Book Review | How to Piss Off Men: 106 Things ot Say to Shatter the Male Ego

Rating | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From Goodreads:

BE NO MAN'S PEACE.

Have you ever been badgered by an annoying pick-up artists at the bar? Ever felt a burning desire to emotionally torture a friend's boyfriend in an act of revenge? Have you ever endured just talking to a man before?

If so, then this book is for you.

With more than 100 phrases, questions, and comebacks, How to Piss Off Men is your essential guide to sending even the most relentless mansplainer into an existential crisis. Whether it is referring to his expensive NFL jersey as "cosplay" or letting him know he has the confidence of a much taller man, this handbook will ensure you're equipped to combat toxic masculinity in any situation.*

*The advice in this book has been thoroughly tested for effectiveness. Even on the author, bless his heart.

+++++++++++

Well, if you have not yet figured it out from previous reviews and such, I will never be any man's peace, thank you very much. I live for confronting toxic masculinity because no one needs that shit. And men still have the nerve to question why we choose the bear? Just look at all the male responses to our choice in the first place.

Anyway, this book is supposed to be light-hearted and fun, so that's where I am going to keep the vibe at.

I was cautious because it was written by a cis white dude, but the author having self-awareness definitely helped. No mansplaining, misogyny, or garbage here. Just funny ways to bring those types of guys back down to earth.

Personal favorites:

• No.
• Maybe you'll feel differently about that when you're older.
• You seem to be having a lot of feelings right now.
• You look like you'd be a slow runner.
• Were you homeschooled?
• I'll just Google it.
• You have the confidence of a much taller man.
• Do you need me to walk you to your car?
• I love your pixie cut.
• I thought your voice would be deeper.
• Were you a leash kid?
• Huh. That's so interesting. You SOUND really smart
• You smell a lot better than I thought you would.

Some are very situational (like asking a super jacked guy if he has a friend that knows a good gym), but many were able to bring a chuckle. Eleanor and I laughed for ages over these and we highly recommend it.

Book Review | Heroines of the Medieval World

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Another essential read from the author on one of the most extraordinary periods in history, showcasing  a wide variety of women who were just as extraodinary. Connolly introduces many women both famous and obscure and shares their stories. Despite the fact that it was supposedly men who ruled the world, these women prove time and again that they were not merely subservient to the men in their lives. The choices these women make not only alter their own paths, but the wider world around them, some even changing so far as to change the course of history.

Connolly has organized the women by theme and I really liked this approach. I like that this lead to some overlap sometimes, because it shows how so many were connected. Themes include Heroines in Religion, the Medieval Mistress, Scandalous Heroines, Women Who Ruled, Captove Heroines, and the Survivors. There are others as well that I will leave you discover, just as I will let you discover these heroines and who Connolly chose to include. There were many women I was unfamiliar with, or only knew of in passing where they fit into someone else's larger story. As a result there are many more women I will seek out further books about.

Connolly is incredibly knowledgeable of the women and their world. This is a well-researched text with notes and references to back up her work. Despite not being organized by woman, there is still so much depth here that we get to know the women very well. She brings the women to life and does so in an informative but still accessible way.

I enjoyed this one quite a bit. It's a fantastic read and I hope that Connolly at some point produces a second volume because there are so many more women who also deserve their moment in the spotlight.

Highly recommended.

Author Gift | Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England

I received a free digital copy of this text from the author, Annie Whitehead, in exchanged for an honest review.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was first introduced to the work of Annie Whitehead and many other fantastic authors in a wonderful little volume called 1066 Turned Upside Down. This absolute gem of a book explored all sorts of outcomes of the entire year of 1066 and what possibilities could have come true besides William the Bastard's victory. Most were grounded in reality and some were quite fantastical but I loved every single one - especially the one that saw Harold successful at Hastings. But I also have to remind myself that if we are altering British history that greatly, Eleanor of Aquitaine might never have become who she was, so I have to accept what happened and be fine with it.

My second encounter with the author's work came with a reading of Mercia: The Rise and Fall of a Kingdom. You'll notice a theme here, in that when it comes to my beloved Anglo-Saxons, I will read any and everything I can get my hands on. This was another fantastic read for me and I eagerly awaited Whitehead's next offering.

I was NOT disappointed.

This text is incredibly well-researched, almost exhaustedly so. The author makes fantastic use of all the sources she is able to find - which was a surprising great number. I've read so much about the Anglo-Saxons, but never a book so wholly dedicated to restoring the women of the time back to their rightful places in history. And let's be realistic: when we do meet these women by chance or in passing, we usually don't get much information unless she was powerful or scandalous or both.

