Recommendation Friday

This week I’ll be recommending one of my favorite nonfiction books and one of my favorites of 2016.

Wonder Women: 25 Innovators, Inventors, and Trailblazers Who Changed History
by Sam Maggs 

Ever heard of Allied spy Noor Inayat Khan, a Muslim woman whom the Nazis considered “highly dangerous”? Or German painter and entomologist Maria Sibylla Merian, who planned and embarked on the world’s first scientific expedition? How about Huang Daopo, the inventor who fled an abusive child marriage only to revolutionize textile production in China?

Women have always been able to change the world, even when they didn’t get the credit. In Wonder Women, author Sam Maggs introduces you to pioneering female scientists, engineers, mathematicians, adventurers, and inventors—each profile a study in passion, smarts, and stickto-itiveness, complete with portraits by Google doodler Sophia Foster-Dimino, an extensive
bibliography, and a guide to present-day women-centric STEM organizations.

Prior to reading this book, I’d only heard of a couple of the women mentioned (Marie Curie and Amelia Earhart). I might not have paid attention to lot of my history classes in school but I would have remembered these women if I had been taught about what they’ve done for the world.
The fact that so many of women’s impact on history has been throw aside and disregarded upsets me so much. But thanks to Sam Maggs, we can educate ourselves on some of the women that changed the world. Sam clearly did a ton of research for this book and it shows. It’s extremely well written and fun to read. I’ve learned so much about history because of this book and I can’t recommend it enough.