Created and written by Julia Pierpoint and with illustrations by Manjit Thapp, this little book is compiled in the same manner as a little book of Catholic saints is: each “saint” is a woman (or two, or even a group of women) who made a difference, stood out, inspired us, and still continue to inspire us. Each icon contains a feast date, and a picture where they are portrayed in “saint-like” fashion (if you have ever seen a Catholic prayer card you will know what I mean). There is also a short summary of each woman’s life alongside each entry.

What I really loved about the summaries is that they are never a standard biography, something that one could find with a few clicks on the internet. Instead they are real anecdotes, snippets of a conversation, an extraordinary accomplishment accompanied by a tiny detail of significant importance, or just some information that isn’t readily known about the person. It really made me want to actually go out and get to know more about quite a few of the women depicted in the book!
The list of women chosen is very interesting. The book includes women from around the world but the focus is mainly US-centric. I felt like I learnt about some personalities that I had never heard of before which was pretty cool. The usual suspects can be found (Frida Kahlo, Marie Curie, Maya Angelou etc), but other lesser celebrated but equally important women are also featured, such as Junko Tabei, Grace Hopper, the Grimké Sisters,. I didn’t realize that Delores Huerta, and not her union co-founder Cesar Chavez, was the one who coined the phrase “Si, se puede!”! I did find that there were some figures that I would not have typically thought of as feminist icons, and some that were missing. There is a page at the end of the book where you can add your own personal “matron saint” which I thought was a nice touch.

This is a well thought-out book, a collection of amazing women who should all have their own special places in history. I’m going to enjoy reading pages to my kids when they get a little older. I LOVE that it includes ALL women, diverse and inclusive. I think I would have just liked to have seen more information in the summaries, but if that had been the case it probably wouldn’t really have fitted into the whole “book of saints” idea. I would have liked to see some mention of British Suffragettes, or Alice Paul for example.

The illustrations are beautiful - each picture bears a good likeness to the character they are portraying while conveying strength and resilience. You can also see each woman’s personality shine through the illustrations, something that takes a ton of talent and imagination to do!

The Little Book of Feminist Saints will be published by Random House on March 6, 2018.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

This is the kind of book you want to gift to all your friends, and bonus, it comes with an important theme!

I enjoyed this little book a lot, but it’s so difficult for me not to compare this to Rejected Princesses: Tales of History's Boldest Heroines, Hellions, and Heretics by Jason Porath. Rejected Princesses was published just a few years ago but communicates the same theme (plus more) in a much larger volume. I kept trying to remind myself that these two books serve different purposes… but there’s so much crossover. If I hadn’t read Porath’s work first, I would have given this 4 stars.

What this collection does well is give you bite-sized information on a bunch of important ladies and why they’re so inspiring. It’s the perfect coffee table book. It also includes a diverse assortment of women, many of whom are still living today—which I think is especially significant because it reinforces the message that we have role models all around us.

One big issue I have with this book (aside from my early disclaimer), is that many of the entries don’t include dates of events. You get the birth year of the woman on each entry, but often the defining moment that is presented has no timeline; Frida Kahlo’s entry begins with a traffic collision which changes her life; Marsha Johnson’s entry begins with the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village. Maybe I’m an outlier here, but I had no idea what year these things happened, and I took to assuming for most of these women that the events were 20-30 years after they were born, but it’s frustrating not to have that small piece of information in front of you.

Lastly, I wish the title were something like The Little Book of Feminist Leaders, or Idols, or Role Models, or honestly just anything else. I feel strange about considering Madonna, Elizabeth I, Hillary Clinton, and Pussy Riot as “saints.” Applying that word to anyone in this book is just weird. I get that it was inspired by the saint of the day book, but that antiquated classification on such a modern title twangs in my head like an untuned instrument.

I loved this book! Little bite-sized stories of powerful and inspiring women of diverse cultures, ethnicities, and sexual/gender orientations. The illustrations for each saint were also wonderful. I loved the art style. This book is very similar to another I just read, "Brazen" by Pénélope Bagieu. Both books highlighted a variety of feminist figures. The main difference between the two is that "Brazen" basically gives an overview of the person's life, while "Little Book" focuses primarily on anecdotes about the person. Pierpont says that is her goal for "Little Book," and I'm glad she did it. We need more humanizing stories like this. But if you're looking for a biography of these saints, you'll need something much more thorough. This would be a great place to start if you're looking for someone a bit under-known. Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC.

