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| 0553906313
| 9780553906318
| B001NLL7JI
| 3.81
| 9,973
| May 19, 2009
| May 19, 2009
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really liked it
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Bryony is rich and, a rarity for her time & class, educated as a doctor. Her withdrawn demeanor and gossip-worthy profession mean that she has been an
Bryony is rich and, a rarity for her time & class, educated as a doctor. Her withdrawn demeanor and gossip-worthy profession mean that she has been an unpopular wallflower all her life. But then, quite suddenly, she falls in love with a beautiful, charming, intelligent nobleman and after just a few short encounters, asks him to marry her. Leo has been in love with her since childhood; despite wariness that they don't actually know each other well, he immediately accepts. Unfortunately, every psychological factor and well-meaning choice sets them at odds, and their whirlwind romance quickly turns into a nightmare marriage. Years later, Leo seeks out Bryony to bring her back to England to see her dying father. On their travels a rebellion, malaria, and chess games slowly reveal themselves to each other. Each realizes how painfully they had misunderstood the other. Eventually, wincingly, they reconcile. I don't know if it was just the mood I was in or what, but I cried for most of this book. Bryony and Leo are so incredibly unhappy but simultaneously so skilled at hiding it that every interchange between them is painful. It's also clear how well suited to each other these two exceptional people could be if only they could be truthful and trust each other that I spent the whole book wishing they would get together. The book is largely set in India during the British occupation, and while the author has clearly researched the time and place (and shows her work perhaps more than is necessary) one can't help but feel uncomfortable reading about two English high class people in this setting. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 31, 2022
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Jul 31, 2022
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Jul 31, 2022
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Kindle Edition
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| B0036S49P0
| 3.81
| 8,392
| May 25, 2010
| May 25, 2010
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really liked it
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Ellisande is desperate to escape her abusive uncle. Lord Vere is committed to maintaining his facade of a clumsy idiot in order to continue working fo
Ellisande is desperate to escape her abusive uncle. Lord Vere is committed to maintaining his facade of a clumsy idiot in order to continue working for the Crown. They meet at a house party while Lord Vere is investigating a crime ring, and Ellisande immediately realizes he might be her chance of escape. She manipulates them into a speedy marriage. She's devastated to realize her husband is an idiot, just as Lord Vere feels betrayed at the depths of Ellisande's ability to lie. I enjoyed all the scenes of Ellisandre and Lord Vere alternately fooling each other and accidentally revealing too much. And no one acts stupidly, or based on misunderstandings a simple conversation would clear up, or martyrs themselves for no reason, or any of the other problems that plague romance plots. The book is very much like the Scarlet Pimpernel with less gender essentialism, classism, and anti-Semitism. It was a great fun! The one thing I didn't love was the B plot romance between Lord Vere's brother and his childhood friend. They were both sensible, kind, mutually attracted to each other, and nothing at all stood in their way. It was all perfectly fine, but their sections were nothing special and so felt like they were taking up space that could be clandestine adventures. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 20, 2022
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Jul 20, 2022
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Jul 14, 2022
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Kindle Edition
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| 039917446X
| 9780399174469
| 039917446X
| 3.86
| 8,068
| Apr 19, 2016
| Apr 19, 2016
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it was ok
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Calista has created an independent life and career for herself, a difficult thing to do as an upper class woman in Victorian England. But then she sta
Calista has created an independent life and career for herself, a difficult thing to do as an upper class woman in Victorian England. But then she starts getting morbid gifts and notes and enlists the help of a mystery novelist acquaintance. Together they begin unravelling the mystery of a disturbing series of murders. This is a failure as a mystery novel and as a romance. The mystery consists of the four main characters interviewing people and then periodically being attacked. Everything is suddenly revealed a few chapters from the end (because every person in this book loves to monologue their entire plan and reasons, including the murderer) and then rehashed several times by the characters, as though the villain monologue wasn't sufficient. The romance is dry as cardboard and the characters uninteresting. Not a single moment of dialog felt natural to Victorian England. The book was interminable, and I finished it only because I am stubborn. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 24, 2022
