KAdelaide’s review of Normal Women: Nine Hundred Years of Making History > Likes and Comments
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Thank you for your review. I was wavering on a decision to get it. I would have gotten it as an audio book from audible, but repetitive content doesn't lend itself well to that medium. What I might do is reserving it from the library and read in it what interests me and return it when I had enough.
I agree with this comment. This was more like a history text book than stories of women… disappointing!
A rough slog indeed. I’m on page 421 in a reader and I find myself simply skimming pages whilst turning. I love her work. This seems lazy or AI-assisted. Such a shame. It could have been so well done.
I agree completely! Usually I like this writer so much!
Totally agree. Just lists of women who did things. I didn’t think for a second women in the past didn’t do things so no idea what this proves. It’s so dull.
I loved that she said their names. So many names, so many ordinary women. It's clear from the text that often very little was recorded about them, but she wove that into a story about women as a whole rather than narratives about individuals. Like each name is a thread in the tapestry. And that long list of women murdered by their partners? That it was far too long is the entire point. So long even in 2019. Say their names.
And she makes, if not false, then at least highly suspect statements without footnotes, leading me to doubt her word and occasionally attempt to fact check. Which makes for very long reading!
Footnotes are online, 52 pages of them.
I’m sorry. Did you say 1) the book is too long and 2) that not enough was written about the women in their lives first half of the book?
I'm currently reading this book, so not yet done -- why is it considered "gender politics" to report on the facts? When she reports on same-sex relationships and even marriages, as well as the idea that there were "women husbands" or that bisexual women were incorrectly understood to be "hermaphrodites," to me, that's an interesting part of history that wasn't documented. This is why, I think, so many people inaccurately think transgender people just "appeared" in the last 20 years. They've always existed, they just haven't been written about. I love how much I'm learning about in this book.
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Marianne
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Mar 07, 2024 11:38AM
Thank you for your review. I was wavering on a decision to get it. I would have gotten it as an audio book from audible, but repetitive content doesn't lend itself well to that medium. What I might do is reserving it from the library and read in it what interests me and return it when I had enough.
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I agree with this comment. This was more like a history text book than stories of women… disappointing!
A rough slog indeed. I’m on page 421 in a reader and I find myself simply skimming pages whilst turning. I love her work. This seems lazy or AI-assisted. Such a shame. It could have been so well done.
I agree completely! Usually I like this writer so much!
Totally agree. Just lists of women who did things. I didn’t think for a second women in the past didn’t do things so no idea what this proves. It’s so dull.
I loved that she said their names. So many names, so many ordinary women. It's clear from the text that often very little was recorded about them, but she wove that into a story about women as a whole rather than narratives about individuals. Like each name is a thread in the tapestry. And that long list of women murdered by their partners? That it was far too long is the entire point. So long even in 2019. Say their names.
And she makes, if not false, then at least highly suspect statements without footnotes, leading me to doubt her word and occasionally attempt to fact check. Which makes for very long reading!
Footnotes are online, 52 pages of them.
I’m sorry. Did you say 1) the book is too long and 2) that not enough was written about the women in their lives first half of the book?
I'm currently reading this book, so not yet done -- why is it considered "gender politics" to report on the facts? When she reports on same-sex relationships and even marriages, as well as the idea that there were "women husbands" or that bisexual women were incorrectly understood to be "hermaphrodites," to me, that's an interesting part of history that wasn't documented. This is why, I think, so many people inaccurately think transgender people just "appeared" in the last 20 years. They've always existed, they just haven't been written about. I love how much I'm learning about in this book.
