Bronwyn
Ahhh! This was such a fun read! I feel a bit misled by the tagline, but that's a quibble and not the books fault. This is like a mashup of Gosford Park/Downton Abbey, a mystery, and Covid protocols. I loved it.
The pandemic stuff (here, Virulent Pernicious Malaise) isn't much except as a way to have less staff in the house, but I liked all the little hints of what we've all been through these past two-ish years - masks, food and toiletry shortages, staying home. The mystery was good but parts of it were fairly obvious, but no less enjoyable. Downton Abbey-ish, Georgina is totally Violet and I pictured much of the staff as Downton's staff. The family is more... Cazalets almost, with dynamics and affairs and whatnot, but that's good too.
I expected a sort of romance novel type mystery (fun but fluff) and I got so much more. Super fun and enjoyable read.
This is such a good overview of all the ways being fat in the world can be harmful. Gordon talks about how the world isn't equipped for fat people, how they're characterized on tv, how relationships work (or don't), how even doctors don't take it seriously. (I should be saying we, not they, as I am a small fat - I can find clothes in nearly any store, but I am fat.)
Anti-fat biases hurt us all and working for true body liberation will benefit us all. (Much like how feminism benefits men too.) The last chapter talks about all the ways we can all work towards ending anti-fat bias.
Also, go listen to the podcast Maintenance Phase, hosted by Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbes. It's a must listen if you care about true health and wellness, not how they've been co-opted and marketed and skewed. As of this writing the most recent episode is on fat camps (also discussed in the book!) and is heartbreaking in how these literal children are treated.
Waffling between four and five stars, but there were a few things that made me go “ehhhh” that I'll go with four. But what a wild ride! Such good suspense and playing with assumptions. I figured it out slightly before the reveal but definitely thought it was other people and thought it was different than it was. (Don't mean to be vague but really don't want to be spoilery!) I flew through this, which I needed, and I may give Michaelides' other work a try now too because he tells a good story.
This book was received from NetGalley in exchange for a review.
This was a really interesting book. Laura Thompson tells really compelling stories of doomed heiresses through the centuries. Thompson uses literary comparisons from Jane Austen to Edith Wharton to Nancy Mitford to great effect, showing the changing statuses of these girls and women through the changing times.
The first section of the book discusses girls (and some of them were just girls) and women who weren't protected by their moneyed and titled lives. The stories of Mary Davis Grosvenor (yes, that Grosvenor), Catherine Tylney Long, and Ellen Turner are used to show these changes in the roles and outcomes of heiresses in the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. They were used as pawns to exchange wealth and lands and secure alliances. Some were literally kidnapped and married against their will, just (“just”) for their inheritances. Others thought themselves in love with men who would ultimately steal their fortunes, having them sign them away or just spending it all themselves - women didn't have their own property once married and so these men could spend it all with impunity. Marriage laws were changed but women were still often at a disadvantage with the men in their lives.
Thompson next moves on to the million dollar princesses, those rich American girls whose wealth was used to buy themselves a title and help resuscitate dying aristocratic families and stately homes. New moneyed girls wouldn't be accepted into high society back home, but many Englishmen were willing to overlook common origins when they came with a high enough dollar value. Called “buccaneers,” an early example of this was Jennie Jerome, but one of the most famous is Consuelo Vanderbilt. Again, many of these weren't happy marriages, built as they were upon a business transaction. Consuelo's in particular became known for how unhappy the participants truly were. Again, marriage and divorce laws were changed and women had a bit more agency over their lives.
Around the same time, and running parallel in some cases, were the heiresses who took hold of their money and did what they wanted with it. Many of these women were lesbians, left to run free by virtue of their money. They ran salons in Paris and Venice. They became involved in politics and philanthropy. They raced horses, loved fashion, did drugs. This is probably the happiest section of Thompson's book. These women took hold of their money and lives and made them their own. While these women had fun and didn't see themselves tragically, Thompson rewrites the story of Daisy Fellowes to show how it could be bent into the “poor little rich girl” narrative.
In the last main section, Thompson returns to the “unprotected” women, the women who were burdened by and careless with their money, but also the women who wanted to throw off their millions and do better things. The example of Alice de Janze shows how money doesn't buy happiness; she lost her children and attempted - and ultimately succeeded in - committing suicide. Nancy Cunard rebelled against her heiress mother and supported anti-racist and African causes, while wasting away on drugs and drink. Some gave away their properties to the National Trust, Rose Dugdale joined the IRA. Thompson also mentions Patty Hearst and Barbara Mackle, as of old, kidnapped heiresses held for ransom.
