Items18The creator’s order
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A Gentleman in Moscow (2016)★ 7.8/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2016Count Rostov keeps his manners after a Bolshevik tribunal sentences him to house arrest in a grand hotel. The move from a suite to an attic room gives all that polish something to rub against. Read it for the pleasure of seeing which habits a new order can take away and which the count can put to…0 - 2
The Good Lord Bird (2013)★ 8.3/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2013John Brown mistakes Henry Shackleford for a girl, and Henry keeps up the disguise because it helps him stay alive. The boy nicknamed Little Onion narrates with an eye for the distance between what grown men say and what they actually do. His humor lets you meet the people on the way to Harpers…0 - 3
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2001)★ 7.6/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2001England is at war with France when the reclusive Mr. Norrell makes a public success of magic. The idea of a magician worrying about who may practice his craft makes a good joke about professional respectability. Read it for a long historical fantasy in which a quarrel between teacher and pupil has…0 - 4
The Calamity Club (2026)Published Jan 1, 2026In Oxford, Mississippi, in 1933, Birdie goes to her socialite sister for help and finds that the household’s fine appearance conceals problems of its own. The humor comes from watching people try to keep up appearances when money is scarce. Pick it if you want a big, funny ensemble that lets the…0 - 5
The FraudVictorian England treats the Tichborne claimant’s trial as a public obsession. Eliza Touchet, the sharp-tongued housekeeper of a novelist, has had plenty of practice listening to men who think they know more than she does. Her wry view makes this a good choice if you want a courtroom story that is…0 - 6
Lessons in Chemistry (2022)★ 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2022Elizabeth Zott treats a television cooking show in 1960s California as an opportunity to teach chemistry. The joke keeps turning on what the people hiring her assume women want to learn. Pick it for a brisk, broad comedy about what happens when someone takes the work of a kitchen more seriously…0 - 7
Small island (2004)★ 9.2/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2004Hortense arrives in London from Jamaica in 1948. Gilbert, her husband, comes back from the war with expectations of his own. Levy gets both comedy and anger out of the distance between what they expect of Britain and what they find there. Switching between their voices and the people they meet…0 - 8
Golden Age (2022)Published Jan 1, 2022A young man sent to rural Yunnan during China’s Cultural Revolution gets drawn into an affair that turns into a problem for officials. The sexual candor and the earnest business of assigning blame make an absurd combination. Choose this for a bawdier satire in which officials’ interest in private…0 - 9
An Awfully Big AdventureStella joins a Liverpool theater company in 1950 and reads a good deal into the director’s behavior. Around her, the company is putting on Peter Pan. The jokes come from the gap between the life she wants backstage and what the working theater can offer her. Pick this if you like your comedy quick,…0 - 10
Miss Benson's Beetle (2020)★ 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2020In 1950, a London schoolteacher sets out for New Caledonia to look for a golden beetle. Her new assistant Enid turns up in a tight pink suit and pom-pom sandals, which are about as far from Margery’s idea of expedition gear as you could get. It’s a warm choice if you like watching two people…0
