THE GIRL WHO WROTE FRANKENSTEIN

Mary Shelley was born on August 30, 1797, in London, England. She married poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1816. Two years later, she published her most famous novel, Frankenstein. She wrote several other books, including Valperga (1823), The Last Man (1826), the autobiographical Lodore (1835) and the posthumously published Mathilde. She died of brain cancer on February 1, 1851, in London, England.  Read more here.

GAME OF THRONES

Game of Thrones is an HBO series that tells the story of a medieval country's civil war. The series, which premiered in April 2011, is set on the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos in a world where seasons stretch on for years. When the story begins, a decade-long summer is ending, and winter looms as characters battle to claim the "Iron Throne," the seat of the king of the Seven Kingdoms, the regime that rules all but the northern tip of Westeros. In show parlance, "sit on the Iron Throne" is a metonym equivalent to "rule Westeros." Read more here.

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AUGUST

"Summer is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces up, snow is exhilarating; there is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather."
John Ruskin