Yet here Whitehead is able to explore the lives of so many women in-depth, or at least as deep as we are able to go with what information exists. I was truly in awe of the number of primary sources that named so many women who, most often, I knew only scant facts about. To find that so many women were well-educated, literate, and powerful is thrilling. She uses a number of chronicles, annals, and charters to pull apart the many threads sometimes necessary to get to the truth. When necessary she also uses information from legends or gossip about certain figures that has come down to us through the ages. It was really interesting to see the comparisons of what chroniclers said about these women, vs. what records actually show. Such sniveling little men sometimes - something I know all to well in regards to my dear Eleanor of Aquitaine, centuries later.

Whitehead shows just how powerful some women became, and in a variety of roles: landowners, queens, consorts, dowager queens, abbesses, even a warrior (perhaps). Where she found contradictions in sources, Whitehead takes the best route possible in order to remain neutral and present her thoughts without stating that it is absolutely certain this way or that. I think that is was a good historian must do, choose what is most likely when considering the biases that many chroniclers held for women - especially powerful ones.

The book is divided by topic and each section within is mostly chronological, but not entirely. There is overlap from section to section but I feel that in a book like this that is helpful, as the reader is more able to place each woman in the proper context of her time and role. Some might find this bit repetitive, but I found it useful.

For dealing with these centuries when women were regularly written of only as footnotes in the lives of their fathers, sons, uncles, brothers, even cousins, Annie Whitehead has done a beautiful job restoring them to their rightful places in history.

Highly recommended.

NetGalley ARC | Maiden Voyages: Magnificent Ocean Liners and the Women Who Traveled and Worked Aboard Them

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐

I probably would have given this four stars, or at least three and a half, if I would not have had to read about the journey of the mother of the worst president in the history of the United States.

Aside from that drivel, this was a book packed with tons of interesting anecdotes and gossip and I feel the author did a fantastic job portraying life at sea for these women and how their work evolved over time.

I enjoy this period of travel. I love that the author focuses specifically on women and how they made a living on the massive liners that once ran regularly between the US and Europe.

I appreciate that she focused on a a wide variety of women, from all walks of life. We read of celebrities, artists, and the wealthy travelling for pleasure, migrants and refugees seeking safety and a new life, as well as the women who worked for the great shipping companies, sending their wages back home to help care for parents and siblings.

I found women on the crew to be of the most interest to me. I admire these women who worked these long, hard hours at sea to provide for their families. Violet Jessop is mentioned here and I absolutely recommend her autobiography, which I wrote about HERE. Not only did Violet survive the sinking of Titanic, but not long after she survived the sinking of the Britannic (Titanic's sister ship) as well. Her book is a wonderful look into her life, in which the famous and not-so-famous shipwrecks play but a small part. She had even been aboard the Olympic in 1911 when it collided with the HMS Hawke.

There were times when the narrative was very slow and felt like a slog. This could be a personal thing, as we learn plenty about those who travelled by liner because they had the money to do so, sailing back and forth between the Old World and the New. Still, it did take me a bit to finish this one and some passages and stories were not nearly as interesting as others.

There were times when the book became a bit repetitive as well, especially when stories were similar. Not always, but enough to be noticeable.

I never really thought about until this book, just how critical this work was for women who sought independence and a way to support themselves. To say that it changed countless lives would not be an overstatement. Slowly but surely, as women began travelling more, the need for stewardesses arose to help tend to them aboard the ships. That role of stewardess even evolved over time as some women were able to become conductresses and coordinate activities for the passengers. And then as two world wars came, women were able to stay aboard as nurses and continue to make a life for themselves.

Overall I appreciate the author's work and the research that went into the book. She's given a voice to many women who otherwise might remain unknown to us today.

NetGalley ARC | The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

It will surprise no one that everything we think we know about Vikings women dates back to those darn Victorians and their ability to completely Victorian-ize everything.

The island of Birka, not far from Stockholm, is home to a once-busy Viking village, meant to control trade routes around northern Scandinavia. It also happens to be home to hundreds of Viking graves. One grave in particular is of most interest to the author, that of a Viking warrior that was first excavated in 1878. Given the items recovered from the grave and the high-status burial provided, for over one hundred years it has been assumed (by dudes who could not conceive of any other option) that the Birka Warrior was male.

Not so, says the 2017 DNA test.

