Abrams + Chronicle spoil us with top feminist titles. Over the last year, I’ve reviewed Why I March, Lumberjanes, The Grown-Ass Women’s Club and A Glorious Freedom, plus a wide range of other books and stationery products. They’re all for empowering women – and rightly so. Today they added two new books to the list, with Bygone Badass Broads and Dress Like a Woman.
Bygone Badass Broads by Mackenzi Lee and Petra Eriksson is based on Mackenzi’s popular Twitter series of the same name. The book features 52 truly badass women throughout history, featuring soldiers, writers, activists and athletes who you probably haven’t heard of before. In fact, I only recognised one name: Dorothy Arzner (my dissertation was on female directors).
If you imagine Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls for grown-ups, as told by Hannah Gale and Vix Meldrew, you’re most of the way there. Bygone Badass Broads is a hilarious, inspiring and insightful account of the lives of women who really should be spoken about more. Let’s hear it for the girls!
Pop back next week because this book will appear in a cheeky little giveaway for International Women’s Day.
Dress Like a Woman by Vanessa Friedman (with a foreword by the ever-fabulous Roxane Gay), is the ultimate feminist coffee table book. Its glossy pages are filled with stunning photographs of everyday women from the last hundred years or so, with the occasional celeb shot thrown in for good measure – you can never have too much Maya Angelou or Michelle Obama.
This book is a fascinating study of gender, fashion and women in the workplace, and the captions help provide little snippets of history. Another must-read for anyone interested in gender roles.
I was sent a copy of these books for review purposes and all thoughts are my own