This is the book I didn't know I needed but will be buying for many of the women (young and old) in my life in 2018. What's not to love about a book that follows the Catholic Church's saint-of-the day format to provide Feminist inspiration and education throughout the calendar year? Pierpont assigns each "saint" her own feast day and provides an evocative illustration of the saint and a short biography about her life and accomplishments. From Michelle Obama to Hypatia of Alexandria, Sojourner Truth to Bea Arthur, Ruby Bridges, Jin Xing, Benazir Bhutto, Junko Tabei, and many more. This is a gorgeous collaboration that speaks to the truth and power in these historical and contemporary women's lives that is available and inspirational for every person.

Read in prepub. Due out March 2018. I loved this book so much. I want to put this into the hands of every woman and girl I meet. It was inspirational, even for women's studies loving, hardcore feminist like myself. While the "usual subjects" are included, I was introduced to lesser known icons. It is also just a beautiful physical object. I read it digitally, but immediately placed my order for the book.

Welp. The title of this book doesn't lie - it is a very little book. Which perhaps leads to my 3 star review... Pierpont did a great job giving us quick little stories about a lot of women who have done amazing stuff. However, sometimes her reason for including the women in this collection didn't come across very well. Sometimes, the story she told about the feminist was more about people in the feminist's life instead of the actual feminist. For the women I did know about, I wasn't sure why she picked the stories she did. It was kind of odd.

It's definitely a quick read, which was nice. And the information provided seemed well-researched and interesting and I did learn some interesting info on women I didn't even know existed. I don't know how to phrase it... the book just seemed to be lacking something to me.

I like the premise of this collection, but was disappointed in the execution. The selections had variety in race, nationality, and time. However, some seemed frivolous, such as Bea Arthur, Madonna, and Mae West – to name a few. The content and writing style was average and most of the illustrations were unrecognizable. I really wanted to like this book, but did not.

I really liked this book, it’s such a lovely little introduction to so many wonderful historical figures who have done great things to forge the way for women. I especially appreciated the inclusion of modern women (ex. Hilary Clinton and Oprah), and really enjoyed how a range of professions (surgeon, lawyer, scientist, etc.) and cultures (European, American, Japanese, South American, etc.) were represented. I definitely learned a thing or two!

Thanks NetGalley and Random House for the ARC.

An interesting, easy-to-read batch of mini-bios of 100 interesting "matron saints" (independent, intelligent, inspiring women) throughout world history. This book didn't really break any new ground and there have been a handful of similar books coming out recently, but it was still a fun read.

This is a nice little collection of very very very short summaries on some of the most prolific women of feminism, past and present. From writers to activists to talk show hosts (hey Oprah!), it’s a nice little primer on important women who have left their mark on the world. I think it could be best used as a jumping off point to learn more about these badass ladies – find someone’s story that interests you and then dive into deeper complete works on their life.

Disclaimer: I received a free advanced copy in exchange for a review. This holds no sway over my opinion or review of the book.

This is not one of those books that you just pick up and read straight through. It is supposed to resemble the format of some of those religious saints books, in other words, you open it once a day or so and read the mini bio for that day.

It did seem like it occasionally skipped a day, however, I was reading an ARC from Netgalley so there's a chance they were adding more. However, that may also have been the way those religious books were.

If you are expecting a typical bio, who they were married to, how many children they had and so on; well, that's not this book. This one is more of a paragraph or two of the fun stuff about these women.

I really appreciated the illustrations throughout, they were fun and vivid.

The people you expect are in there, but, there were also quite a few I hadn't heard of.

This is perfect for anyone who likes the format, but, also good for people like me who aren't 100% on the format but need to brush up on who's who. :)

To try and sum this up as succinctly as this work’s various entries, “The Little Book of Feminist Saints” does two things incredibly well.

The first is how it educates. Yes, it mentions many of the prominent women that one would expect, such as Oprah, Hillary Clinton, Amelia Earhart, etc. However, it also provides more exposure to many of the great women that we may know only by name or face, but don’t necessarily know what made them such grad figures of worthy note (Frida Kahlo, Josephine Baker, to name just two who jumped out to this particular reader). Then of course there are the scores of women who many of use have unfortunately have probably never heard of before opening this book, like Kara Walker, Junko Tabei, Mary Edwards Walker, Jin Xing, Juana Ines de la Cruz….all extraordinary figures whose entries will leave one wondering, “Wait, I haven’t heard of her yet HOW?”

Secondly, and although this is only stating the obvious, but “The Little Book of Feminist Saints” inspires. Thanks to the entries that successfully capture the essence of every extraordinary woman and their varied accomplishments in only a few paragraphs each, this book is perfectly formatted so that after the first read, one can come back again and again and again to read a section or several if they need to be inspirited, and quickly so.