In the epilogue Thompson shows a different type of heiress, Angela Burdett-Coutts, who was friends with Charles Dickens and used her money for unglamorous social causes. She improved schools for poor children, started housing for prostitutes, gave to the RSPCA, sent money to Ireland after the potato famine. Ultimately she too was of a similar type though, marrying a much younger man, though was lucky in that he furthered her causes rather than squandering her money.
This was a fascinating book full of interesting women with both happy and sad stories. Most of them are cautionary tales of a sort - money can buy happiness but only to an extent. You can see why Thompson chose these stories - they're wild! Some of these women even inspired fictional stories either directly or indirectly (Barry Lyndon and The Buccaneers are notable examples). Thompson makes even despicable, or at least unsympathetic, people bearable - you feel for these “poor little rich girls” no matter their circumstances. This was yet another excellent book by Laura Thompson.
I don't actually know if I liked this, but it did make me want to keep reading... There's just so much going on here. The solution was a bit convoluted and too elaborate, almost. There's hardly any way you could figure it out, which I don't like. The idea of the sanatorium was interesting but it just didn't play out as well as I'd hoped. Everything wraps up a bit too easily.... It reads fast though, so at least it has that going for it. (Also didn't appreciate the epilogue that is there just to get you to read the next book, which, eh, I probably won't.)
I think this was good - it read quickly and I definitely wanted to know what happened, both with the nuclear attacks and the murder mystery. The setting and isolation was really well done. It was a bit... anticlimactic though and the ending was a bit of a letdown. But overall, an interesting concept and fairly well done.
Overall this is a good collection of DuMaurier's “lost” short stories (most were previously published in magazines but not since). As with so many short story collections it's a bit uneven, but you can't really go wrong with DuMaurier. She really does like unnamed narrators, doesn't she?
My favorites/the most memorable would be The Doll, And Now To God The Father, Tame Cat, The Happy Valley, and The Limpet.
I just don't know with this book. Ultimately it was well written and I wanted to know what all was going to happen, and so it gets four stars because of that. But it just wasn't what I expected, and maybe that's on me. I didn't mind the changing perspectives, some of the characters were great!, but others were random and I didn't get the point. I don't think I got the point in general though - it was a road-trip, but not; the characters don't really grow... I don't know. Four stars because I am glad I read it, it just fell a bit flat for me, especially after Towles other two books.
Overall I really enjoyed this. The setting was really well done and unsettling. Noemi was interesting but maybe not as fleshed out as I'd have liked. I thought it dragged a bit in the middle, but picked up again towards the end. I still read it in two days though, so it didn't drag that much. This was a good read for spooky season.
Overall I enjoyed this. The book is broken up by time period/type of writing, and so some sections were more interesting to me than others. I really enjoyed the early sections and the chapter on domestic spaces. The last section about current writers was interesting as well.
There are some fact-checking errors that I noticed, but since I don't even know most of these women, I wouldn't be surprised if there were more. That said, I enjoyed this and have added a number of these titles to my various wish lists.
More like 3.5 but I'll round up.
I didn't love this, but it was still charming and overall was enjoyable. It's little vignettes about life in Wandlebury during WWII. Some are more enjoyable than others, but it's charming. The love story seemed a bit tacked on, but I still liked it. Barbara was hardly in this, and we got some chapters about other people (Miss Marks, Sam, the soldiers) that I didn't love but added to the character of it.
Not bad, not the best. Definitely read Miss Buncle's Book, but the other two aren't as necessary unless you just want more.
I read Mary S. Lovell's book about the Mitfords years ago, and that would still be my go-to, but I really enjoyed this. Thompson's writing is very easy and familiar. She's a bit forgiving of a lot of bad (and abhorrent) behavior, but since I believe the girls couldn't have done other than they did, I can't complain. I liked how Nancy's books were woven through where applicable. I'm not sure why the main narrative ended with Sydney's death, but I liked the sum ups in the afterword. Overall, well done and I think it would be a decent introduction to the family (because while Lovell's book is great, it's very long).
I remember loving this when I was young, so when I needed something to read to my son at bedtime at my parents, this seemed like a good pick. It's not as fun as I remember, but I love all the different animals. (This was definitely a bit of a thing for me because I have at least one other book with odd animals.)
Read June 26, 2021
I'm not sure if I really liked this, but I like having read it, if that makes sense. Cassandra narrates most of the book (the short middle section is narrated by her twin, Judith) and she's so hard to be in the head of. It's all so claustrophobic and uncomfortable, but everyone is so interesting but difficult. They're so insular and so it's hard to read about. Judith's section, while difficult because of Cassandra's actions, was so much easier to read, but I think a whole book from her side wouldn't have worked as well. Anyhoo, that's rambly. I'm glad I read this but it wasn't always an easy read, but very worth it in the end.