I love to read about amazing women who changed the status quo of their time. Women who didn't take no for an answer. Women who didn't buy into the philosophy that they were only made for domesticated chores and childbirth. While strides have been made toward equality, we still have a way to go.

Elizabeth Foley and Beth Coates have written the book, What Would Cleopatra Do? to focus on some of history's most influential women. Women that can teach us a thing or two about how to handle adversity, how to deal with loss, feeling like an impostor, and much much more.

The book is comprised of 50 women, but we all know there could be libraries filled with all the contributions women have made to society. I enjoyed reading about women I was already familiar with, such as Emily Dickinson, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Dorthy Parker, but I was overjoyed to meet some new women whose stories I had yet to hear, such as Akiko Yosano, Wang Zhenyi, and Grace Hopper. I'm not sure about the selection process the authors used to decide on which women to put in this novel. They could write a sequel and still have room for more.

I listened to this as an audiobook and loved it. It is narrated by Madeleine Maby, who did a wonderful job. Each woman's profile was about five minutes long. Just enough time to give you a brief rundown on their lives. The book includes illustrations, but since I listened to the audio, I missed out on them. I would have loved if this book went a little deeper into their lives, but I'll have to do that on my own time.

If you need some motivations, you'll find it here. What Would Cleopatra Do? is filled with extraordinary women who defied their times. Scientists, actresses, writers, civil rights leaders, and athletes, they didn't have an easy path, but they certainly cleared away some debris so that later generations would have an easier path. This is a great book to gift to the women in your life. It will encourage, uplift, and inspire them.

*I received a digital copy of this book thanks to Simon and Schuster Audio. This is no way influenced my opinion of the book.
Read more at https://www.toreadornottoread.net/2018/12/audiobook-review-what-would-cleopatra-... ( )

What Would Cleopatra Do?, by Elizabeth Foley and Beth Coates, is an occasionally irreverent and often inspirational book that touches on the lives of fifty formidable women from around the world. Written to make history’s “heroines” relevant to today’s youth, this book offers overviews of these women’s lives and analyzes their choices and contributions. ...more ( )

At about half way through this I have several major criticisms:
1) The cover should have mentioned that it is aimed at school girls, not adults.
2) Writing for young people is no excuse for preaching and condescending language towards your readers.
3) The book is aimed very narrowly at English girls of a specific age and culture. It is often not clear to older readers what is meant by certain terms. I wonder how much was rewritten for the US edition. Quite a bit, I would think, if it to be understandable. In 5 years it will be very dated.
4) The advice at the end of one chapter can be the exact opposite of that given at the end of the previous chapter.
5) While there is a bibliography at the end of the book, it is awkward to use to learn about an individual who catches your interest. A book or two listed after each biography would be a lot more useful than the sermonette. ( )