Reviews

Double Bind: Women on Ambition by Robin Romm

angelpearacolyte's review against another edition

1.0

A few good essays, but there's a lot of repetition. (And a few of them have weirdly anti-feminist undertones.)

liz_castel's review against another edition

medium-paced

4.0

leaveittoleonor's review against another edition

3.0

hit or miss depending on the writer of each essay.

Roxane Gay was a standout.

niniane's review against another edition

4.0

Better than expected. Interesting to see the various and sometimes conflicting viewpoints on the craving for achievement, choosing how much time to spend on parenting, and other choices.

driedfrogpills's review against another edition

4.0

This is an excellent collection of essays that span several professional fields and personal experiences. Some of the essays made me laugh, some of them made me seethe with second-hand anger and frustration, but all of them made me think about my own experiences with ambition. It's not a perfect book but it definitely is a good place to spark a discussion.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a e-ARC in exchange for a review.

aqtbenz's review against another edition

inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

rankkaapina's review

4.0

I really liked this collection of essays. My only criticism really is that most of the women were writers. While this is understandable, I really enjoyed the exceptions.

The one I related the most to was Evany Thomas, who used to work for Facebook and Pinterest. I totally have the same inner rat :)

rexpostfacto's review against another edition

4.0

3.5-4 stars. I wanted to like this more than I actually did. Some of the essays were very compelling and good reads, but some of them were a little repetitive and didn’t really address the topic at hand. But the ones that were good were VERY good, and made the reading worth it, in my opinion.

skoppelkam's review against another edition

3.0

The idea to write about "women and ambition" reminds me of the prompt Virginia Woolf had when she was tasked with discussing women and fiction, the result of which became "A Room of One's Own." And as Woolf grappled with the complexity of that, so do the authors here.

I enjoyed many, I found others basic, and I skipped some. My favorites were "On Impractical Urges" by Ayana Mathis (which I had read previously on guernicamag.com), "Girl with Knife" by Camas Davis, and "The Snarling Girl: Notes on Ambition" by Elisa Albert (obviously the angriest essay was my fave).

anlekaha's review against another edition

5.0

I loved the variety of women included in this book. Obviously there were a lot of writers because it is a collection of essays but there were also women with careers in everything from dogsledding to acting. There were women from different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds as well as women of color speaking of facing the extra burdens of racism on top of sexism. Having this variety allowed me to find the things that really spoke to me while also learning about what other women value and find to be true. This helped me clarify my own thoughts on ambition and balance in life, on how I want to spend my time and effort