{"id":5708,"date":"2016-03-02T18:44:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T23:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=5708"},"modified":"2025-10-01T17:41:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T21:41:13","slug":"talk-sweetly-to-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5708","title":{"rendered":"Talk Sweetly to Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

Talk Sweetly to Me<\/a><\/em> (2014) Courtney Milan<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Talk-Sweetly-to-Me\"<\/a>Set in Greenwich, November 1882<\/p>\n

Miss Rose Sweetly is a shop-keepers daughter and a mathematical genius who is currently working as a computer at the Royal Observatory. She is also keeping her pregnant sister company while her husband is away on a tour of duty.<\/p>\n

(H)e picked up one of the offending fruits and smiled in her direction. \u201cWhy is it that the oranges bounced, but the apples did not?\u201d <\/p>\n

His smile felt like an arrow, one that struck her straight in the solar plexus. And so Rose adjusted her spectacles on her nose and said the first thing that came to mind. <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the first thing that came to mind was\u2026 <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Newton\u2019s Third Law. Upon collision, the apple exerts a force on the pavement, and so the pavement must exert an equal and opposite force on the apple. The structure of the apple is inelastic and so the apple bruises. The orange, by contrast\u2026\u201d She swallowed, realized that she was babbling, and shut her mouth. \u201cI\u2019m sorry, Mr. Shaughnessy. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what you meant to ask, was it?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Stephen Shaughnessy is an author and a rake (and also the author of the “Ask a Man” column of the woman’s paper. But just because he’s a rake, doesn’t make him a complete jerk.<\/p>\n

(H)e had a very firm rule that he did not do terrible things to people in general, and to women in particular.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I was very glad when my father came to London to start his own emporium. I wasn\u2019t on display any longer, not until my father tried to have me learn deportment.\u201d Rose smiled. \u201cIt didn\u2019t work so well\u2014I didn\u2019t like the idea of performing in society. Eventually, on Patricia\u2019s advice, he bribed me to pay attention by offering me tutoring in higher mathematics.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As you can tell by the cover, Rose is of African descent, and if this book hadn’t been by an author who has proven she has done her research on other historical topics, I would have skipped it. I can’t give you an opinion as to how a reader of color would take Rose, but it seemed to me that she did a very good job portraying how life would have been for Rose and those like her.<\/p>\n

For those who are curious, she did this through Patricia’s pregnancy, and how Patricia was treated by the doctor. But these scenes weren’t just to show racism of the time, Patricia was integral to the story<\/p>\n

I particularly loved Rose’s dream.<\/p>\n

THAT NIGHT, ROSE DREAMED that a column of numbers was chasing her through some odd, non-Cartesian landscape, a vista of lines and swirling colors. In the distance, someone was laughing\u2014not a cruel laugh, or even a laugh at her expense. Just a friendly, welcoming laugh. <\/p>\n

The numbers caught her, taking hold of her shoulder. She jerked away, but they held her fast. <\/p>\n

How did numbers grip? She turned to them, fascinated\u2026and very groggily came awake.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That is an actual<\/em> dream, not the stuff that authors and movies often pretend are dreams.<\/p>\n

One thing I keep forgetting to mention–you should make a point to read her author’s notes (I’ve quoted from them before) because they tell you where some of the historical bits come from.<\/p>\n

The other source of inspiration for this was a real woman. Her name is Shakuntala Devi, and she was known as the human computer for her ability to calculate complex cube roots in her head in a matter of seconds. Her roots were modest\u2014her father was a circus performer\u2014but not only was she a mathematical genius, she also wrote cookbooks, nonfiction on homosexuality, nonfiction on learning mathematics, and novels (many of these are available as ebooks today). She even ran for office.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One thing I do not like about this book is that Rose succumbed to Stephen prior to marriage. I realize that Courtney Milan writes boinking books, and so boinking is expected, but those portions of the story felt false to me–I didn’t really believe that Rose would have made such a decision, no matter how good of a rake Stephen was. (Though I do appreciate that it WAS Rose’s decision entirely.)
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by Courtney Milan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Talk Sweetly to Me (2014) Courtney Milan Set in Greenwich, November 1882 Miss Rose Sweetly is a shop-keepers daughter and a mathematical genius who is currently working as a computer at the Royal Observatory. She is also keeping her pregnant sister company while her husband is away on a tour of duty. (H)e picked up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30,33,26,56],"tags":[50,719,128,729,557],"class_list":["post-5708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-british","category-historical","category-romance","category-sexual-content","tag-boinking","tag-brothers-sinister","tag-courtney-milan","tag-industrial-revolution","tag-victorian"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-1u4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9201,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9201","url_meta":{"origin":5708,"position":0},"title":"Talk Sweetly to Me","author":"Michelle","date":"August 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Talk Sweetly to Me (2014) Courtney Milan Set in England in 1882. This is the final novella in the Brothers Sinister series, and I adore it. Rose Sweetly is a computer--she can do complex mathematics in her head, and loves working with astronomers. She's an utter geek, long before geeks\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Talk-Sweetly-to-Me.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13462,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/13462","url_meta":{"origin":5708,"position":1},"title":"The Pursuit Of…","author":"Michelle","date":"September 25, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Pursuit Of... (2018) Courtney Milan Set in the United States in 1781 - 1784 At Yorktown John Hunter almost kills a British soldier--but instead ends up giving him his coat so he can escape. When told he'd repay the kindness, John things nothing of it. People say lots of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Pursuit of","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/The-Pursuit-of.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10864,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/10864","url_meta":{"origin":5708,"position":2},"title":"Hamilton’s Battalion: A Trio of Romances","author":"Michelle","date":"May 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Hamilton's Battalion: A Trio of Romances (2017) Rose Lerner, Courtney Milan, Alyssa Cole Set in the Americas in 1781 and 1820 This is three stories with some overlapping characters, including Alexander Hamilton, who appears at least in the background of each story. 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And it\u2019s really not my sort of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The-Duchess-War","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/The-Duchess-War.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5720,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5720","url_meta":{"origin":5708,"position":4},"title":"Unlocked","author":"Michelle","date":"March 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Unlocked (2011) Courtney Milan Set in England in 1840. Evan Carlton, Earl of Westfeld behaved so badly during Lady Elaine Warren first season that he left the country and spent 10 years on the continent mountain climbing. Lady Elaine Warren was so badly bullied her first season that even ten\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"unlocked","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/unlocked.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":22477,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/22477","url_meta":{"origin":5708,"position":5},"title":"Mrs. Martin\u2019s Incomparable Adventure","author":"Michelle","date":"October 19, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Mrs. Martin\u2019s Incomparable Adventure (2019) Courtney Milan (The Worth Saga) Set in England in 1867. She was sixty-nine and unmarried\u2014one of the so-called surplus women who choked up the attics and rooming houses of London. Never mind her experience, her meticulous calculational capabilities, her voluminous memory. She was old and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mrs Martins Incomparable Adventure","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Mrs-Martins-Incomparable-Adventure.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}