Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Jun 15, 2015 Renata rated it really liked it

Shelves: grownup, nonfiction, feminism

I really liked this! It's a great blend of personal narrative, sociological history, and literary study. It's not really what I thought it would be--I was expecting something more like Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on Their Decision Not To Have Kids, but for un-marriedness? But I found this a really compelling reflection on life, and what one can gain/lose by having or not having a partner, as well as learning about Bolick's "awakeners," five historical women who were vary ...more

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Dec 17, 2015 Melle rated it it was ok

Shelves: nonfiction, adult, feminism, read-in-2015, memoir, copyright-2015

I really wanted to like this book more than I did, because I think the subject is very important -- unmarried women have faced and do face different societal challenges, circumstances, and criticisms than their married counterparts and than unmarried men, but their personal and professional experiences and perspectives and contributions are valid, valuable, and necessary in understanding the fabric of American sociology.

However, this book seemed very self-important, self-referential, self-congra ...more

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Jan 31, 2015 Maryanne rated it really liked it

Not quite what I expected from initial press released on the book but I enjoyed it. Bolick combines a historical look at traditional women "spinsters" that have influenced her own approach to life with some memoir-style essays. Was more interested by the history than the personal, although I appreciated Bolick's humility in the personal essays (which could easily have overshadowed the interesting, thoughtful research and made the book all about "her" but instead were used as a plot-device, forwa ...more

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