Thursday, October 31, 2013

2013 book 282

Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey's Cheaper by the Dozen
This book (along with its sequel) was one of my favorites when I was little--I just found the extremely large and mildly eccentric family to be so charming! So I was delighted to find out it was finally being released as an e-book. I do kind of wish that a new edition would come out excising the explicitly racist stuff, though; I know this was first released in the late 40s when such things weren't considered offensive, but the scene with the Chinese cook and the scene where their otherwise awesome dad puts on a minstrel show are really awful for modern readers. And otherwise there's so much to praise here--I have always loved the emphasis on women's education being just as important as men's. But mainly I read this for the hilarious pranks played on various family members/outsiders/the older girls' dates. And all the fascinating historical technologies. Cars were so weird in the 20s! Anyway, this edition doesn't have the illustrations my old paperback does, but there is a new biography of the sibling authors and some family photos at the end.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. The e-book will be released on Tuesday.

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