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kittycat2302 's review for:
Princesses Behaving Badly: Real Stories from History Without the Fairy-Tale Endings
by Linda RodrÃguez McRobbie
This ended up not being nearly as good as I thought it would be (as evidenced by how long it took me to finish it). :(
The Good:
- A lot of princesses (and other royal ladies) through history I otherwise hadn't heard of are featured here
- It's made very easily readable; it doesn't feel like a textbook at all
- Some of the stories really are very interesting
- Because of the snippet storytelling style of the book, it makes a good primer for eliciting further interest in history
The Bad:
- No one gets adequate time or space- some of these are truly interesting, but you never spend more than about 15-20 pages with any princess. So it's more snippets than real stories
- A lot of it is still based in myth. I wouldn't mind this at all if Linda Rodriguez McRobbie was more clear about this from the get-go rather than waiting until the end of the chapter to acknowledge the paucity of evidence for the things she describes
- McRobbie uses modern day beauty standards to judge these ladies, and I believe always included lines about the beauty of any of these women, making it sometimes the most important thing about them.
- The entire last two sections ("Floozies" and "Madwomen") are written with shaming, judgmental, ableist language. It was incredibly off-putting and offensive. (This and my previous point are the primary reasons this book is rated so low for me. I couldn't get past it.)
- While the conversational tone is helpful for reading, I found it often too flippant and casual. That may just be a personal preference, though.
I'm fine with having read this, but between this book and THE ENIGMA, my non-fiction 2015 project has really been slowed way down. Whatever I read next in the non-fiction realm needs to be REALLY good, engaging, and not too difficult to read. Anyone have a suggestion as to what to follow this with?
The Good:
- A lot of princesses (and other royal ladies) through history I otherwise hadn't heard of are featured here
- It's made very easily readable; it doesn't feel like a textbook at all
- Some of the stories really are very interesting
- Because of the snippet storytelling style of the book, it makes a good primer for eliciting further interest in history
The Bad:
- No one gets adequate time or space- some of these are truly interesting, but you never spend more than about 15-20 pages with any princess. So it's more snippets than real stories
- A lot of it is still based in myth. I wouldn't mind this at all if Linda Rodriguez McRobbie was more clear about this from the get-go rather than waiting until the end of the chapter to acknowledge the paucity of evidence for the things she describes
- McRobbie uses modern day beauty standards to judge these ladies, and I believe always included lines about the beauty of any of these women, making it sometimes the most important thing about them.
- The entire last two sections ("Floozies" and "Madwomen") are written with shaming, judgmental, ableist language. It was incredibly off-putting and offensive. (This and my previous point are the primary reasons this book is rated so low for me. I couldn't get past it.)
- While the conversational tone is helpful for reading, I found it often too flippant and casual. That may just be a personal preference, though.
I'm fine with having read this, but between this book and THE ENIGMA, my non-fiction 2015 project has really been slowed way down. Whatever I read next in the non-fiction realm needs to be REALLY good, engaging, and not too difficult to read. Anyone have a suggestion as to what to follow this with?