A review by nosinne
Wonder Women: 25 Innovators, Inventors, and Trailblazers Who Changed History by Sam Maggs
4.0
This March, I had the pleasure of attending a panel with Sam Maggs at Dutch Comic Con. Even though I follow her on Twitter, I knew too little about her books so this was a great opportunity to learn more. Maggs spoke about her first book, The Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy and about her latest book: Wonder Women. Wonder Women tells about 25 innovators, inventors and trailblazers who changed history. Thanks to this great panel (also a big shout out to organiser ABC and their panel moderator), I just had to pick up that book.
First of all: why Sam Maggs is awesome
Sam Maggs Wonder Women signed stay radSam Maggs is someone to look up to as a nerdgirl. She’s an assistent writer at BioWare, which is the company that gave me my videogame crushes Alistair, Anders and Iron Bull. Anyone working there is automatically Cool As Shit. She wrote The Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy, a handbook for girl geeks:
Fandom, feminism, cosplay, cons, books, memes, podcasts, vlogs, OTPs and RPGs and MMOs and more—it’s never been a better time to be a girl geek. With delightful illustrations and an unabashed love for all the in(ternet)s and outs of geek culture, this book is packed with tips, playthroughs, and cheat codes
Now, I haven’t yet read that book but it’s definitely on my wishlist. Maggs is a comic con moderator and was named ‘Awesome Geek Feminist of the Year’ by Women Write About Comics. Just go to her Twitter or her website to read more and see how funny and amazing she is. Also, she signed my copy of Wonder Women and now I will have to stay rad forever. OK, so far for my fangirling, back to Wonder Women.
Wonder Women: 25 women who changed history
The book features 25 (well, technically some more since there are shorter pieces on more women at the end of each chapter) wonder women. Women of all races and backgrounds who left their mark on history. For instance, there is Lise Meitner, an Austrian nuclear physicist:
Lise was relegated to the status of ‘guest’ and denied salary because her boss didn’t want women in the lab for fear that their “rather exotic hairstyle” might catch fire from a Bunsen burner (unlike a man’s bushy beard?).
Lise Meitner made the discovery of nuclear fission and should have won the Nobel Prize in chemistry. That sadly went, ofcourse, to a white dude who stole all the credit. Wonder Women makes clear just how many times women weren’t taken seriously, just because they were women. Take for instance the intro to the chapter ‘women of innovation’:
Of the more than 5 million U.S. patents that have been granted since 1790, only about 5 percent have a women’s name on them. Men often took credit for women’s inventions, sometimes at the behest of women of color who feared that white consumers wouldn’t want to purchase their items.
Of the 25 main wonder women, I knew NONE, so yeah, shame on me. But now I have read about them and know their amazing stories. Each story is incredible and these women should get more credit and more attention. Seriously, people of Hollywood, pick up this book and go make 25 films (or tv-series) about these women! Do it now, we need these movies asap.
This review is continued here: http://www.thesassologist.com/books/book-review-wonder-women-sam-maggs/
First of all: why Sam Maggs is awesome
Sam Maggs Wonder Women signed stay radSam Maggs is someone to look up to as a nerdgirl. She’s an assistent writer at BioWare, which is the company that gave me my videogame crushes Alistair, Anders and Iron Bull. Anyone working there is automatically Cool As Shit. She wrote The Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy, a handbook for girl geeks:
Fandom, feminism, cosplay, cons, books, memes, podcasts, vlogs, OTPs and RPGs and MMOs and more—it’s never been a better time to be a girl geek. With delightful illustrations and an unabashed love for all the in(ternet)s and outs of geek culture, this book is packed with tips, playthroughs, and cheat codes
Now, I haven’t yet read that book but it’s definitely on my wishlist. Maggs is a comic con moderator and was named ‘Awesome Geek Feminist of the Year’ by Women Write About Comics. Just go to her Twitter or her website to read more and see how funny and amazing she is. Also, she signed my copy of Wonder Women and now I will have to stay rad forever. OK, so far for my fangirling, back to Wonder Women.
Wonder Women: 25 women who changed history
The book features 25 (well, technically some more since there are shorter pieces on more women at the end of each chapter) wonder women. Women of all races and backgrounds who left their mark on history. For instance, there is Lise Meitner, an Austrian nuclear physicist:
Lise was relegated to the status of ‘guest’ and denied salary because her boss didn’t want women in the lab for fear that their “rather exotic hairstyle” might catch fire from a Bunsen burner (unlike a man’s bushy beard?).
Lise Meitner made the discovery of nuclear fission and should have won the Nobel Prize in chemistry. That sadly went, ofcourse, to a white dude who stole all the credit. Wonder Women makes clear just how many times women weren’t taken seriously, just because they were women. Take for instance the intro to the chapter ‘women of innovation’:
Of the more than 5 million U.S. patents that have been granted since 1790, only about 5 percent have a women’s name on them. Men often took credit for women’s inventions, sometimes at the behest of women of color who feared that white consumers wouldn’t want to purchase their items.
Of the 25 main wonder women, I knew NONE, so yeah, shame on me. But now I have read about them and know their amazing stories. Each story is incredible and these women should get more credit and more attention. Seriously, people of Hollywood, pick up this book and go make 25 films (or tv-series) about these women! Do it now, we need these movies asap.
This review is continued here: http://www.thesassologist.com/books/book-review-wonder-women-sam-maggs/