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Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady

We’ve Come a Long Way, Baby Author: Kate Summerscale Victorians – they’re just like us! Oh sure, they addressed their spouses by last name and wore organ-squeezing corsets and showed affection by exchanging clumps of hair, but the big stuff doesn’t change: we idealize the institution of marriage but make ill-considered, passionate matches; we act shocked and disgusted at infidelity, but secretly want to hear every juicy detail; and we love a high-profile court case that makes headlines. Unfortunately for Isabella Robinson, we don’t get to choose the ways we make history, and that’s why her name will forever be [...]

2022-07-04T06:24:22-07:00August 31st, 2012|Tags: , , , , |

Wilder Life, The: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie

Girl Gone Wilder Author: Wendy McClure We bookish nerd girls understand one another. While Little House on the Prairie wasn’t my drug of choice (I preferred high fantasy with talking animals), I still remember my intense absorption — bordering on obsession — with the scrappy, resourceful, and outdoorsy heroines of my favorite childhood books. I wanted to spear fish with a sharpened stick and weave a cape out of iridescent feathers, like the girl in Island of the Blue Dolphins! (Well, maybe not, but I wanted to imagine myself as capable of doing these things.) For generations of girls, the [...]

2016-12-31T17:56:52-07:00August 29th, 2012|Tags: |

Lifeboat, The

Dead Calm Author: Charlotte Rogan Let's play a word association game. When I say "shipwreck survival," you think... "exciting"? "Action-packed"? "Heroism"? WRONG. Correct answers — at least, if you're preparing to read Charlotte Rogan's The Lifeboat — include "tedious," "dull," and, "Who is that character again? Were they in the boat this whole time?!" It's about as much fun as an actual shipwreck, although you probably won't have to eat raw seagull to survive. Probably. In 1914 (two years after the Titanic), Grace Winter and her new husband Henry are sailing from England to the U.S. on the luxury cruise [...]

2022-03-05T00:29:30-07:00August 29th, 2012|Tags: , , , , |
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