A feminist coming-of-age comedy that follows the endless humiliations, unrequited obsessions, and all-consuming friendships of fifteen-year-old Evia Birtwhistle as she leads a body hair positive revolution at her school.
Fifteen-year-old Evia Birtwhistle can’t seem to catch a break. At home, she must deal with her free-spirited mom, and at school she’s the target of ridicule for stating basic truths: like that girls have body hair!
When her BFF Frankie—who has facial hair due to her PCOS—becomes the target of school bullies, Evia decides that enough is enough and creates the ‘Hairy Girls’ Club.’
Leading a feminist movement at school is not easy. Boys often look at Evia like she’s a total weirdo, and the self-proclaimed ‘smoothalicious’ girls start their own campaign in retaliation. As Evia struggles with feeling strong enough to lead, and questions how to be a good friend to Frankie, she falls back on the best thing she has—hope. Her message is simple: We CAN make this world a more accepting, less judgmental place for girls to live in…one hairy leg at a time!
My Review
This book delivers on its promises. It’s funny and deftly explores societal ideas about body hair as well as the reasons why someone would want to raise awareness and challenge norms versus wanting the choice to blend in with others.
I like Evia’s group of friends, especially Frankie, though she doesn’t appear a lot in the story. Frankie challenges Evia to explore nuances and understand that people may feel differently than she does about their bodies and to accept that. Her other friends, Karima and Lowri, round out the group.
Evia also has a crush on her friend’s older brother. I thought the way that played out in the book also showed a lot of depth and rang true as an experience from those early high school days. Evia is fifteen in the story, and Cary definitely nails that moment in adolescence in the way she writes about characters and relationships.
Overall, this book is well-positioned to reach readers aging out of middle grade and preparing for their own high school journeys. Give this book to readers looking for a smart, funny book about challenging societal norms and speaking up for yourself.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 10 to 14.
Representation Frankie has PCOS. Two of Evia’s other friends are lesbians.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Mild profanity used very infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content A kiss between a boy and girl. Someone posts sexually explicit images on Evia’s social media account.
Spiritual Content None.
Violent Content A group of girls bullies another girl. They make a social media video showing them pinning down another girl and cruelly cutting her hair on one side of her head close to the scalp.
Drug Content None.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
Kat wants to do GOOD FEMINISM, although she’s not always sure what that means. She also wants to be a writer, get together with Hot Josh (is this a feminist ambition?), win at her coursework and not make a TOTAL EMBARRASSMENT of herself at all times.
But the path to true feminism is filled with mortifying incidents, and when everything at school starts to get a bit too much, Kat knows she’s lost her way, and the only way forward is to ask for help . . .
Join Kat, AKA the Confused Feminist, as she navigates EVERYTHING from menstrual cups and mental health to Instagram likes and #TimesUp in her HILARIOUS, OUTRAGEOUS, and VERY EMBARRASSING diary.
My Review
I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard at a book since FINDING AUDREY by Sophie Kinsella. Seriously, this absolutely cracked me up. Kat is full of frank questions and sometimes irreverent observations. Her exploration of what feminism means and how to be a feminist felt so genuine and organic. She asks a lot of reasonable questions about her body, her period, and sex in pretty straightforward, often funny, ways.
The book is written in diary entries, as the title suggests, and I loved that, too, because it made this a pretty quick read. The scenes are generally pretty short and there’s a fair amount of white space on the pages.
I also enjoyed Kat’s relationships with her parents and brother. It’s always funny reading parents in YA novels as an actual parent. I think I may more attention to those characters than I would have as a teen, and I definitely appreciate it when they read like fully developed characters and believable parents. In this book, they’re not perfect parents by any means, but it’s clear that despite Kat wanting her privacy and rolling her eyes plenty, she loves her family members and has good relationships with them.
Not only did I laugh an absolute ton reading this book, but I cried quite a bit, too. Kat wrestles with some hard things, and one scene in particular broke my heart for her. I think the combination of the humor and the heart make this an incredible story (and a debut! Amazing!) and one that a lot of readers are going to connect with.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 14 up.
Representation Two characters describe difficult experiences with anxiety. One character is gay.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Extreme profanity used pretty frequently. Also uses some crude language for body parts.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing between boy and girl. Kissing between two boys. A girl accidentally walks in on a couple having sex in a bathroom and describes their disorganized state of undress.
Spiritual Content A couple of jokes about how God must be a man because women endure so many biological trials.
Violent Content A girl at school bullies Kat and says some very harsh things to her. It’s pretty cruel and upsetting.
