#Caroline Criado Pérez

[literary-illuminati]

2025 Book Review #12 – Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez

I don’t read much in the way of non-historical nonfiction, but I am very much known as A Reader by friends and family – and so, I usually get at least one very buzzy bit of pop-nonfiction every Christmas or birthday. This was from my sister, and I opened it having never heard a word about the book or (I thought – I do in fact vaguely remember some of the campaigns she talks about organizing in the book) the author before. Having read it, the book is perfectly fine – though it feels more dated than the 2019 publication date really justifies. To a great extent it feels like a distillation of early 2010s feminist blogging and discourse, which is to say not much of it really felt new enough to be worth a whole book for me.

The book is polemic through and through, divided into sections that each advance and apply the central thesis to a different subject or area of life. That thesis is the severity – and severe impact – of what Criado Perez calls the ‘gender data gap’ – the lack of sex-disaggregated across a wide range of fields, and a general disinterest in analyzing what data there is to determine how women are impacted, or the degree to which their interests are taken into account, by any given policy of phenomenon. There’s no pretense of disinterested objectivity, and you can at points feel evidence being bent and angled just so to best suit an argument, but it barrages you with enough data points in any given chapter that I always found at least a few to be both new and compelling (something like a quarter of the book’s page count is taken up by its voluminous citations and end-notes).

The book’s main goal is convincing you that the data gap is a) real and b) bad. The former it manages to do pretty convincingly in most cases, the later it sometimes struggles to convincingly explain to the satisfaction of anyone but demographers and statisticians. Still, it does a better job than any other book or essay I can recall explaining actual specific and consequential concrete harms what it terms ‘male as default’ thinking actually causes in the world, both in terms of data gathering and in, e.g., manufacturing protective equipment or user interfaces to fit an ‘average’ user that are somewhere between inconvenient and entirely useless (if not actively dangerous) for a large fraction of women trying to use them.

Every section of the book is focused on that central thesis, but there are a lot of tangents as well – reading it really did feel like a ‘best of feminist blogging’ at points. Often in a good way, occasionally not (we can all hope and pray that some day the 2016 Democratic Primary will finally end). It all did leave it feeling oddly dated not even because it’s especially old or because the problems it discusses have all been solved (lol) but just because the particular style and aesthetic of discourse has so thoroughly fallen out of fashion.

In what could charitably be attributed to that datedness, or less charitably lead one to have dire suspicions about where the author’s politics have gone since publication, the complete absence of any mention of trans issues was striking. Like, literally complete absence – issues of race, nationality or (once or twice) sexuality were at least nodded at from time to time, even if this is not exactly a richly intersectional text, the concept of someone being transgender simply never comes up. Which is a bit disquieting as you read it, given how liberally the book uses essentializing language about sex and gender (the chapters on medicine especially often read like men and women are different species entirely). Hardly overtly hateful or anything but the book was published in 2019, it’s not like trans issues were unknown at the time – you’d think they would have been mentioned once or twice in terms of drug effects and how symptoms present if nothing else (but they do make broad and general statements about physical ability or height a bit more awkward, I suppose – maybe I should count my blessings there was no section on women’s sports).

Anyway yeah, interesting enough book. Would never have read it if I didn’t receive it as a gift, but hardly a waste of my time to. I’m not sure it’s going to convert anyone who isn’t at least a bit concept to the idea of gender-bases analysis on its own, but if you find yourself needing to do so it at least provides plenty of arguments and evidence to use.

[raffaellopalandri]

Book of the Day – Invisible Women

Today’s Book of the Day is Invisible Women, written by Caroline Criado Pérez in 2019 and published by Abrams Press. Caroline Criado Pérez is a British writer, journalist, and activist known for her rigorous research and commitment to gender equality. She gained prominence through campaigns such as the fight to keep a woman’s image on British banknotes and the push for a statue of suffragist…

[dollypartonswig]

my top 10 books of the year!

Add me on StoryGraph and Goodreads!

1) Normal People - Sally Rooney

Connell and Marianne grew up in the same small town, but the similarities end there. At school, Connell is popular and well liked, while Marianne is a loner. But when the two strike up a conversation—awkward but electrifying—something life changing begins.

A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years at university, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. And as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.

2) Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman

Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend.

Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything.

3) Invisible Women : Data Bias In A World Designed By Men - Caroline Criado Pérez

From government policy and medical research, to technology, workplaces, and the media. Invisible Women reveals how in a world built for and by men we are systematically ignoring half of the population, often with disastrous consequences. Caroline Criado Perez brings together for the first time an impressive range of case studies, stories and new research from across the world that illustrate the hidden ways in which women are forgotten, and the profound impact this has on us all.

