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A review by mmeagan
My Little Red Book by Tamora Pierce, Gloria Steinem, Megan McCafferty, Lola Gerhard, Cecily Von Ziegesar, Erica Jong, Meg Cabot, Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, Henrietta Wittenberg, Krista Madsen, Jacquelyn Mitchard
4.0
I really appreciated that this book encouraged me to ask my family and friends about their first periods and led to some positive discussions around menstruation!
Positives:
The stories collected in this anthology were wonderfully diverse in both walks of life, decades, ages, and tone. Some made me laugh, others had me feeling frustrated along side the woman that wrote it. Reading the entry from Tamora Pierce was a special treat for me. My favourite story was called "Hot Dog on a String".
Critiques:
I would have formatted this differently: the order of the stories didn't fit any rhyme or reason. I suspect it was in an order that was meaningful to the editor but not me as a reader. Also each entry is headed with a title and year but we don't get the name or desciption of the author until the end. Having that all upfront would have given some much needed context for the stories. Also a big grievance for me personally was that the Introduction claimed that "every woman remembers her first period" - uh, no! I don't! And that made me feel alienated right at the start of the book. Another contributor in the anthology also shared that she doesn’t remember her first period either, so why was that line included at the top of the anthology?
Positives:
The stories collected in this anthology were wonderfully diverse in both walks of life, decades, ages, and tone. Some made me laugh, others had me feeling frustrated along side the woman that wrote it. Reading the entry from Tamora Pierce was a special treat for me. My favourite story was called "Hot Dog on a String".
Critiques:
I would have formatted this differently: the order of the stories didn't fit any rhyme or reason. I suspect it was in an order that was meaningful to the editor but not me as a reader. Also each entry is headed with a title and year but we don't get the name or desciption of the author until the end. Having that all upfront would have given some much needed context for the stories. Also a big grievance for me personally was that the Introduction claimed that "every woman remembers her first period" - uh, no! I don't! And that made me feel alienated right at the start of the book. Another contributor in the anthology also shared that she doesn’t remember her first period either, so why was that line included at the top of the anthology?