bella_mckinnon's reviews
53 reviews

Very insightful, had timeless wisdom, and is a short read making it accessible and easy to finish in a sitting.

Interesting premise, enjoyed some parts of the dialogue between the women that were quite humorous in relation to the meaning of 'cunt', conclusion from part 6 onwards was well-done I thought. However, it felt too slow to me much of the time and it became somewhat of a chore to read. It was initially very satisfying that Esme was adamant about being an independent woman but

then there was the predictable romantic interest plot-line with Gareth around 3/4 of the way through the book

...however, my disdain for that direction is just a personal thing, I'm sure people will like that anyhow. Overall interesting, but not life-changing and I wouldn't read it again, purely because it was so slowly-paced.

It was good for overview on the Stoics and provided good accounts of key Stoics from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius, however it was the 'familiarity' and of the writing that bothered me. Occasionally pretentiousness seeped in, which was irritating. Like "Learn. Apply. Learn. Apply. Learn. Apply. This is the Stoic way." (p. 76) Even more, it felt less purely informational and more sentimental, which wasn't for me – using phrases like "Then Zeno held his breath until he passed from this life" (p. 10) and "In 62 AD, Persius died tragically young..." (p. 210). This here is nitpicky but even the attached feeling of regret in how Persius died "tragically young" goes against the acceptance of death as a part of life that Holiday capitalises on through his memento mori merchandise. But again, this is me being nitpicky. Overall it was a fine read, but for what I thought was going to be a historical book, I felt the author's opinion seeped in too much for me to enjoy it. 

Hilarious and refreshingly empowering for an ancient greek text about women.

got bored

brother had to return the book to the library

It was very informative, but not very engaging to me. Got bored.

Good book, well-sequenced and enjoyable to read.

Offered some good tips, but didn’t blow my mind

Great, a classic.