Julia Pierpont, simply put, has crafted a marvelous compilation of amazing figures that one should not hesitate to pick up if provided with the opportunity.

Inspired by Saints, a collection has been curated here that represents some of the best people that have lived and made an impact on this world. This book often tells little known facts about each person within and leaves you feeling inspired.

What a great read! Full of inspirational ladies, some I’ve never met - but after learning of their short history did some further research! I love that each story is succinct and interesting. I would read a few aloud to my son while he nursed - Can’t wait for hard copies to be out, this is one i want to have around for us to share again and again. Here’s to raising kind feminist sons!

The Little Book of Feminist Saints is a powerful, inspiring collection with beautiful illustrations that honor women throughout history and around the globe. It's everything you'd want in such a powerful collection, from the descriptions to the visuals, it is all wonderfully crafted. I can't wait for this to be released because I'm going to purchase a copy for myself and my niece, it's a book you will want to gift, let someone borrow, and just share with every female in your life.

What a great book! There is a nice mix of both well known and some obscure feminists throughout history hightlighted in these pages. I loved the art and I think this is a great read for people of all ages. It offers a great overview and introduction to younger, or less informed, audiences but also a nice refresher and playful read for those well familiar with these memorable women.

I loved this book, a wonderful collection of brief stories of amazing women who bettered the world not just for other ladies but for the human race. Each entry is accompanied by a really nice portrait of each of the women. My only complaint was that each snippet was so short, I wish they were longer!

With the movement of the #MeToo, this book recalls us that other women in the past stand up and should not be forget. Inspirational and powerful!

When I first picked this book, I thought, oh another book about famous women. Wonder if I'll learn anything new.

Answer, yes, yes, I did.

This is more than just short histories of famous women. This is a collection that calls out why these women are famous and should be known about, and what they were known about. Yes, it is odd to make it out to be saint days, but why not?

And these are not light little nothings about famous women. These are all statements of why we should honor and listen to these women from the past and present.

For example, here is the excerpt about Rachel Carson, whose feast day is April 14:
<blockquote>The cancer had metastasized and her body had burns fromt he radiation.
Even the wig she wore when she went out was hot and itchy. And no one-her critis in particular-could k now of her condition, for fear it might be used to call her objectivity into question:
<em>Silent Spring's</em> unprecedented claim was that petrochemicals were linked to human cancer. That day in San Franscico, she emphasized the urgency of her findings. "We behave,
not like people guided by scientific knowledge, but more like the poverbial bad housekeeper who sweeps dirt under the rug in the hope of getting it out of site." "The Pollution of Our Environment"
would be her last speech: she died six months later.</blockquote>

And here is part of the excerpt about Nina Simone, the matron saint of soul:
<blockquote>"When I heard about the bombing of the church in which the four little balck girsl were killed in Alabama," she said, "I shut myself up in a room and that song happened."
The result was "Missisippi Goddam," a rallying cry for the movement and one of Simone's most famous protest songs.
Everybody knows about Missisippi-goddam.</blockquote>

And while I had heard and knew of Nellie Bly, the famous female journalist, I had not considered how important her story on the Insane Asylum was. And although I knew that Frances Perkins was the first female member of a U.S. president's cabinate, I was not aware of how much work she did to make the Social Security Act be established, or minimum wages, or the forty-hour work week, and the banning of child labour.

This is a great book to get people to read, and realize how many great women are out there that we should know more about.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

If I could give this book a million stars, I would. I cannot say enough good things about this book. This book is like chicken soup and some sort of massive energy drink for my inner beast mode feminine soul.
Celebrating women such as Ada Lovelace, Wilma Mankiller, Sojourner Truth, Sally Ride, Malala Yousafzai, and so much more, and modeled after the "Saint of the Day" books, Pierpont looks at a diverse cross section of women throughout history. Casting them as "Matron Saints" of various endeavors and granting them their own feast days, she brilliantly devises portraits of them which allow their inspiring accomplishments to sing. The illustrations are charming and fit well with the book.
If you are a fan of Amy Poehler's "Smart Girls" movement or stories from the Facebook Page, or wished Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls had a counterpart for adults, this is your book. You will also like it if you are just a human who likes to read about cool things other humans do. I DEVOURED this book and will certainly go back to these Matron Saints when I need inspiration in my own life!

Thank you so much, NetGalley and RandomHouse for granting me an ARC - in return I am honestly reviewing and I can honestly say I ADORE THIS BOOK.