And from there the author is off and running on a fantastical journey across Europe, imagining what life must have been like for this warrior who lived over hundreds of years ago.

The author does a fantastic job using archaeology, history, and the Norse legends and sagas to bring to light a much more accurate picture of how Vikings women lived, fought, and died. In imagining what life might have been like for this warrior, to whom she gives the name Hervor, the author is able to shed more light on the women of the age who were far more independent than the Victorians would have you believe.

Using the many varieties of sources previously mentioned, the author constructs an example of what life might have been like for young Hervor. Each chapter begins with a segment of Hervor's "story" - a story which sees her cross paths with other formidable women of the age, from Queen Gunnhild to Queen Olga of Kyiv.

While the author has fictionalized what life might have been like for this Birka warrior, each chapter delves deeply into various aspects of life for the real Viking women who lived so long ago. There is extensive research here and the author clearly knows her stuff. The author's knowledge of the sagas and old Norse stories is a wonderful addition to the historical record.

Mini Reviews | Wild Wild West

 

I have kind of a strange and specific love affair with the Old West. It started when I saw Tombstone, naturally. Never mind the historical inaccuracies! My 12-year-old brain didn't care (I was only ten when it came out, Mom made me wait until it was on VHS to see it) or even recognize, actually, those inaccuracies. I was forever from that point on destined to be in love with Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday and Bill Paxton as Morgan Earp.

As I began this set of mini reviews, I wandered over to IMDB to look at the entry for both Tombstone and Wyatt Earp, movies released within a year of one another, and can not remember why I have never loved Wyatt Earp as much as Tombstone. In fact, I don't ever recall seeing it. The cast alone was fantastic and it is probably one I am going to have to watch fairly soon.

Anyway, on to the reviews!

 Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

So the thing about Tombstone and the gunfight at the OK Corral is that it doesn't even matter what the true story is anymore - that the gunfight was really not that big of a deal and it didn't even happen there anyway. The myth has grown to such epic proportions that no matter what is written about it until the end of time, it will remain THE defining event that everyone associates with the Old West, even if it came at nearly the tail-end of the era it now embodies.

Guinn does a fantastic job putting together the real history and it was a page-turner like no other for me. In this sense, Guinn is 100% accurate with the subtitle in how this event "changed the American West". He does not mean that this non-event event changed the Old West itself, but changed and molded how we would perceive those days decades and now a century on. There is no question that 4 out of 5 people would say the OK Corral or Tombstone if asked to name a place in that time.

The research into this is massive, detailing everything we can possibly know about the Earps - complete with Warren and James, two Earps I did not even know existed, who had even been in Tombstone at various times when Virgil, Wyatt, and Morgan lived there. Of course there is also Doc Holiday and Big Nose Kate, plus the Clantons and McLaurys, plus Johnny Ringo and Curly Bill of course. The backstory is phenomenally told, how the cowboys came to clash with the sometimes-lawmen. The author used a plethora of sources available for the first time here, including diaries and letters of those involved - even the sketch Wyatt drew of the shoot-out and its end. I learned so much more about Johnny Behan and his connection to Wyatt.

You won't find nearly as much information about Wyatt's vendetta ride to avenge Morgan's murder here as there was the lead-up to the gunfight. For that I highly recommend Tombstone: The Earp Brothers, Doc Holiday, and the Vendetta Ride from Hell by Tom Clavin, which is also superb. Instead, once the smoke has cleared so to speak, much of the aftermath involves the inquests into the deaths that occurred that day - Billy Clanton's, as well as the McLaury brothers.

Even though I love Tombstone dearly (true story - I just ordered the DVD because of course now I want to watch it), the real story is just as interesting, if not more so. It is no secret that the Earps were not always as law-abiding as they're made out to be in popular works. The book does a good job clearing away that bit of myth. One might even say they understand why the Clantons and McLaurys were so pissed off; you can't really blame them. So, there are not straight heroes and villains here, everyone is a little bit of both. And there is so much more information here than a movie would ever have room for to explain adequately. So, I see why the story was simplified for the big Hollywood blockbuster (except it kind of wasn't, I don't think. I don't actually remember.)

Highly recommend, especially for those who enjoy a good chunk of Old West history.

 Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

It is very easy to feel sorry for a lot of the women who became known as a Mrs. Earp at any point in their lives. They were often common-law wives who were easy to leave - as Wyatt himself could attest to. It would seem that the father of some of the most famous lawmen in history started off with this idea himself, marrying a total of three times in his life. The author is also quick to point out that while several of the Earp sons would go on to marry multiple times, there may be even more wives that we don't know about. I would not be surprised one bit.

