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Tag: Non Fiction

Sometimes You Need a Rant

Posted in Book Blogger, and Personal

I’ve said before that I tend to read “easy reads” that I can get lost in, specifically books without much conflict or angst. However, I also read non-fiction occasionally, usually history based.

I especially enjoy books that examine historical expectations, lifestyles, and often-overlooked details like Unmentionable and Corsets & Codpieces. They can really help understand the nuances of historical literature and provide supplementary information to better understand documentaries. When done well, historical non-fiction can be interesting and a fun way to learn more. But, they can also go horribly wrong

Review – Unmentionable

Posted in Book Blogger

Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady’s Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners

by Therese Oneill

Genres: 19th Century World History, Etiquette, Victorian Era
Release Date: October 25, 2016
Pages: 309
Purchase from: Amazon
My Rating: ★★★★★

Have you ever wished you could live in an earlier, more romantic era? Ladies, welcome to the 19th century, where there’s arsenic in your face cream, a pot of cold pee sits under your bed, and all of your underwear is crotchless. (Why? Shush, dear. A lady doesn’t question.)

Unmentionable is your hilarious, illustrated, scandalously honest (yet never crass) guide to the secrets of Victorian womanhood, giving you detailed advice on: What to wear Where to relieve yourself How to conceal your loathsome addiction to menstruating What to expect on your wedding night How to be the perfect Victorian wife Why masturbating will kill you And more!

Irresistibly charming, laugh-out-loud funny, and featuring nearly 200 images from Victorian publications, Unmentionable will inspire a whole new level of respect for Elizabeth Bennett, Scarlet O’Hara, Jane Eyre, and all of our great, great grandmothers. (And it just might leave you feeling ecstatically grateful to live in an age of pants, super absorbency tampons, epidurals, anti-depressants, and not dying of the syphilis your husband brought home.)

Review – Elegant Etiquette in the Nineteenth Century

Posted in Book Blogger

Elegant Etiquette in the Nineteenth Century

by Mallory James

Elegant Etiquette in the Nineteenth Century

Genres: Non Fiction
Release Date: November 30, 2017
Pages: 152
Purchase from: Amazon
My Rating: ★★★★★

Have you ever wondered what it would have been like to live in the nineteenth century? How would you have gotten a partner in a ballroom? What would you have done with a letter of introduction? And where would you have sat in a carriage?
 
Covering all these nineteenth-century dilemmas and more, this book is your must-have guide to the etiquette of our well-heeled forebears. As it takes you through the intricacies of rank, the niceties of the street, the good conduct that was desired in the ballroom, and the awkward blunders that a lady or gentleman would have wanted to avoid, you will discover an abundance of etiquette advice from across the century, and a lively, occasionally tongue-in-cheek, and thoroughly detailed history of nineteenth-century manners and conduct.
 
This well-researched book is enjoyable, compelling reading for anyone with an interest in this period. In exploring the expectations of behavior and etiquette, it brings the world of the nineteenth century to life.