4) South - Ernest Shackleton

As war clouds darkened over Europe in 1914, a party led by Sir Ernest Shackleton set out to make the first crossing of the entire Antarctic continent via the Pole. But their initial optimism was short-lived as ice floes closed around their ship, gradually crushing it and marooning twenty-eight men on the polar ice. Alone in the world's most unforgiving environment, Shackleton and his team began a brutal quest for survival. And as the story of their journey across treacherous seas and a wilderness of glaciers and snow fields unfolds, the scale of their courage and heroism becomes movingly clear.

5) The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb's effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.

Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.

Henrietta's family did not learn of her "immortality" until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits.

6) Babel - R.F Kuang

Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide…

7) The Black Angels: The Untold Story Of The Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis - Maria Smilios

New York City, 1929. A sanatorium, a deadly disease, and a dire nurse shortage.

During those dark pre-antibiotic days, when tuberculosis killed 1 in 7 people, white nurses at Sea View, New York's largest municipal hospital, began quitting. Desperate to avert a public health crisis, city officials summoned Black southern nurses, luring them with promises of good pay, a career, and an escape from the strictures of Jim Crow. But after arriving, they found themselves on an isolated hilltop in the remote borough of Staten Island, yet again confronting racism and consigned to a woefully understaffed facility, dubbed 'the pest house' where 'no one left alive'.

Spanning the Great Depression and moving through World War II and beyond, this story follows the intrepid young women, the 'Black Angels', who, for twenty years, risked their lives working under dreadful conditions while caring for the city's poorest - 1,800 souls languishing in wards, waiting to die or become 'guinea pigs' for experimental (often deadly) drugs. Yet despite their major role in desegregating the NYC hospital system - and vital work in the race for the cure for tuberculosis and subsequently helping to find it at Sea View - these nurses were completely erased from history. The Black Angels recovers the voices of these extraordinary women and puts them at the centre of this riveting story celebrating their legacy and spirit of survival

8) The Mermaid Of Black Conch - Monique Roffey

On a quiet day, near the Caribbean island of Black Conch, a mermaid raises her barnacled head from the flat grey sea. She is attracted by David, a fisherman waiting for a catch, singing to himself with his guitar. Aycayia the mermaid has been living in the vast ocean all alone for centuries.

When Aycayia is caught and dragged ashore by American tourists, David rescues her with the aim of putting her back in the ocean. But it is soon clear that the mermaid is already transforming into a woman.

This is the story of their love affair, of an island and of the great wide sea.

9) The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie

Roger Ackroyd knew too much. He knew that the woman he loved had poisoned her brutal first husband. He suspected also that someone had been blackmailing her. Then, tragically, came the news that she had taken her own life with an apparent drug overdose.

However the evening post brought Roger one last fatal scrap of information, but before he could finish reading the letter, he was stabbed to death. Luckily one of Roger’s friends and the newest resident to retire to this normally quiet village takes over—none other than Monsieur Hercule Poirot.

10) Penance - Eliza Clark

It’s been nearly a decade since the horrifying murder of sixteen-year-old Joan Wilson rocked Crow-on-Sea, and the events of that terrible night are now being published for the first time.

That story is Penance, a dizzying feat of masterful storytelling, where Eliza Clark manoeuvres us through accounts from the inhabitants of this small seaside town. Placing us in the capable hands of journalist Alec. Z. Carelli, Clark allows him to construct what he claims is the ‘definitive account’ of the murder – and what led up to it. Built on hours of interviews with witnesses and family members, painstaking historical research, and most notably, correspondence with the killers themselves, the result is a riveting snapshot of lives rocked by tragedy, and a town left in turmoil.

The only question is: how much of it is true?

Bonus my top 10 worst books of the year

1. Dark and Shallow Lies - Ginny Myers-Sain 2. The Terror - Dan Simmons 3. The Chestnut Man - Søren Sveistrup 4. Emma - Jane Austen 5. The Dead Romantics - Ashley Poston 6. Prophet Song - Paul Lynch 7. The Farm -Joanne Ramos 8. As Good As Dead - Holly Jackson 9. A Haunting in The Arctic - C.J. Cooke 10. Desire or Defence - Leah Brunner

[academicfever]

59/100 Days of Productivity!

4/30 days of Digital Declutter!

Morning Beautiful People... on day 4 of my detox... I can't believe I had this much free time everyday... So much of my day were spent on mindless scrolling and I had no idea...

