The Domestic Revolution: How the Introduction of Coal into Victorian Homes Changed Everything, Ruth Goodman (Liveright, 2021). Last spring, my oldest daughter and I set out to tame our blackberry thicket. Dozens of bushes, each with a decade’s worth of dead canes, had come with our house, and we were determined to make them accessible to hungry children. (Do you have any idea how much berries cost at the grocery store, even in the height of summer? Do you have an idea how many hours of peaceful book-reading you can stitch together out of the time your kids are hunting for fruit in their own yard? It’s a win-win.) But after we’d cut down all the dead canes, I explained that we also needed to shorten the living ones, especially the second-year canes that would be bearing fruit later in the summer. At this point, scratched and sweaty from our work, she balked: was Mom trying to deprive the children of their rightful blackberries? But I explained that on blackberries, like most woody plants, the terminal bud suppresses growth from all lower buds; removing it makes them
I'm reading all the old reviews and happened to read this the same day as the one for Burn, and it's interesting how both of them basically go back to the same point: That completely invisible facets of modernity are to some extent ruining people. With Burn, it was how the lack of physical activity is driving all manner of mental illness, depression, and neuroticism because the body's energy can't be expended on normal physical movement. Here, it's the systematic loss of agency created by hyperspecialization and mass production. Not sure I've ever seen anywhere else make the case that the steam engine directly leads to tfw no gf, but it's a thought that will stick with me.
I just wanted to poke my head in and say that it's a joy to read these reviews every week. When the emails show up, I tend to clear the deck and enjoy reading.
Thanks! I might even start expanding my reading genre in the near future. I'm learning about books in areas that I never knew existed.
I'm reading all the old reviews and happened to read this the same day as the one for Burn, and it's interesting how both of them basically go back to the same point: That completely invisible facets of modernity are to some extent ruining people. With Burn, it was how the lack of physical activity is driving all manner of mental illness, depression, and neuroticism because the body's energy can't be expended on normal physical movement. Here, it's the systematic loss of agency created by hyperspecialization and mass production. Not sure I've ever seen anywhere else make the case that the steam engine directly leads to tfw no gf, but it's a thought that will stick with me.
I just wanted to poke my head in and say that it's a joy to read these reviews every week. When the emails show up, I tend to clear the deck and enjoy reading.
Thanks! I might even start expanding my reading genre in the near future. I'm learning about books in areas that I never knew existed.
Thank you, Matt! We’ve had a lot of fun writing these, and I’m really glad you enjoy them.