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Mar 30, 2022
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Mar 24, 2022
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Hardcover
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| B00BWCUKDW
| 3.75
| 1,979
| Mar 17, 2013
| Jan 20, 2014
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liked it
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After her father's death, Arabella Gray is invited to stay with the landed gentlemen who were his bosses. The Crawford family has clearly marked her o
After her father's death, Arabella Gray is invited to stay with the landed gentlemen who were his bosses. The Crawford family has clearly marked her out as the intended bride of the eldest son and heir, Ruskin, but Arabella can't understand why. She's lower class, has no money, and has nothing to recommend her save her beauty. Still, she knows this is her best chance at a comfortable life and feels obligated to the family, and so gamely does her best to fit in with the upper class and become comfortable with the idea of marrying Ruskin. I respected the measured tone in which this was told; it felt a good deal like Trollope, with fewer tortured sentences. But like Trollope, it is way too long. This book could have been half the length without losing anything. Also, the Crawford's plan is just stupid.(view spoiler)[ Years ago the Crawfords called in a debt that ruined Arabella's mother's family. Arabella's mother refused any help, so instead the Crawford grandfather left her daughter (Arabella) stocks in a railway. According to the will, Arabella will only get them if she marries well according to the will's trustee, Mr. Crawford himself. And to ensure his family--themselves on the brink of ruination--gets access to the stocks, he insists Arabella marry Ruskin Crawford. But why Ruskin? Why their heir? If they'd just fixed on either of his younger, more personable, less high flying brothers, they'd probably have gotten away with the scheme undetected. And why didn't they just affiance Ruskin to Katherine Barnwell (who is rich, gets on very well with Ruskin, and would give him a political career through her father, which he clearly would do well in) instead of his younger brother Steven? He's so clearly not suited to a political career, but even more so, offering him instead of Ruskin insults the Barnwells. Why?(hide spoiler)] ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 24, 2018
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Dec 25, 2018
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Dec 25, 2018
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Kindle Edition
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| 0857663267
| 9780857663269
| 0857663267
| 3.93
| 1,178
| Jan 01, 2013
| Sep 24, 2013
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liked it
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Cathy is trying to follow in her governess's footsteps and bring equal rights to Nether society. Her arranged marriage to Will is going unexpectedly w
Cathy is trying to follow in her governess's footsteps and bring equal rights to Nether society. Her arranged marriage to Will is going unexpectedly well, as he is newly freed from Amelia Rosa's magical compulsion and supports Cathy's choices. Thanks to her own adventures and friendships with people outside the Nether, and as the new Duchess of Londinium, she has the knowledge and power to be very effective. Meanwhile, the remaining sorcerers attempt to assassinate each other. Max and the gargoyle that contains his heart investigate corruption in the Arbiters. And Sam buries his newly dead wife, finds out she was a spy in her PR job trying to take down a big polluter, becomes the mentee of the leader of said polluting company, learns the basics of blacksmithing, becomes Lord Iron, and helps free an entire asylum worth of wrongfully detained humans. A lot happens in this book. The ever churning plot kept me glued to the page--I opened the book and didn't put it down till I finished it. Butso muchhappens that it feels a bit overwhelming. Sam's plotline in particular feels rushed, and his new powers feel unearned. I liked the sorcerers, and how potty they each are in their own ways. I liked that Cathy puts effort into finding other feminists, and I especially liked that they didn't all agree with each other despite being taught by the same governess. I do think it's a little odd that we're three books in and despite a good amount of time spent on sexism and classism, I have yet to notice one queer or non-white character. Given that the main character of Newman's fantasticPlanetfallis a queer non-white person, as are many of the other characters, I can only assume this lack is intentional. I'd like to see those aspects drawn into this story a little, and for the lower class that Cathy is freeing to have opinions and priorities of their own that don't entirely (or at all?) coincide with what she intends to give them. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 02, 2018