Today;

DD-4

Mental Health Check + Journal

Read 100 pages

EV Study _New book_2P

EV_Chalmers_1p

Race Eng. Smitty_2p

Simulink Electric

Walk

Innovation Expo.

Movie time_ the robot movie

Guys I am so excited... I am going to the cinema with my friend today... I don't remember when was the last time I did this...

Also, side note: this book I just started...mind blowing

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez | Goodreads

[suzteel]

2024 Media Summary

New Movies Watched in 2024

Chevalier

Christmas Under the Lights

Conclave

Dune: Part 2

Jungle Cruise

Monkey Man

Notes of Autumn

Twisters

New TV Shows Watched in 2024

23.5 Degrees*

The Acolyte

Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024)

Cherry Magic

Cross

Echo

Found (season 1)

Kiseki: Dear to Me

Nirvana in Fire

One Piece

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

X-Men '97

Continuing TV Shows Watched in 2024

Doctor Who*

Lower Decks (season 5)

What We Do In The Shadows (season 6)

New Books Read in 2024

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard

The Husky and His White Cat Shizun, Vol 2-7 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Bao

Atomic Habits: A Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear

Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo

The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

Remnants of Filth, Vol 1-4 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Bao

Barda by Ngozi Ukazu

How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative by Melissa Febos

The Scum Villains’s Self-Saving System, Vol 1-4 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez

The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

The City in Glass by Nghi Vo

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

[cowgurrrl]

GIRL GIVE US THE BOOK RECS POR FAVOR *make grabby hands* <3

SLAY SLAY OKAY HERE THEY ARE

1. Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Safiya Umoja Noble

2. The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by bell hooks

3. Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto by Legacy Russell (I have some personal qualms with this one but it has good bones)

4. Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez (READ THIS HOLY SHIT)

5. Break the Internet: The Power of Online Influencers by Olivia Yallop

6. Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet by Taylor Lorenz

7. Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates

8. Gender Trouble by Judith Butler

9. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr

10. Them: Adventures with Extremists by Jon Robson

11. What About Men? by Caitlin Moran (another one I have qualms with but it’s generally okay)

12. Who’s Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler

13. All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks

14. I Don’t Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression by Terrence Real

These are just some of the non-fiction books I based my research on and they all have good things to say!! I didn’t use everything but they’re still important!!

[partialbirthabortion]

You look great with red hair! Re audiobook recommendations, try Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Pérez

All these nice messages are so funny to me - I've actually BEEN dying my hair red, the new thing was the bangs!

I have read Invisible Women, but I bet it's great as an audiobook!

[bookclub4m]

Episode 196 - Battle of the Books 2024: One Book One Podcast

This episode we’re giving our book pitches for our Battle of the Books 2023! Each of us has picked one title that we think we should all read and discuss and you get to vote for which one it is! Will we read Trust Kids!: Stories on Youth Autonomy and Confronting Adult Supremacy edited by carla joy bergman, The Seep by Chana Porter, A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher, or Inheritance: a Pick-the-path Experience by Daniel Arnold, Darrell Dennis, and Medina Hahn? You decide! 

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray 🦇 | Jam Edwards

What Book Should We Read?

Trust Kids!: Stories on Youth Autonomy and Confronting Adult Supremacy edited by carla joy bergman

The Seep by Chana Porter

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher

Inheritance: a Pick-the-path Experience by Daniel Arnold, Darrell Dennis, and Medina Hahn

Our Long Lists

Jam

How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler

Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis

Anna

Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement by Ashley Shew

Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price

Meghan

The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera

Matthew

Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez

Podcast Episodes

Episode 058 - The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

Episode 079 - Which Book Should We Read?

Episode 083 - The Fifth Season

Episode 103 - Battle of the Books 2020

Episode 107 - Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

Episode 130 - Battle of the Books 2021

Episode 134 - Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Episode 154 - Book pitches

Episode 159 - Hurts So Good: The Science and Culture of Pain on Purpose by Leigh Cowart

Episode 179 - Battle of the Books 2023

Episode 183 - One Book One Podcast: Upright Women Wanted

Links, Articles, and Things

One City One Book (Wikipedia)

Canada Reads (Wikipedia)

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

INHERITANCE - a "pick-the-path" teaser (YouTube)

Inheritance: a pick-the-path experience - trailer (YouTube)

Inheritance - interview with the playwrights (YouTube)

22 Nature/Outdoor Non-Fiction by BIPOC Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America's Stolen Land by Noé Álvarez

Better Living Through Birding: Notes From a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper

Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden by Camille T. Dungy

Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors by Carolyn Finney

Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes Through Indigenous Science by Jessica Hernandez