Drug Content Kat and her friends attend two parties where teens drink. At the second one, Kat mentions there being a cloud of marijuana smoke.
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On its 150th anniversary, discover the story of the beloved classic that has captured the imaginations of generations.
Soon after publication on September 30, 1868, LITTLE WOMEN became an enormous bestseller and one of America’s favorite novels. Its popularity quickly spread throughout the world, and the book has become an international classic. When Anne Boyd Rioux read the novel in her twenties, she had a powerful reaction to the story. Through teaching the book, she has seen the same effect on many others.
In MEG, JO, BETH, AMY, Rioux recounts how Louisa May Alcott came to write LITTLE WOMEN, drawing inspiration for it from her own life. Rioux also examines why this tale of family and community ties, set while the Civil War tore America apart, has resonated through later wars, the Depression, and times of changing opportunities for women.
Alcott’s novel has moved generations of women, many of them writers: Simone de Beauvoir, J. K. Rowling, bell hooks, Cynthia Ozick, Jane Smiley, Margo Jefferson, and Ursula K. Le Guin were inspired by LITTLE WOMEN, particularly its portrait of the iconoclastic young writer, Jo. Many have felt, as Anna Quindlen has declared, “Little Women changed my life.”
Today, Rioux sees the novel’s beating heart in Alcott’s portrayal of family resilience and her honest look at the struggles of girls growing into women. In gauging its current status, Rioux shows why LITTLE WOMEN remains a book with such power that people carry its characters and spirit throughout their lives.
Why I Read Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy
Reading BELITTLED WOMEN by Amanda Sellet stirred up my curiosity about LITTLE WOMEN, which it pays homage to and perhaps very loosely retells. I hadn’t read LITTLE WOMEN and didn’t really know much about it, other than the 1994 movie, which I’ve watched countless times and still love.
A quick internet search about some of the assertions about the story and author mentioned in BELITTLED WOMEN led me to this book. I read LITTLE WOMEN earlier this year so that I’d have more familiarity with the commentary here and could compare it to my own experience reading the book. But I also wanted to read it because I’m seeing more and more retellings of the book.
Anyway. So I read LITTLE WOMEN, and then read this book, giving some history and commentary on it.
My Review
Where do I start? Ha. The book begins with a brief history of Louisa May Alcott’s life, highlighting parts of her childhood and family life that she pulled from in her imagining of her most popular novel. It also discusses her own thoughts about the book and its popularity. For example, she didn’t want to marry Jo off to someone but felt pressured by her fans. She was also known to rush out the back door if fans came to visit her.
The book also talks about how different generations have received LITTLE WOMEN and the changing commentary about the story across the decades. I found that really interesting. There’s a chapter that focuses on adaptations of LITTLE WOMEN to the stage or screen. I’ve only seen the 1994 and 2019 movies, so I made a list of other versions that I’d like to check out. I pitched a LITTLE WOMEN movie binge to my mom and daughter for the week of Thanksgiving, so we’ll see how that project turns out!
There is also a chapter in which the author lists writers who name LITTLE WOMEN as an influence on their work and/or count it among their favorite books. She also talks about who is reading the book still today, and how and when literature began to segregate itself into books for boys versus books for girls.
Conclusion
For the most part, I found this book to be deeply fascinating. I think I zoned out a teeny bit in the section listing authors who were inspired by the story. It was a little repetitive there. But I loved the chapter about the author’s life and the exploration of how different generations have related to this book. I also loved the focus on developing conversations about feminism and different takes on whether the book is progressive or conservative and why.
I’m really glad I read this one, and especially glad it was the catalyst for reading the original work, which I also really enjoyed. If you loved LITTLE WOMEN or even if you’ve never read it and just wonder what the fuss is about, be sure to grab a copy of this one.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 14 up.
Representation The book mainly focuses on the life of Louisa May Alcott and her family.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Mild profanity used very infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content References love and relationships from the book LITTLE WOMEN as portrayed in the book and on screen.
Spiritual Content Brief discussion of Louisa May Alcott’s father’s restrictive religious beliefs and how they impacted her as a child. Conservatives of the day were upset with the lack of Christianity in the scenes of LITTLE WOMEN. For example, the book opens with the family celebrating Christmas but with no mention of going to church. When a character dies, there is no mention of her ascending to heaven. A stronger Christian theme was more common in popular novels of the day.
Violent Content Brief mentions of war as a historical fact.
Drug Content Like the March family, Louisa May Alcott and her family were against any consumption of alcohol.
