Medium – Book
About the Book – Sandi Toksvig, the British/Danish presenter and comedian (and ex-Chancellor of the University where I did my Masters, so I’ve met her!), presents an almanac of the year, covering important and interesting facts about women – one for each day of the year. For each month, there is a run down of how the month got its name, longer articles for specific points in the year and how they relate to women’s history (i.e. black history month, Christmas), and a shorter bio for each day of the year with an important female birth, death or event. Toksvig’s aim is to highlight the history of women, which so often is overshadowed by that of men.
My Rating – 4/5
My Thoughts – I have to admit to a girl crush on Sandi Toksvig. I have now read (or listened) to all the books she has written for adults, and I always find her interesting, funny and engaging. Her autobiography (Between the Stops: The View of my Life from the top of the Number 12 Bus) is fabulous, and is a book I could read time and time again. This book was born from Tokvig’s Youtube videos and podcasts which were created during the initial UK lockdown. They are definitely recommended! In the videos, she highlights the stories of a number of the women found in this book – sometimes in more detail, so that we can discover them further.
I found this book really interesting, but I must admit to it being a book I picked up and put down quite frequently, often being distracted by other things. I found parts of it (the longer monthly discussions of specific dates) more difficult to read and skimmed through those. I think it says something about me (and my current ADD tendencies, which seem to be going through the usual cycle of being worse at the moment), that I found the short, concise descriptions of the births and deaths of the important women associated with each day in the year the most interesting part of the book. I like the fact that for my female (and male) friends, I could write a short extract from this book out for their birthdays – knowing my friends, they would enjoy it!
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