnancy, Birth, and Baby Care, by Alarica Rosier

First: I donated blood today. I got orange juice and a cookie and a promise that they will send me a little card that tells me my blood type, which pleases me very much.

Second, some Harry Potter fanfic (sort of): An extract from The Witch’s Guide to Pregnancy, Birth, and Baby Care, by Alarica Rosier. Chapter Nine: What if my Baby is a Squib?, by nineveh_uk. This is just so deliciously disturbing that I had to share.

You know what would be awesome? A fantasy book with a character who read reams of advice books. And quoted them, to the irritation of everyone else.

I actually have a really interesting book (at home, sadly) about Renaissance Italian child-rearing advice books, which is called How to Do It and features paintings of naked people on the cover, which is misleading enough that I'm sure a number of people have been disappointed by the contents.

Renaissance Italian advice manuals, if you were wondering, are a mixture of refreshingly good-spirited - they're generally pretty against beating your children, for instance - and weird, as in "You can make your children red-haired by looking at paintings of red-headed people!"

Third: this link is just something I found interesting, about differing cultural standards for family interaction in China and Sweden.