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A review by attytheresa
Bygone Badass Broads: 52 Forgotten Women Who Changed the World by Mackenzi Lee
3.0
How do I rate thee? Let me count the ways...good and bad.
The very good: I now know about a whole lot of amazing women who had an enormous impact on history - either global and parochial. I already knew quite a lot about 4 or 5, had at least heard of another 4 or 5. That leaves about 42 to 44 that I had never heard a thing about. Pretty shocking considering my education, extensive reading, and interests! Granted, in same cases, my ignorance was a result of my own inattention, but still...shocking.
Also good are the diversity and inclusivity the author exercised in choosing her featured women, the extensive bibliography (author did her research), illustrations, quotations of others about the subject of each essay, and the very entertaining manner each short bio is written (this is also a problem).
BUT...
There is plenty of bad too. The book is actually a collection of the author's year-long weekly blog posts about overlooked women in history. While there was some editing, these still read like blog posts which don't translate all that well IMHO to book form without significant rewriting. Even if you read them a few at a time over a few days. In book form, read as a whole, these short bios are rather insubstantial, too shallow, too much on the surface, or at least felt that way to me. The extensive bibliography that makes it easy to read more about any of these women does not compensate.
The blog posts [I looked after finishing the book] also had additional illustrations and even photographs that would have added to the reading experience.
Most of all, the author's colorful writing style is a little too up-to-the-minute and filled with contemporary references that are unlikely to be recognized beyond the near future (I struggled a little bit at times, having to resort to a few quick web searches. But I am probably a few decades older than the original target demographic - the author's contemporaries. It left me at times thinking this was just too 'cutesy' or, as the Brits would say, 'twee'. Which is seriously unfortunate given the superior subject matter. The writing style works well when reading once a week as a blog, but seems irreverent in a negative way for a subject like this in book form. A little more editing would have improved it without losing the entertaining liveliness.
I also think that with a little judicious editing, this would make a fabulous middle grade reading experience! Introduce 'em young, I say!
In the end, I now have a long list of amazing women to be inspired by and read more about. And an author who I hope uses some of these women and their stories to inspire her future fiction writing.
ATY 2019 #52 book with intriguing title.
The very good: I now know about a whole lot of amazing women who had an enormous impact on history - either global and parochial. I already knew quite a lot about 4 or 5, had at least heard of another 4 or 5. That leaves about 42 to 44 that I had never heard a thing about. Pretty shocking considering my education, extensive reading, and interests! Granted, in same cases, my ignorance was a result of my own inattention, but still...shocking.
Also good are the diversity and inclusivity the author exercised in choosing her featured women, the extensive bibliography (author did her research), illustrations, quotations of others about the subject of each essay, and the very entertaining manner each short bio is written (this is also a problem).
BUT...
There is plenty of bad too. The book is actually a collection of the author's year-long weekly blog posts about overlooked women in history. While there was some editing, these still read like blog posts which don't translate all that well IMHO to book form without significant rewriting. Even if you read them a few at a time over a few days. In book form, read as a whole, these short bios are rather insubstantial, too shallow, too much on the surface, or at least felt that way to me. The extensive bibliography that makes it easy to read more about any of these women does not compensate.
The blog posts [I looked after finishing the book] also had additional illustrations and even photographs that would have added to the reading experience.
Most of all, the author's colorful writing style is a little too up-to-the-minute and filled with contemporary references that are unlikely to be recognized beyond the near future (I struggled a little bit at times, having to resort to a few quick web searches. But I am probably a few decades older than the original target demographic - the author's contemporaries. It left me at times thinking this was just too 'cutesy' or, as the Brits would say, 'twee'. Which is seriously unfortunate given the superior subject matter. The writing style works well when reading once a week as a blog, but seems irreverent in a negative way for a subject like this in book form. A little more editing would have improved it without losing the entertaining liveliness.
I also think that with a little judicious editing, this would make a fabulous middle grade reading experience! Introduce 'em young, I say!
In the end, I now have a long list of amazing women to be inspired by and read more about. And an author who I hope uses some of these women and their stories to inspire her future fiction writing.
ATY 2019 #52 book with intriguing title.