Princess Fuzzypants here: The premise of the book is a bit on the silly side. Of course, people of by-gone times would have benefited from some of the inventions of modern times. The computer and all its accompanying accoutrements, modern medicines and knowledge to name just a couple. But it is interesting to read about some of the situations wherein the application of something that would not be created for centuries or millenia. Often the juxtaposition of the two time lines is a bit bizarre but it can be thought provoking. What is even more thought provoking is if someone, in some future time, looks back at us. What would have changed our history had we but known now what we will know then.

Four purrs and two paws up.

The cover was cute and the premise sounded interesting, but ... ultimately, this felt kind of pointless. Of course the past would have been different if they'd had antibiotics, refrigeration, and machinery. Should we just point and laugh at how it sucked to be them? I'd like my students to have more empathy and recognize nuances when studying the history of everyday life.

This is a lovely concept...but, sadly many of the matches felt forced. The author seems to have chosen key historical figures and moments upon which they wish to write and then found a modern convenience to match. I truly don't think a diet app is what was needed for example. Additionally, conveniences for me are common, and some of the matches referred to new technologies which are not in widespread use yet.

Dnf @ 10%

I saw this book while I was scrolling through Netgalley one day and the title and synopsis really intrigued me! I thought it would be a lot of fun and it definitely had potential, but sadly each chapter read like a poorly written essay and after reading 4 or 5 I soon tired of it. Sadly not one I would recommend :(

Snippet-form look at how modern life would have benefitted figures in the past.

Quick read that covered a lot of geographical ground. I mean - it IS kind of obvious. If people of the past had all the wonderful toys and tech we do today, of COURSE lives would have been made easier.

So while you feel you understand the book the point is trying to make, for me the enjoyment I took was in both learning about some characters and moments in history that I wasn't always aware of, and also learning about some contemporary techs and items I'd never heard of before.

I learned about medical records in Hippocrates' time, the teeth problems in Hammurabi's, had no idea about keeping wigs clean, the jokes Mozart and his family shared, Washington's dental issues, never knew how high an igloo actually is, the alternative to alarm clocks for workers with windows, and I've now looked up Elizabeth Cotten. So it was an eye opener, and that's before I learned about smart yoga mats, smart eyeglasses and smart showers.

So this was a great little read. If you like a bit of history and something quirky, this is a recommendation.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.

The cover is fantastic. Crisp and quirky illustrations that draw your attention, which may lead you to think this book is something that it's not.

This is a 'serious' book. Very well written, researched and cited. It asks and answers the "what ifs". Depending on the scenario, the answer can be quite astounding - as is seen in the first entry with Alexander the Great and Antibiotics - while others are less so but still interesting.

The author totes this book as being more about perception and gratitude of living in today's more comfortable society.

A really unique book.

A good idea to see how modern items would have helped people in history.
Well written, but I was left with the feeling that it was a bit superficial and the subject could have been looked at in a deeper way.
Still worth reading though!

A good historical background of very important people but nothing else. I don't know what was the aim to write this book. The part 'what if....' is so boring and completely uninteresting.

A nice dive back into time with this book. Starting from prehistoric times with the cavemen and fast-forwarding to the 20th century, this novel covers the timeline of history with notable figures of fame. Each chapter describes the context of the famous public figure or royal, the issue that they had to tolerate, and a modern convenience that would’ve made their lives a hundred times better at that time.

For example, an interesting part was of Chichen Itza’s Mayan priests climbing the 91 steps of the pyramid daily, to perform sacred rituals. The modern convenience Aarini describes is of implementing the use of escalators on the four sides of the pyramid, to ease the arduous journey of the priests. Unfortunately, elevators would come much, much later.

Another example to illustrate, is that eBooks would have preserved the thousands of valuable literature and works in the burning of the Library of Alexandria- back in the year 48 BC. Alas, if only eBooks were available at that time.

Just like this, it was fascinating to explore the different celebrated historical figures, with their appropriate modern-day solution to their problems. Most of the time these present solutions were a sort of technology. And many of these proposed technologies were based on artificial intelligence and were ‘smart’ products, namely pocket translators, posture correctors, speech writers, sofas, socks etc.

To conclude, this book was a good piece of non-fiction, with elements of creativity that weren’t overstepped. Moreover, the writing style was persuasive.

A few quotes from the novel:

- "If only Columbus' small ships were fitted with a modern convenience- the over-the-horizon radar- he'd have known during his voyage that a large continent lay between Spain and his intended destination.

- "Now, had a modern convenience- eBooks- been available at the time of the Great Library of Alexandria, the legacy of impressively diverse knowledge would have been saved."


(My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this review copy.)