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer

The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature by J. Drew Lanham

The Urban Birder by David Lindo

Nature Swagger: Stories and Visions of Black Joy in the Outdoors by Rue Mapp

Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation by Tiya Miles

The Adventure Gap: Changing the Face of the Outdoors by James Edward Mills

World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, illustrated by Fumi Nakamura

Heartbeat of the Earth: A Handbook on Connecting Children to Nature through Indigenous Teachings by Launa Purcell

Trace: Memory, History, Race and the American Landscape by Lauret Savoy

A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars by Erin Sharkey

A Short History of the Blockade: Giant Beavers, Diplomacy and Regeneration in Nishnaabewin by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Dispossessing the Wilderness: Indian Removal and the Making of the National Parks by Mark David Spence

The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan

Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui

Wild Life: Finding My Purpose in an Untamed World by Rae Wynn-Grant

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong

Give us feedback!

Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Vote for which we should read!

Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Instagram, join our Facebook Group or Discord Server, or send us an email!

Join us again on July 2nd we’ll be discussing the genre of Law/Legal Non-Fiction!

Then on Tuesday, August 6th we’ll be talking about the romance genres of Yaoi and Danmei!

[literary-illuminati]

First Quarter of 2025 Book Reviews

January

20th Century Men by Deniz Camp, S. Morian and Igor Kordey

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain

Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis

Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson February

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Lotus Empire by Tasha Suri

Not Even Bones by Rebecca Schaeffer

Pushkin Hills by Sergei Dovlatov (trans. Katherine Dovlatov) March

Y: The Last Man - The Deluxe Edition Book One by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guera

meat4meat (ed. Gray Levesque)

Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez

Pale Lights Book 2: Good Treasons by ErraticErrata

The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

You can also seem them all on my Goodreads

[lazar-codes]

🎓📖🎙️ for the studyblr ask game? :)

Thank you for the ask!!! This was super fun to do!

🎓 a teacher/mentor figure that has had a huge impact on your studies?

I don't think I have a teacher/mentor figure in my current/official field (i.e. health science/programming), so I'm gonna go with one from my unofficial field (art). In elementary school I never did well in art class and always disliked it (I only liked it because it took 2 hours out of the day from other classes). Well, on the first day of grade 6 my teacher came up to me and said "I heard you don't like art", to which I replied "sorry, but no. I'm just not good at it". She then said that she'd make it her goal to make me like art by the end of the year, and I didn't believe her. However, she gave me my first A in art class, and even though it came from something as trivial as a grade, I ended up becoming more confident and believing that I can actually do art. Since then, even though I haven't taken any art classes after that year, I've been doing art for myself and have really enjoyed the process of doing art. Well, I tell myself that I do art for myself, but in truth I think I do it for that teacher, because she was the first person to actually like my art.

📖 a book/reading from your field you’d recommend/really enjoyed?

Ok, I really like reading non-fiction, so here are some books:

Science/biology:

The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science - Sam Kean

The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery - Sam Kean

A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers who Used Them - Neil Bradbury

The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race - Walter Isaacson

Patient Zero: A Curios History of the World's Worst Diseases - Lydia Kang, Nate Pedersen

Computer Science/Programming:

A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence: What It Is, Where We Are, and Where We Are Going - Michael Wooldridge

User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play - Cliff Kuang, Robert Fabricant

Other:

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men - Caroline Criado Pérez

🎙️ someone in your field, dead or alive, that you'd like to have a conversation with?

The only person that comes to mind is probably Rosalind Franklin and tell her that we've been taught who she is and that she hasn't been erased from history, though I fear I'd be too stupid to hold a conversation with her. Or Sam Kean, author of two books listed above, mostly so he can tell me cool science history.

[nerdsbianhokie]

3. What were your top five books of the year?

6. Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?

24. Did you DNF anything? Why?

📕📙📗📘

Top five books:

Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare (some recency bias with this one cause I just finished it, but I loved it so much)

Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie

Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

The Pits by Katy L Wood (got this one on Kickstarter and it's fucking beautiful)

Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation Into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin by Megan Rosenbloom

(and special mention for The Dyke and the Dybbuk by Ellen Galford, which I haven't finished yet, but I'm fucking loving)

Books I meant to read:

hmm, the main one I can think of is Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez. I didn't finish it before I had to return it and just haven't gotten back to it yet

I have a good amount of holds on Libby, including some that I keep pushing back cause i'm busy with other books

DNF:

Yeah, beyond the one above. I tried to reread both Gideon and Harrow the ninth, and never actually finished Nona the Ninth.