I really enjoyed the focus of this book. The author does a fantastic job with what I imagine would be very limited source material to bring these women to life behind their passive roles in movies like Tombstone. The book is a quick read and I like that she includes transcripts of letters written by various Mrs. Earps. Live in the West would have been hard enough, but I could not imagine trying to survive out there while also following a husband with wanderlust in his veins. This is a very special group of women who are finally having their stories told and a must-read for those interested in the history of the West.

 Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Just the kind of ladies I would love to read about! Much like the previous title, I was happy to find this gem and learn more about the women who populated the frontier towns aside from those who are already well-known.

Women in the West could be just as tough, if not more so, than the men they kept company with, if they chose to do so. Plenty of women were outlaws and gamblers with their own reputations, saloon owners or soiled doves. The point then, as it still is today for so many women, they did whatever they had to in order to survive. If that meant anything from prostitution to murder, then so be it.

Each woman in the book is given a certain amount of pages for her brief biography, recounting her adventures. I feel a book like this is important because in many cases, this might literally be all we know about many of these women and they deserve to have their stories told, out of the shadows of their male counterparts. Sadly, so many stories were similar in how they came to find themselves unattached in a dangerous time and place. Each chapter opened with a highlight or major event from the woman's life. The author then made great use of personal items, such as letters and diaries, or even interviews given later in life when their gun-slinging days were long behind them.

A recommended read for those with an interest in the period and/or badass women who took care of themselves.

FUCK THE PATRIARCHY | The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls

I do not recall exactly how I first learned of Mona Eltahawy. Somehow this video came across my Twitter feed and I was completely enthralled by what she was saying, by the power in her voice, her absolute certainty in what she was saying, all the words I have ever wanted to hear.

As a result of the discussion, ABC Australia removed this Q & A session from its website altogether but here is the banned episode in its entirety.

There is truly no way for me to "review" this book in the traditional sense. I originally checked it out from the library but it was clear within the first chapter that I would need my own copy, as my fingers were just itching to highlight and underline and scribbles notes to myself in the margins.

Even after I finished the book within a couple hours, I could not stop thinking about. I just sat there, clutching the book to my chest, knowing that finally FINALLY, here was someone telling me that my rage is righteous and justified. It's not in my head, I am not too much. I am here, I count, I am 100% unapologetically me.

"We must make patriarchy fear us. We must reject politeness; there is nothing polite about patriarchy. We must reject civility; there is nothing civil about racism or misogyny or transphobia. Warnings precede profanity, to protect the sensibility of the reader; where are the warnings that precede patriarchy to protect the lives of women and girls? Curse words are bleeped out of television and radio broadcasts; how to we bleep out patriarchy?" (pg 76)

Fuck anyone who doesn't like it. Fuck anyone who wants me to be nice, to be civil. FUCK YOU, PATRIARCHY.

I feel this book so deeply in my soul. The words have seeped into my skin, my bones, my very being. I have always considered myself a feminist, but after reading this brilliant work, I feel different. I feel more. I am radicalized. I can face patriarchy head-on and smash it into tiny fucking pieces, pieces so small that it can never even hope to put itself back together again.

Eltahawy is strong and brave and powerful. She has shown me I can be those things, too. I can raise Eleanor this way, to raise her fist, shout "FUCK THE PATRIARCHY" and to understand the weight of the words, to understand that she too is declaring war on a society not built for her. That she can bring that society down, and create a new one where all women are free.

I started reading various paragraphs out loud to Eleanor the night I bought my copy and found myself at a loss when she first asked what patriarchy meant. How do you explain systemic oppression of women and girls (don't forget to factor in that things get drastically worse when you also consider race and socioeconomic status of those women and girls) to a seven year old? Even a seven year old as intelligent and thoughtful and curious as mine?

Mona to the rescue! I tweeted this very predicament to her and she responded shortly with a video she had previously recorded doing just that, explaining what patriarchy means in as kid-friendly terms as you can get. Eleanor and I both appreciated this very much.

I don't know that I can ever truly convey what this book means to me. No words do it justice.

But I know what it means to patriarchy: your days are numbered.

Publicist Gift | Wiving: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Patriarchy

I received a free digital copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Rating ⭐⭐⭐

This book has taken me a long to review, and I am not sure why. I absolutely loved Educated by Tara Westover and this was similar in some ways, but completely different in most other ways. I don't want this to seem like I am comparing them, even though that is what it looks like I am doing. It is just that I am not quite sure how to describe how I could relate to one experience so much better than the other, despite the fact that my life could not be further from either of these experiences.

