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bookish_whispers's review against another edition
4.0
Unmnetionable has been on my radar since last year, but for some reason I just now picked it up. I have no good reason for this because my flatmate read it and loved it. It was totally worth the wait though. I ended up putting another book on hold to finish it. Plus, I feel asleep reading it more times then I can remember. I've already recommended it coworkers and friends that read. So what made it so good?
Therese Oneill's voice as the narrator is my favorite part of this book. She's full of sass and sarcasm and I loved it. Her voice had me laughing out loud as I read, which made it hard to read in public. There was also some amazing one liners that I couldn't help to share with friends as I read via Instant Message. No one ever said learning couldn't be fun!
All fun aside though, I felt the book was well researched. Therese touched on topics that appear in many Victorian novels and movies: fashion, food, servants, and social cues. All topics I knew a little about, but not a lot. A few things that had been romanticized, that were in fact horrific. Which also kept me reading, because I got to the point thinking, it couldn't possibly get worse.
I felt like the book flowed well through each section. One chapter leading into the next. The addition of ads from the era, and photos, with the snarky caption were fun. Especially the ads, because it's amazing to think our grand mother's ingested some of those things. Chemicals that today we aren't even allowed to buy or illegal have in our homes.
But I think my favorite part was that the punches weren't held back. Movies, TV, and books show the better side of the Victorian era. They leave out the fact the women weren't consider more than pretty thing to sit that couldn't handle the world around them. Therese Oneill tells doesn't hold back about how bad things could be, but reminds us at the end that it in fact wasn't all bad. While it seems bad for women of this century, the back then didn't know any better.
Except for Mr. Kellogg, the more I learn about the man the more I wish I could travel back in time. Now there's a man I want to punch.
Despite everything I loved about the book there was a couple of things I didn't love so much. For me I felt like the chapters jumped around on the subject. There was a couple of times when I had reread pages to get back on track, and there a few times that it felt like chapters shifted from their subject matter.
All-in-all though I loved the book. I borrowed it from the library, but I'm adding this book to my library. It's definitely one I could see myself picking up again. Unmentionable is one of those books that because there's a lot of information, a second, or third, read could present things I missed the first time around.
Buy, Borrow, or Skip: Buy it! It's a fun book to have around and pass among your friends.
This, and other bookish stuff, can be found at my blog, Bookish Whispers!
Therese Oneill's voice as the narrator is my favorite part of this book. She's full of sass and sarcasm and I loved it. Her voice had me laughing out loud as I read, which made it hard to read in public. There was also some amazing one liners that I couldn't help to share with friends as I read via Instant Message. No one ever said learning couldn't be fun!
All fun aside though, I felt the book was well researched. Therese touched on topics that appear in many Victorian novels and movies: fashion, food, servants, and social cues. All topics I knew a little about, but not a lot. A few things that had been romanticized, that were in fact horrific. Which also kept me reading, because I got to the point thinking, it couldn't possibly get worse.
I felt like the book flowed well through each section. One chapter leading into the next. The addition of ads from the era, and photos, with the snarky caption were fun. Especially the ads, because it's amazing to think our grand mother's ingested some of those things. Chemicals that today we aren't even allowed to buy or illegal have in our homes.
But I think my favorite part was that the punches weren't held back. Movies, TV, and books show the better side of the Victorian era. They leave out the fact the women weren't consider more than pretty thing to sit that couldn't handle the world around them. Therese Oneill tells doesn't hold back about how bad things could be, but reminds us at the end that it in fact wasn't all bad. While it seems bad for women of this century, the back then didn't know any better.
Except for Mr. Kellogg, the more I learn about the man the more I wish I could travel back in time. Now there's a man I want to punch.
Despite everything I loved about the book there was a couple of things I didn't love so much. For me I felt like the chapters jumped around on the subject. There was a couple of times when I had reread pages to get back on track, and there a few times that it felt like chapters shifted from their subject matter.
All-in-all though I loved the book. I borrowed it from the library, but I'm adding this book to my library. It's definitely one I could see myself picking up again. Unmentionable is one of those books that because there's a lot of information, a second, or third, read could present things I missed the first time around.
