I didn’t like this book, purely due to its pointlessness. I love historical books, especially about strong women, but this book read more like the random musings inside someone’s head. The book starts as it means to go on by saying things like we don’t know at all about this, but maybe this could’ve been true and if that it’s true… before leading you down the rabbit hole on a subject that was just a random musing. If the author had provided some sources to at least add some weight to their musings it could’ve been a passable book, but as it stands it’s just an unreliable witness

Even though the topic and all historical details were highly interesting, I felt that the way it was presented as a book did not work. It was not pleasant to read. Indeed, it was originally a podcast and it did feel like one. It was difficult to take the "writer" seriously because all the little comments meant orally felt clumsy in the form of a book.
I received a digital copy of this book and I am leaving voluntarily an honest review.

From the Venus figures found from the Stone Age, to various women from the Pythia to Ancient Egyptian females, this book is full of stories about women I have never heard of and is a wonderful and scholarly work , spanning continents and timeliness, mixing theories with mythology. I am very impressed by the work. Highly recommended.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I found the mix of humour and information very unbalanced for much of the book, it seemed to fine a good balance about half way through and I enjoyed the second half of the book much more than the first.

I would have liked some references or further reading suggestions for each section. The selected bibliography at the end was very lacking as it didn’t cover all of the women featured. The sections on each woman were about a page long and were more like snippets placed in the context of world history. I would have preferred more focus on the women themselves.

The idea was great, it just wasn’t executed as well as I would have liked.

Interesting
This book tells the reader the history of the world through the stories of 80 women
I will admit that I have mixed feelings about this book, whilst it was fascinating to learn about some of the women who have changed the world, I think it may work better as the podcast series it was based upon. The women’s stories are only a page or so each and don’t give the reader their full stories, instead just the highlights in how it relates to the world history. I think I would have enjoyed it more if there was more of a focus on the women themselves and not the whole history of the world, tell the story of them instead of making them seem more like anecdotes, only there to pad the narrative
I realise I sound a bit negative in this review so far but this is because I had such high hopes and expectations for this book and it didn’t meet them, but that’s just me and maybe I was aiming too high and being unrealistic. I just found it so sad that for some of the women, I felt I learned a more about them as a result of the photo caption instead of the text but there are still a lot of the women who I found fascinating and would like to learn more about
I would recommend this book to those who enjoy a historical biography type book with a difference, that looks at the world from the other side of the gender gap to normal

They say that history is written by the victors. This book tries to go against that theory.

What’s Her Name? looks at the women that history doesn’t tell us about. 80 different women are profiled here from various points throughout history and from different countries throughout the world. From the earliest points of civilisation to the 1990s, we learn about those women who made a historical difference but weren’t taught to us in school. Of the 80 I had heard of just 1 and I didn’t know much about her so this book does genuinely live up to its title, rather than feeling like a rehash of other books.

Most of the profiles are short which gives us a taster of the person’s story. Each profile is written in a chatty way which makes it engaging and accessible. This book ties into a podcast of the same name and although I’ve not listened, it feels like the tone of the book is in the same vein as the chatty tone of a podcast. Several of the people in the book also have their own episode on the podcast so if there are any that take your interest, one assumes you can learn more there.

All in all, a different take on female history. I was rather surprised that I hadn’t heard of most of the women but that was a good thing and helped me branch out. It was great that it was written in a way that was accessible for people, rather than too stuffy.

Thanks to the authors, publishers & NetGalley for access to this arc in return for an honest review.

Amazing book with lots of interesting facts about women that I did not know. Really enjoyed learning more and it's told in such a easy way. Would recommend.