Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Normal Women: Nine Hundred Years of Making History by Philippa Gregory

3 reviews

a_violentfemme's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.25

This is an exceptionally well researched study of women's history. The audiobook was a joy to listen to (I personally love it when authors narrate their own) and the voice actors were a great addition. Something I found a surprise was that I found the first third of the book the most interesting- I'm not usually interested in the middle period but I learnt a lot of things I didn't know before. Another unexpected joy was how queer this was, Gregory really tries to capture all women's experiences. However- this is SO UNBELIEVABLY LONG. I found the format a little repetitive and if I hadn't listened in short bursts I may have dnf'd. I think i would have preferred a series of books on each period!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Abortion, Rape, Classism, and Medical trauma

ssione5's review against another edition

informative

5.0

Skip what you need to, but this is in my top 3 nonfictions of all time. Brilliantly researched, absolutely fantastic. The brutality is directly quoting sources from the times and makes clear the seeds of modern patriarchy and misogyny. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Grief, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Genocide, Lesbophobia, Deportation, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Sexual content, Slavery, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Antisemitism, Body shaming, Hate crime, Infertility, Medical content, Racism, Rape, Transphobia, Violence, War, Animal death, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Classism, Colonisation, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Child abuse

bethpaws's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

An impressively researched book discussing women (mainly UK) from the last 900 years until the present day.

Positives: well researched, insightful, well read by Phillipa Gregory (I listened on Audible), with moments of her dry wit and humour showing at appropriate points. Her narration was clear and well-paced. I learned so much for example that the impact of the enclosure of common land impact is still felt today on women. I am inspired to read more about so many of the women she discusses (for example Josephine Butler). There was an incredibly touching section where executed women were discussed. Hearing their names felt like a tribute to their memory.  Phillipa Gregory did not shy away from discussing themes of sex and gender – an almost dangerous thing to do today. This was done tactfully and with supporting research.

Negatives: the repeating themes in most time frames made me question if I had already listened to a chapter. It was obviously a choice to discuss themes in separate sections on timeframes, but I think I may have preferred chapters on each theme and all timeframes discussed in relation to the theme. Initially I found the extra narrators jarring, but the editing on this improved as the book went on. I would also have liked to know the modern day monetary worth of the wages she discusses to allow me to relate more. The afterword was quite repetitive, often word-for-word repeating what the author had discussed earlier.

I often listened to this while walking and this lead to me often embarrassing myself by guffawing out loud when Phillipa would often say ‘Women's work in the home is done for free’ as my response was ‘What's new?!’ This was well summed up in the afterword with 'The invisibility of women's work has affected our history'

I was left reflective, thinking about (as Phillipa Gregory calls it) the internal contempt that is held towards women and by women. I was also left furious about the way women have been treated and still are treated by society, but with a determination to stand up for all women and for myself.

This is a book for all women/men/genders to read or listen to.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Death, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Grief, Racism, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Abortion, Alcoholism, Deportation, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Medical content, and Medical trauma