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elementarymydear
It often feels like feminist non-fiction falls into one of two categories; either it’s a girl-power focussed, best-women-of-history type book, or it’s a heavily detailed manifesto on patriarchal structures and their sociological and economic effects.*
Do It Like A Woman manages to perfectly bridge those two categories, as Caroline Criado-Perez interviews women – some activists, some not – who have accomplished amazing things in their lives, and uses their experiences to guide the reader through the ingrained societal norms that these women have had to overcome, or are working to overturn. She starts off much as you might expect, speaking to women who are trailblazers in their respective fields and not only drawing inspiration from them but unpicking the nuances behind what they say to draw attention not only to the barriers they’ve overcome but why those barriers were there in the first place. By the end of the first chapter, ‘doing it like a woman’, I thought I knew what I was in for.
(Find this and other reviews at https://elementarymydearbookblog.wordpress.com/2021/01/07/book-review-do-it-like-a-woman/)
From the second chapter (‘Speaking like a woman’), though, Criado-Perez takes us much deeper into the heart of gender discrimination. She talks to activists from countries such as Iran which are known for their sexist laws and culture, and draws on her own experiences (she successfully campaigned for Jane Austen to be featured on the £10 note, and was inundated with threats online) to make the reader reckon with the insidious meaning behind the violence and hatred women face every day all around the world.
For what was at times a book that dealt with extremely heavy topics, it was extremely readable, if disheartening at times as Criado-Perez explained just how ingrained sexism is in our own brains, let alone societal structures. Just as the bad news gets too much, though, we’re heartened and encouraged by good news of the women making waves and changing the world. Her thesis is clear: that women need to have choice, and that a choice made out of necessity is not a choice made out of freedom. It is this freedom that all of the women she speaks to want to achieve, no matter which field they work or campaign in.
This was a solid 5 star read for me – eye-opening, moving, and inspirational all wrapped up in one brilliantly written package. I can’t wait to read her other work!
*To be clear, I very much enjoy reading books from both of these categories.
Do It Like A Woman manages to perfectly bridge those two categories, as Caroline Criado-Perez interviews women – some activists, some not – who have accomplished amazing things in their lives, and uses their experiences to guide the reader through the ingrained societal norms that these women have had to overcome, or are working to overturn. She starts off much as you might expect, speaking to women who are trailblazers in their respective fields and not only drawing inspiration from them but unpicking the nuances behind what they say to draw attention not only to the barriers they’ve overcome but why those barriers were there in the first place. By the end of the first chapter, ‘doing it like a woman’, I thought I knew what I was in for.
(Find this and other reviews at https://elementarymydearbookblog.wordpress.com/2021/01/07/book-review-do-it-like-a-woman/)
From the second chapter (‘Speaking like a woman’), though, Criado-Perez takes us much deeper into the heart of gender discrimination. She talks to activists from countries such as Iran which are known for their sexist laws and culture, and draws on her own experiences (she successfully campaigned for Jane Austen to be featured on the £10 note, and was inundated with threats online) to make the reader reckon with the insidious meaning behind the violence and hatred women face every day all around the world.
For what was at times a book that dealt with extremely heavy topics, it was extremely readable, if disheartening at times as Criado-Perez explained just how ingrained sexism is in our own brains, let alone societal structures. Just as the bad news gets too much, though, we’re heartened and encouraged by good news of the women making waves and changing the world. Her thesis is clear: that women need to have choice, and that a choice made out of necessity is not a choice made out of freedom. It is this freedom that all of the women she speaks to want to achieve, no matter which field they work or campaign in.
This was a solid 5 star read for me – eye-opening, moving, and inspirational all wrapped up in one brilliantly written package. I can’t wait to read her other work!
*To be clear, I very much enjoy reading books from both of these categories.
“What is given may be taken away, at any time. Cruelty and devastation wait for you around corners, inside coffers, behind doors: they can leap out at you at any time, like a thief or brigand.”
