Rabbit rabbit: The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance by Edmund de Waal

The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance
by Edmund de Waal
Memoir, History | Published: 2010 | Goodreads
264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them bigger than a matchbox: Edmund de Waal was entranced when he first encountered the collection in his great uncle Iggie's Tokyo apartment. When he later inherited the 'netsuke', they unlocked a story far larger and more dramatic than he could ever have imagined.

From a burgeoning empire in Odessa to fin de siecle Paris, from occupied Vienna to Tokyo, Edmund de Waal traces the netsuke's journey through generations of his remarkable family against the backdrop of a tumultuous century.

First sentence(s):
In 1991 I was given a two-year scholarship by a Japanese foundation. The idea was to give seven young English people with diverse professional interests - engineering, journalism, industry, ceramics - a grounding in the Japanese language at an English university, followed by a year in Tokyo. Our fluency would help build a new era of contacts with Japan. We were the first intake on the program and expectations were high.

Matrimony, Inc. by Francesca Beauman

Matrimony, Inc.
From Personal Ads to Swiping Right,
a Story of America Looking for Love
by Francesca Beauman

Published: 2020
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Hardback: 208
Rating: 4
History, Courtship | Goodreads | Website

First sentence(s):
I met my husband through a personal ad.

Have you ever used a dating app or website? Then you have more in common than you know with lonely homesteaders in 18th century New England. At once heartwarming and heartbreaking, Matrimony, Inc. reveals the unifying thread that weaves its way through not just marriage and relationships over the centuries, but American social history itself: advertising for love.

Amazingly, America’s first personal ad appeared in the Boston Evening Post as early as 1759. A “person who flatters himself that he shall not be thought disagreeable” was in search of a “young lady, between the age of eighteen and twenty-three, of a middling stature, brown hair, of good Morals…” As family-arranged marriages fell out of fashion, "Husband Wanted" or "Seeking Wife" ads were soon to be found in every state in the nation.

From the woman in a Wisconsin newspaper who wanted “no brainless dandy or foppish fool” to the man with a glass eye who placed an ad in the New York Times hoping to meet a woman with a glass eye, the many hundreds of personal ads that author Francesca Beauman has uncovered offer an extraordinary glimpse into the history of our hearts’ desires, as well as a unique insight into American life as the frontier was settled and the cities grew. Personal ads played a surprisingly vital role in the West: couple by couple, shy smile by shy smile, letter by letter from a dusty, exhausted miner in California to a bored, frustrated seamstress in Ohio. Get ready for a new perspective on the making of modern America, a hundred words of typesetter’s blurry black ink at a time.

“So anxious are our settlers for wives that they never ask a single lady her age. All they require is teeth,” declared the Dubuque Iowa News in 1838 in a state where men outnumbered women three to one. While the dating pools of 21st century New York, Chicago or San Francisco might not be quite so dentally-fixated, Matrimony Inc. will put idly swiping right on Tinder into fascinating and vividly fresh historical context. What do women look for in a man? What do men look for in a woman? And how has this changed over the past 250 years?

My two-bits:

Looking for love. In all the places. Always.

Enjoyed reading individual accounts of why an advertisement was placed with the earliest from 1765.

Includes old newspaper personal ad clippings and photos of individuals who participated.

~*~

* review copy courtesy of publisher

Happy Release: Matrimony, Inc. by Francesca Beauman

Matrimony, Inc.
From Personal Ads to Swiping Right, a Story of America Looking for Love
by Francesca Beauman
History | Goodreads
Release date: October 6, 2020
Have you ever used a dating app or website? Then you have more in common than you know with lonely homesteaders in 18th century New England. At once heartwarming and heartbreaking, Matrimony, Inc. reveals the unifying thread that weaves its way through not just marriage and relationships over the centuries, but American social history itself: advertising for love.

Amazingly, America’s first personal ad appeared in the Boston Evening Post as early as 1759. A “person who flatters himself that he shall not be thought disagreeable” was in search of a “young lady, between the age of eighteen and twenty-three, of a middling stature, brown hair, of good Morals…” As family-arranged marriages fell out of fashion, "Husband Wanted" or "Seeking Wife" ads were soon to be found in every state in the nation.

