book #3: reading challenge 2008

I finished "Queen Victoria: A Personal History" today. I wanted to read it because A- I like biographies and B- I'm interested in the stereotype of the Victorian period as being so sexually repressive. This book obviously wasn't about that, but:

• She and PA certainly didn't seem to shy away from sex. They had eight kids. Supposedly, she got mad at her doctor when he suggested they didn't have more kids (because of her depression), as she thought he was asking her to "give up her fun in bed."
  
• Prince Albert, her husband and the Prince Consort, was, however, very morally upright, so to speak. He died (at the age of 41!) shortly after discovering their oldest son was sexually involved with some random woman. The general consensus is that he wasn't all that sick but had no will to live.
  
• Victoria also didn't let any person in her household be alone with someone of the opposite sex (or something to that effect). When her children became engaged, they were still not allowed to be alone with their fiance/e. Honestly, I think that was partially a control freak thing; she hated losing her ladies in waiting/her children to marriage.

All of this is to say, I still don't know anything.

The book really lived up to its subtitle. I was hoping to learn a little more about the history of the period, but the book was very focused on Queen Victoria's life; events that directly influenced her, or that she was intimately involved in, were detailed but not much else. That's okay. I found out other random stuff: like she reigned for 64 years, that all European royalty is related by blood or marriage, and that the Kaiser was HM's grandson (!), and that Queen Victoria was the one who said, "We are not amused."

Anyhow.

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Last night I cooked a split pea soup, and tonight I made tuna casserole. Both are great ways to use up random veggies in the fridge that are threatening to go bad. I also baked a pumpkin pie and vacuumed yesterday. All of this domesticity is not entirely in character, but I got to thinking. I often clean when someone is about to come over, but I really enjoy the place more when it's clean. Why always do something for someone else? Deep thoughts, by me.

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I am ready for all the interlopers at the gym to give up on their new year's resolutions so I can workout in peace again.