Buy, Borrow, or Skip: Buy it! It's a fun book to have around and pass among your friends.
This, and other bookish stuff, can be found at my blog, Bookish Whispers!
itskatehill's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book SO much!! I couldn’t put it down. It was equal parts, hilarious, horrifying, and informational. I laughed out loud so many times. Oneill is a fantastic writer, and I can’t wait to read more of her works. This book made me appreciate the simple act of being able to walk down the street ‘unaccompanied’ to pick up a sandwich. Who would’ve thought that 150 years ago I would have needed my husband or chaperone of some sort, and that the very angle of my head and line of my neck could indicate whether I was a ‘streetwalker’ or not during my short stroll down the street. Everything I do in my daily life could have some point of contention with my Victorian ancestors. It’s amazing to see how far we have come and how different life is, especially for women, now. I would love to be able to go back in time and bring some of these poor ladies to the 21st century and show them a toilet! Or sweatpants! Or a premium vibrator! The list is endless of what exciting things I could show them. I will never take my modern day realities and conveniences for granted again. I’ll absolutely recommend this book to anyone, and will most certainly read it again and again. 5/5!
serinde4books's review against another edition
2.0
This was a library hold that came in unexpectedly. I like the tone of the writing, it is informative and a bit snarky. It provides and insight, I mostly already knew, life was hard in the 19th century. But is also provides some tidbits I didn't know. Pantaloons were crotchless!
I know that for the most part women had little say over their own lives, but even one of the worst mysoginistc writers of the time, felt they should have some say. “Of all the rights to which a woman is entitled, that of the custody of her own body is the most indubitable.” Ladies' Guide in Health and Disease: Girlhood, Maidenhood, Wifehood, Motherhood By John Harvey Kellogg, published 1884
Maybe some of our politicians etc should listen to that wisdom.
I learned that the Comstock law of 1873 changed what could and could not be mailed. No advertisement for products relating human sexuality or contraceptions. It didn’t make contraceptions themselves illegals but the ability to obtain them was. It started the idea that contraceptions were in equal footing with abortions, an idea we are still having debates over 146 years later.
On cooking in the 19th century “Unless you are excruciatingly careful and sometimes even if you are, look forward to intestinal worms, lead poisoning, and four-day-old unrefrigerated pork with a side of botulism.” Well no one said good food easily obtained.
Overall it was a fun book, I enjoyed the facts, nothing was really mind-blowing news though.
For additional reviews please see my blog at www.adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com
I know that for the most part women had little say over their own lives, but even one of the worst mysoginistc writers of the time, felt they should have some say. “Of all the rights to which a woman is entitled, that of the custody of her own body is the most indubitable.” Ladies' Guide in Health and Disease: Girlhood, Maidenhood, Wifehood, Motherhood By John Harvey Kellogg, published 1884
Maybe some of our politicians etc should listen to that wisdom.
I learned that the Comstock law of 1873 changed what could and could not be mailed. No advertisement for products relating human sexuality or contraceptions. It didn’t make contraceptions themselves illegals but the ability to obtain them was. It started the idea that contraceptions were in equal footing with abortions, an idea we are still having debates over 146 years later.
On cooking in the 19th century “Unless you are excruciatingly careful and sometimes even if you are, look forward to intestinal worms, lead poisoning, and four-day-old unrefrigerated pork with a side of botulism.” Well no one said good food easily obtained.
Overall it was a fun book, I enjoyed the facts, nothing was really mind-blowing news though.
For additional reviews please see my blog at www.adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com
jmcordova's review against another edition
5.0
We can enjoy Jane Austen, but always remember, in spite of Elizabeth Bennett's pride and Mr. Darcy's prejudice, they both smelled really bad.
Now to borrow myself a crone so I can go out in public.
Oh, wait. Shit. I am the crone.
Now to borrow myself a crone so I can go out in public.
Oh, wait. Shit. I am the crone.
tracey_stewart's review against another edition
4.0
I still remember how crushing it was the first time someone felt it would be fun for my own good to pop my Disney–and–Robin Hood–blown bubble, and let me to know that those marvelous castles I was always admiring, those perfect settings for all my dreams, were actually massively drafty, stinkingly unsanitary holes. To my every "Yeah, but – " there was another quelling response. No, really – living in a castle in period was horrible (and living in a castle now would be the very definition of "money pit").