From the woman in a Wisconsin newspaper who wanted “no brainless dandy or foppish fool” to the man with a glass eye who placed an ad in the New York Times hoping to meet a woman with a glass eye, the many hundreds of personal ads that author Francesca Beauman has uncovered offer an extraordinary glimpse into the history of our hearts’ desires, as well as a unique insight into American life as the frontier was settled and the cities grew. Personal ads played a surprisingly vital role in the West: couple by couple, shy smile by shy smile, letter by letter from a dusty, exhausted miner in California to a bored, frustrated seamstress in Ohio. Get ready for a new perspective on the making of modern America, a hundred words of typesetter’s blurry black ink at a time.

“So anxious are our settlers for wives that they never ask a single lady her age. All they require is teeth,” declared the Dubuque Iowa News in 1838 in a state where men outnumbered women three to one. While the dating pools of 21st century New York, Chicago or San Francisco might not be quite so dentally-fixated, Matrimony Inc. will put idly swiping right on Tinder into fascinating and vividly fresh historical context. What do women look for in a man? What do men look for in a woman? And how has this changed over the past 250 years?

Peekabook:



About the author:
After a decade as a T.V. host, Francesca Beauman is now a writer, historian and part-time bookseller at London’s most beautiful bookstore, Persephone Books. Francesca is the author of six books, including a history of the pineapple and a history of British personal ads. She also runs the popular book forum “Fran’s Book Shop” (@fransbookshop).
Website | Instagram | Twitter | Fran’s Book Shop

Happy Birthday Jane Austen!

Happy 244th Birthday, Jane!
Going to flip through this newbie...

Dress in the Age of Jane Austen:
Regency Fashion
by Hilary Davidson
-History, Fashion, Jane Austen | Goodreads
Just released: November 2019
This lively book reveals the clothing and fashion of the world depicted in Jane Austen’s beloved books, focusing on the long Regency between the years 1795 and 1825. During this period, accelerated change saw Britain’s turbulent entry into the modern age, and clothing reflected these transformations. Starting with the intimate perspective of clothing the self, Dress in the Age of Jane Austen moves outward through the social and cultural spheres of home, village, countryside, and cities, and into the wider national and global realms, exploring the varied ways people dressed to inhabit these environments. Jane Austen’s famously observant fictional writings, as well as her letters, provide the entry point for examining the Regency age’s rich complexity of fashion, dress, and textiles for men and women in their contemporary contexts.

Lavishly illustrated with paintings, drawings, historic garments, and fashion plates—including many previously unpublished images—this authoritative yet accessible book will help readers visualize the external selves of Austen’s immortal characters as clearly as she wrote of their internal ones. The result is an enhanced understanding of Austen’s work and time, and also of the history of one of Britain’s most distinctive fashion eras.

~*~
* image source: jane austen shadow box

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

The Devil in the White City:
Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
by Erik Larson
narrated by Tony Goldwyn

Find out more about this book and author:
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Published: 2003
Publisher: Crown
Genre: History, True Crime
Hardback: 447
Rating: 5

First sentence(s):
The date was April 14, 1912, a sinister day in maritime history, but of course the man in suite 63-65, shelter deck C, did not yet know it.

In The Devil in the White City, the smoke, romance, and mystery of the Gilded Age come alive as never before.

Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair’s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country’s most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his “World’s Fair Hotel” just west of the fairgrounds—a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and 3,000-degree crematorium.

Burnham overcame tremendous obstacles and tragedies as he organized the talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and others to transform swampy Jackson Park into the White City, while Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and his own satanic charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths. What makes the story all the more chilling is that Holmes really lived, walking the grounds of that dream city by the lake.

The Devil in the White City draws the reader into a time of magic and majesty, made all the more appealing by a supporting cast of real-life characters, including Buffalo Bill, Theodore Dreiser, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and others. Erik Larson’s gifts as a storyteller are magnificently displayed in this rich narrative of the master builder, the killer, and the great fair that obsessed them both.

My two-bits:

What is special about this story are the rich details provided for both the makings of the Chicago's World Fair 1893 and of a serial killer during that time period.

~*~
* Listened to audiobook version.

