The Marriage Bureau by Penrose Halson

Hi All, I hope you’re doing well.  MY BROTHER’S GETTING MARRIED THIS WEEKEND!  Tonight was the rehearsal dinner which was a ton of fun, and right now there’s a Harry Potter marathon on, so I’m chilling otu at home in pajamas before drinkinga  ton of water and going to bed and this book seemed apt.

I know I said I wasn’t going to review many non-fiction books but this book seemed like a good idea.

The basic idea, was right before World War II started two women decided to start up an organization to play matchmakers.  The idea was, one of the women (Mary) had spent time abroad with her father on a plantation of some kind, where all of the men wanted wives, and all of the women she knew at home were looking for wives (yes I know this is a fairly reductive way of putting it – but this is also a book from more that 60 years ago and times were different, (additional sidenote, I just finished a book about how the Pill came to be, this book wasn’t nearly as infuriating as that one where societal norms were concerned)).  So they decided to play matchmaker.

This book ended up being a ton of fun becuase it felt like sitting in on a gossip session rather than reading about history.  While some portions were talking about the effects of the war, so much of the book was talking about Ms-so-and-so and trying to match her with Mr-random-guy.

This book does an amazing job of explaining people in a few sentences and giving a peek into their futures.

One of my favorite things about reading history after school was being able to do a deep dive, while looking at a series of a century is really good at looking at trends, I prefer being able to get a deep look at a single topic.  (If anyone is looking for recommendations – I have them.  I loved a book about poisons in the 1920’s and 30’s, pretty much anything by Erik Larson, and weapons of math destruction).  This book, gives a beautiful picture of what life was like during the time; what was important to people, what people were looking for, andhow peopel deal with tiems of crisis.

It was a really fun ready, and like I said before, a fun chance to get in on gossip.