There are also a lot I just couldn't get into. I don't try to force myself to finish something I'm not enjoying cause I could, instead, be reading something I will enjoy

[dylanobrienisbatman]

5 & 17 for book asks :)

Thanks!!!!

I got asked 5 twice, so I'm doing a fiction and a non-fiction! For you I'll do the non-fiction!

5 - A book you recommend to everyone

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez

This book sent me into a RAGE while I was reading it but it is something absolutely everyone should read at some point. It explains just how much the world absolutely does not even CONSIDER women when making decisions or plans that impact us. It talks about everything from city planning, to crash test dummies in cars, to medical testing and medical advice, the list goes on. It also gives really incredible examples of how much it can benefit everyone when women ARE consulted and included, including a really interesting story from a town in Sweden (i think, sorry its been like 8 months since i read this) that simply changed the order of when they plow snow (starting with sidewalks and then doing the streets, instead of streets first) and how it literally ended up saving the city MILLIONS. Everyone should read this book.

17 - New Author!

The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown

I got recommended this Novella in a book recommendation service i use (Tailored Book Recommendations, if you're interested! I love it) and I read it with my best friend. It's sci-fi horror, very much Alien vibes (creepy monsters board a space ship, start killing people, female heroine, etc). I picked this one though mostly because this is the authors only book, aside from a Warhammer 40,000 short story, and her day job?

Yeah, she's a freaking astrophysicist.

Basically, if you like sci-fi horror, this little novella packs a PUNCH, and im trying to get everyone to read it so that she will come out of her lab/telescope/observatory/super special science place where she's discovering the secrets of the universe and hand us down another banger.

[bookbuffoon]

“When we exclude half of humanity from the production of knowledge we lose out on potentially transformative insights.”

Caroline Criado Pérez

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

[ihatetbrlists]

Review #29: Financial Feminist

Financial Feminist, by Tori Dunlap

From my TBR? Nope, read the day after discovering it.

First book of 2024 and my first book about financial education as well. Lately, I've been getting really into this sub-genre of YouTube channels and blogs about financial education content specifically directed at women. This book was recommended by Bitches Get Riches in one of their recent articles.

I picked it up expecting it to be something like Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Pérez but more specifically about discrimination in the workplace or the wage gap but it's actually an actionable guide to getting your finances together as a woman.

Now, I'm not an expert. This is, after all, the first book I've read about financial education. But I do think that someone with a bit more knowledge than I do would have found Financial Feminist to be pretty basic. I did too, at least for some chapters.

The book covers what your relationship with money should look like, how to get out of debt, how to budget, how to start investing, how to negotiate for a raise, how to be a feminist consumer (kind of) and more.

Considering that there are also many mini-essays by other (I assume) famous authors in the field, the book doesn't have the time to get into detail about any of these topics, giving us a bird view. That's fine for stuff like "how to budget" but not for the chapter about investing or ethical consumerism, something I would have really enjoy reading more about.

This book is at its best when it's explaining step-by-step how to get out of debt, create an emergency fund and set a budget — and even then, it assumes that the reader already has a high income. Jessica, the fake person we follow the financial journey of, earns 4k and budgets almost 1k for her fun money every month. In what world does the average reader of this book have 1k left after accounting for necessary spending and debt repayment

This book is also very US-centered and I'm not American. In the chapter Investing (my favorite) (since I know nothing on the subject) I had to leaf through a lot of talk of Roth IRA and 401k and you'll die in poverty if you don't start investing NOW. Useless to me, but at least it made me appreciate the social security in my country.

Other things that didn't pass the vibe check:

there are various mentions of how people of colour or LGBTQAI+ members or people with disabilities have it even worse than white women, which is not the same as actually discussing their challenges.

the author mentions Dave Ramsey disparagingly a bunch of times — like, we get it, he is Bad (and you are therefore Good).

lastly, the author used this book to self-promote her other products. Which, fair, I suppose. But also very annoying (you know when you are watching a video on YouTube when the Youtuber starts going off on a tangent that is so obviously a prelude to the inevitable "and that's why I use whatever product I'm supposed to be sponsoring". That's what some paragraphs felt like)

Verdict: This could be a good book for you if you know nothing about financial independence and want a light read. But if you want to save a few bucks, you can probably find the same information by scouring the author's blog.

[askatknits]

A Gathering of Poetry | 9.21.23

I recently finished reading Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Pérez and I have not stopped thinking about it since. So why am I thinking about this today you might wonder. Well, with all this thinking about being ���an invisible woman,” a poem by my beloved Ada Limón has been on my mind as well… I like how she reimagines what might be a familiar story for many of us. And yet, even in this…