* part of Diesel Book Club, Larkspur (here)

Bad Girls Throughout History by Ann Shen

Bad Girls Throughout History
100 Remarkable Women Who Changed the World
by Ann Shen

Find out more about this book and author:
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Website
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Dribble
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Twitter @anndanger

Release date: September 6, 2016
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Genre: History, Art
Hardback: 216 pages
Rating: 5

First sentence(s):
This is a book about women. This is a book about girls who had a ton of fear and personal flaws and faced insurmountable obstacles but did amazing things anyway. This is a book about those who came before us, who knocked up against that glass ceiling and made a tiny fissure or a full-on crack.

Aphra Behn, first female professional writer. Sojourner Truth, activist and abolitionist. Ada Lovelace, first computer programmer. Marie Curie, first woman to win the Nobel Prize. Joan Jett, godmother of punk. The 100 revolutionary women highlighted in this gorgeously illustrated book were bad in the best sense of the word: they challenged the status quo and changed the rules for all who followed. From pirates to artists, warriors, daredevils, scientists, activists, and spies, the accomplishments of these incredible women vary as much as the eras and places in which they effected change. Featuring bold watercolor portraits and illuminating essays by Ann Shen, Bad Girls Throughout History is a distinctive, gift-worthy tribute.

PeekAbook:

My two-bits:

Loved this colorful illustrated book with essays of women both well-known and not.

This is one of those books to put on the coffee table for instant inspiration, herstory and eye candy.

~*~
* review copy courtesy of publisher

Waiting on Wednesday - 11.16.16

Waiting on Wednesday
sponsored by Jill at Breaking the Spine (details)
~*~
I'm waiting for...

Victoria:
The Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire
by Julia Baird
-Biography, History
Release date: November 22, 2016
Amazon | Goodreads
From International New York Times columnist Julia Baird comes a magnificent biography of Queen Victoria. Drawing on previously unpublished papers, Victoria: The Queen is a stunning new portrait of the real woman behind the myth—a story of love and heartbreak, of devotion and grief, of strength and resilience.

When Victoria was born, in 1819, the world was a very different place. Revolution would begin to threaten many of Europe’s monarchies in the coming decades. In Britain, a generation of royals had indulged their whims at the public’s expense, and republican sentiment was growing. The Industrial Revolution was transforming the landscape, and the British Empire was commanding ever larger tracts of the globe. Born into a world where woman were often powerless, during a century roiling with change, Victoria went on to rule the most powerful country on earth with a decisive hand.

Fifth in line to the throne at the time of her birth, Victoria was an ordinary woman thrust into an extraordinary role. As a girl, she defied her mother’s meddling and an adviser’s bullying, forging an iron will of her own. As a teenage queen, she eagerly grasped the crown and relished the freedom it brought her. At twenty years old, she fell passionately in love with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, eventually giving birth to nine children. She loved sex and delighted in power. She was outspoken with her ministers, overstepping boundaries and asserting her opinions. After the death of her adored Albert, she began a controversial, intimate relationship with her servant John Brown. She survived eight assassination attempts over the course of her lifetime. And as science, technology, and democracy were dramatically reshaping the world, Victoria was a symbol of steadfastness and security—queen of a quarter of the world’s population at the height of the British Empire’s reach.

Drawing on sources that include revelations about Victoria’s relationship with John Brown, Julia Baird brings vividly to life the fascinating story of a woman who struggled with so many of the things we do today: balancing work and family, raising children, navigating marital strife, losing parents, combating anxiety and self-doubt, finding an identity, searching for meaning. This sweeping, page-turning biography gives us the real woman behind the myth: a bold, glamorous, unbreakable queen—a Victoria for our times, a Victoria who endured.

AND...

Victoria:
by Daisy Goodwin
-Historical Fiction, Victorian
Release date: November 22, 2016
Amazon | Goodreads
“They think I am still a little girl who is not capable of being a Queen.”

Lord Melbourne turned to look at Victoria. “They are mistaken. I have not known you long, but I observe in you a natural dignity that cannot be learnt. To me, ma’am, you are every inch a Queen.”

In 1837, less than a month after her eighteenth birthday, Alexandrina Victoria – sheltered, small in stature, and female – became Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. Many thought it was preposterous: Alexandrina — Drina to her family — had always been tightly controlled by her mother and her household, and was surely too unprepossessing to hold the throne. Yet from the moment William IV died, the young Queen startled everyone: abandoning her hated first name in favor of Victoria; insisting, for the first time in her life, on sleeping in a room apart from her mother; resolute about meeting with her ministers alone.

