Thursday, May 3, 2018


My mom asked me why I'm spending so much money on books lately. I responded, aghast, asking her if she really wanted to rob me from my education on POWERFUL WOMEN, then came up to her throughout the day with said book in hand, telling her I'm reading about powerful women. I love being an honest nuisance.

So I just happened to look at the few Amazon reviews for this book before buying it, and there was this one review - probably written by a man - that implored people not to buy this book because the grammar was awful and it was written terribly. The review then went on to rudely state that Mackenzi Lee should've just stuck to writing about kickass women (my adjective, not the reviewer's) on twitter. I then went on to buy the book, read the first powerful woman chapter, and then promptly thumbs-ed down that review.

Based on what the review said, I would expect atrocious sentences and wording, but everything about this book was rather amazing? It's written so wonderfully and passionately, and Lee's enthusiasm really comes through, as well as her beautifully feminist and sexual orientation-inclusive worldview. Yes, I spotted about two tiny errors in total that the copyeditor didn't get, but why that's a good reason to hate on this book, I shall never know. Lee even goes out of her way to clarify historical aspects that she may have brushed over, and she does the same when she's saying something that is a possibility but not a fact about the history she is weaving. Honestly, I wouldn't choose any other author to tell me about these woman. Also, is it just me or is every chapter of this book something that could and should be adapted into a movie or a novel??

I'm so glad I decided to purchase this book instead of simply borrowing it from the library because the anthology format and beautiful design and illustrations make it something I'm bound to treasure forever; if I ever have kids, you can bet I'm going to read this to them, a badass woman per night. It's kind of ridiculous how literally every woman in this book is more interesting than any historical man I've learned about in history classes over the years.

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