Snag Ungovernable: The Victorian Parents Guide To Raising Flawless Children Created By Therese Oneill Print

tho. It's good. Got pictures. BIG bibliography. Endpages are AWESOME. I could just go on forever, This was not as enjoyable as her first book, It did contain interesting information, but it felt very constrained due to the QampA format, and possibly, the resource materials, I understand that O'Neill opted for the more extreme advice, which can be found in any era, I was disappointed in that there was no mention of the closed circuit theory or something to that effect, in regard to women thinking too hard say, about math and it diverting too much blood to the brain and away from the uterus.
There was also no mention of infant mortality due to swill milk milk available from tavern cows that were given leftover beer or lead poisoning from leadsweetened candies it was a thing, I promise.
I understand that there isn't space for everything, but I at least felt that the food dangers were well known enough to pop in as a concern for the modern women contemplating Victorian era lifestyle.


That being said, I always enjoy fun tidbits such as the dunce cap origin being Protestants poking fun at Catholic scholar Duns, or how to brew poppy tea.
The tidbits were certainly there, I just didn't get to enjoy them as much due to the writing style of this book, I would definitely recommend her Umentionable book, and I am looking forward to her next, I just can't truly recommend this one, I would have almost preferred a drier read with more parenting facts than the attempt at humor with the QampA to relay the facts, What I have to tell you isn't nice, but it's the truth and people who want to understand their world don't ignore truth, Therese Oneill, Ungovernable

I read and liked Unmentionable the author's previous book about sex and sexuality in the Victorian era a while ago, so I when I saw Ungovernable in theBlack Friday sale I scooped it up right away and spent yesterday afternoon listening!

Ungovernable is a nonfiction book about Victorian era pregnancy and parenting aimed at a casual reader who's probably only vaguely interested in history, and because of that the book is formatted oddly.
Whereas most nonfiction books try to maintain at least a semiprofessional tone and distance, Ungovernable does not even try that approach, likely because it's probably going to put the intended audience to sleep.
Ungovernable is written as a conversation between the author and 'someone' who's clearly intended to be an audience surrogate, The audience surrogate in Ungovernable's 'conversation' is, specifically, a reader who's sick of complicated, confusing, and conflicting twentyfirst century pregnancy/parenting advice and would just to like to know what timeless gems worked in the wonderful world that was the Victorian era why did we ever leave it behind, again so they can try those instead of these exhausting, supposedly better, twentyfirst century methods that will inevitably be highlighted in headlines as wrong.
This will not be a format that everyone likes and, personally, I think it's a format better suited to audio than silent reading but it is a format that's much more casual and more likely to keep the attention of the Ungovernable's intended audience.
Also, this book is chock full of sarcasm, snark, and sass like, every single sentence is weighted down with at least one of the aforementioned which I liked, but again will not be a style that's popular with everyone.
I also think it's a style better suited to audio than silent reading because the narrator is great and really nailed the lines,

Just like Unmentionable, Ungovernable is not meant to be a reference book, It's meant for a casual reader, probably a woman in her thirtysomethings, who is familiar only with the ultraidealized and sanitized version of the Victorian era as presented in popular culture books, movies, tv shows, the entire Victorian romance genre, the entire steampunk genre, etc, thinks the Victorian era was the golden age of the world, and can't figure out why people ever left it behind.
To that end, I think Ungovernable does a great job of presenting educational material in a format that will be interesting to the intended audience and, hopefully, that the intended audience will learn something from.
Over and over and over again the reader, through the audience surrogate, learns that the rose colored blinders with which most people view the Victorian era hide some pretty awful truths.
The reader learns that most of those awful truths weren't because the Victorians were deliberately malicious people, but because they were doing the best they could by the standards of a time defined by poor medical care, insanely high infant mortality, a fixation on religiosity, and prevalence of armed conflict, among other things.
Oneill does a good job of balancing the reality of the customs and culture with the understanding that the practices detailed were practical for the time and place in which they were practiced.
She also specifies that, just because some things were useful at this point in time doesn't mean that they will be good or practical or ethical or even legal to do so now.


Overall, I very much liked Ungovernable and it is a book that I would recommend, Charming, quick, and very funny Funny and irreverent, and highly informative, Therese Oneill has done it again! This fitting sequel to Unmentionable has a much different format and a slightly different tone, but I am happy to report that the snark is as strong as ever.
In this unflinching look at Victorian parenting practices, told as a dialogue, many different aspects of parenting are explored, You might laugh, you might cry, but youll definitely learn something from this unforgettable historical sojourn, I would eagerly read another installment in this wholly unique series, I got three chapters into this one and just couldnt keep going, The historical content was interesting, but the entire book was structured in questionandanswer format and the author wrote in this quippy voice that I think was supposed to be funny but for me just got really obnoxious really quickly.
I could tell that the author had done a lot of research but it was presented in a kind of dumbed down and fragmented way, For what its worth, my friends who read this one loved it and thought it was hilarious I just could not get into it, The snark was fun at first but wore thin rather quickly, and the history was sloppy, Even covering some topics that were pretty devastating infant mortality, child abuse, starvation, etc, this book managed to

keep the humor alive through many aspects of childrearing in Victorian times, I particularly enjoyed the Queen Victoria quotes about her son Leopold, Man, that lady could be so mean! Oh my, this was hilarious!!! Told in the perspective of a selfhelp, childrearing book, it actually made me lol which is no easy feat.
The author's tone is dry and witty, reminiscent of David Sedaris and Mary Roach, The pictures are a nice touch and the writing style is hysterical, I read many passages out loud to my wife who is not a reader but certainly appreciated this book, While some might find the QampA between a modernday mom and a Victorian historian format of this book funny, I found it kind of boxy and pedantic, I also already knew a lot of this stuff from my life studying childrens literature, It was cool to think about how moms throughout time and space are held to impossible standards, though, While the information was cool/horrifying it just wasn't as good as the first one the author wrote, It was written in a question answer format which is part of the reason I don't think I liked it, and seemed to have not nearly as much actual research and information as the first.
Historical Hilarity!

