Thank you to Net Galley and the Publishing Company for this Advanced Readers Copy of The Riddles of the Sphinx by Anna Sechtman!

This is two different books combined into one. I was pulled in by the feminist history of crossword puzzles, which was interesting and definitely kept me reading. Like so many other areas, crosswords were at one time distinctly female, and became more male dominated at they became more technical and prestigious. While some of the bios wandered a bit and could have used with more framing to the crossword focus, I enjoyed these parts a lot.

But even more than a history of crosswords, this is a personal memoir of anorexia. I found it rather jarring in the prologue, but assumed it was just there as an introduction to the author's involvement and connection to crosswords. Instead, it is almost a bigger part of the book than the crosswords.

I really wish these were separated into two separate books. The writing and thoughts on both topics were interesting, but I don't think as concepts they always mesh together as well as they wanted to. More importantly, I think it's very poor marketing to title (and subtitle) this as a feminist crossword puzzle history only when a deep dive into eating disorders is not something everyone wants to do, and should be gone into with full knowledge of what they're getting into.

Shechtman, a formidable intellectual and crossword puzzlemaker/editor, examines the lives of 4 major trailblazing female crossword puzzlemakers, considering their actions and words through the lens of feminism (as defined in each of their historical contexts). But her examination, though interesting on its own, is given extra dimension by being guided by an intimately personal deep dive into her own experience with anorexia, an affliction that she associates strongly with her lifelong obsession with words and wordplay.

Words, Shechtman argues, or the mastery of words, is a politically powerful tool, perhaps especially for women, and crossword puzzles have always been a place for pushing the envelope (long guarded by old white men like Will Shortz, who is only so swayable). Crossword developers have introduced into esteemed journals like the Times a kind of progressive vocabulary, ushering common parlance into a broader acceptability. Some women crossword puzzlemakers have even very explicitly infused their creations with feminist language in clues and answers, though Shechtman doesn't expound much on whether such instances were intended as trying to reach a broader audience with propaganda, to sway views. For a woman publishing explicitly feminist crosswords, typically in smaller publications, such gestures could be more of an outlet for frustration (she knows her work has a small audience who expects and enjoys the tone). But the personal is, of course, that other side of the political coin.

How women perceive and relate to their bodies is a similar coin: one that's deeply personal but impossible to separate from social politics. It makes sense that Shechtman sees parallels and links between the two obsessions - for her, control both over words and over her body were long ways to prove her intelligence, and to achieve an appearance of sexual superiority (ironically, given her virginity at the peak of) using both. I recognized in her story my own desperate need in my teens and twenties for external validation that I was attractive in the narrow, snobbish (frightened) ways I defined based on what my social and familial environs told me: smart and pretty, above all. I also was in love with words, though I never mastered them as well as Shechtman. Linking the two: external and internal superiority (intellect demonstrated by an extensive vocabulary, never mind that I, like Shechtman, was a bit of a Miss Malaprop in my urgency to prove it), is a concept I readily accepted and was eager to read about. I was not disappointed.

Less convincing is Shechtman's profession that she finally learned, in her last rehab stint, to truly embrace women as sisters and herself as one of them, and no longer feels a need to prove anything. (It would have helped to have delve more into her female friendships beyond that with her mother -- though that relationship was quite touching to read about.) She is, however, refreshingly direct about her continued struggles at times with body image despite a breakthrough with healthy eating. As befits the modern confessional-style nonfiction author, she doesn't pull punches dissecting her youthful wrongheadedness and silliness -- to good effect. (Some self-deprication is always welcome from those who are dauntingly smart.)

I didn't mind the somewhat experimental structure of this memoir/study, but I find myself not knowing whether or how to recommend this to fans of more straightforward nonfiction, who may not appreciate the dovetailing of topics. But I think certain people -- women, mostly -- will be game to travel with Shechtman on this journey of placing one's pathologies into a sociopolitical context.

An intricate and well-researched look at the origins of crossword puzzles as it relates to feminism. Learned a lot about both.

There are some group biographies where the narrator's personal life occasionally interrupts the narrative flow. This one seems to work the opposite way, with the histories of crossword-writing women interrupting her memoir about having an eating disorder as something that gave her a sense of control, albeit an unhealthy one, which she replaces with crossword construction.

what i liked about this book i REALLY liked… but it tried to bring a few too many things together. the history of women in crosswords and the discussion of how it’s changed in the digital age was super fascinating. the author’s own experiences with anorexia were well written but struggled to tie those stories with the main point of the book. i would still recommend this to my xword loving friends!

The Riddles of the Sphinx offers an interesting exploration of the role women have played in the invention, development, and popularity of the crossword puzzle. This is a hybrid sort of read: part history, part memoir, as the author, Anna Shechtman, is herself a creator of crosswords. The historic portions surprise and are contextualized in ways that connect the world of puzzling with key moments of 20th Century history. The memoir sections varied in their effectiveness. At times Shechtman's reflections illuminated her topic—at others, they illuminated her personal story more than the history of crosswords and felt extraneous.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.

Shechtman tells a fascinating tale - one of those writers who could probably write about anything and it would draw most people in, regardless of level of personal interest. A huge brainiac, though I was not expecting as much about her experiences with anorexia as I found - which isn't a disappointment, as she slowly goaded the reader into seeing the connection between control and puzzles and women in the workforce and feminism and yet another field women spearheaded being wrested from their control by the systems long in place.

I think the subtitle and blurb-y/PR info on this title are going to do it a disservice to potential readers. Everything is focusing on the _crossword_ bit, when that feels ultimately secondary to the memoir parts of the book. I feel like the readers who come to this for the crossword side are going to be unfulfilled, and not enough is playing up the memoir side to bring in the potential audience there.