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About A Starlet’s Secret to a Sensational Afterlife
A budding starlet and her handsome-but-moody co-star go from bitter enemies to reluctant partners when they get tangled up in the disappearance of a beautiful young actress in 1930s Hollywood.
Eighteen-year-old Henrietta arrives in Los Angeles in 1934 with dreams of trading her boring life for stardom.
She’s determined to make it as an actress, despite her family’s doubts and rumors of would-be starlets gone missing. And by the skin of her teeth, she pulls it off! A serendipitous job offer arrives and Henrietta finds herself on a whirlwind publicity tour for a major film role—with a vexingly unpleasant actor tapped by the studio to be her fake boyfriend.
But fierce Henrietta has more in common with brooding Declan than she realizes. They both have gifts that they are hiding, for fear of being labeled strange: he is immune to injury and she can speak to ghosts. Together, they might be the only people in Hollywood who can do something about these poor missing girls. And in doing so . . . they might just fall in love for real.
This whip smart, seductive caper by the author of MURDER FOR THE MODERN GIRL has the perfect combination of romance, vengeance, and a hint of the supernatural, set in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Hand to fans of THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS and MY LADY JANE.
My Review
I loved the 1930s Hollywood setting of this book. It was so much fun to read something set in that time period that really captured the excitement of the time period. One scene in particular, when Henny first comes to Hollywood had me thinking of a moment in the moving SINGING IN THE RAIN, when the main character tells an edited version of his arrival in “sunny California”.
I loved both Declan and Henny’s characters. Her sarcasm and quick wit were so perfect. She was independent and smart, and hard-working. I loved all of that. And Declan– his unbreakable exterior and tender heart were absolutely the best. There was a line early on after he meets Henny where he says something about being the unbreakable boy and realizing this girl could totally break him. I loved it.
This book definitely captured the magic of the early film industry while delivering a powerful Me Too message in which women who were victimized seek the chance to create their own justice. If you’re looking for an upbeat historical mystery/romance, grab this one.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 12 up.
Representation Both Henny and Declan are white. Declan’s best friend is Latine. Minor characters are queer.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Mild profanity used pretty infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing between boy and girl. Henny witnesses an attempted sexual assault and interrupts, helping the girl escape the man attacking her. A man expects Henny to make out with or sleep with him, but she refuses. He doesn’t accept her refusal, but she’s able to escape.
Spiritual Content Henny sees the ghosts of women who were murdered in Hollywood.
Violent Content Declan works as a stunt man, taking on several stunt performances which should have left him grievously injured or dead.
Henny sees ghosts of women who were murdered, sometimes with evidence of what happened to them on their bodies (blood, water, etc.). She learns bits and pieces of what happened to some of the women.
A man tries to run Henny and Declan off the road. Two men fall from a bridge.
Drug Content A famed Hollywood actor shows up for rehearsal very drunk after rumors that production has been delayed several times due to his binge drinking. A man claims that some women died due to drug overdoses.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of A STARLET’S SECRET TO A SENSATIONAL AFTERLIFE in exchange for my honest review.
She Deserves Better: Raising Girls to Resist Toxic Teachings on Sex, Self, and Speaking Up Sheila Wray Gregoire, Rebecca Gregoire Lindenback, and Joanna Sawatsky Baker Published April 18, 2023
You want your daughter to thrive–to be strong, confident, and equipped to step into the life God has for her.
But what if the church is setting your daughter up to be small?
Armed with data from an all-new survey of over 7,000 women, the authors of THE GREAT SEX RESCUE reveal how experiences in church as teens affect women’s self-esteem and relationships today. They expose common evangelical teachings that can backfire–the purity emphasis that can cause shame rather than good choices, the dating rules that can prime your daughter for abuse, and the one overarching belief that can keep her from setting healthy boundaries.
Instead, the authors advocate biblically grounded, freeing messages that are more about the dos and less about the don’ts. By reframing (and sometimes replacing) common evangelical messages to teen girls, this book will equip you to raise a daughter who can navigate the tumultuous teenage years while still clinging tightly to Jesus.
You can raise your daughter with the discernment to resist toxic teachings. Because she deserves better than a faith that keeps her small.
“Sheila, Rebecca, and Joanna are an all-star team, confronting the harm done to our daughters in both the church and the world. The title says it all. Full stop. Our daughters deserve better! This book is full of thorough research, refreshingly commonsense biblical wisdom, and practical help on how to talk with our daughters and prepare them for confidence and maturity.”–Aimee Byrd, author of The Sexual Reformation –This text refers to the paperback edition.
Why I’m Reviewing She Deserves Better
I’m finding writing up my review to be a bit overwhelming, so I’m going to break it down into sections to help me focus my thoughts. First, let’s talk about why I decided to review this book.
