This made an appearance on NPR's Best Books of 2014 (which is my go-to place for book recommendations), and I hinted heavily that I wanted it for Christmas, but my friends and family, who are the blog's only dedicated readers, missed the hint, so I had to get it at the library like a friendless orphan. This doesn't change the fact that it is funny, insightful, and a really terrific approach to history. I'm so much more interested in history books that deal in domestic life rather than sweeping military conflicts, and this is infinitely satisfying. Ruth Goodman's approach is to structure the book around the chronology of a typical day, and her meticulous research is interrupted by her hilarious insertions of personal experience -- because she's been a history consultant for historic estates, she has done most of these activities, exactly as the Victorians did them. So when she describes using the indoor privy or brushing her teeth with cardamom or walking with a hoop skirt, she is actually talking about personal experience. The funniest thing about it is how many Victorian practices, especially in regard to personal hygiene, are becoming popular again -- every woman I know is smearing coconut oil on her split ends, which is precisely what women were doing 150 years ago. This book also makes a great companion to a good Victorian novel, like Dickens or Disraeli.