A friend sent me Uppity Women of the Renaissance for Christmas last year and my first thought was "oh, you’ve been paying attention," because I am an aficionado of Medieval history not the Renaissance. (On the cover of the book it states that the author has also written Uppity Women of Medieval Times.) But, it was a nice thought and I dropped it in the to-read tower in the corner of my office figuring I’d get to it when I got to it.

Well, I think I owe Phil a big kiss and an apology. (Scratch the kiss, it’ll go to his head.) This book is a ball and a half. It’s broken up into chapters detailing the exploits of different types of women. Women who dressed up as men, woman who ran their own businesses, and my favorite chapter title "Mrs, Misses and and Near Misses of King Henry VIII." Within each chapter are subsections, each devoted to a different women. Each subsection is no more than 3 or 4 pages long. How’s that for easy reading?

The writing is a bit tongue in cheek and makes the history very interesting. The fact that it is presented in bite sized segments is wonderful because you can pick it up during commercial breaks or on trips to the bathroom and actually accomplish something.

So, if you are or you know a young feminist (especially one who claims to hate history,) this is the book to get. (Provides ammunition for stuffy history teachers, you know.) Plus, the last chapter is a resource guide giving the locations of Ren Fairs, addresses of magazines, and web sites for further research. The selected bibliography is also worth checking out. Oh yea, and the George de la Tour painting on the cover is just perfect.




Recommended: Yes