Cover Image: Voices of Powerful Women

Voices of Powerful Women

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Whenever I look around I see books about powerful women, inspiration for young girls, feminism, equality etc. etc. Whilst it has been a great joy to see this development in literature in recent years, I feel there are now simply too many essay-type books and it begins to feel repetitive. Many of the books offer style over substance and not much else.

Whilst "Voices of Powerful Women" was a quick and easy read, it did not inspire me. Yes, I love Jane Fonda and respect Carla Del Ponte, but I do not care what books or music inspired Bianca Jagger... Eclectic selection of interviewees.

"Worldwide equity? I don't think so. There's too much greed."
- Mary Kayitesi Blewitt

If you are interested in thoughts of millions of strong women who took action in their own hands, I cannot recommend enough "The Unwomanly Face of War" by Svetlana Alexievich (a Nobel Prize for Literature laureate).

With thanks to NetGalley for a free copy of the book.

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This is a great book to dip in and out of. I particularly enjoyed reading this at night just before going to sleep as the women interviewed had such knowledge to impart that I often fell asleep with something interesting to consider and ponder.

I did have to research who some of the interviewees were because it wasn't immediately apparent as I was making my way through the book. This activity alone made for some interesting rabbit holes to delve into and it was great to read about women I haven't heard of rather than the obvious powerful women who usually come to mind.

I would recommend this to all ages and genders. Some really fascinating insights and great to pick up at the end of a long day.

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I read this book in three short stints as I found it so interesting! Had the time, finishing it in one day would have been very possible. I thought it was perfect to share today with you all on International Women’s Day

The women featured in this book have some amazing stories, ideas, experiences and knowledge and share it so well in this structure, with the selected questions the author chose to use. The questions didn’t come across as too literary or academic, which meant it was an interesting general read rather than feeling like you are studying something. It was good to have a section on what each women does and did, as some of the names I didn’t recognize. Seeing some of these topics from different viewpoints was an eye opener and I really enjoyed it.

I love non fiction as well as fiction and if you are a fan I would definitely give this one a try as I found it fascinating.

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This is an inspiring and eye opening collection of questions and answers with some of the world's most impressive women. I think there is a lot to be gained for women of all ages reading this book and having it to flick through again and again. I did, however, begin to find the answers a bit repetitive - there are 40 women answering the same questions, and what this book mainly showed me is that the passionate, the kind and the strong are probably going to answer questions meant to be insightful in the same way.

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This book is both a powerful yet thought provoking read- it is full of a variety of thoughts and opinions from a range of women from all walks of life.
I certainly enjoyed reading it and got a lot out of reading it.
Thank you to both NetGalley and Watkins Publishing for my eARC in exchange for my honest unbiased review

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"One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We cannot be kind, true, merciful, generous, honest." -Maya Angelo

I was very excited to read this book. The cover is beautiful and emits power and strength. I started reading it earlier than I originally planned since international women's day was approaching and I wanted to spark the female empowerment flame via this book.

As the title states, this book is a collection of voices of women from around the world. I recognized the names of some of the women interviewed while I have no clue who others are. I did not bother to look them up nor did I feel there was a need to. I somewhat expected this book to be stories or words of wisdom shared by different women. I expected to gain a few valuable life lessons with each story. I wanted to learn more about the journey of these women and how they overcame the difficulties of life. I wanted to see the differences in our experiences but learn from their determination and resilience. That was my honest expectation and this book did not come near what I expected it to be.

However, now that I've pointed out what this book isn't, I can focus on what it is and how it can be embraced. The formatting of this book, questions at the beginning of the chapter and the responses from the different women within the chapter, reminded me of a devotional/daily reflection type book. Instead of getting to know the women, we get glimpses of their life story by the responses in each chapter. The responses aren't organized by each woman, we don't get a chapter per woman to know them better. It is simply a question and answer type format. We get glimpses of what their childhood was like, depending on what each person shared, but the point is to give us a response. To answer a question and focus on that.

I would approach this book as a meditational/reflection type book. A thought-provoking book where one can start or end their day/week by reading one chapter and asking themselves the same question. It's an invitation to join the women in this book, assuming you're a woman and adding your voice on paper or a journal.

Although it wasn't what I expected, I would recommend this book to a friend. I think it's empowering to reflect on the responses and join in the conversation with the women interviewed. I would definitely have appreciated short life stories of the women interviewed or a chapter per woman's response to each question so that her life story could somewhat connect with the interview, but it can definitely still work if one accepts it as a book of quotes and reflective questions.