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Mar 02, 2018
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Feb 07, 2018
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Paperback
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| 4.09
| 9,516
| Dec 04, 2012
| Dec 04, 2012
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it was ok
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Detective Griffin asks Percy Whyborne's help in translating some ancient documents. This embroils them in a hunt for a Cthulhu-worshipping cult, and t
Detective Griffin asks Percy Whyborne's help in translating some ancient documents. This embroils them in a hunt for a Cthulhu-worshipping cult, and their investigation leads them to reveal their attraction to each other. I didn't care about any character, definitely didn't care for the sex scenes (for instance the word "root" is used multiple times a page), and I found the mystery boring. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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not set
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Jun 30, 2014
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ebook
| |||||||||||||||||
| 030727764X
| 9780307277640
| 030727764X
| 3.26
| 105
| May 13, 2008
| Jun 02, 2009
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it was ok
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A collection of essays whose only connecting thread is that they all involve Europe in some way. That's it. Some are art history, others detail revolu
A collection of essays whose only connecting thread is that they all involve Europe in some way. That's it. Some are art history, others detail revolutions. Some are written in a dry academic style, while others read like pop history, and one, Paul Kennedy's "The Battle of the Nile," is written from the perspective of a fictional Egyptian fisherman (and manages to be actually offensive in how artificial, unconvincing, and Orientalist the fiction is). Some essays relate controversies or mysteries, while others just recount events and periodically insert "I wish I'd been there to see that." I wish this book had more of a point. They should have curated this collection so that it focused on "key turning points in the drama of European history," as stated on the back, OR focused it on points of history that are still mysterious. As it stands, it's a bunch of utterly random bits of history, most of which is related poorly. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 22, 2014
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Apr 29, 2014
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Apr 22, 2014
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Paperback
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| 0373776039
| 9780373776030
| 0373776039
| 3.92
| 7,180
| Sep 20, 2011
| Sep 20, 2011
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liked it
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Mark Turner wrote a practical guide to chastity for men, and has become a celebrity as a result. All hail him as a righteous model of a gentleman. But
Mark Turner wrote a practical guide to chastity for men, and has become a celebrity as a result. All hail him as a righteous model of a gentleman. But moral perfection creates as many enemies as friends, and one of these enemies hires a courtesan to ruin Mark's reputation. Jessica tries her hardest, but when her ploys fail, she's left with one last, most deadly weapon of seduction--her real self. This is a real gem of the regency romance genre. I rated it three stars simply because the writing is so plain and dips into purple cliches for the sex scenes (no worse and no better than any other published romances), but the characters and basic underlying themes set it far above others of its kind. It is both frank and thoughtful about sexual morality, agency, and self-image. Each of the characters is allowed to be both right and wrong, for reasons that make sense for their character. I really look forward to the next book in this series, even if the covers are so lurid I have to read the books in secret! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 20, 2015
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May 22, 2015
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Feb 26, 2014
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Mass Market Paperback
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| 3.82
| 1,129
| Jan 01, 2009
| 2009
|
really liked it
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A novel of the Bronte family, from the children's childhoods to their deaths. It's told in a beautifully elliptical manner. I got the impression of gr
A novel of the Bronte family, from the children's childhoods to their deaths. It's told in a beautifully elliptical manner. I got the impression of grim, narrow lives with loads of tragedy and lack of opportunities--but also the shining, open vastness of Emily, Charlotte and Anne's imaginations.
...more
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Notes are private!