Caitlin Myer is an incredibly strong, brave, powerful woman. The courage it takes to confront her past, her family secrets, and drag all of those things out into the light is phenomenal. She details her strict Mormon upbringing, her mother's illnesses, and the family dynamic that she grew up in.

From early on, Myer's mom's health has a huge impact on her life. Her mother is sick and never leaves her bed most of the time. This of course also impacts the family as a whole, with the mom-sized space often vacant in their lives. Myer focuses on being the happy, dutiful child so that when sexual abuse occurs, she hides it. To accuse, to speak out against it, was simply unacceptable. So Myer hid it, exactly as anyone brought up in similar confines would have done.

However, those assaults also make Myer who she is, because of how she changed and grew after they occurred. So she has to contend with this image expected of a perfect Mormon wife, with the real person she is becoming. The two do not mesh. Myer realizes eventually she is not able to be, nor does she really want to be, that ideal. We then follow her journey as she leave the church, thus also leaving her family. There is so much to her story, and Myer must navigate the world once she leaves, figuring out what her own expectations are for her life. Previously, her expectations did not really matter. She would grow up, get married, be the perfect Mormon wife, have a couple children, and the cycle would repeat.

Except, once she left, she had this whole new sense of freedom, despite a past that still weighed her down, at times was so heavy that it was suffocating.

It was really hard for me to stay in the story. It was not the content itself, as I have read more than my fair share of uncomfortable truths. I think the main drawback for me is the writing style itself. Sometimes it is almost conversational, but then that conversation veers off and meanders and I had a difficult time sometimes catching up, or even wanting to catch up. Other times it was almost more like reading her journal, but still with the fragments and meandering. The writing made it hard to connect to the stories she was weaving. Other readers may likely enjoy this style more, but for me it did not work in this case. It is almost like the style is too light-hearted for such serious and painful topics.

Recommended for those who enjoy memoirs, especially memoirs having to do with leaving strict and religious upbringings, and who will not be triggered by content involving sexual assault.

Book Review | The Little Book of Feminist Saints

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I got this book from a good friend for Christmas and had every intention first of reading it to myself daily, a brief snippet about a strong, courageous, bad-ass woman who rightly deserves to have her story told. Instead, I read it in a couple hours. Oops.

I love the feel of the book, instead of a 'little book of saints' one might be given for First Communion or Confirmation, the book is an entirely secular look at women who have broken barriers, faced obstacles, and still succeeded - and should be rightly praised for such endeavors. To be clear, that is where the difference lies, as we are obviously not worshiping them or praying to them. Or, I guess some might, if feminism is their sole religion.

Much like a little book of saints book, there is a beautiful illustration of the woman discussed, and on the opposite page her name, what she is the 'matron saint' of, year/where she was born, and her feast day (birthday). There is also a quote by or about the saint, and a short paragraph or two. This summary is by no means meant to serve as even as the briefest of biographies, which the author states at the beginning of the book. Instead, we get bold anecdotes, brief but brilliant stories of what makes that particular woman so powerful, mighty, strong.

I feel like this was a really great mix of women from all walks of life. The women range from Italian artists and Japanese rebels, to Russian pilots and English geniuses. There are many women from the United States, but there are also women from a variety of countries. I assume the American influence is because the author is from the United States, which some reviewers found worthy of criticism. However, one also has to keep in mind the ease of access to certain information from countries that may not be all that anxious to share the successes and triumphs of women - especially women who work hard to smash the patriarchy. There are quite a few women here I had never heard of before, as well as the ones you would expect - Oprah, Steinem, Venus and Serena.

One of my favorite aspects of the book were the titles given to the women, the thing or idea they were the matron saint of. Here are a few that I especially loved:

Michelle Obama - Matron Saint of Ladies

Kanno Sugako - Matron Saint of Radicals

Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon - Matron Saints of Marriage