So now, why not? Let's eviscerate all those glowing visions of the Edwardian and Regency and Victorian eras. It's fun!
And – while it is surprisingly difficult to apply this new knowledge to Jane Austen and Upstairs Downstairs and so on … it is fun.
I was a little surprised that the author bounced not only through time but through space; it was as though she wanted to make sure the worst example available was used for any given situation, and in a lot of cases that was in more recently settled America rather than what I automatically expected: England. It was a little disconcerting at times to find I wasn't reading about where I thought I was reading about – I do wish she had made that clearer.
The author's voice – that of a snarky, just-you-wait-till-you-hear-this guide, sympathetic to the reader's dismay but also a bit gleeful about popping the bubble – was, according to some reviews, annoying to some, but I had a good time with it. There were times I needed that "oh, my sweet summer child" presence – "they did what? With what? How? Wha -?"
We live in a world in which things are discussed which in earlier times were taboo. Verboten. Distasteful. Tacky. Maybe it's my age – but I don't think so, because some of my coworkers are in the same bracket. Maybe it's the way I was brought up. Maybe I'm just a prude – I really don't know. But on a daily basis my coworkers shock and horrify me with the way they talk about … everything. Loudly. Their sex lives. In detail. Their urinary misadventures. Their hot flashes – there's a general alert with every one from every woman. Their complaints about their children or husbands or boyfriends. Things which in my little insular world ought to be private, personal, nobody else's business. You see, I don't want to know that one coworker with a bad cold had bladder slippage every time she coughed – but when she said this another coworker chimed in – loudly and with detail – about how the same thing happened to her. I don't want to know that this latter experience was every time she threw up with that last bout of whatever illness – I really, really don't. This is in an office with nine people, not all her friends, and one a man. There is not enough brain bleach in the world to eradicate the details I've heard about various and sundry from various and sundry. Want to hear more? I've been here three years. I've got more. Reams.
I'm not even going to talk about those Charmin commercials with the disgusting cartoon bears. One of my aunts used to watch the evolution of tv, aghast, and commented that next thing you knew they'd be modeling tampons in commercials. We're almost there.
So … when did this happen? About a hundred years ago, no one would have dreamed of talking about these things except MAYBE in extreme privacy with her mother. And, yes, there is very much something to be said about more information being public about sex and health and sanitation; some of the things that doctors got away with as described in this book can't (or almost can't) happen now, and it's surely better for women to know what they're in for on their wedding nights or when menopause hits, or to know what they're not the only person something happens to, etc. – more knowledge is almost always better (as opposed to Too Much Information). But … There has to be a middle ground somewhere between utter vulgarity and Victorian frigidity, where the information necessary for health and comfort is widely available without being wallowed in. Maybe we'll get there.
Or maybe I'm just a prude.
Anyhow. This stuff is great to know, especially for writers (or time travelers)… For readers, maybe not so much. I've always figured that if you're sitting there wondering while you read how and where a book's main character is going to relieve herself in a given situation, you're not paying enough attention to the book. Like one of those people who can't resist pointing out every continuity error in a movie or tv show – that wine glass had three quarters of an inch more wine in it when they shot from that other angle! – you need to just relax and not worry about it until and unless it becomes relevant.
I think, in the end, that I'm glad I've been schooled – while mores may have slipped badly, we've come a long way in other words, baby - but I'm also disgruntled that the more I know the less appealing a trip through time in the TARDIS becomes. I don't think there's a time period in history I much care to see firsthand anymore. Ah well – there's always the rest of the universe.
If you know something unsavory about the Madillon Cluster or Shallanna, don't tell me.
The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.
So now, why not? Let's eviscerate all those glowing visions of the Edwardian and Regency and Victorian eras. It's fun!
And – while it is surprisingly difficult to apply this new knowledge to Jane Austen and Upstairs Downstairs and so on … it is fun.