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I really enjoyed reading this book. It was good to read the various thoughts and opinions of these intelligent women. It definitely made me think but it's sad to hear that some of them believe we will never have equality in our lifetime and there will always be poverty of some kind. At my age I don't worry for myself but I have five small grandchildren and I do worry for their future.

Thank you NetGalley for this thought provoking book.

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The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

2.5/5

"Voices of Powerful Women" by Zoe Sallis is a collection of answers important and inspirational women gave to some questions. The women who featured this book are 40, from actresses and activists to artists and presidents. The things they said were really interesting and inspiring.
What I didn't appreciate about this collection is that these women are not presented in any kind of way. There's just a name and the answer. I would have appreciated a mini biography about them, so to be able to know who they all are and empathize more.
Plus, I would have liked each woman to have a chapter of her own in order to know her own experiences and thoughts without confusion.
Anyway, I liked the concept behind this collection. These women are such a force of nature!

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This book was one that I was really looking forward to reading, but the formatting issues really took away from my being able to enjoy it. Hopefully these will be resolved soon for future readers.

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This book was very different from what I was expecting. I was expecting more narrative to go alongside the words from these 40 women, but each chapter is one question with a selection of them answering that question. The questions range from topics about peace, activism, religion, and the younger generations.

Some of the women I know, some well others just the knowledge of there names and some I had never heard of at all. Some of the answers I agreed with and others I didn't, but I enjoyed reading the perspectives of all of these women from different cultures, generations, and walks of life.

There is wisdom in this book, but I may have enjoyed a bit more context to their words.

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What initially attracted me to this book was the eclectic mix of women that feature in its pages - from all walks of life, from all corners of the globe. It's diverse and inclusive and all the better for it - there are women from different races, cultures, religions and varying professions. What makes it so special is that it has one of the largest selection of inspirational ladies I've seen in this type of book. Zoe Sallis has done a sterling job putting it all together and making it cohesive and uplifting; you cannot fail to be moved and motivated, and because there are such a plethora of women here there will be at least a few that will resonate with everyone, and they are not women plucked from obscurity, the majority will be recognisable to most readers; that is one of the aspects that make this beautiful book so outstanding.

I do, however, feel that the inclusion of a concise biography of each woman at the rear of the book was an excellent idea, but, in my opinion, it should've been at the beginning, not least because some will only find out it exists when they've finished reading the rest. It really doesn't make a lot of sense to place it where it was. Another gripe was the absence of images - it's well-known that people tend to engage with writing a lot more when it is accompanied and complemented by some sort of image, whether that be a photograph or illustration, but, here, there aren't any to speak of. Unfortunately, younger readers will especially be impacted by that.

It's quite important that readers of these type of books can relate to those who grace the pages because if they can't it makes it difficult for the pieces inside to really have an impact. This is the sort of title that pushes you to follow your dreams, and although it's amazingly empowering to read at any age, I think this is a great book for young adults.

It's cleverly based around a standardised set of ten questions to which these women provide their answers; this makes it easy to compare and contrast the responses. I really appreciated this set-up because it ensured the topic was adhered to. I felt the tenth question - asking about a particular piece of art, music or a book that influences them and planted the seed which grew to what they have now become. This connection to popular culture will also appeal very much to younger readers.

This is a thought-provoking, honest and authentic book. Well edited and the layout makes it highly readable. It can be read from cover-to-cover like a novel or dipped in and out of whenever you are in need of a pick-me-up. Recommended.

Many thanks to Watkins Publishing for an ARC.

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As a sort of roundtable discussion, Voices of Powerful Women operates quite well, with plenty of predictably insightful and interesting answers on display, but there’s a certain soullessness to the Q&A format, and it’s perhaps best to think of it as a jumping off point for Google searches about the various names featured. Small biographies appear at the end, but the book would have been better served placing them earlier on, to contextualise responses.

That’s not to say it won’t inspire or invigorate (it likely will), but ultimately this collection lacks any real resonance, particularly with the younger readers it’s no doubt aiming to motivate.

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A fantastically inspiring collection of interviews with 40 successful and empowering women, including Maya Angelou, Isabel Allende, Mary Robinson and Shami Chakrabati, exploring their challenges and achievements.

Hearing from different women when it comes to their perspectives on life and how they have lived theirs is interesting as they bring something new and different to the table and really allow you an insight. However with some I feel like they are bites from interviews or too short to really give a perspective to these women so I feel like this book could have been put together better.

I do however like they layout and how each question is given it’s own chapter. It allows the reader to find the perfect section for them and it allows for a variety of experiences to be shared under the same heading in different ways and that makes for an interesting read. This book is a quick read for those reasons and allows to find what you’re looking for quickly.

Some fantastic moments from incredible women, if you want to learn about women who are inspiring, this is the book for you.

