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212 reviews for:
Wonder Women: 25 Innovators, Inventors, and Trailblazers Who Changed History
Sophia Foster-Dimino, Sam Maggs
4.04 AVERAGE
212 reviews for:
Wonder Women: 25 Innovators, Inventors, and Trailblazers Who Changed History
Sophia Foster-Dimino, Sam Maggs
4.04 AVERAGE
This was honestly a fun read. I know a lot of people will look at this and see it's nonfiction and think it'll be dull, but it was far from that. The author did an amazing job at telling stories of women from history that we both know and don't, sharing things that we might not know about them. She added artwork of these women so we knew what the main few looked like. And they were diverse. From transwomen to gay women, to African American, to those from before Current Era. I put down all my other reads just to read this. Because not only was the stories interesting, the author made comments through the stories and made you life and boo some of the issues caused by men. She even made a FRIENDS joke!
The only issues I had with this were the normal formatting issues that come with kindle ARCs (that will hopefully get fixed before publishing in this format) such as missing first letter in each knew section and a few translations were a little fuzzy in the meanings (which I wonder if they were like that when the author found the quotes).
Honestly, I already miss this book. I want to know more about women that we don't know existed and were badass.
The only issues I had with this were the normal formatting issues that come with kindle ARCs (that will hopefully get fixed before publishing in this format) such as missing first letter in each knew section and a few translations were a little fuzzy in the meanings (which I wonder if they were like that when the author found the quotes).
Honestly, I already miss this book. I want to know more about women that we don't know existed and were badass.
I'm always happy to read more books about influential women of history. Generally I stick to the sciences, but I found myself completely enthralled by all of the stories I read. The Women of Espionage section was particularly interesting because of the varied types of personalities encountered (who'd have thought that a party girl would make for a brilliant double agent?) It's actually really delightful to see the varied personalities represented in this book. Some of the women are the born-tough types, others grew into their strength. Some of the women are pure tomboys, others still enjoyed their femininity. Some were brainy geeks, others were physical activity geeks. Some were extroverts, others were introverts. This all adds up to the overall message of this book: you can do whatever you set your mind to.
Yes, it seems like an overly optimistic message, and usually I end up just feeling bad about myself for not living up to the standards these women have set. This time, however, a couple hours after finishing the book, I found myself thinking more positively about myself and my abilities. I started looking at things I could do to use more of my potential so that I actually could follow in these women's footsteps.
The tone of the book is rather casual. It reads like someone was talking to me over drinks, complete with snarky comments in parentheses. If I had known girl talk could be so informative, I may have partaken in it more growing up.
Personally, I plan on buying this book for myself and a copy for my Mom, who could've used the message of the book when she was younger, but can still be inspired by it. If you've ever been shot down or told you can't do something because of who or what you are, I think this will be a good book for you. Like with me, it may not hit you right away, but this is an inspiring book that can help you see that everyone can do something great.
Yes, it seems like an overly optimistic message, and usually I end up just feeling bad about myself for not living up to the standards these women have set. This time, however, a couple hours after finishing the book, I found myself thinking more positively about myself and my abilities. I started looking at things I could do to use more of my potential so that I actually could follow in these women's footsteps.
The tone of the book is rather casual. It reads like someone was talking to me over drinks, complete with snarky comments in parentheses. If I had known girl talk could be so informative, I may have partaken in it more growing up.
Personally, I plan on buying this book for myself and a copy for my Mom, who could've used the message of the book when she was younger, but can still be inspired by it. If you've ever been shot down or told you can't do something because of who or what you are, I think this will be a good book for you. Like with me, it may not hit you right away, but this is an inspiring book that can help you see that everyone can do something great.
Wonder Women‘s an awesome title for teen girls. Think #BygoneBadassBroads, though I admit that I prefer Mackenzi’s tweets. It’s a style thing, because I did feel like Wonder Women was trying a bit too hard to sound hip and cool. However, I do love what Wonder Women is doing, and Maggs’ strong commitment to diversity in the women she includes. There are bunches of POCs, lesbians, and trans women. It’s truly a thing of beauty, and it was awesome to learn about so many more badass historical women.
The book is just so pure and touched my heart. As I have fallen in love with nature and hiking since being in Japan, reading the adventurers and explorers section makes me just want to give up everything to explore.
One little thing is this book might need a bit of fact checking in terms of the not western countries. I only noticed when some factoids were thrown out about the time periods some of the Japanese scientists lived in and they were incorrect. (in the meiji restoration women didn't dye their teeth anymore because if was banned by the government since the United States and other western countries were taken aback by it. It did happen in the time period before though!)
One little thing is this book might need a bit of fact checking in terms of the not western countries. I only noticed when some factoids were thrown out about the time periods some of the Japanese scientists lived in and they were incorrect. (in the meiji restoration women didn't dye their teeth anymore because if was banned by the government since the United States and other western countries were taken aback by it. It did happen in the time period before though!)
This has a very tumblr post/buzz feed listicle vibe to it with the chatty interjections (ie: just gals being pals!) and the tone. I liked it but I had to settle into it a bit because even I - a person with multiple tumblr blogs - found that kind of madcap style hard to relax into reading.
But it was a really interesting primer in the different women and a fun read so hey winm
But it was a really interesting primer in the different women and a fun read so hey winm
informative
slow-paced
3.5 stars
I really enjoyed the different people covered and will definitely have to look into some of them more in detail. I picked this up on audio bc I needed more nonfiction but I think I did miss out a bit because of the lack of illustrations and bc the humor and quirky commentary felt a little overemphasized in the audio production than I felt would be on the page.
I really enjoyed the different people covered and will definitely have to look into some of them more in detail. I picked this up on audio bc I needed more nonfiction but I think I did miss out a bit because of the lack of illustrations and bc the humor and quirky commentary felt a little overemphasized in the audio production than I felt would be on the page.
gah, this was AWESOME. though I think the book in general could've been longer, I also felt like I got to know these women really well. I had known some of them already, but not in depth, and I loved hearing about their lives and accomplishments and it just made my heart happy (except for the times I wanted to punch things when men took credit for their work). it also featured many women of marginalized backgrounds, which I appreciated. I was not a huge fan of the interviews just because I felt like that page space could've been used to talk about more wonder women (of the past). probably my favorite section was about women of espionage, but I enjoyed the hell out of it all, and it made me want to research further on my own. so many women got fucked over throughout history, and it's high time they got their deserved spotlight!
I learned a lot from this book! Sam Maggs makes history fun and easy to digest by making these women's stories relatable to life today. AND at the end of each section she interviews a woman who works in that field today! Also Maggs' parenthetical commentary is on fire!
This book is brillant. I got to learn about a lot of amazing women I didn't know about. I could count of one hand the number of women that I recognized in the book.