Barbara Jordan - Matron Saint of the Constitution

Hypatia - Matron Saint of Scholars

Nelly Bly - Matron Saint of Journalists

Phillis Wheatley - Matron Saint of Readers

The Williams Sisters - Matron Saints of Athletes

Anne Frank - Matron Saint of Diarists

The Mirabel Sisters - Matron Saint of Rebels

Banazir Bhutto - Matron Saint of Democracy

Malala Yousafzai - Matron Saint of Students

Kasha Nabagesera - Matron Saint of Coming Out

Marsha P. Johnson - Matron Saint of Protest

Ruby Bridges - Matron Saint of First Steps

Junko Tabei - Matron Saint of Summits

Anna Politkovskaya - Matron Saint of the Brave

The Night Witches - Matron Saints of the Sky

Lise Meitner - Patron Saint of Discovery

Pussy Riot - Matron Saints of Punk

Juana Inés De La Cruz - Matron Saint of Intellectuals

Kara Walker - Matron Saint of Confronting History

Louisa May Alcott - Matron Saint of Scribblers

Shirley Chisolm - Matron Saint of Firsts

Grace Hopper - Matron Saint of Programmers

Faith Spotted Eagle - Matron Saint of Activists

Okay, I know I said a few but as I was going through the book I could not stop and well, here we are.

Eleanor and I have read both volumes of Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, which is along the same lines, and loved them even if I find the title problematic (we shouldn't refer to the women in those books as rebels, because we need to normalize successful women, not make them exceptions to the rule). I plan to read this to her as well and give her the tools she needs to continue the work of smashing away at that glass ceiling and fucking up the patriarchy.

Book Review | The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Okay, so realistically, this is a five-star read, but it was truly so good that I could not stop myself from adding more stars. I was in the library hold line a long time for this one. It was absolutely worth the wait.

The Five has earned a place among my 'Best of 2019'. It's beautiful and brilliant and tragic and haunting, but it is more than anything a memorial to the women who have become but a footnote in their own lives, and deaths, cast aside for the thrill of trying to figure out who could have so brutally murdered them.

How many books have you read about their murderer? If the subject interests you, I can think of five or so off the top of my head who have attempted to shine a spotlight on a man who has for over a century eluded capture, and most likely always will. But how often are his victims in those works only mentioned in passing, gleefully describing his handiwork, often showing pictures of the women who were mutilated almost beyond recognition? We are told they were prostitutes, as if that statement alone tells us everything we ever need to know about them, implying that had they been moral, upstanding women, they would not have been so cruelly dispatched.

Guess what? Fuck that noise. Seriously.

I don't care if they all were prostitutes and honestly, that is the very last thing that should matter. Unfortunately in Victorian England and the world today, it still matters very much, thus the need for this book. It is frustrating that it even needed to be written, to show people that, "Hey, guess what, not all were prostitutes", but it is so important; it brings the women out of the shadows and shoves their killer back into the darkness where he belongs. It also shows just how misogynistic society continues to be to this day.

There is so much incredible detail here - so much of this was completely new to me. As the title suggests, this book only focuses on the women, each given her own chapter, in the order that their lives were brutally cut short. I could not believe just how much the author was able to uncover about these women, their places of birth, childhoods, and so on. There is some conjecture but for once this did not bother, as it was not rampant and was necessary to provide context and a fuller picture. For example, did you know that not all of the women were even English? One was from Sweden, and another was Welsh. I am trying to not give too much away, because this is something I want everyone to read, there is so much to discover. These women were so much more than the terrible endings they suffered.

One major difference you will notice in this text compared to others about the crime, is that there is almost no reference to the murderer himself. Nor does the author humiliate her subjects by recounting the horrific conditions he left their deceased bodies in. Throughout it all, she treats the women with the dignity and respect that they were denied in life. 

Not only did the author recreate the lives of these women, but she also placed them in their era with stunning imagery. I am usually not terribly interested in UK history much beyond the reign of Mary I, but for some reason, Victorian London is enthralling. Here the author describes the neighborhoods, slums, back alleys, doss houses, orphanages, and the people who walked those streets looking for work or drink. An incredibly vivid pictures seems to rise from the pages and you can practically see and smell and hear all there is to take in during that stretch of of time in 1888.

Instead of all being strung together with the prostitute label, what better suits the group's characteristics is that all struggled with addiction to alcohol. Most of the women were born to working-class families, where life was tough from the start and the deck was already stacked against them. But they fought hard just to survive their childhoods, and most went on to marry and start families. For various reasons that the author describes, all became stuck in the grasp of alcoholism. If you think the social stigma placed on people struggling with addiction today is bad, rest (not so) assured that it was even worse for people in the 19th century, and worst of all for women. If you were a woman without a family to care for, and a man to care for you, you had no value. You were broken, You had failed at the one thing expected of you in life, regardless of station. And that is one of the many reasons that no one thought twice about lumping all of these women together in one heap, newspapers gleefully showing off the horrible photos of the women, who would not be afforded dignity or privacy even in death. There killer knew this, knew that these were women no one would miss, that they were viewed as deserving what happened to them because they chose to live outside society's expectations of them.

