The Case of the Ugly Suitor

 Book 49 of my 2022 Reading Challenge

The Case of the Ugly Suitor and Other Histories of Love, Gender, and Nation in Bueno Aires, 1776-1870

by Jeffrey M. Shumway

2 stars

Published in 2005, the title alone lets the reader know this will be a non-fiction, textbook type of read but I was disappointed because of my expectations.  Based on the title and description, I thought the main focus would be individual cases or people with a backdrop of the country and culture as a whole that would help keep things in context.  However, the opposite was true and while there would definitely be an audience for this book, unfortunately that audience is not me.  The inserts helped add context and the author's interest in the topic showed in his writing and obvious research.

Basically, if the whole book had been more like Chapter 4, I would've liked it a lot more.  This rating is my personal preference though.  While typically that would lead me to a more neutral 3 star rating since I'm not the target audience, I'm lowering it to 2 stars in this case because I picked it up thinking I was based on the description.