Customer Reviews

Uppity Women of the Renaissance

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This crazy writer, V. Leon, sure knows how to write! All the stories here are wild and crazy and fun to read. These books ought to be required reading in all the schools...I mean, why not make history fun for a change! Which Uppity Women of the Rennaissance surely does. I highly recommend it to everyone except the most uptight sorts, or them that are easily offended. I loved it!

This book is the funniest one you'll read about women you've never heard of! She gives each woman a page or two description with humor and history, and she makes you think of "uppity" as a great thing, but don't look for the dainty and softspoken women here. Laugh and learn about the forgotten women of the Renaissance.

Prior to reading "Uppity Women of the Renaissance", I'd only ever heard of Vicki Leon's "Uppity Women" series, but hadn't read any of them. I found the title to be both intriguing and amusing. Having finished "Renaissance", I'm not really sure whether I want to read the other books in the series or not. In only 300 pages, Leon covers the lives of 100 of the Renaissance's most uppity women. As you can imagine, 100 women crammed into 300 pages doesn't leave much room for a lot of detail. Many of the women discussed seemed to have been mentioned briefly in old records and not much is actually known about them, other than the fact that they may have, for example, owned a successful business.

Leon attempts to weave modern jokes and cynicisms into the stories, as in "Busier than a two-career car-pooler with three kids, La Grosse Margot was one of many women who...". Sometimes I found these dashes of humor to be laugh-out-loud funny; other times, they were annoying.

It was really nice to read about so many interesting women. I'd never read or heard anything about most of them before. I just wish there had more detail...a lot more detail. Much of the time, the brief stories seem like sketches or outlines for a wonderful full-length book. Won't some kind-hearted author out there please write a nice full-length book on one of these women? The life of Christian Davies would be a good one to start with!

The idea for this book is wonderful and the research exhausting. However, Ms. Leon tries so intensly to be clever that it is terribly annoying. Examples: "The case spread faster than Lyme disease at a tick convention." Or "Mother Eulaia might have been called on to apply a little spiritual soft soap of her own-some extra innings at the cathedral, praying to her namesake." Or "Born into a Jewish family so tight with Catholic bigwigs." Every page has to have one or more of her display of forced cotemporary pseudo wit that shocks the reader out of his/her Renaissance mood. It is a shame.

This book is more like bathroom reading than anything else. Each Uppity Woman is given one or two pages of text. The text is full of not-funny puns and not-very-clever comments. At times it felt disrespectful of the women who, in some cases, were dealing with incredible hardships. The good thing about the book is that it covers a lot of women, so at least it gives you a starting point to further your reading.

I bought this book on sale at a locally owned bookstore. And I am just amazed at the women listed in the book. I thought prior to this that I was well informed, but this book contains a treasure trove of information about sculptors, composers, artists, printing press publishers, and all of them are women! I used to think that women have been written out of history was a feminist cop out. But now I really do believe it. Women haven't been lying dormant for ages, we've just been written out of history! The author is well informed. Her wittiness grates on me at times as I often long for just the hard facts. But I absolutely loved this book. And highly recommend it anyway. And I am now on "The Uppity of Women of the Medieval Times" book. And enjoying it too!

I have to agree with two other reviewers, the book is not witty and is most annoying. The author tries very hard to be playful, any maybe her friends find her amusing, but her poor attempts at humor detracts from what could really have been clever and informational. This truly is bathroom reading of the worst kind. I am all for sassy and irreverent, but her writing is just plain poor. Keep a pencil and paper at hand so you can go someplace else to learn about these most possibly interesting women. Come up with your own pithy comments, they can't possibly be worse than hers! Try Infamous Women by Bellerophon Books instead.

This is a fun book that tells you a little bit about women from all walks of life during the renaissance. From the pope's cousin that poisons people, to the mistresses of kings. This book was cute and witty. It has black and white sketches. This is not a good reference book, but it lets you know about women that you've never heard of. She included the smallest incidents, such as the woman who sold bad meat from her cart to big incidents, such as the young girl who organized her family to stab her father to death (the lout deserved it). It uncovers correption in every court from the Vaticin to Denmark. This book highlights martyrs, wonderful mothers, artists, and even female blacksmiths. This is great book, and you would be a fool to not read it at least once. A great gift book or coffee table book. The only down side is that sometimes it is difficult to tell if the author is stating a fact or making a joke...such is the torcher of funny people.

I recently purchased this and Ms Leon's Uppity Women of the Middle Ages. These books are a must. They are informative and fun and could have gone on for hundreds more pages without being boring. Being a published author I've read too many dull books for research. Ms Leon is the proverbial breath of fresh air!

This book is a delight. Funny and gives you a new respect for women of that era.