I was raised in what would now probably be identified as a fundamentalist/evangelical church. To be honest, I had some good and bad experiences there. That complexity sometimes makes it hard for me to sort out my feelings about certain faith-based things. Though I am still myself a Christian, I am not part of the evangelical community. I once heard someone describe her family as Liberal Christians, and I would say that’s a label that’s closer to accurate for me.
Periodically, I dip my toes into the Christian literary market to try to find books and resources that resonate with me and are things I can confidently promote. Sometimes I regret it. But other times I find books that deeply energize me and encourage me in my faith journey.
I first heard about SHE DESERVES BETTER on one of the authors’ Twitter pages during some discourse about church scandals and the treatment of women in the church. As I read more of the posts on the author’s page, I found I agreed with several of her statements. When I noticed she was part of a team of three women who had a book for moms and daughters coming out, I decided to try to get a copy for review.
Rejecting Purity Culture But Replacing It with… What?
My home growing up didn’t adhere to some fundamentalist ideas, (my mom has always been an assertive person who expresses her views, for example) but we were part of a church community that absolutely preached the values and ideas of purity culture.
While I’ve rejected… most? all? I’m not thoroughly sure here… of those ideas, I’ve struggled to find healthier/more reasonable ways to express what I do believe about some of these issues. For example, I recently had a conversation with a family member about the way my daughter dresses. I don’t have a problem with the way she dresses, but this family member had some concerns and related those concerns in the language of purity culture. “She needs to remember there are boys in the house while she’s wearing those things,” etc.
I defended my daughter (the problem seemed to be that she’s young and curvy) and pretty plainly said that I would not make the burden of someone else’s possible thoughts her responsibility. But I struggled to explain my parental boundaries for her clothing choices. I do have them. But they’re about how she feels about herself and what she thinks about her body, not what someone else thinks. Still, I found myself wishing for a resource to help me quantify this and help me reassure my daughter. I also handle wanted better tools to handle people coming at me with purity culture complaints so I can respond in a way I find satisfying.
My Review of She Deserves Better
Lemme give you the nutshell version first. While I didn’t agree 100% with everything the authors said and how they said it, I came pretty close. I loved the premise of the book. I loved the consistent calls to do what is healthy and loving. The authors also state multiple times the importance of being in a church community that is itself healthy and supportive of young women. They go so far as to counsel families to leave churches with toxic teaching because of the potential damage it can cause. I recommend this book to anyone raised in purity culture and/or anyone raising girls in the church today.
Essentially, they studied the effects of the purity culture movement and other teachings that young women in evangelical churches are often still being taught today. A bible verse warns us to look at the outcomes of behavior using the metaphor of trees producing fruit. If a tree produces bad fruit, the tree should be cut down and tossed in the fire. So the authors break down different teachings and looks at the outcomes. For example, they look at the effects of teaching a girl that her outfit choice can cause a man to sin. Does this make her more likely to end up in an abusive marriage? Does it make her more likely to have low self-esteem? To report problems in her sexual relationship? (Yes to all these.) Things like that.
Tools to Process My Own Experiences and Teach My Daughter a Healthier Way
There were certain chapters that read like pages out of my own life. It was honestly pretty eerie. I’ve known for a long time that some things I believed in high school and shortly afterward were wrong and dangerous, but those beliefs absolutely cost me. They left me vulnerable to situations in which bad stuff happened. They left me feeling as though I didn’t have choices in things that happened, and that I didn’t have any allies to whom I could turn for support.
So. Yeah. I don’t want to pass any of that on to my daughter. We’ve done a lot of learning about consent and a lot of teaching about personal boundaries and expectations. All of the things I’ve learned about those topics lined up with what the authors were saying here in SHE DESERVES BETTER.
I loved that again and again the book comes back to asking the question, “what happens to girls who were raised with these teachings?” That’s so important. We know that some of these things are really harmful, and it’s time to stop teaching them, and to push back in spaces where they are still being taught.
Topics Explored in She Deserves Better
Here’s a list of some of the topics/teachings explored in the book:
How teachings regarding feelings, especially anxiety and depression, can impact a girl’s health and life.
How teachings on boundaries impact girls and the importance of teaching girls they can set personal boundaries and expect them to be respected.
How dating and dating rules impact a girl’s lifelong relationships.
Learning to and teaching girls to identify red flags for toxic or dangerous people.
How a comprehensive sex education empowers girls to be safer and happier longterm.
How teachings about consent impact girls (and boys).