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1
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Feb 25, 2014
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Feb 25, 2014
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Feb 25, 2014
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Paperback
| |||||||||||||||||
| 0373775431
| 9780373775439
| 0373775431
| 3.86
| 9,672
| Jan 25, 2011
| Jan 25, 2011
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liked it
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Anne Margaret was a lady who effortlessly belonged to the upper crust of society--until Ash Turner, her third cousin, revealed that her parents' marri
Anne Margaret was a lady who effortlessly belonged to the upper crust of society--until Ash Turner, her third cousin, revealed that her parents' marriage was bigamous. Now known to be a bastard, she and her brothers are utterly disinherited, and their cantankerous father doesn't intend to help them. Their last chance at regaining their titles is to win a vote in the House of Lords, and to that end Margaret pretends to be a nurse in order to spy upon Ash Turner. She discovers a number of secrets that would win her family's case, but she also falls in love with him. Margaret is torn between loyalty toward her brothers and her knowledge that Ash would make a much better duke than they would. I didn't care a jot for the romance between Margaret and Ash--in fact, I ended up skimming portions of it, because it was so by-the-numbers. I was surprised, however, by the energy and depth the author managed to give to two well-worn tropes: Ash helps Margaret to respect her own judgement above society's, and Margaret helps Ash come to terms with his learning disability. I've read these kinds of stories a dozen times before, but Milan managed to imbue them with far more emotion and tension than I've seen elsewhere. Too, the relationships between siblings engaged me. I look forward to reading about Ash's brothers, who already have a great deal of personality. That said, I hate the cover and the title has absolutely nothing to do with the story. Someday romance novels will not have titles and cover art assigned to them at random, but that day is not yet come. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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Feb 26, 2014
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Jan 31, 2014
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Mass Market Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0393052109
| 9780393052107
| 0393052109
| 3.65
| 292
| 2001
| Jan 01, 2005
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did not like it
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A poor family headed by a Methodist minister had five surviving daughters and two sons. Of these, the four daughters who married all had husbands or s
A poor family headed by a Methodist minister had five surviving daughters and two sons. Of these, the four daughters who married all had husbands or sons of import, and are supposedly the focus of this book. I say supposedly because pages go by without one of them being mentioned. The vast majority of this book is actually about their various relations. From the first to the last the four sisters get very little attention, and in fact I came away with only a vague understanding of Georgie Burne-Jones and the rest remained cyphers. After the daughters marry and start having children, they fall out of the narrative almost entirely and the book becomes more and more disorganized and scattered. Bad enough that the ostensible focus of the book is nearly ignored, but the various children and grandchildren receive very variable amounts of attention--I felt that about half this book was about Rudyard Kipling, whereas three-time Prime Minister of Britain Stan Baldwin gets literally two paragraphs to summarize his entire political career. And, icing on my hate-cake, the author has the strangest interpretations of letters and happenings that I have ever seen. She decides upon the nastiest interpretation every single time. See my status updates for examples. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 14, 2014
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May 20, 2014
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Jan 29, 2014
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0765332272
| 9780765332271
| 0765332272
| 3.50
| 1,328
| Mar 19, 2013
| Mar 19, 2013
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liked it
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A pretty solid collection of fantasy stories, linked by their connection to Queen Victoria's reign. I think my favorites were the creepy stories by Mc
A pretty solid collection of fantasy stories, linked by their connection to Queen Victoria's reign. I think my favorites were the creepy stories by McHugh and Koja, the rousing "Phosphorus," and the hopeful "Estella Saves the Village." "Queen Victoria's Book of Spells" by Delia Sherman. A magician-historian looks under the simple cantrips and magical recipes in a book and finds a young Victoria's diary. It reveals(view spoiler)[that she used a love spell on Albert(hide spoiler)],and the historian (who has been harassed as a woman and as a commoner) is torn whether to reveal the late queen's secret. I wish there was more to the historian, and more to Victoria's secret diary, because as it is there isn't much to this story. "The Fairy Enterprise" by Jeffrey Ford. A pitiless industrialist tries to build a factory that creates fairies, but instead he himself becomes the fairy factory. Basically a recounting of random, surreal, and