The best part of the book, for me, was reading the stories of women whose lives I had not known, in part because they were so 'well-behaved.' The author is a good storyteller. As a whole, the book seemed a bit disjointed. The choice of 3 perspectives from various periods in time made sense, but why she chose, say, the concept of Amazon women from de Pizan's work wasn't entirely clear to me. I must hand it to the author, however, that writing a book about a population of people with so little historical record could present a significant challenge. And I did learn a lot. My understanding of women's roles in history has been greatly enhanced. If you have not read a lot of feminist literature, this would be worthwhile to read. And if you do pick it up, don't miss the Woolf quote at the beginning of the book. ( )

One of my favorite books, and definitely an educational read. I also had an opportunity to interview the author: http://laurareviews.blogspot.com/2009... ( )

http://amiralace.blogspot.com/2008/01... ( )

Overall, I enjoyed it...but each chapter seemed to get a bit old before it was finished. In that sense, it could have used some editing! But a great reference book of all creative things feminine. Indexed.

The best part of this book was the introduction, in which the author explains how her saying became a halmark of bad girl feminists. Ulrich first looks at the influences of three female authors: Christine de Pezan, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Virginia Woolf. She focuses on their disillusionment at the coverage of women in history and how they aimed to rectify things. She also examines evidence of well-behaved women who showed up in various places in history, namely in artwork.

Spots of this book are actual page-turners. Other spots (and unfortunatly, most of the book) is fairly dull, not because of the subject material, but because of the author's repetition of her theme and restatement of earlier passages. However, this book is worth the read for the introduction and first two chapters alone. ( )