How teachings about modesty or clothing choices impacts how girls see themselves and others.
How teachings about leadership and submission impact girls.
Each chapter gives examples from the authors’ research supporting their assertions. They also offer conversations topics and exercises that moms and daughters could work through together.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 16 up.
Representation Doesn’t specify race details in any of the text or example stories. The intended audience is evangelical Christians.
Profanity/Crude Language Content The authors use a metaphor about a candy that tasted delicious but caused explosive diarrhea to describe the harmfulness of teaching that looks or seems biblical at first but is not and causes harm.
Romance/Sexual Content A fair amount of the book focuses on the way parents and church leaders teach girls about sex and relationships. It discusses how those teachings impact the likelihood of good or bad outcomes (happy marriages versus abusive relationships, etc).
The authors talk about the damage caused by rejecting a child or their feelings if they come to you to reveal their gender or sexual identity. Essentially the authors point out that being a part of a faith community generally lowers a child’s chance of experiencing suicidal thoughts or attempting suicide unless they are LGBTQIA+. Then, participation in a church community actually increases the likelihood they’ll have those thoughts or attempts.
Later on, the authors refer to an LGBTQIA+ identity as an “unwanted identity”. I’m not sure from the context if they’re intending to speak globally or referring to the feelings of homophobic parents.
The authors very plainly ask parents to choose to validate and love their kids no matter the feelings they have. They emphasize the importance of support from within their faith community.
Spiritual Content The core premise of the book is to approach teachings about sex and modesty in the church and look at their effect on specifically women’s lives. Do those teachings bear good fruit, as described in Matthew 7:17-18?
Violent Content Brief mentions of domestic violence, assault and abusive relationships.
Drug Content Mentions of teens drinking alcohol and using drugs (as a negative behavior).
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of SHE DESERVES BETTER in exchange for my honest review.
The Woman All Spies Fear: Code Breaker Elizebeth Smith Friedman and Her Hidden Life Amy Butler Greenfield Random House Studio Published October 19, 2021
Elizebeth Smith Friedman always had a penchant for solving riddles. It was this skill, and a desire to do something with her life that led her to become one of the top cryptanalysts in America during both World War I and II. She originally came to codebreaking through her love for Shakespeare when she was hired by an eccentric billionaire to prove that Shakespeare’s plays had secret messages in them and were written by Frances Bacon.
Though she came to the conclusion that there were not any secret messages in the plays, she learned so much about coding that she went on to play a major role in decoding messages during WWI and WWII and also for the US Coast Guard’s own war against smugglers. Elizebeth and her husband, William, became the top codebreaking team in the US, and she did it all at a time when women weren’t a welcome presence in the workforce.
Amy Butler Greenfield is an award-winning historian and novelist who aims to shed light on this unsung female pioneer of the STEM community.
My Review
Elizebeth Smith Friedman overcame a LOT in her lifetime. She faced opposition to her education from her own father, opposition to women in the workplace, significant wage gaps, and people assuming she relied on her husband’s abilities to break codes. Yet she stayed focused on her work and consistently put aside her feelings because she believed in the job she was doing.
My favorite story about her from the book is about one of the trials she testified in against someone accused of smuggling. The defense lawyers relentlessly called her translation of the coded messages into question. She finally asked the judge if there was a blackboard she could use. There was, so she proceeded to use it to teach a lesson on code breaking right there in the courtroom. She was so obviously knowledgeable and communicated her methods so well that the prosecutors credited her with securing a conviction in the case.
Though the book is largely about her, there are several chapters devoted to her husband’s career and life. That makes sense at some level because sometimes his career intersected hers or created challenges for her personally or professionally. But, I found it interesting that the book made the point of how she faced being overshadowed by men in her accomplishments. And often by men taking credit for her work or assuming her husband had done the work himself. Then the book spent so much time talking about her husband.
Conclusion
On the whole, the book does a great job creating a full picture of Elizebeth Smith Friedman in her career and personal life. I learned a lot about her life and about code breaking. I also learned a bit about the way different government agencies operated between World War I and World War II.
Readers looking for an in-depth biography about Friedman or interested in the history of code breaking will find this book insightful and useful.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 14 up.
Representation William Friedman was Jewish. The book discusses antisemitic attitudes in the government and military during his life.
Profanity/Crude Language Content None.
Romance/Sexual Content None.
Spiritual Content None.
Violent Content Some reference to threats against Elizebeth for her work helping to disrupt smuggling operations and testifying against smugglers.
Drug Content Some reference to drinking alcohol.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of THE WOMAN ALL SPIES FEAR in exchange for my honest review.
