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A review by alysmw
Toksvig's Almanac 2021 by Sandi Toksvig
3.0
Bit of a beefy review I know, but honestly I did find this book very frustrating at times. I think an overlooked woman from history for every day of the year is a fantastic idea and by all means have it be in a fun and informal tone but I think the input from Sandi herself, along with some MAJOR grand sweeping generalisations ruined this book for me. I know that it was called Toksvig's almanac but I want to hear about the lives of the women, not about what Sandi thinks about the lives of the women (which always just seemed to be 'they're fab'). Should have been kept to 3rd person at all times and if she can't write in a personable way without interjecting her own thoughts in 1st person all the time then that's on her.
Lack of footnotes or reading list also bothered me because she must have HAD one so why not put it in...??? Unless it was just 'their wiki pages lol'.
I liked that it was women from around the world and throughout history, although I thought that American women were overrepresented.
Having said that, I do feel that I've learned a lot and at times I was inspired not to give a shit. Overall, fantastic concept, good variety, but not very well executed. Could have done with some very VERY harsh editing (cut everything in first person and seriously rethink the frequency of the word 'obvs').
I'm STILL marvelling at the introduction to one of the months in which Sandi put the 'Anglo-Saxon' word alongside the 'Old English' word and then observed that they were remarkably similar... If it was remotely funny I'd be more sure it was a joke...
Apologies to Sandi for this roast.
Lack of footnotes or reading list also bothered me because she must have HAD one so why not put it in...??? Unless it was just 'their wiki pages lol'.
I liked that it was women from around the world and throughout history, although I thought that American women were overrepresented.
Having said that, I do feel that I've learned a lot and at times I was inspired not to give a shit. Overall, fantastic concept, good variety, but not very well executed. Could have done with some very VERY harsh editing (cut everything in first person and seriously rethink the frequency of the word 'obvs').
I'm STILL marvelling at the introduction to one of the months in which Sandi put the 'Anglo-Saxon' word alongside the 'Old English' word and then observed that they were remarkably similar... If it was remotely funny I'd be more sure it was a joke...
Apologies to Sandi for this roast.