One of those ministers, Lord Melbourne, became Victoria’s private secretary. Perhaps he might have become more than that, except everyone argued she was destined to marry her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. But Victoria had met Albert as a child and found him stiff and critical: surely the last man she would want for a husband….

Drawing on Victoria’s diaries as well as her own brilliant gifts for history and drama, Daisy Goodwin, author of the bestselling novels The American Heiress and The Fortune Hunter as well as creator and writer of the new PBS/Masterpiece drama Victoria, brings the young queen even more richly to life in this magnificent novel.

=====> These both come out on the same day. Getting into the mood of reading about royals.

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

The Boys in the Boat:
Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
by Daniel James Brown

Find out more about this book and author:
Amazon
Goodreads
BookExcerpt
Website
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Twitter @DJamesBrown
Currently on tour: see if he will be in your town (here)

Published: 2013
Publisher: Viking
Genre: History, Sports
Hardback: 416 pages
Rating: 5

First sentence(s):
This book was born on a cold, drizzly, late spring day when I clambered over the split-rail cedar fence that surrounds my pasture and made my way through wet woods to the modest frame house where Joe Rantz lay dying.

Daniel James Brown’s robust book tells the story of the University of Washington’s 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal, a team that transformed the sport and grabbed the attention of millions of Americans. The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the boys defeated elite rivals first from eastern and British universities and finally the German crew rowing for Adolf Hitler in the Olympic games in Berlin, 1936.

The emotional heart of the story lies with one rower, Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not for glory, but to regain his shattered self-regard and to find a place he can call home. The crew is assembled by an enigmatic coach and mentored by a visionary, eccentric British boat builder, but it is their trust in each other that makes them a victorious team. They remind the country of what can be done when everyone quite literally pulls together—a perfect melding of commitment, determination, and optimism.

Drawing on the boys’ own diaries and journals, their photos and memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, The Boys in the Boat is an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate story of nine working-class boys from the American west who, in the depths of the Great Depression, showed the world what true grit really meant.

PeekAbook:



My two-bits:

Absolutely inspiring!

This is one of those reads where the underdog prevails despite all the odds. The journey up to the moment of the win had nail-biting moments.

Loved the coaches and mentors who brought out the best in the individuals.

And, loved how this book encompassed all aspects of the time period from across the sea as well as at the boy's university.

About the author:

Daniel James Brown fell in love with the written word when he was five and his mother first read Danny and the Dinosaur to him. Since then he has earned a BA in English from the University of California at Berkeley and an MA in English from UCLA. He has taught writing at San Jose State University and Stanford University and now lives in the country east of Redmond, Washington, where he writes nonfiction books about compelling historical events.

~*~
* listened to the audio version - definitely recommend

* per imdb the film for this book is currently in development stage

* added this to my Books On The Nightstand Bingo challenge (details) - square: Currently on the Bestseller List

* added to my COYER challenge/scavenger hunt (details)

Repast by Michael Lesy and Lisa Stoffer

Repast:
Dining Out at the Dawn of the New American Century, 1900-1910
by Michael Lesy and Lisa Stoffer

Visit Michael:
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Published: 2013
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Genre: History, Reference
Hardback: 264 pages
Rating: 4.5

What we ate, how we ate, and how eating changed during America’s first real food revolution, 1900–1910.

Before Julia Child introduced the American housewife to France’s cuisine bourgeoise, before Alice Waters built her Berkeley shrine to local food, before Wolfgang Puck added Asian flavors to classical dishes and caviar to pizza, the restaurateurs and entrepreneurs of the early twentieth century were changing the way America ate.

Beginning with the simplest eateries and foods and culminating with the emergence of a genuinely American way of fine dining, Repast takes readers on a culinary tour of early-twentieth-century restaurants and dining. The innovations introduced at the time—in ingredients, technologies, meal service, and cuisine—transformed the act of eating in public in ways that persist to this day.

Illustrated with photographs from the time as well as color plates reproducing menus from the New York Public Library’s Buttolph Menu Collection, Repast is a remarkable record of the American palate.

67 color plates, 21 black-and-white photographs

My two-bits:
Fascinating history reference in regards to American eating habit transition during the early 1900s. I specifically liked learning about how women fared during those days and how they influenced eating establishments as more and more of them entered the work world.

