Cheaper By the Dozen, Frank Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
Book: 33
Title: Cheaper By the Dozen
Author: Frank Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
Genre: Memoir
One-sentence summary: The Gilbreth family has twelve children, a father who is an expert in motion study and time conservation and who rules the family as any good patriarch ought, and a sweet mother who defers to the father in all things and comforts the kids when they get hit! Ain't it sweet?
Why did you get this book? I'd read bits of it in stores and thought it seemed funny, and it was on PaperbackSwap.
Do you like the cover? Eh, whatever, kind of a faux-Norman Rockwell thing.
Did you enjoy the book? I did, despite my rather disdainful summary above. It's very much a memoir of a turn-of-the-century family (I guess it stretches from shortly after 1900 to 1920 or so, IIRC), and despite my ragging on the dad who hits the kids and the mom who tends to their bruises, I recognize that times were different then and that what would read as abusive and creepy now was kind of expected of parents then. I do kind of wonder what might be behind the Pleasantville nostalgia here, but I don't really think it's anything too sinister. (I mean, anything sinister in this particular family. The patriarchal societal structures that created this particular family are sinister enough.) The writing is good, and I love a lot of the anecdotes. This book reminds me a lot of my grandparents; the kinds of stories they love to tell, the yearning for a simpler world. It was a very enjoyable read.
Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again? Yes, but have they written anything else?
Are you keeping it or passing it on? Keeping.
Anything else? Basically, when you strip away all my pseudosociological musings, this is just a cute, funny, easy read. I liked it.
Scale of 1 to 10: 9, just because it's so good at being what it's trying to be.
Number of pages: 207
Total pages for the year: 9414
Title: Cheaper By the Dozen
Author: Frank Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
Genre: Memoir
One-sentence summary: The Gilbreth family has twelve children, a father who is an expert in motion study and time conservation and who rules the family as any good patriarch ought, and a sweet mother who defers to the father in all things and comforts the kids when they get hit! Ain't it sweet?
Why did you get this book? I'd read bits of it in stores and thought it seemed funny, and it was on PaperbackSwap.
Do you like the cover? Eh, whatever, kind of a faux-Norman Rockwell thing.
Did you enjoy the book? I did, despite my rather disdainful summary above. It's very much a memoir of a turn-of-the-century family (I guess it stretches from shortly after 1900 to 1920 or so, IIRC), and despite my ragging on the dad who hits the kids and the mom who tends to their bruises, I recognize that times were different then and that what would read as abusive and creepy now was kind of expected of parents then. I do kind of wonder what might be behind the Pleasantville nostalgia here, but I don't really think it's anything too sinister. (I mean, anything sinister in this particular family. The patriarchal societal structures that created this particular family are sinister enough.) The writing is good, and I love a lot of the anecdotes. This book reminds me a lot of my grandparents; the kinds of stories they love to tell, the yearning for a simpler world. It was a very enjoyable read.
Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again? Yes, but have they written anything else?
Are you keeping it or passing it on? Keeping.
Anything else? Basically, when you strip away all my pseudosociological musings, this is just a cute, funny, easy read. I liked it.
Scale of 1 to 10: 9, just because it's so good at being what it's trying to be.
Number of pages: 207
Total pages for the year: 9414
