Published in 2018
352 pages
Karen Karbo is the author of three novels, all of which were New York Times Notable Books; several nonfiction books, including The Stuff of Life, a People magazine Critic’s Choice; and a few books for young adults. Her essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Outside, Elle, and Vogue.
What is this book about?
From Frida Kahlo and Elizabeth Taylor to Nora Ephron, Carrie Fisher, and Lena Dunham, this witty narrative explores what we can learn from the imperfect and extraordinary legacies of 29 iconic women who forged their own unique paths in the world.
Smart, sassy, and unapologetically feminine, this elegantly illustrated book is an ode to the bold and charismatic women of modern history. Best-selling author Karen Karbo (The Gospel According to Coco Chanel) spotlights the spirited rule breakers who charted their way with little regard for expectations: Amelia Earhart, Helen Gurley Brown, Edie Sedgwick, Hillary Clinton, Amy Poehler, and Shonda Rhimes, among others. Their lives–imperfect, elegant, messy, glorious–provide inspiration and instruction for the new age of feminism we have entered. Karbo distills these lessons with wit and humor, examining the universal themes that connect us to each of these mesmerizing personalities today: success and style, love and authenticity, daring and courage. Being “difficult,” Karbo reveals, might not make life easier. But it can make it more fulfilling–whatever that means for you.
Helpful and constructively critical review from Megan on goodreads:
I really, really wanted to like this book. The idea is a great one- showcase a variety of women who didn’t stick to the norms, who pushed boundaries. Showcase these women and discuss the lessons one could learn from their lives.
It’s a great idea, but it’s not an idea that Karen Karbo achieves in this book. I’m reading an advance copy so perhaps things will change, but honestly I don’t foresee large edits and changes. My disappointments were in three parts in particular. The first area of disappointment was the presentation of the information. As I began reading, I was hoping to see a tailored biographical sketch of the woman in question which ended with a life lesson I could take with me into my every day life. The first few sketches did this to a part, but even those did not do so completely. The varied length of the different pieces confused me as well. Some pieces were only a couple pages while others droned on for many more pages. As I got to the notes section at the end I began to understand why which led to my second disappointment. The source material Karbo pulls from is minimal- I would require more of one of my high school students writing up a biographical sketch.
I think the idea here is a great one. This type of work would’ve been better though perhaps if Karbo had assembled a group of writers to write up pieces about difficult women and acted as editor. If that had happened perhaps this piece would’ve been more diverse (my third disappointment).
