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Title details for A History of Women in 101 Objects by Annabelle Hirsch - Wait list

A History of Women in 101 Objects

by Annabelle Hirsch
Gillian Anderson
Audiobook
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0 of 2 copies available
Wait time: About 6 weeks
Discover the hidden history of women—and the world—through this visual exploration of intimate objects and the surprising, sometimes shocking stories behind them.
“I adored this book!”—Olivia Colman
This is a neglected history. Not a sweeping, definitive, exhaustive history of the world but something quieter, more intimate and particular: a single journey, picked out in 101 objects, through the fascinating, manifold, and too often overlooked histories of women.
With engaging prose and compelling stories, Annabelle Hirsch’s book contains a curated and diverse compendium of women and their things, uncovering the thoughts and feelings at the heart of women’s daily lives. The result is an intimate and stirring alternative history of humans in the world. The objects date from prehistory to today and are assembled chronologically to show the evolution of how women were perceived by others, how they perceived themselves, how they fought for freedom. Some (like a sixteenth-century glass dildo) are objects of female pleasure, some (a thumbscrew) of female subjugation. These are artifacts of women celebrated by history and of women unfairly forgotten by it. With variety and nuance, A History of Women in 101 Objects cracks open the fissures of what we think we know in order to illuminate a much richer retelling: What do handprints on early cave paintings tell us about the role of women in hunting? How is a cell phone related to femicides? What does Kim Kardashian’s diamond ring have to do with Elena Ferrante?
Wide-ranging, subversive, witty, and superbly researched, this is a book that upends all our assumptions about, and presentations of, the past, proving that it has always been as complicated and fascinating as the women who peopled it.
Read by Gillian Anderson, Katy Hessel, Anita Rani, Jackie Kay, Len Pennie, Annabelle Hirsch, Shirley Manson, Rebecca Solnit, Sandi Toksvig, Marina Hyde, Naomi Shimada, Harriet Walter, Celia Imrie, Kate Manne, Margaret Atwood, Janina Ramirez, Doon Mackichan, Helen Mirren, Elif Shafak, Kathryn Hunter, Kate Mosse, Miriam Margolyes, Val McDermid, Caitlin Moran, Dolly Alderton, Georgia Byng, Olivia Colman, Sasha Lane, Adjoa Andoh, Elizabeth Acevedo, Sue Perkins, Ece Temelkuran, Mary Ann Sieghart, Alison Steadman, Daisy Ridley, Rebecca Hall, Krista Tippett, Patience Agbabi, Michelle Newell, Jeanette Winterson, Geraldine James, Sinead Cusack, Tiya Miles, Crystal Clarke, Louise Brealey, Leila Slimani, Helena Kennedy, Samin Nosrat, Anna Holmes, Michelle Gomez, India Knight, Natascha McElhone, Lauren Elkin,Kate Winslet, Helena Bonham Carter, Sylvia Whitman, Noma Dumezweni, Meera Syal, Niamh McGrady, Denise Gough, Jacqueline Wilson, Siri Hustvedt, Gaby Wood, Sophie Hunter, Lisa Kainde Diaz, Annabel Mullion, Sharleen Spiteri, Jennifer Clement, Julia Gillard, Christiane Amanpour, Jude Kelly, Kerry Fox, Ruthie Rogers, Maggie Smith, Hanna Schygulla, Kübra Gümüsay, Erica Wagner, Sandra Huller, Jodie Whittaker, Virginie Efira, Nicola Sturgeon, Juno Dawson, Juliet Stevenson, Sally Phillips, Anjelica Huston, Lisa Dwan, Ruth Ozeki, Joanna Lumley, Cynthia Erivo, Martha Wainwright, Eleanor Updegraff, Sinéad Gleeson, Salena Godden, Lili Taylor, Mariella Frostrup, Rakie Ayola, Katie Kitamura, Saffron Hocking, Tahmina Anam, Vivian Oparah, and Shirin Neshat

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 5, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593868188
      • File size: 378704 KB
      • Duration: 13:08:57

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Annabelle Hirsch's feminist look at history through 101 idiosyncratic objects is given a captivating performance by the author and 100 narrators. The choice of performers, including actors, authors, and commentators, is as clever as the short essays about the objects. We have an anecdote about a healed femur from 30,000 BCE, narrated by Gillian Anderson; a fifth-century BCE Amazon warrior doll, read by Len Pennie; a seventeenth-century thumbscrew, read by Val McDermid; an eighteenth-century bidet, read by Olivia Colman; a nineteenth-century knife, read by Samin Nosrat; Greta Garbo's 1927 pen, read by Christiane Amanpour; 2017's pussy hat, read by Vivian Opara. These and many more voices enhance the informative, insightful, subversive, and witty writing, making this an audiobook to savor and recommend. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      May 31, 2024

      Culture writer Hirsch's debut essay collection is "a cabinet of curiosities" that plumbs the complex, surprising, and nonlinear history of women. From cave paintings and corsets to computers and contraception, her book explores the evolution of women in the Western Hemisphere. This extensive though not exhaustive collection includes items that range from menial (pockets) to mystical (planchettes), yet each essay has eye-opening insight into the roles and rights afforded to women through the centuries. The audiobook's narrators are as numerous and varied as the objects themselves, with actors such as Jodie Whittaker and Gillian Anderson, authors including Margaret Atwood and Le�la Slimani, politicians, musicians, and more. With a new narrator every few minutes, the in-depth exploration of feminist theory stays fresh, but the audio format sacrifices the full-page images of each object featured in print. VERDICT This audio will appeal to listeners seeking a fresh, encyclopedic investigation into objects that reflect women's ingenuity, bravery, and commitment as well as myths that have governed their lives for centuries. Recommended for fans of witty, well-researched women's history and gender studies.--Lauren Hackert

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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