A fascinating study about ancient Israelite women’s involvement in the religious life of pre-exilic Israel and Judah, and about what we can (and cannot) say about such involvement. Ackerman is a wonderful writer and I was impressed (and sometimes surprised) by how she uses evidence (biblical and otherwise) to reconstruct what an ancient Israelite woman’s religious life might have looked like. There is much that cannot be said with certainty about women’s involvement in the religion of ancient Israel, but I found the conclusions of Ackerman on the subject to be quite interesting (and, for the most part, convincing), especially her argument that the more hierarchical and institutionalized a religious space (e.g., the Jerusalem temple), the less involvement and influence ancient Israelite women would have had in that religious space. Conversely, at household and regional places of worship, with less (priestly) oversight, women likely had much more involvement and influence. Certain religious rituals also seem to have been ‘off limits’ for women (e.g., sacrificing animals), while others were typically performed by women (e.g., mourning, preparation of religious foodstuffs). Thus, Ackerman argues in that in pre-exilic Israel there were many possibilities for women to engage in religious seasons, spaces, and rituals, but there were also many (and probably more) limitations placed on women and their religious lives.