10 Women Who Changed the World by Danny Akin gives an overview of ten female missionaries who dedicated their lives to the gospel and serving others.

A strength of this book are the many sources sharing the women’s motivations and experiences in their own words or the words of those who knew them. It’s a short book conveying a lot of information, and at times the book could feel a little choppy trying to include all of the primary sources. But the point of the book is to introduce you and give an overview of these women’s lives.

The first several chapters told about women who died on the mission field, usually after enduring very difficult circumstances and losses and at a younger age. These were difficult to read about, especially one after the other. I wanted to see women’s service, contributions, and love for the Church celebrated in ways besides just in their deaths. I know these are real life stories, and as the book went on, there were many different kinds of life stories told.

My favorite chapter was learning about Yvette Aarons, the first Deaf IMB missionary. This chapter flowed really well, and it was cool to see it was based on Dr. Akin’s own interviews with Yvette. Like other chapters, it was beautiful to see how God has worked in individual people’s lives in a way that spreads to those around them.

This book provided a good introduction to the lives of some remarkable women and it makes a great jumping off point for exploring biographies more in depth of women I may not have heard of otherwise.

I think this book would be a great one to study with a womans Bible study group or in some kind of group setting. It is definitely worth reading! You may recognize some of the names of these inspiring missionaries the author writes about but there are a few you probably have never heard of. That is one of the reasons why I enjoyed this book so much, I learned something! The writing style was good, it did get a bit wordy sometimes but that is just my opinion. I still recommend it and will probably read it again sometime.

I don’t often pick up biographies, but that is something I’m trying to include in my reading diet more. When I saw this one coming up, I was immediately interested. What could be better than bite-sized biographies about women I’ve never heard about before? I love missionary stories, so this sounded like it would be right down my alley…and it was. Oh, was it ever good!

This is the kind of book I love to slow down and savor. I enjoyed the way these ladies’ stories were told—mostly in facts, but with enough description and nuances (and letters! I loved those parts of the stories!) that it brought them to life for me. Their love for God is palpable in these pages, and I found their stories both encouraging and deeply challenging. Some of them faced unimaginably tough times, and the way they kept their faith in God despite their difficulties inspired me.

I also enjoyed the devotional aspect of this book. While the transition from biography to devotional felt a little stilted at times, it did work fairly well, and I appreciated the Biblical truths brought out in this book. It was done in a faith-building way, without dragging down the stories as a whole.

This book quickly became a favorite of mine, and I hope I’ll be able to get a physical copy one day. I’ve also thought of several friends who would likely appreciate getting to read it—it’s a gem! Highly recommended.

I was given a complimentary copy of this book, and this is my honest opinion of it.

I didn’t know anything about any of these ladies before this book; and I was so encouraged and surprised by how much I enjoyed learning about them! Very insightful, inspiring, and a great resource to recommend to those in my women’s ministry.

10 Women Who Changed the World delivers exactly what it promises, an informative tribute to ten inspiring female missionaries with relevant connections to scripture passages. I loved learning about the lives of these women who I did not know and looking at them as role models. I appreciated the diversity in this small number of women highlighted with some single and some married, some who died young and some who lived long, both black and white, and even a rare missionary to the deaf. I liked that each woman’s story is interspersed with expositional teaching from scripture though this worked better for me in some chapters than others as at times I lost the connection to the woman and the flipping back and forth felt like it interrupted the flow for me as the reader. Overall, I liked this book and would not hesitate to share it with someone looking for short missionary biographies. I received an advanced copy from B&H Publishing through NetGalley; I am leaving this review voluntarily as my honest opinion. This book is expected to release on April 2, 2024.

Inspiring and encouraging, this book describes ten different female missionaries and how they showed God’s love by living out scripture.

I really loved this journey into the lives of 10 astounding missionary women who fought through rejection, discrimination and suffering to serve the Lord among the nations. It was a privilege to hear their stories and how they endured for the sake of the gospel.

I highly recommend this book! (full review to come closer to publication)

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC and for the opportunity to post an honest review.

Thank you, NetGalley, for my free review in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this book. Missionary biographies are always favorites of mine, so this book with its 10 mini biographies of women who have served the Lord in powerful ways on the mission field was just perfect!

I learned more about missionaries that I already admired and even learned of a couple of incredible woman that I didn’t know of.

I would highly recommend this powerful book!

This is such a good book! You will love reading about 10 women that you don't always hear about. You find out what they went through in their life while the author gives you scriptures throughout.