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A review by easyqueenie
Girl Squads by Sam Maggs
4.0
Written by Sam Maggs (whose Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy I loved when I read it several years ago), Girl Squads is a collection of biographical vignettes that focus on groups of women, including sisters, friends, *ahem* “gal-pals,” colleagues, and more. Rather than focusing specifically on an individual women’s achievements, it instead looks at the way women can empower one another to do great things when they have a squad of other awesome women behind them.
It is easily the most colloquial of all the books, leading to the sensation that you’re sat sharing drinks with Sam as she chats away about the amazing women she has learned about that day. It’s filled with snark, sarcasm, and nerdy references—in the chapter about the women of SCOTUS, Sam tells us that “when their judicial superpowers combine, they become the VOLTRON of powerful female friendships”—which makes it a whole lot of fun to read. The bios in this book are also the longest by far, with each Squad receiving a full chapter over several pages to cover its exploits. This means that you can’t dip in and out nearly as quickly as you can with the other books but makes it great if you want something that little bit more thorough without reading a full-length biography.
This book also contained some of the least famous women included across all the books here, which made it very refreshing. The 1964 Japanese Women’s Volleyball Team, the Patriotic Women’s League of Iran, the Haenyeo Free-Divers of the Korea Strait, and the Trobairitz Feminist Musicians of Medieval France might not be the first groups that spring to your mind when you think of inspiring girl groups, but their stories are amazing and deserve to be better known. The book is divided into five sections, Athlete Squads, Political and Activist Squads, Warrior Squads, Scientist Squads, and Artist Squads, which gives you an idea of the variety of achievements covered in its pages.
It is easily the most colloquial of all the books, leading to the sensation that you’re sat sharing drinks with Sam as she chats away about the amazing women she has learned about that day. It’s filled with snark, sarcasm, and nerdy references—in the chapter about the women of SCOTUS, Sam tells us that “when their judicial superpowers combine, they become the VOLTRON of powerful female friendships”—which makes it a whole lot of fun to read. The bios in this book are also the longest by far, with each Squad receiving a full chapter over several pages to cover its exploits. This means that you can’t dip in and out nearly as quickly as you can with the other books but makes it great if you want something that little bit more thorough without reading a full-length biography.
This book also contained some of the least famous women included across all the books here, which made it very refreshing. The 1964 Japanese Women’s Volleyball Team, the Patriotic Women’s League of Iran, the Haenyeo Free-Divers of the Korea Strait, and the Trobairitz Feminist Musicians of Medieval France might not be the first groups that spring to your mind when you think of inspiring girl groups, but their stories are amazing and deserve to be better known. The book is divided into five sections, Athlete Squads, Political and Activist Squads, Warrior Squads, Scientist Squads, and Artist Squads, which gives you an idea of the variety of achievements covered in its pages.