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Kaethe

Kaethe

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The Book of Jezebel: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Lady Things

The Book of Jezebel: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Lady Things - Anna Holmes, Kate Harding, Amanda Hess

I can't imagine that anyone would recommend sitting down and reading this encyclopedia (or any other) straight through. But, for various reasons, that is exactly what I did. What I loved: lots of artists whose work or bio I knew nothing about, and lots of historically significant women. What I really loved: the snarky tone. Some of the really short entries were particularly amusing.

 

It's funny how much I enjoyed this, because encyclopedias are well-suited to being webpages, rather than books. I can imagine readers clamoring to have their own favorite figures (athletes, comediennes, journalists, lawyers, activists, inventors, women-who-served-in-the-military (either as men or as women), dancers, musicians, writers, etc, and their own cultural touchstones (the focus here is by/for younger women than me) so there's a whole lot of history left to explicate. And stuff to laugh at.

 

One of the great aspects here is the effort to include lots of women of color and/or ethnicities. The intersectionalism is pretty good, but there's lots left to mine. The most prominent mention of disability is in the entry on Amanda Palmer, which I get, really. But a lengthy piece on Helen Keller's years of activism is called for.

 

I'll be curious to see if this spawns some sort of women's wiki, since wikipedia tends to be somewhat lighter on women's contributions.

 

Good one. And now my daughter has discovered that Jezebel.com isn't blocked on her school computer.

 

Library copy.