Normal Women: From the Number One Bestselling Author Comes 900 Years of Women Making History

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The start was a little slow for me, and I think I may have been bothered by that if I didn't enjoy the writing style as much as I do. All themes explored in a novel that spends too much time circling through characterization without fully fleshing them out. The heroine of Ainslie Hogarth’s “Normal Women” is so desperate to escape the confines of conventional, upper-middle-class womanhood that she turns to a yoga studio that looks a lot like a cult. It’s funny because up here in Mass I’ve encountered a lot more obnoxiously religious young men than women. The Temple is a satirical mishmash of various contemporary cults: it’s like those multi-level marketing schemes that promise American women they can make six figures selling leggings from their garage.

TikTok stars Caitlin and Leah and Professor Laura Gowing, who teaches women's history and queer history at King's College London. Gregory’s theme is that although women have always been regarded as naturally inferior, in reality they make the world go round. If you’re going down the mommy influencer route, where are the online pedophiles and the child exploitation? Normal Women details the history of England from a feminist lens, building out the full spectrum as it always should have been.About 70% of the way through it actually started to get interesting and I was a lot more invested in the story again. I am ploughing on through as I feel it is important to actually read the whole book but I wish it wasn't so boring in places. Philippa explores how rape was viewed as a crime against a man’s property, how courtly love gave way to brutal desire and the difficulties women face in bringing their attackers to justice. I would've wanted Hogarth to take on a Kajillionaire (by Miranda July) move with our protagonist's bond with the life-changer, Renata, but Hogarth remains strictly straight, showing us the heartsick horrors of hetero life.

Unfortunately this ended up being a huge disappointment for me and a stark departure from the qualities I enjoyed in Motherthing.They rode in jousts, flew Spitfires, issued their own currency and built ships, corn mills and houses as part of their everyday lives They committed crimes, or treason, worshipped many gods, cooked and nursed, invented things and rioted. There was just too much to take in - one gem that has stayed in the forefront of my mind is that fact that a male doctor kept the life saving invention of forceps as a secret knowledge to be passed down his line.

In fact, after reading book after book about the connection between fear and pain, the orgasmic, ecstatic, rapturous birth experience, the power of visualizations — I am petals unfurling, I am huge, I am opening wide as a cave, exactly as I should, for my baby to spill without pain — one might even come to the conclusion that the body is only mysterious as it pertains to childbirth. Quirky, unexpected, and charming, Motherthing uses all the right ingredients combined in equal measure to ensure a delicious experience. It has changed my understanding entirely and I don't think it an exaggeration to say it has/ will change my life as it has certainly changed my understanding of what it is to be a woman. And so we find him celebrating skateboarding but also caring for his dying father, gardening then confronting racism, all rendered in prose that’s both punchy and compassionate.Or that celebrated naturalist Charles Darwin believed not just that women were naturally inferior to men but that they’d evolve to become ever more inferior? We hear from famous lesbians including Queen Anne and Gentleman Jack and less famous lovers rescued from the footnotes of history.

Written in the kind of waspish, snarky tone which I enjoy, Hogarth’s novel has much to say about financial independence and the way the lack of it can tip the power balance in a relationship. But when one of Clark’s coworkers is diagnosed with colon cancer, Dani realises how financially vulnerable she and her infant daughter are; and when she notices how glamorous and carefree the staff of a local yoga studio/spa/nightclub/ ( brothel? Finally, Dani has found something she could be good at, even great at; meaningful work that will protect her and Lotte from poverty, and provide true economic independence from Clark.

I love sipping my tea and watching rich women scream at each other and talk crap about their husbands. Voices of the past can be heard through careful analysis of the fragments that do exist, and reading a document 'against the grain” - of its author’s intention often reveals crucial details. She's become a woman terrified of her thoughts about her daughter, a woman terrified that her husband may either be dying or evil, and she's not sure which is worse.