disgusting events happening to a terrible man. Not enjoyable. "From the Catalogue of the Uncanny and the Marvellous" by Genevieve Valentine. Through excerpts from fictional and real historical documents, describes the contents and destruction by fire of an exhibit in the Great Exhibition of supernatural beings and objects. I wish there was more characterization or story here. "The Memory Book" by Maureen McHugh. Laura Anne is a new governness, and she finds her charges rather a handful. So she does what she always does when troubled: she scrapbooks. There's a wonderful commitment to this story, and the creeping sense of dread and terror. "La Reine D'Enfer" by Kathe Koja. An urchin with a talent for memorization becomes an actor, and in so doing not only rids himself of his pimp, but finds a dark power for his own. Great character voice and historical details. "For the Briar Rose" by Elizabeth Wein. Margaret, only daughter of Edward-Burne Jones, is at the cusp of becoming a wife and then mother while her father paints his famed Briar Rose series. This felt confused and unfocused, even though the symbolism was blindingly obvious. "The Governess" by Elizabeth Bear. A governess in a troubled household. I liked the way the parents' influence on their children was portrayed, although I thought(view spoiler)[the constant refrain of "seal-brown hair" to describe the mother (a selkie whose skin has been stolen) was tiring(hide spoiler)]. "Smithfield" by James Blaylock. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle does some photography in a town while the gas lamps are being replaced with electricity. Pointless and dry. I thought the long-winded style of the story was a good mimic of Doyle's, until I read the afterward, which was two-and-a-half pages when most authors contented themselves with a sentence or two. "The Unwanted Women of Surrey" by Kaaron Warren. A house of women who are a bit too mad or unwanted by their families live in peace until a new lady arrives and spreads the word of the Grey Ladies. By hastening the deaths of others, the women can serve the Grey Ladies and gain free will.(view spoiler)[But of course, doing so doesn't give them free will; it does something much worse.(hide spoiler)]I liked the way Annie's soul was described: "twisted, dark, pockmarked...it puddled, like a rat liquefying." But otherwise, I think the narrator was too ill-defined (why was she in the house? why did she believe Annie and go along with the dreadful poisonings?), and the author put a few too many infodumps of their research. It read like Warren had done a little reading into Victorian medicine and history and then stuffed several random things that they found exciting into the story. "Charged" by Leanna Renee Hieber. The narrator is struck by lightning as a boy, and ever after is fascinated by electricity. More, he can control and conduct it. Unfortunately for the world, this superpowered man of the new electric age is amoral and mad as a hatter. Intriguing. "Mr.Splitfoot" by Dale Bailey. In her old age, Maggie Fox thinks about her time as a celebrated Spiritualist. She renounced her talents as mere fraud, but in her own mind she allows herself to acknowledge the awful truth--that she and her sister really could commune with spirits, and they were terrifying. The descriptions of the spirits and the near-possession are chilling, and I liked the twist this gave the Fox sisters. "Phosphorus" by Veronica Schanoes. A matchwoman in Ireland does dark magic in order to live long enough to see a strike end and a union formed. This is a disturbing but very necessary story to include in a gaslamp/steampunk anthology--from the author's afterword: "It's easy to forget how the people who indulged in afternoon tea rituals, admired clockwork-powered inventions, and wore shapely and beautiful corsets and bustles profited from the death and suffering of others every time they lit a candle." "We Without Us Were Shadows" by Catherynne M Valente. As children, the four youngest Brontes visit a world in which their imaginings have form and substance. I think at times Valente gets too caught up in description to maintain the story, but the idea is solid and has some of the charm and danger of Narnia or Oz. "The Vital Importance of the Superficial" by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer. A gentleman leaves a magical object behind after a salon, and peremptorily demands it back. He is answered by an equally pert letter, and through the course of correspondence a dastardly magician is foiled, a lady saved, and a romance begun. Stevermer wrote a very similar series of book with another author (the Sorcery&Cecilia series with Patricia Wrede), and in both instances the epistolary style works for only a short time. Soon, it becomes unbelievable that the neighboring narrators are communicating only in letters. "We will come together just as soon as Father has his breakfast and I have tidied the crumbs out of his beard," writes Charlotte, seemingly desperate to see her lost brother and best friend again after their ordeals, and then instead of hastening to them writes a THREE PAGE letter. In the amount of time it takes her to write this letter, she could have visited, told them the whole tale, and come back home again! Too, Kushner&Stevermer clearly only developed the plot as they wrote each letter, so the backstory is a disorganized mess and the plot itself sadly anticlimactic. Also, the romance at the end feels unearned, despite the twenty pages of letters between Our Heroes. This needed tightening and editing to turn it from fun writing exercise between friends into a good story. Because there is charm and wit here, just buried. "The