The various menus included were interesting to look over. Some of the dishes were amusing to see.

~*~
* review copy courtesy of publisher

* part of virtual book event: TEA at Downton Abbey

Bright Young Things: A Modern Guide to the Roaring Twenties by Alison Maloney

Bright Young Things:
A Modern Guide to the Roaring Twenties
by Alison Maloney

Visit Alison:
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Just released: March 2013
Publisher: Potter Style
Genre: 1920s
Hardback: 128 pages
Rating: 5

Amazon | BarnesNoble

For lovers of the glamour and scandal of the roaring twenties and the millions of fans eagerly anticipating the return of Downton Abbey (the third season opens in the twenties), an illustrated lifestyle guide to the fashion, the parties, the notrious personalities, and all the glittering trappings from the unforgettable era of the flapper.

Bright Young Things is a perfect guide to the roaring twenties--hot jazz and hotter all-night dance halls, high society's scandalous exploits, fresh new fashions, Prohibition cocktails, costume parties, and of course, the notorious flapper. Decorated throughout with art deco illustrations and packaged in a beautiful foil-stamped case, this book looks stunning resting on a coffee table and makes a fabulous gift.

PeekAbook:

Table of Contents

Welcome, You Bright Young Thing

The Bright Young State of Mind
The Postwar Party
How to Be Bad: The Flapper Life
Liberated Ladies: Meet the Iconic Flappers
Learn the Lingo: The Flapper Vernacular
Across the Pond: Meet the Bright Young People
Rubbing Elbows: Meet the Mayfair Set
Host a 1920s-Themed Scavenger Hunt
Cause a Scandal: Bright Young Shenanigans
Choose a Mentor: Bright Young Influencers
Further Reading: Start Your Own Roaring Book Club

Dress Like a Bright Young Thing
The Sartorial Rebellion
Flirting with Fashion: Flapper Wardrobe Essentials and Accessories
Bright Young Faces: Bold Beauty Tips
Chop Chop!: Get Your Own Bobbed Look
Not Your Father’s Suit: Casual and Formal Looks for the Modern Man
Sporting a Bowtie: How to Properly Tie One On

Hook Up (and Get Hitched)
A Roaring View of Marriage
The Flapper Bride: What to Wear for a Trip Down the Aisle
In the Spotlight: Bright Young Celebrity Couples
Read All About It: Scandals in the Tabloids
Mad About the Boy: Homosexuality in the 1920s

Throw a Scandalous Soirée
The Never-Ending Party
Throw Your Own Bath and Bottle Party
Plan Your Own Red and White Party
Party like a Bright Young Thing: Themes for Your Next Fête

Prohibition Cocktails Guide
The First Mixologists
Criminal Behavior: Bathtub Gin and Bootleg Booze
Pick Your Poison: Intoxicating Homemade Brews
Shaken and Stirred: Mix Your Own Prohibition Cocktails

Dance All Night
The Jazz Age
Roaring ’20s Playlists: Tunes for a Big Night Out . . . and the Morning After
Dance Crazy: Learn the Steps to the Charleston
Speak Easy: The Underground Social Scene
Where to Be Seen: “It” Clubs Abroad
Come to the Cabaret
Cabarets for the Modern Flapper
Nightlife Royalty: Famous Musicians, Dancers, and Club Owners

Entertain Yourself
Entertainment and Glamour
Tinseltown: Hollywood Studios and the Silent Silver Screen
Silent Slapstick: Host a ’20s Comedy Night
Drama and Intrigue: Oscar-Worthy Dramas of the ’20s
Dashing Heroes and Mysterious Villains: 1920s Action Flicks to Get Your Heart Racing
The Jazz Singer: Enter, The Talkie
Dawn of an Animation Empire: Mickey Is Born
Who’s Your Idol?: Celebrities of the Screen and Stage

Sources and Bibliography

My two-bits:
In-a-word(s): the elephant's instep

Absolutely adorable gem of a book! Visually pleasing and fun to just flip through.

This is a mini guide that highlights things in the 1920s with lists, recipes, quotes and illustrations.

--~ Book Giveaway courtesy of publisher ~--
signup to win this book

~*~
* review copy courtesy of publisher

* part of event: Flappers at Floyd's