I was a little surprised that the author bounced not only through time but through space; it was as though she wanted to make sure the worst example available was used for any given situation, and in a lot of cases that was in more recently settled America rather than what I automatically expected: England. It was a little disconcerting at times to find I wasn't reading about where I thought I was reading about – I do wish she had made that clearer.
The author's voice – that of a snarky, just-you-wait-till-you-hear-this guide, sympathetic to the reader's dismay but also a bit gleeful about popping the bubble – was, according to some reviews, annoying to some, but I had a good time with it. There were times I needed that "oh, my sweet summer child" presence – "they did what? With what? How? Wha -?"
We live in a world in which things are discussed which in earlier times were taboo. Verboten. Distasteful. Tacky. Maybe it's my age – but I don't think so, because some of my coworkers are in the same bracket. Maybe it's the way I was brought up. Maybe I'm just a prude – I really don't know. But on a daily basis my coworkers shock and horrify me with the way they talk about … everything. Loudly. Their sex lives. In detail. Their urinary misadventures. Their hot flashes – there's a general alert with every one from every woman. Their complaints about their children or husbands or boyfriends. Things which in my little insular world ought to be private, personal, nobody else's business. You see, I don't want to know that one coworker with a bad cold had bladder slippage every time she coughed – but when she said this another coworker chimed in – loudly and with detail – about how the same thing happened to her. I don't want to know that this latter experience was every time she threw up with that last bout of whatever illness – I really, really don't. This is in an office with nine people, not all her friends, and one a man. There is not enough brain bleach in the world to eradicate the details I've heard about various and sundry from various and sundry. Want to hear more? I've been here three years. I've got more. Reams.
I'm not even going to talk about those Charmin commercials with the disgusting cartoon bears. One of my aunts used to watch the evolution of tv, aghast, and commented that next thing you knew they'd be modeling tampons in commercials. We're almost there.
So … when did this happen? About a hundred years ago, no one would have dreamed of talking about these things except MAYBE in extreme privacy with her mother. And, yes, there is very much something to be said about more information being public about sex and health and sanitation; some of the things that doctors got away with as described in this book can't (or almost can't) happen now, and it's surely better for women to know what they're in for on their wedding nights or when menopause hits, or to know what they're not the only person something happens to, etc. – more knowledge is almost always better (as opposed to Too Much Information). But … There has to be a middle ground somewhere between utter vulgarity and Victorian frigidity, where the information necessary for health and comfort is widely available without being wallowed in. Maybe we'll get there.
Or maybe I'm just a prude.
Anyhow. This stuff is great to know, especially for writers (or time travelers)… For readers, maybe not so much. I've always figured that if you're sitting there wondering while you read how and where a book's main character is going to relieve herself in a given situation, you're not paying enough attention to the book. Like one of those people who can't resist pointing out every continuity error in a movie or tv show – that wine glass had three quarters of an inch more wine in it when they shot from that other angle! – you need to just relax and not worry about it until and unless it becomes relevant.
I think, in the end, that I'm glad I've been schooled – while mores may have slipped badly, we've come a long way in other words, baby - but I'm also disgruntled that the more I know the less appealing a trip through time in the TARDIS becomes. I don't think there's a time period in history I much care to see firsthand anymore. Ah well – there's always the rest of the universe.
If you know something unsavory about the Madillon Cluster or Shallanna, don't tell me.
The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.
rebeccarennerfl's review against another edition
5.0
I listened to this book on audio, and I totally freaking loved it. After listening to it, I can definitely say, despite my love of Victorian literature, I am thoroughly glad I don’t live in that era.
megthegrand's review against another edition
2.0
I really wanted to enjoy this book. The subject matter is definitely interesting, but I found myself worn out by the author's writing style. I found the book to be more of a slog as I got deeper into it, and having to deal with snarky one-liners here and there made it difficult to enjoy. I think had the snark been used more sparingly, I might have enjoyed it more. Also, it was difficult at times to figure out why the pictures were on a particular page, and to what passage they were referring.
charlotekerstenauthor's review against another edition
Fun and really entertaining for the most part, though the humor felt totally inappropriate when applied to the darker topics mentioned like spousal abuse, racism and slavery. I learned a bit but I don't know a ton more than I knew before reading this book.