Becca Anderson

I was hoping this book would be as awesome as its title, but I couldn't get over the number of clichés, inconsistencies, typos, and in some cases, simple lack of fact-checking. My three main areas of concern:

1) The writing: The first chapter includes "Penthesilea: The Real Thing." Penthesilia was part of Greek mythology. Why mix facts (e.g., real Scythian women) with myths and falsehoods, especially when setting the tone for the book? Some women featured were, in my opinion, brutally violent or not worth admiring. Some women were given a tiny description and others went on far too long with little substance. And the idioms and clichés! I couldn't wait to get to the end just to stop underlining those.

And what's with saying one Native American woman "went native" and tried to kill all the white people? "Went native" is a racist way of stating that she was defending her land. And Margaret Mead "got the jones for" another field study? Some of the writing was downright embarrassing (e.g., "hardscrabble Texas town from whence they hailed")—Ouch.

The writing was often subjective without facts to support the claims (e.g., describing a "super grade point average" but not stating that average). Seems like every person in this book is destined for sainthood. The author thinks all these people were loved by everyone, much the way a certain "president" thinks of himself. I'd like to make up my own mind about how I feel about each of these woman without being told repeatedly how marvelous they are/were. (And speaking of are/were, at least one person who is no longer living was referred to in the present state: Gwendolyn Brooks. She died in 2000 and the book's copyright is 2017. According to the author, she's still writing.)

The lack of consistency was a huge problem for me. Why isn't there a quote from every woman? Why aren't there photos of every woman instead of a select few? (One of the women pictured is Oprah Winfrey. We know what she looks like. And by the way, according to the author, Oprah is "currently soon" to release a memoir.)

The correct use of italics and punctuation was scattered. Mark Twain would have had something to say, too, about the frequent use of the word "very."

Why is there a separate chapter on women of color? There is, thankfully, a diverse group of woman throughout the book, so why were some woman singled out because of their skin color?

2) The Editing. Much of the writing issues and inconsistencies and typos could have been handled by a good editor. An editor should also have noticed mistakes such as the heading "Eco Awesome—Saving Mother Earth" starting several pages before that chapter did. Same for "Still She Rises"—it appears as a heading before the chapter starts. Further, an editor should have seen that in at least two places, the font size does not match the rest of the text.

3) The Design. Great cover! Maybe that's why the interior layout was disappointing; it could have been more professional. And was there really a need to feature the same superwoman shadow image at the start of each chapter? Where is the index so we can look up individual woman? Sigh.

I believe the author's intentions were worthy, but I wish she had slowed down in order to make it a book worthy of her subjects and readers.… (mer)