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darkmagyk's review against another edition
dark
informative
medium-paced
1.75
I wanted to like this so much, and hiding in it is a lot of really interesting information. But I was hoping, from an actual Egyptologist, less of a storybook take.
There is a great deal of "she probably felt this" or "she must have known that." And sometimes its used as almost a framing device, saying something like "this woman was born around this time, so she probably saw this important contextualizing event." But other times it seems to go directly into personal thoughts and feelings, even though she, rightly, comments that we can't know a lot of the personal details because so much of the record is incomplete and impersonal.
Another great issue with the book is that much of it tries to relate the role of women in an authoritarian monarchy over a four thousand year history with 21st century American politics. Doing it requires a very essentialist view of womanhood, a constant reframe is "women rule differently." But very little is discussed about how gender was constructed in anticent Egypt that give any idea of what that is supposed to mean, its only meant to be seen through 21st century American view.
I've seen some people call this book pop history. I disagree. I think the history is very good, Cleopatra's chapter was my favorite. It's got a true academics desire to argue there favorite theories, but that's not necessary a bad thing when it is identified as controversial, which it normally is. But what it is is pop feminism. Its essentialist, citing women as behaving one way and men as another, when the six women who's stories are told obviously go about things in different ways. It cites the heavily misogynistic field of study Evolutionary Biology that has been criticized and disproven. It also is almost embarrassing how much it tries to frame 6 (maybe, some of them are contested) women coming to power over 4000 years as an improvement on current American politics. I would never claim American is anything close to free of patriarchy, but like the Anticent Egypt described, you can find a handful (more then 6, even, in a much shorter time frame) women who have ascended to #girlboss and the like.
There is a great deal of "she probably felt this" or "she must have known that." And sometimes its used as almost a framing device, saying something like "this woman was born around this time, so she probably saw this important contextualizing event." But other times it seems to go directly into personal thoughts and feelings, even though she, rightly, comments that we can't know a lot of the personal details because so much of the record is incomplete and impersonal.
Another great issue with the book is that much of it tries to relate the role of women in an authoritarian monarchy over a four thousand year history with 21st century American politics. Doing it requires a very essentialist view of womanhood, a constant reframe is "women rule differently." But very little is discussed about how gender was constructed in anticent Egypt that give any idea of what that is supposed to mean, its only meant to be seen through 21st century American view.
I've seen some people call this book pop history. I disagree. I think the history is very good, Cleopatra's chapter was my favorite. It's got a true academics desire to argue there favorite theories, but that's not necessary a bad thing when it is identified as controversial, which it normally is. But what it is is pop feminism. Its essentialist, citing women as behaving one way and men as another, when the six women who's stories are told obviously go about things in different ways. It cites the heavily misogynistic field of study Evolutionary Biology that has been criticized and disproven. It also is almost embarrassing how much it tries to frame 6 (maybe, some of them are contested) women coming to power over 4000 years as an improvement on current American politics. I would never claim American is anything close to free of patriarchy, but like the Anticent Egypt described, you can find a handful (more then 6, even, in a much shorter time frame) women who have ascended to #girlboss and the like.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Misogyny, and Sexual violence
semeyers's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
This book was frustrating to me because while I liked it, but it could easily have been amazing.
I have always been interested in Ancient Egypt, so finding a book that focused on it's powerful women was right up my alley. I was invested from the start and did learn a lot about ancient Egyptian culture, rule, the role of women in the society, and how they were able to rise to power to begin with. I did not know that most women rulers of Egypt were actually considered true Kings, that sacrifice was so rife in early Egyptian burials, nor had I ever heard of Neferusobek or Meritneith. This book did inspire me to check out more books on ancient Egypt, including the author's other book, The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut's Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt.
However, the author's interjections did wear me down. I went in knowing there would be relating of ancient Egypt to modern politics, but it could have been done much more smoothly. Instead of working it within the beginning or end of a chapter or, better yet, dedicating a final chapter entirely too it, the author ends up throwing in comparisons here and there in each chapter. The effect is jarring, threw me off every time it happened, and by Chapter 4 or 5 I was getting annoyed. In addition, the author references many very specific political instances relating to the 2016 election which have quickly dated the book. Even listening in 2021, the book seemed "old" to me as many of the - again, very specific - instances she referenced have quickly faded from the zeitgeist.
Overall, I do recommend this book! Just know what you are going into!
I have always been interested in Ancient Egypt, so finding a book that focused on it's powerful women was right up my alley. I was invested from the start and did learn a lot about ancient Egyptian culture, rule, the role of women in the society, and how they were able to rise to power to begin with. I did not know that most women rulers of Egypt were actually considered true Kings, that sacrifice was so rife in early Egyptian burials, nor had I ever heard of Neferusobek or Meritneith. This book did inspire me to check out more books on ancient Egypt, including the author's other book, The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut's Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt.
However, the author's interjections did wear me down. I went in knowing there would be relating of ancient Egypt to modern politics, but it could have been done much more smoothly. Instead of working it within the beginning or end of a chapter or, better yet, dedicating a final chapter entirely too it, the author ends up throwing in comparisons here and there in each chapter. The effect is jarring, threw me off every time it happened, and by Chapter 4 or 5 I was getting annoyed. In addition, the author references many very specific political instances relating to the 2016 election which have quickly dated the book. Even listening in 2021, the book seemed "old" to me as many of the - again, very specific - instances she referenced have quickly faded from the zeitgeist.
Overall, I do recommend this book! Just know what you are going into!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest, Death, and Adult/minor relationship
kimberlyds's review against another edition
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Minor: Incest
mariakureads's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
I wanted to fall in love with this, I did, but anytime the author grabbed my attention with the history, she would thrown in current events of the time in which this book was written to try to highlight a point that she was trying to make.
In some cases I could see what she meant and in others, it felt more as if the author was driving her opinion on to the book which changed the flow of the paragraph for me.
Overall, I enjoyed how this book highlighted these six women, provided their backgrounds and story, even if it was still unclear as Egyptologists are still uncovering more so I'm very intrigued by what the book provided as a starting point of interest.
I do wish that some of what was mentioned in the footnotes were actually part of the book as it could have helped highlight certain moments as to why there is uncertainty within the community as to what were the events that lead certain moments to be written as such.
In some cases I could see what she meant and in others, it felt more as if the author was driving her opinion on to the book which changed the flow of the paragraph for me.
Overall, I enjoyed how this book highlighted these six women, provided their backgrounds and story, even if it was still unclear as Egyptologists are still uncovering more so I'm very intrigued by what the book provided as a starting point of interest.
I do wish that some of what was mentioned in the footnotes were actually part of the book as it could have helped highlight certain moments as to why there is uncertainty within the community as to what were the events that lead certain moments to be written as such.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, and Murder
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