These women were poor and homeless, and contrary to popular belief, the author comes to an obvious conclusion when taking all of this into consideration: The women were not murdered by an all-but-invisible fiend who killed them as they plied their trade on the street. They were, in fact, murdered as they slept. All but one (Mary Jane Kelly) had been "sleeping rough", the term used when one was not able to secure enough money for lodging that night and instead had to find somewhere out of the way to try and catch a few hours' sleep. Survival was difficult, and was day-to-day when you made ends meet however you could, but still needed to dull the pain of losing your family, your home, your children was the alcohol which all relied on. Yet, all five women were described best by those who knew them, that they were kind and gentle - when not drunk.

Much like our media has only recently started to do when a terrible crime has been committed, the author asks you to remember not the name of the murderer, but the women who lost their lives for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols

Annie Chapman

Elisabeth Stride

Catherine Eddowes

Mary Jane Kelly

"It is only by bringing these women back to life that we can silence the Ripper and what he represents. By permitting them to speak, by attempting to understand their experiences and see their humanity, we can restore to them the respect and compassion to which they are entitled. The victims of Jack the Ripper were never 'just prostitutes'; they were women. They were human beings, and surely that in itself is enough" (page 295)

Meticulous research of both the women and the period. Incredibly thorough notes and references. Highly, highly recommended.

Dead Feminists: Historic Heroines in Living Color

Rating: 4 Stars

First I am going to say what every other reviewer has also probably said and that is this book is fucking beautiful.

The broadsides are amazing and so intricately detailed that you can view them multiple times and always find something you missed before. I would love to see them in real-life and not just reprinted for this book. The colors are so vibrant and at times seem to leap right off the page; I can only imagine what seeing an original must be like, and perhaps I will be lucky enough to own one some day.

This book is not in-depth, if that is what you are looking for, so it is best to temper those expectations right away. And so many of the women featured here have (in some cases, multiple) full length biographies already dedicated to them, that too much detailed information is almost moot. Each of the twenty seven women featured are given a brief biography (2-3 pages) and interspersed are additional photos of the creators at work, the women themselves, and/or other relevant information, as well as important quotes from the text. Each broadside has its own full page, and each then each also has its own little biography, giving information about what number it was in the series, which cause it supported (money from the sale of each broadside was donated to that cause/organization), why the fonts, symbols, and colors were chosen, details of the creating, and so on. I like that the biographies focused on what makes these women feminist icons, and did not get bogged down with too much backstory. In other books that would be an issue, but for something like this where the broadside featuring that feminist is the focal point, that other information is simply not necessary. And the reader more than likely already knows a good deal about many of the women featured. You will find some women you are familiar with, especially the suffragettes, but also women from a wide variety of other fields - scientists, royalty, writers, educators, and so on. Each made important contributions to equal rights simply by being themselves and doing what they knew in their hearts to be right - even if it meant obliterating social norms of their time.

I really appreciated the wide variety of cultures and time periods that these women represented. We all know that representation matters, and when people see themselves reflected in what they are fighting for, it gives a much-needed morale boost when things get really tough. We can not just continue to focus on young white women as the only demographic which feminism represents. There are so many powerful stories from women of color, young and older alike. All of these stories matter, and all deserve to not just be told, but to be heard. We are stronger together and we must remember that every time they try to divide us.

Advice: Get a physical copy to browse through. The feel of the book, and the thickness of the paper give it that feel that for a moment you can think you are looking at an original and not a reproduction for the book. Definitely avoid e-readers for this one!

So if the news of the day has you feeling rundown and exhausted because this shit is seriously so tiring and you just want to curl up in a ball, pick this book up and remind yourself that yes indeed, you can change the world for the better.

After all...

Highly recommended.

Book Review: Life Will be the Death of Me...and you too

Rating: 5 Stars

I have to say, it kind of confuses me in looking at some of the reviews and ratings on Goodreads. Some people took stars off for the book not being funny enough for them. It makes me wonder if any of them bothered to read the synopsis.

This is easily my favorite book by Handler - and not because I laughed my ass off the entire time reading it. This is not a funny book. This is a book where Chelsea deals with growing up, so to speak, to coming out of her bubble, and seeing that happen is truly impressive. There is humor still, in some of the narrative, but at its heart it is about Chelsea dealing with something she barely mentions, but it is obvious in all her other books that it has impacted her entire life from that moment on: the death of her brother Chet.