There's two strands of narrative going on throughout the book - the author's process of dealing with anorexia and how crossword construction played into that on both sides of that journey, and the stories unsung women who either affected the development and popularization of the crossword, or used it as a tool for further exploration of feminism. There's attempts to braid these together in each chapter of the book, but I almost feel if the personal memoir bits and the historical research-y bits (which are really good, and show the author's skill for highlighting these women's contributions) should have been further separated into their own chapters - there's not quite enough braiding these together, and alternating these in the book could have helped strengthen both sides for me.

I sort of wish the subtitles of this book incorporated anorexia, which is a large part of this book's content, just so readers can be prepared. As someone with an interest in feminism and a love of crosswords, this book was in my wheelhouse. While the various names of women involved in crosswords from their inception were largely familiar to me, the book did an interesting job presenting many of the paradoxes between women and work and feminism and crosswords. It was pretty funny to me when the author discussed her therapist's observation of her intellectualizing everything, because that was my experience with this book. It holds everything at such a remove that it's truly not clear that the author *likes* crossword puzzles.

This is an ARC and will likely get copyedited, but: the clue for 1 Across in the frontispiece puzzle is incorrect. The place in question is where another diner orders "what she's having"; not Sally herself. The tone is prickly and snooty throughout, which made a lot of it off-putting. I don't need an author to constantly be showing the reader how smart they are compared with everyone the discuss in the book. Schechtman opens by connecting her nascent puzzle-making with her anorexia, and draws a lot of striking parallels, but the writing here feels disjointed and loose; again, I'm sure copyediting will help with that. I do think pitching this as a memoir that also documents the work of other women puzzle constructors would be better than marketing it as a book about the crossword and feminism.

I am sorry, but I don't even know what to say about this book. Is it meant to be an autobiography on the author's battle with anorexia? A discussion on feminism? On French feminists? A little of the history of crossword puzzles? I found this to be a difficult book to read as I had a difficult time following the thread of this story - or stories. While I appreciate that the author is a very educated woman who is intimately involved with the world of crossword constructors, I am not certain I agree that anorexia plays a role in this history. I found the individual sections describing some of the feminists' struggles to be quite interesting, and the discussion about the more recent feminists to be fascinating, but I found other, earlier sections to be a difficult, very 'high brow' read, as if the author was more interested in proving her 'smarts' as opposed to giving a more straightforward history and discussion. I did like the analogy of the female constructors fitting into the crossword squares, it's an interesting comparison. There are some bright spots in this volume but I can't wholeheartedly recommend it.

This ARC was provided by the publisher and by NetGalley, the opinions expressed herein are strictly my own.

I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting going into this book but whatever it was this book didn't meet my expectations, it far exceeded them! Shechtman delicately intertwines and paradoxically compares her development and history of anorexia and it's correlation with her crossword construction with the stories of various feminists and crossword constructors/editors, each "of whom [may have been] unbending to the point of self-sabotage."

<i>The Riddles of the Sphinx</i> is a unique historical dive into the feminist history of crossword puzzles, the women, ideologies and philosophies that helped shape the feminist movements, and the roles that women have played in puzzles, publishing, cryptology, and computer programming all along - no matter how disregarded they may have been then or now. All the while, a telling memoir of one woman's complex inner turmoil surrounding anorexia and how she views and understands her value and place in the world. Shechtman describes how the connection between her anorexia and her puzzle-making was intuitive, "mastering forms that should be unmasterable." Throughout the book. as she discusses the stories of various other women, she does an immaculate job of rounding back to her own struggle and drawing an interrelationship between her story and those of the women she's chosen to highlight. We read how many of them, in their attempt to elevate the place of women, often ended up ostracizing or alienating themselves in the process. At the same time, she seamlessly ties everything back to crosswords and puzzle-making.

This is truly an emotional, thought-provoking book that will solidify the convoluted history of women in society and the respect and acknowledgment that we deserve but most often, do not receive. If you enjoy language, linguistics, puzzles/riddles, feminism, and history...this book is for you!

Thank you to HarperCollins Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC.

Thanks for letting me read this book. I enjoyed the part that lived up to the promise of learning about the making of crosswords with their history and would have given it five stars.. Unfortunately, the narrative strayed into other topics and personal narratives that were just distraction. .

This book is a history of crossword puzzle construction and a personal struggle with an eating disorder. Sounded like an odd combination when I read the description of the book. At times the connection seemed like a bit of a stretch. The book was a joy in terms of its language and ideas, and that was enough to keep me reading.
I'd like to thank the publisher HarperCollins for providing me with a NetGalley ARC of this book. I thank the author even more for writing this book. This review is my honest opinion.

An extremely engaging read that mixes memoir, often in the form of self analysis, with a cultural feminist analysis of crossword puzzles. Did you know that both the publishing companies Simon & Schuster and Farrar, Straus and Giroux are indebted to crosswords (directly and indirectly) for helping fund their businesses when they were first starting out? Similar to a crossword puzzle, the book covers a wide scope of cultural and intellectual topics and highlights the relationships between them. Relationships that would likely remain unexamined if not placed in this new context. Shechtman’s candid exploration of her own psyche and struggles with anorexia lends credence to her cultural analysis and insights. Recommended not just to crossword fans, but also anyone interested in feminism, psychology, philosophy, cultural theory, memoirs, and excellent creative nonfiction.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

This was extremely interesting to read! I had no idea about much of what the author discusses here, including the role of women in development of the crossword puzzle.

Look forward to telling my grandmother about this book and what I learned as she loves crosswords and will also find it interesting!