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A wonderful collection of interviews from a diverse range of women. Empowering and insightful, this book is truly fascinating with a gorgeous cover to boot!

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Voices of Powerful Women. Indeed, this book brings to the stage the voices of forty inspiring, diverse women, with the purpose of gaining their opinions on a range of matters: their inspirations, greatest fears, the impact of women on global matters. I enjoyed reading their opinions and their stories.

I greatly appreciated the short biographies at the end of the book, though I do wish the format was made in such a way that these pieces were at the start. I found myself in unfamiliar territory with some of the women, and though I understand that that may be partially the point (which is to say it leads the reader to personally researching) it only drove a feeling of detachment. This, coupled with the formatting issues of the e-version, left the book feeling a little disjointed. Additionally, I found that it became repetitive quickly, a river of 'I am' or 'I was'.

However, there is no questioning how important this book can be; one question posed is that of which women, past or present' do the interviewees admire. I'm a huge advocate for showcasing women supporting other women, and this question alone puts this book in an important place to aid with progression. "Voices of Powerful Women" is a read for everyone, and would be a perfect addition to an International Women's Day themed readathon to introduce people to new inspirations.

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Voices of Powerful Women takes a group of inspiring and strong women and asks them some very simple questions on a range of topics such as faith, the impact of their upbringing , inspiration, art and the role of women in making a difference in the world. The diversity of the women included , and the sometimes surprising commonalities in their answers made the book very interesting, and even thought provoking at times, since I found myself presented with ideas and perspectives I had never thought about before. The contributors include authors such as Isabel Allende and Jung Chang, journalists like Christiane Amanpour, politicians like Benazir Bhutto, human rights activists like Mary Robinson, artists, actresses including Judy Dench and Marion Cotillard and musicians such as Sinead O'Connor and Joan Baez. These women were all asked the same questions , and the answers compiled. While this was an interesting idea, and often worked well , at times a little more context would have helped. I would suggest that this book is best enjoyed as something to dip in and out of, rather than something to be read from cover to cover. While some of the questions and answers were predictable , I found myself surprised on several occasions, most notably when the participants were asked about faith and religion.
I read and reviewed an ARC supplied by the publisher via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

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The cover and the title of this book caught my eye while I was searching Netgalley. Once I began reading I realized there were some serious formatting issues that were causing problems with the flow of reading. I try not to let these issues distract me because lots of ARCs (electronic and physical) have formatting and spelling errors that are corrected before the final version of the book is released, but this one was really tough. The concept of asking powerful women to answer the same handful of questions to hear all of their different responses sounds like a great idea, but without context to to their answers I was unable to make the connection as to why they felt that way. Even looking beyond the terrible formatting, I wouldn't recommend this one.

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I think this was a really good book because we got to read a lot of different answers to questions from a diverse group of incredible women. The author asked questions like 'Did your upbringing or early experiences influence the direction your life took' and ' Which women, past or present, do you most admire?' I loved these questions because it's interesting to see what these amazing women have to say. Women like Jane Fonda, Yoko Ono, Kin Phuc, and Maya Angelou all had brilliant and wonderful answers and that's why I enjoyed this book so much.

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This was an interesting book but I had a bit of a problem with how it was laid out. I love that the book is just all of the women's own words and nothing analyzing whether they are 'right' or 'wrong', but because of the way it was organized I felt it hard to get a picture of each individual woman. The book features 10 questions all the women are asked and the chapters are broken up by question, with each woman's response simply appearing under her name. This was interesting because you get to see how their answers compare and contrast to one another, but not necessarily an entire overview of each woman because it's hard to keep it all straight. Maybe it was because I didn't know who a lot of these women were, but I found it kind of frustrating.

There is a bit at the end where it gives you a short biography of each woman so I would possibly recommend flipping to the back and reading that first if you think it will help you feel more connected to the book. Overall I did find it to be very interesting though and I think that the author interviewed a good mix of women from different countries and different backgrounds. A good read but if you have a short attention span like me you might find yourself getting a bit frustrated with it by the end.

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This is a difficult review because, whilst I love the premise of the book I could not finish it. I was looking forward to reading interviews with women who have stories and envisaged reading one then another, in the order of my choosing. And finding out about new people who I could admire. Unfortunately the book is organised by answers, not subject, so you find yourself reading all about everyone's inspirations or things that anger them. Which is monotonous and boring. I also feel that the art of interviewing, and creating an intriguing piece of reading, is in how the questions come together to tell you more than simply the answers to the questions asked.

In the current format I would not recommend (however if it was adapted to straightforward interviews then I absolutely would).

I received an ARC from the publisher through netgalley.

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