From the moment I heard about this book, I knew I had to read it and I was not disappointed. Hamnet follows the Shakespeare family, specifically William Shakespeare’s wife, Agnes*, and the circumstances surrounding the death of their son Hamnet from the plague. The narrative divides between the present day – the days leading up to, and the aftermath of, Hamnet’s death – and the story of their family, from the romance between Agnes and her husband to the birth and childhood of their children.
Read this and more reviews on my blog!
It took me a little while to settle into the writing style, but once I did I was completely hooked. The book was so atmospheric that you believed you were in Elizabethan Stratford, in amongst the busy lives of the extended Shakespeare family. Although we began from Hamnet’s perspective, the shift to Agnes’ perspective was seamless and allowed us to see her first through her family’s eyes before we get to know her ourselves.
Agnes herself was quite a mysterious figure to begin with, as we were presented with her as both the practical mother and the mysterious forest figure. We began to understand her, and how she sees the world, more as we a slowly let inside her head, as if she was letting us in on her own terms. There were elements of magical realism to her character, which not only added to the atmosphere of the story, but helped us position ourselves in a pre-modern-medicine plague. The characters don’t know what is causing the sickness, or how to cure it, or even why some recover and others don’t. By giving us this tiny drop of magical realism we too were left in the unknown, unsure as to what was really happening and why.
Even though there is never a moments’ doubt who the father in this family is, the name ‘William Shakespeare’ (or even ‘William’ or ‘Shakespeare’ is never mentioned once. Instead, he is ‘her husband’, or ‘the boy’s father’, or ‘John’s eldest son’, or even ‘the Latin tutor’. First and foremost this is a relief; a name like ‘William Shakespeare’, for a principal character in a delicately written prose, is about as subtle as a klaxon in a library. Over time, we come to see him not as the Bard who has some family we’re reading about, but rather as a composite of the relationships he has with his friends, his family, his community, and with the world around him. For much of the book his family aren’t truly aware of his success, or the monetary gains that come with it, but are instead frustrated that he is away so much. We are much more sympathetic to him and his fraught relationship with his father because we see him as a character and a person, not as a historical icon thrown in for good measure. And the moments when the true ‘Shakespeare’ shines through, we are all the more grateful for it.
This book is a snapshot of a life, about the moments big and small, the actions that lead up to them and the ripples that are caused by them. It’s beautifully written, and it makes your heart ache. I absolutely loved it, and I would highly recommend it.
*In the Tudor era, ‘Anne’ and ‘Agnes’ were often used interchangeably, and Anna Hathaway has been referred to as both in legal documents of the time.
From the moment I heard about this book, I knew I had to read it and I was not disappointed. Hamnet follows the Shakespeare family, specifically William Shakespeare’s wife, Agnes*, and the circumstances surrounding the death of their son Hamnet from the plague. The narrative divides between the present day – the days leading up to, and the aftermath of, Hamnet’s death – and the story of their family, from the romance between Agnes and her husband to the birth and childhood of their children.
Read this and more reviews on my blog!
It took me a little while to settle into the writing style, but once I did I was completely hooked. The book was so atmospheric that you believed you were in Elizabethan Stratford, in amongst the busy lives of the extended Shakespeare family. Although we began from Hamnet’s perspective, the shift to Agnes’ perspective was seamless and allowed us to see her first through her family’s eyes before we get to know her ourselves.
Agnes herself was quite a mysterious figure to begin with, as we were presented with her as both the practical mother and the mysterious forest figure. We began to understand her, and how she sees the world, more as we a slowly let inside her head, as if she was letting us in on her own terms. There were elements of magical realism to her character, which not only added to the atmosphere of the story, but helped us position ourselves in a pre-modern-medicine plague. The characters don’t know what is causing the sickness, or how to cure it, or even why some recover and others don’t. By giving us this tiny drop of magical realism we too were left in the unknown, unsure as to what was really happening and why.