 I absolutely love her for so many reasons, but the main one has to do with her honesty. No matter what, I feel like Handler is someone who will always give you the truth. She is honest about her life, her perspective on people and issues impacting our world, her own lack of knowledge on certain topics, and her desire to become more educated on said topics. That is one of the reasons I loved her Netflix talk show so much and was bummed when she ended it.

This book, however, explains why.

Handler discusses her experiences in seeing a therapist, who was once a guest on said show, Dr. Dan Siegel. She works through the trauma and grief over Chet's death, and how it impacted her entire family. The way she writes and speaks about it is so raw and with such emotion and honesty. I was both incredibly impressed with the growth that came out of the sessions, and deeply saddened for her and her family.

While I love Chelsea and admire her, prior to reading this I have to admit that I didn't know if she was someone I would be able to be friends with (you know, that hypothetical game you play where ultimately everyone says they want to best friends with Mindy Kaling because she is hilarious and awesome?) The reason for this is that I also find Chelsea Handler to be kind of intimidating. I mean, I am pretty outspoken and blunt, straight to the point, no fuss. But Handler is on a whole different level and I previously felt like, wow, she would peace-out on me rather quickly. But after reading this book, and getting to see this new side of Handler, I completely take back any previous thoughts about not being BFFs, and have concluded that in fact, yes we would be BFFs after all. It doesn't mean she is any less intimidating, it just means that seeing the vulnerability she puts on display here is truly amazing. It truly humanized her. This is not the same Handler we have seen on her various shows through the years, and being able to look inward, she has come to some really good conclusions about herself, her life, her family, and how to be a better person.

Handler is the first to admit she came completely unhinged after trumplethinskin's election. But that eventually lead her to the point where she began examining her privilege as a white woman in the US and what she has that so many others don't. Handler deals with those topics just as well - politics, her burgeoning activism in the aftermath of the election that stunned all normal, logical, forward-thinking people, and more. Her humor is there, but a bit more restrained, because these are not funny topics. This is the most serious and introspective of all of her work and as I said previously, by far my most favorite.

Perhaps one of my favorite parts comes in one of her therapy sessions, when dealing with empathy and Handler deals with this and how to have empathy for others. It was definitely shocking for her, and something that wasn't easy, but was very eye-opening and relatable. That in itself seems to me to be one of the major turning points for her on this self-discovery trek she has embarked on. 

While most of us will never live the "privileged" life that Chelsea Handler does, readers will still be engaged in the story and connect with it. After all, everyone has lost someone they love, everyone has dealt with the same issues Handler is dealing with in the book, and we can all learn a little from one another.

Excellent read, highly recommended.

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls 2

Rating: 5 Stars

Okay, so I STILL find the title problematic, but I gave this one five stars anyway, just like I did the first one, because the stories truly are what matter. For me the title is an issue because, if we want to normalize the success of women (for fuck's sake, it is 2019 and we still have to work at this shit!), we can't refer to these successful and brave women as rebels - and the little girls who read the stories as rebels also. I understand that yes, we are rebelling against the patriarchy and in that sense the title works. But I dream of the day when my daughter won't be thought of as a rebel or an anomaly because she does something fucking amazing for the betterment of humanity. Even so, I hope they continue the series, because there are so many women who I am learning about, and Eleanor has taken such an interest in so many of them.

One new feature that Eleanor and I especially liked about this book is that it included a world map to show where each woman was from. Eleanor loved finding the name and number each time we read, and always had to make sure she had found the location before we began reading. This gave me a great opportunity before or after to them discuss the place that woman was from, and their place in the world as a whole, and compared to where we are located. I hope future editions continue to include a map.

There were more contemporary women in this volume, which I appreciated because it gives Eleanor a sense of, these women are alive now, I can look up more information about them and continue to learn about them as they achieve even greater heights. One drawback to the book and the inclusion of 100 women per book is that their lives have to be carved down to one page for text, with the opposite page for a likeness of the woman. This means that sometimes it makes these accomplishments that are so great, seem as though they were achieved with little difficulty. However, this is not too big of an issue for Eleanor and I personally, because even though she is only five, once she is interested in someone or something, we find many books about that topic/person. As she grows, she will have the opportunity to read of these mighty girls in more details. For now, these bite-sized morsels are perfect.

Highly recommended.