Shady Ladies: Nineteen Surprising and Rebellious American Women Book

Quite naturally, we tend to hear about women who had staggering or groundbreaking achievements rather than those whose stories were not quite as groundbreaking or "important". Ledbetter has chosen 18 lesser known women and one well known ("Unsinkable Molly Brown) and related their stories--and what stories! I tend to forget, based on overbearing opinions of recent feminists, that women throughout history were able to make their own way and make a difference at times; we just don't hear about them much because their stories are a bit harder to trace. I can't imagine trying to live some of these lives. Would I have been brave enough to trek alone to the Yukon? Or challenge a woman to a duel? Still be coherent after 18 months of involuntary commitment in an insane asylum of the early 1900s? Probably not. These women did so much more than this and managed to influence the world in their own ways.

The author does a much better job when basing the quick biographies on either solid facts or tall tales. A life for which exists some information (particularly if it may be contradictory) seems to confuse the author and thus confuses the reader. Still a worthy book but not quite as good as I had thought when I was about halfway through it.