Even though there is never a moments’ doubt who the father in this family is, the name ‘William Shakespeare’ (or even ‘William’ or ‘Shakespeare’ is never mentioned once. Instead, he is ‘her husband’, or ‘the boy’s father’, or ‘John’s eldest son’, or even ‘the Latin tutor’. First and foremost this is a relief; a name like ‘William Shakespeare’, for a principal character in a delicately written prose, is about as subtle as a klaxon in a library. Over time, we come to see him not as the Bard who has some family we’re reading about, but rather as a composite of the relationships he has with his friends, his family, his community, and with the world around him. For much of the book his family aren’t truly aware of his success, or the monetary gains that come with it, but are instead frustrated that he is away so much. We are much more sympathetic to him and his fraught relationship with his father because we see him as a character and a person, not as a historical icon thrown in for good measure. And the moments when the true ‘Shakespeare’ shines through, we are all the more grateful for it.
This book is a snapshot of a life, about the moments big and small, the actions that lead up to them and the ripples that are caused by them. It’s beautifully written, and it makes your heart ache. I absolutely loved it, and I would highly recommend it.
*In the Tudor era, ‘Anne’ and ‘Agnes’ were often used interchangeably, and Anna Hathaway has been referred to as both in legal documents of the time.
“Patroclus came up to Achilles shepherd of the people, weeping hot tears like a dark spring trickling black streaks of water down a steep rock-face.”
This has been on my shelf, sitting there, looking intimidating for a while now, and I decided to finally pick it up this year. In all honesty, I had read (and loved) so many Iliad retellings, with more on the TBR pile, so I decided after my fourth re-read of The Song of Achilles that I should give the original a go.
Read this and other reviews on my blog!
It was both what I expected and not at the same time. For starters, I thought it was going to be ten years worth of warfare that dragged dryly on as we went through yet another battle, meeting, attempt at diplomacy, and that it was going to be impossible to keep track of. I was pleased to find out that the Iliad itself only spans a short period of the Trojan War, allowing the action and characters to be given much more depth. It was engaging, entertaining, and at times even funny which was the last thing I expected.
That’s not to say it didn’t have its dull moments; I soon gave up on trying to keep track of absolutely everyone in the battle scenes, instead just enjoying the fray and recognising a name here and there. That being said, the involvement of the gods added another dimension to the story that I really enjoyed, especially the dynamics between Zeus and pretty much everyone else.
I don’t have a degree, or even an A Level, in Classics or in English Literature, so there isn’t much point in my trying to give some kind of fresh analysis or to draw attention to any particulars of the writing style. As a reader, though, I can say that I very much enjoyed it, and if your copy is sitting on your shelf and trying its best to look intimidating, pick it up and give it a go!
Reading Challenges:
This book is counting as my translated fiction in Back to Classics, and also contributes to my Chunksters Reading Challenge (450+ pages).
This has been on my shelf, sitting there, looking intimidating for a while now, and I decided to finally pick it up this year. In all honesty, I had read (and loved) so many Iliad retellings, with more on the TBR pile, so I decided after my fourth re-read of The Song of Achilles that I should give the original a go.
Read this and other reviews on my blog!
It was both what I expected and not at the same time. For starters, I thought it was going to be ten years worth of warfare that dragged dryly on as we went through yet another battle, meeting, attempt at diplomacy, and that it was going to be impossible to keep track of. I was pleased to find out that the Iliad itself only spans a short period of the Trojan War, allowing the action and characters to be given much more depth. It was engaging, entertaining, and at times even funny which was the last thing I expected.
That’s not to say it didn’t have its dull moments; I soon gave up on trying to keep track of absolutely everyone in the battle scenes, instead just enjoying the fray and recognising a name here and there. That being said, the involvement of the gods added another dimension to the story that I really enjoyed, especially the dynamics between Zeus and pretty much everyone else.
I don’t have a degree, or even an A Level, in Classics or in English Literature, so there isn’t much point in my trying to give some kind of fresh analysis or to draw attention to any particulars of the writing style. As a reader, though, I can say that I very much enjoyed it, and if your copy is sitting on your shelf and trying its best to look intimidating, pick it up and give it a go!
Reading Challenges:
This book is counting as my translated fiction in Back to Classics, and also contributes to my Chunksters Reading Challenge (450+ pages).