Jewel in the Toad Queen's Crown" by Jane Yolen. Disraeli and Queen Victoria talk, and he uses Kabbalistic magic to add India to her empire. The writing is not subtle in its characterizations (if Victoria was likened to a young girl one more time I swear I'd have shut the book), nor is the plot clear. "A Few Twigs He Left Behind" by Gregory Maguire. In his last decade of life, Scrooge was a reformed man. Not only did he spread his wealth to the impoverished of London, but he fell in love. Now his death has finally come upon him, his children watch his corpse to see if his late repentance was enough to save him from eternal wanderings. Great descriptions, and a narrative pov that felt similar to Dickens's without feeling derivative. "Their Monstrous Minds" by Tanith Lee. A scientist strives to create a perfect man out of corpse-bits, and succeeds to perfection. Except that(view spoiler)[not only has he successfully galvanized the brain he chose to give "Primos," but also gave powers to each individual scrap. Primos is constantly at war with himself.(hide spoiler)]Horror in the nineteenth century style, with Lee's beautifully crafted prose. "Estella Saves the Village" by Theodora Goss. Very cool story. Estella lives in a cozy little village with her guardian, Miss Havisham, but one day she sees little black specks on the pastor. Every day, the specks grow larger and spread throughout the village.(view spoiler)[(SPOILERS THAT WILL TRULY RUIN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE STORY) Miss Havisham reveals that she was an English professor who imagined the whole village, including little Estella, but as her brain dies, so too does her imagined village. Estella is initially shocked to find out she's just a dream, but refuses to give up on their shared life and imagines the world whole again.(hide spoiler)]A neat combination of imagination, horror, and sweetness. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 08, 2014
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Apr 16, 2014
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Dec 30, 2013
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0750904453
| 9780750904452
| 0750904453
| 3.82
| 66
| 1879
| Jan 01, 1993
|
really liked it
|
Violet Tempest grows up in a happy household, the beloved only child of amiable and generous parents. She and her father spend their days riding and h
Violet Tempest grows up in a happy household, the beloved only child of amiable and generous parents. She and her father spend their days riding and hunting through the old forest that surrounds their home, and Violet (called "Vixen" for her auburn hair and manner) is strong of heart and body, not intellectual but very sensible. The only possible flaw is that her best friend Rorie's mother, the ambitious Lady Jane, does not approve of their close friendship. But then(view spoiler)[Violet's father dies, throwing Violet into deep mourning and leaving her in the care of a foolish widow. Captain Winstanely first courts Violet, but she takes an immediate dislike to him, and so instead he marries her mother, Pamela. This marriage to a younger, poorer man encourages Pamela's worst aspects, her vanity and inability to stand her ground. She sinks into a mere diaphanous shadow in the household, while Violet and the Captain struggle against each other: the Captain trying to save money for himself through smart economies, Violet trying to maintain the old ways of her father (old but beloved servants, open handed generosity to the village, etc). Meanwhile, Rorie has given in to his mother and betrothed himself to Lady Mable. Eventually all comes out right: Mable finds a man whose ambition and interests match hers and breaks her engagement to Rorie, Rorie is free to marry Violet, and the Captain loses both his wife and her income and leaves the country to marry some other heiress.(hide spoiler)] It's all exceedingly pleasant and diverting, told with a wonderful mixture of light ironic humor and sincere good will. The descriptions of the Violet's forest are captivating, and her love for it is my favorite theme in this book. There's also a running question of the meaning and legacy of people's lives. Miss Skipworth devotes herself to creating a universal religion that will bring glory to her dying name; Lord Mallow to Ireland (though he couldn't bear to stay there more than few weeks out of the year), Lady Mable to writing immortal verse in order to prove she's worth more than other women. And there are the characters who seek more physical and immediate purpose: Pamela and the Captain to physical comfort and the notice of their peers, the Duke to growing gigantic turnips and cattle. Violet and Rorie, meanwhile, each suffer long periods of feeling idle and useless. It is only when they are together that their lives have meaning, and that is of a purely personal sort; they seek only to be happy with themselves, to feel that they've behaved well toward others and love someone worthy. It's a sweet turn on the idle rich, and I quite liked it. In fact, I liked this much better than Braddon's more famous and gothic work,Lady Audley's Secret.I think the writing here is at least as fine, but without all the annoying sexism. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 06, 2013
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May 07, 2013
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May 06, 2013
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 057123190X
| 9780571231904
| 057123190X
| 3.69
| 711
| Jan 25, 2013
| Feb 07, 2013
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None
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Notes are private!
