{"id":9201,"date":"2017-08-17T21:54:27","date_gmt":"2017-08-18T01:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=9201"},"modified":"2025-10-01T17:40:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T21:40:23","slug":"talk-sweetly-to-me-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9201","title":{"rendered":"Talk Sweetly to Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>Set in England in 1882.<\/p>\n

This is the final novella in the Brothers Sinister series, and I adore it.<\/p>\n

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 were cool.<\/p>\n

\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. Unfortunately, the first thing that came to mind was\u2026 \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

\u201cSo let\u2019s say that is the sun. Then where is the comet?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t be ridiculous, Mr. Shaughnessy. If that orange represents the sun, we here on Earth would be standing seventy-one feet away.\u201d \u201cSeventy-one?\u201d he asked mildly. \u201cSeventy-one point five eight three, by the last measure of the distance between the earth and the sun, but I try not to be pedantic. It makes people laugh at me.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, I adore her.<\/p>\n

Plus, there’s this:<\/p>\n

\u201cI love you, Rose.\u201d Patricia sighed. \u201cAnd I know you\u2019ll make a good marriage, one as brilliant as mine. But you have to remember that most of the men who look at you won\u2019t be seeing you. They won\u2019t see that you\u2019re clever and amusing.\u201d Her sister came forward and took Rose\u2019s hand in her own. \u201cThey\u2019ll see this.\u201d She rubbed the back of Rose\u2019s hand. Dark skin pressed against dark skin. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how respectably you dress or how much you insist. Most men will see only that you\u2019re black and they\u2019ll think you\u2019re available. So please take care, Rose. I don\u2019t wish you hurt.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The hero, Stephen Shaughnessy is an Irish Catholic who everyone knows is a terrible flirt and a rake. He writes a regular column, Ask an Actual Man, for the Women’s Free Press, and has gotten quite the reputation from that.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn a scale of wantonness that ranges from\u2026\u201d He paused, trying to think of a suitable analogy. \u201cFrom multiplication to astronomical parallaxes,\u201d he said, \u201cembracing someone you care about while fully clothed ranks at about the arctangent level.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cOh, dear.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And yes, race is addressed.<\/p>\n

Have you thought about what it would mean to have black, Irish, Catholic children?\u201d He blinked, slowly, and frowned. He really hadn\u2019t thought about it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But interestingly, it would NOT have been the same problem in England as it would have been in the US at that time.<\/p>\n

While we don\u2019t have statistics of this by race, by 1882, Britain had probably trained at least as many black doctors as there were dukes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(From the Author’s note)<\/p>\n

So, there is everything to love about this story–especially the geekiness.
\nRating: 9.5\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 were cool. \u201cWhy is it […]<\/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":[192,30,33,41,26,56],"tags":[50,719,128,729,557],"class_list":["post-9201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-5-10","category-british","category-historical","category-reread","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-2op","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5708,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5708","url_meta":{"origin":9201,"position":0},"title":"Talk Sweetly to Me","author":"Michelle","date":"March 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"Talk-Sweetly-to-Me","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":22696,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/22696","url_meta":{"origin":9201,"position":1},"title":"A Kiss for Midwinter","author":"Michelle","date":"January 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"A Kiss for Midwinter (2012) Courtney Milan (Brothers Sinister) Set in England in 1862 He hadn\u2019t chosen to become a doctor so that he could foretell the death of children. He\u2019d been seduced by the stories\u2014the stories of John Snow saving hundreds of lives by careful observation, of men who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "10\/10"","block_context":{"text":"10\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/10-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Kiss for Midwinter","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/A-Kiss-for-Midwinter-e1511012149581.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12784,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/12784","url_meta":{"origin":9201,"position":2},"title":"The Heiress Effect","author":"Michelle","date":"April 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Heiress Effect (2013) Courtney Milan (Brothers Sinister) Set in England in 1867. Miss Jane Fairfield has just one goal--to not get married until her sister comes of age. So far, she's succeeded. Poor Miss Fairfield. She had the opposite of conversation, the opposite of taste. They were going to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Heiress Effect","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/The-Heiress-Effect-e1511011240715.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24335,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24335","url_meta":{"origin":9201,"position":3},"title":"The Countess Conspiracy","author":"Michelle","date":"March 25, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Countess Conspiracy (2013) Courtney Milan (Brothers Sinister #3) Set in Cambridge in 1867 \"...the chance that a male cat will show tortoiseshell coloring is so small we cannot calculate it\u2014one in a thousand, perhaps. My theory provides no explanation for such smallness.\u201d The woman\u2019s voice was beginning to rise\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Countess Conspiracy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/The-Countess-Conspiracy.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24331,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24331","url_meta":{"origin":9201,"position":4},"title":"The Duchess War","author":"Michelle","date":"March 23, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Duchess War (2012) Courtney Milan (Brothers Sinister #1) Set in Leicester, England in 1863 \u201cYour Grace,\u201d Stevens finally said, \u201cyour concern does you justice.\u201d The man\u2019s toad-eating did him none. Robert met Stevens\u2019s eyes. \u201cNo, it doesn\u2019t. It\u2019s called basic human decency, and I deserve no credit for doing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"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&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12787,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/12787","url_meta":{"origin":9201,"position":5},"title":"The Countess Conspiracy","author":"Michelle","date":"April 22, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Countess Conspiracy (2013) Courtney Milan (Brothers Sinister) Set in England in 1867. Violet Waterfield, Countess of Cambury, has been keeping secrets all her life. But this secret belongs also to her best friend, Sebastian, and he is done with this secret. He\u2019d agreed to this charade years ago, when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Countess Conspiracy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/The-Countess-Conspiracy-e1511010902812.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9201","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=9201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9201\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}