this book is quite well done, but anne is very unlikable.
adventurous emotional funny informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

i really don’t enjoy Anne as a person but she was fucking fascinating. what a life. what a horrible person lmfao. i really did enjoy this though and i’m grateful for her and how fierce and comfortable she was in her “oddities”. idk, i can’t really put into words everything i felt through this book, i learned a lot. lets go lesbians!
adventurous informative medium-paced
adventurous informative
libras's profile picture

libras's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 50%

I had to stop lol, even though I was halfway through.
No shade on this author - I think the way she laid out the diary entries and let Anne Lister speak for herself, while providing context and some insight now and again. The story of the diaries, the cipher Lister wrote in, the detail of them and what insight it reveals about this era and queerness... utterly facsinating.
That said, Anne Lister is such a deeply unlikable person for me. The way she treated her partners, her own stuck-up personality and hypocrisy, how manipulative and pointlessly cruel she could be. She was a very messy person, and while that's very human and she had very real problems to deal with in her life, I couldn't personally tolerate it. I wanted to throw down the book at her desire to keep a former girlfriend in an asylum for fear she'd blab their relationship, and later, Anne Lister contracted an STD and refused to tell her current and future partners. Lord. Not to mention all the standards and double standards she expects of her partners, and her desire to control them and string them along. But I digress. 
Important part of queer history, but unfortunately, not one I'm particuarly interested in pursuing further.
adventurous informative reflective slow-paced
adventurous informative inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

This was a very interesting read and it taught me so much about women's “friendships” in the 1800s.  
adventurous challenging informative slow-paced

DNF

Anne Lister is such a fascinating character she should easily make a good biography. Unfortunately I found this dry and the writing style with parts of the original letters thrown in didn't work for me.

Thank you to Netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I don't normally like historical biographies and at times I did find it hard to get through (I think it's all the dates - I automatically get bored and feel like I'm in history class?) BUT the sheer amount of dyke drama makes up for it, and the audio book is narrated by Heather Peace who is the PERFECT narrator for this. The story of Anne Lister's life is incredibly interesting, and very much ahead of her time. If you want to know more after watching the TV show, this is perfect.