Take a trip into the past, A trip back to Victorian days where you are trained how to raise your children,

You may not agree with all the advice that is given, but your sides will ache from enjoyment, .

This book gives you lots to think about, Highly recommended.

Five hilarious, Ugh. I picked up this book from the Library, giggling to myself with excitement, At first I thought this book was going to be a quick read for me,

It ended up that I just couldn't stand the format of the book the QampA and the sarcastic comments,

I unfortunately could not finish this book, I found myself pretending to read more than I was actually absorbing and I gave this book a considerable number of chances, Ungovernable by Therese Oneill made me laugh out loud while I cringed and wondered how enough humans survived the Victorian age or anytime previous to populate this planet, It's a cross between Charles Dickens and Dr, Spock not MR. Spock but narrated by my understanding, yet wryly witty, lactation coach,

This book takes the Bobsey Twins ideal of Victorian childhood and turns it on its ear, In a funny, patient, sardonic voice that isn't above also being aghast at the way children had to be raised in the past, Oneill lists pregerm theory beliefs of getting pregnant, having a baby, raising said baby to be tough enough to survive in a world without antibiotics.


I'll tell you a quick story, My mother was living with and old, old relative named Pat who was a pioneer as a child in thes, My mother had a sinus infection and was miserable, Pat said, "Quit whining! What would have happened to you in the pioneer days" My mother said, "I literally would have died, Pat, "

That's this book, except funny,.
This book was introduced to me by my sister, The introduction is hilarious and had me rolling,
I laughed out loud for most of the first half of the book, There are sad parts and things hard to hear but its not just supposed to be a funny book, its also meant to compare and contrast against real things that happened.

Overall, this book is packed with wit and sarcasm and was very enjoyable, I will definitely be looking up the authors other book about Victorian times, Yet another winner from Therese O'Neill, I read her prior book on Victorian sex and marriage and it was a wonderful mixture of true social history mixed with great snarkiness and was just so much fun while being very informative.


If I never see the words ' ass ' and ' mik ' put together again it will be too soon !!!

I did however learn how Lane Bryant came to be it was a misspelling of Lena Bryant, who was the first seamstress to make maternity wear !!

Fun education ! Like Unmentionable, this book was a brilliant blend of history and humor.
The images and quotes from primary sources give a great insight intoth century life, delivered with sarcastic wit, Lots of resources if you want to dig for further information,.stars

This book was packed with so much sarcasm that I could barely stand it! This book walks you through what times were like during the Victorian times as a woman and a mother.
I loved the perspective from the “modern American woman” who was appalled about half of what the narrator enlightens us about, Times have certainly changed. If youre looking for a comedy and some knowledge about Victorian era pregnancies and child raising tips, this is SUCH a good book! Too much wit, . . not enough substance. Interesting bits about Victorian attitudes about pregnancy, birth, and child rearing, Not a deep historical dive by any means, Some other reviewers absolutely hated the QampA format, but it was incredibly conversational in tone, so it flowed well and didn't bother me, Ugh.

Isn't it frustrating when you're super excited about something and it doesn't meet your expectations I'd had this on my TBR as soon as I saw that she was publishing another in her humorous exploration of Victorian times.
Alas, this one didn't work out, Unmentionables loved and purchased for someone as a gift, This one grating and tiresome, Yes, I read it through which I was going to abandon a few times, but because it provided some great primary source documentation of how "scientists", doctors, and families thought during this time, it's truly a gem.
The research is immeasurable and for that I'm eternally grateful,

It was the execution of said material that drove me insane, The QampA style was not the way to go because it made the text super choppy with the bolded questions, oftused ellipses as answers, and short and long responses, It felt like it was jumping around using that style while attempting to deliver it straightforward, Second, the humor was a little, . . much. Unmentionables balanced the humor with the delivery of content, This one was all humor with the content hidden though there with the overuse of humor including puns, raunchy language, and harping on specific topics, For example, yes "ass milk" donkey's milk, but to continue to refer to it as ass milk was annoying after the second time, It's like most conversations with my youngest brother, Yes, heard it. Laughed the first time, let's not go back there again,

Needless to say I was super disappointed not to love this one more on it's delivery alone, I wanted more substance and got too much standup instead,.stars

I was interested to see that this book was getting significantly worse reviews than the author's first book, sitelinkUnmentionable: The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners.
And I think I can see why most readers found this uncomfortable reading, . . The Victorian times sucked.

They were dark, filthy, diseaseridden times with backward, abusive and sexist thinking, And that makes people, who have often times idealized it whether from TV shows or romance novels to face the fact that this was actually a miserable time to be anyone except a white, wealthy man of influence oh how far we all have come.


But I think what many people who have read this book seem to struggle with, is that while it tries to write out history in an attempt at lightheartedness, it is still really dark and aggravating material to read about.
Especially if you are looking at it through ast century lens most of it is modernday child abuse, but was the norm in the's,

I enjoyed it because it was educational, witty, and upfront about a lot of the realities that made up the Victorian era, It's not as laugh out loud funny as Unmentionable, but it is still a valuable collection of handpicked historical facts there to educate and inspire you to peruse these topics deeper.


But if you are looking for a cheerful, 'awitwassomuchbetterintheoldendays,' kind of book, look elsewhere, That kind of crap doesn't fly here, .