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0
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not set
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not set
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May 05, 2013
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Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0399252363
| 9780399252365
| 0399252363
| 4.27
| 11,132
| May 04, 2010
| May 13, 2010
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liked it
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After her father's death and her mother's disappearance, Enola Holmes escaped her older brothers and went into business for herself as a consulting de
After her father's death and her mother's disappearance, Enola Holmes escaped her older brothers and went into business for herself as a consulting detective. The case of a missing duchess brings her and Sherlock Holmes together, and Enola must decide whether to maintain her lonely freedom or hope that her brothers have changed their minds about controlling her. This book's mystery is pretty lightweight; far more time is spent on Enola's relationships with her brothers. I was glad to see a resolution there, but I wish this series could have continued forever, with its exquisitely described historical context and its wonderfully sensible heroine. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 2013
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May 2013
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May 01, 2013
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0399247815
| 9780399247811
| 0399247815
| 4.12
| 12,041
| Feb 21, 2009
| Jan 01, 2009
|
liked it
|
On her fourteenth birthday, Enola Holmes (youngest sibling of Mycroft and Sherlock) woke to find that her mother had left in the night, leaving behind
On her fourteenth birthday, Enola Holmes (youngest sibling of Mycroft and Sherlock) woke to find that her mother had left in the night, leaving behind only a series of cryptic clues. To avoid being sent to boarding school, Enola flees her brothers' care and heads to London, where she alternately looks for her mother and solves mysteries. She is adept at interviewing witnesses, constructing disguises, and cryptography, yet she is still just fourteen. When her deaf old landlady (who has filled a mother's role for Enola) is kidnapped, Enola springs into action. She will stop at nothing to discover what happened to Mrs. Tupper and get her back. Another wonderfully engaging adventure for Enola, rife with delightful historical details (like Mrs.T's pride in her window, though it costs her window taxes) and great interactions between Enola and Sherlock Holmes. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 2013
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May 2013
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May 01, 2013
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0151007586
| 9780151007585
| 0151007586
| 3.77
| 66
| 2002
| Nov 03, 2003
|
it was ok
|
A history of upper class meals and the customs surrounding them, from antiquity to the present. The book almost entirely deals with Western Europe, pa
A history of upper class meals and the customs surrounding them, from antiquity to the present. The book almost entirely deals with Western Europe, particularly England, Italy, and France. It's a very scattershot view; there are a few tasty tidbits of knowledge, but they're so randomly chosen and so unorganized in presentation that it was hard to get a good overall picture of the subject. It's not clear what Strong's thesis or even true subject is, since sometimes he talks about formal feasts alone, while at other times he expands his view to all upper class meals, or even to dinner in general. This is the basic gist I gleaned: feasts in Ancient Greece and Rome were men's affairs, very long and with live entertainment. As with everything else, feasts at the end of the Roman Empire had gotten really ridiculously opulent. The "barbarian hordes" that took down the Empire in the West brought in their own style of feasting, which focused on drinking. The food was no longer honey-drenched doormice stuffed with herbs, but instead simply prepared hunks of meat. In the medieval ages, nobles and the clergy often silently ate while others read to them (usually the Bible). By this time, people had discovered ancient texts and were recreating Roman tastes and obeying the idea of different foods being linked to different humors, which were in turn linked to health. By the Renaissance, the feasts got even more ridiculous (see my status updates for a few details, but suffice to say they involve models of churches made of meat and pastry, with stuffed birds standing in for a church choir, or flame bursting forth from mythical animals' mouths), and the point of the dishes was presentation, not taste. These luxurious feasts and displays continue, but with the rise of a middle class the upper class emphasized manners and taste over display in order to keep out the new rich. After WWI wasteful ostentation was cut back, and cut back further (at least in England) post WWII. And nowadays, few people eat dinner together, and host dinners at restaurants instead of within their own homes. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 26, 2013
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Apr 26, 2013
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Apr 26, 2013
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0399247807
| 9780399247804
| 0399247807
| 4.14
| 12,917
| Sep 18, 2008
| Sep 18, 2008
|
liked it
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Enola was raised a idiosyncratically in an isolated manor house by her mother. When her mother decamped to live her own life, Enola discovered that sh
Enola was raised a idiosyncratically in an isolated manor house by her mother. When her mother decamped to live her own life, Enola discovered that she too could lead an independent life--but she nevertheless misses her mother terribly. Their only communication since her mother's disappearance is through cyphered messages left in newspapers, but this is enough to buck up Enola's spirits and confidence. Under a variety of disguises she sets herself up as a finder of lost persons. Her latest case: what has become of the aristocratic girl she saved inThe case of the Left-handed lady?Her only clue: a cheap pink fan the girl dropped while asking her for help in the rudimentary language of the fan. It is great fun to watch Enola slip in and out of her variety of guises, and view London from distinctly different points of view. Her complicated feelings for her mother and brothers are particularly well developed in this volume. It is, alas, her brothers that pose the one sticking point I have with the series: both seem rather less astute than usual, and Mycroft in particular is both much less intelligent and far more talkative and active than I'm used to. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 21, 2013
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Mar 21, 2013
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Mar 20, 2013
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Hardcover
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| 1176928694
| 9781176928695
| 1176928694
| 4.04
| 26
| Jun 25, 2009
| Aug 06, 2010
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Can be found onlinehere.Contains such wonderful entries as "Altogethery: Drunk--from the tendency of a drunken man to lounge himself. Byron uses the
Can be found onlinehere.Contains such wonderful entries as "Altogethery: Drunk--from the tendency of a drunken man to lounge himself. Byron uses the term in a letter of 1816."
...more
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Notes are private!
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0
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not set
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not set
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Feb 21, 2013
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Paperback
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| 0399245189
| 9780399245183
| 0399245189
| 4.09
| 15,138
| 2007
| 2008
|
liked it
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Enola Holmes, the younger sister of Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes, has set herself up as a consulting detective. When she hears that Dr.Watson is missin
Enola Holmes, the younger sister of Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes, has set herself up as a consulting detective. When she hears that Dr.Watson is missing, she dives into the investigation. Her only clue is that Mrs.Watson has been receiving strange bouquets. Enola is a wonderful heroine, smart, resourceful, and gutsy. I love watching her skills develop and her relationship with Sherlock shift. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 19, 2013
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Mar 19, 2013
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Feb 19, 2013
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Hardcover
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Wealhtheow
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Feb 07, 2018
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it was ok
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Jun 30, 2014
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it was ok
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Apr 29, 2014
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Apr 22, 2014
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Feb 26, 2014
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Feb 26, 2014
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May 20, 2014
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Apr 16, 2014
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Dec 30, 2013
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May 07, 2013
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May 2013
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May 2013
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May 01, 2013
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| 3.77
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it was ok
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Apr 26, 2013
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Apr 26, 2013
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Mar 21, 2013
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Mar 20, 2013
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Feb 21, 2013
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| 4.09
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Mar 19, 2013
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Feb 19, 2013
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