Fierce Woman: Rhoda Shapiro
Note: I received this note courtesy of Llewellyn Press via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. A huge thank you to both organizations for giving me a copy of this book.
Secondary Note: this book comes out in August and you can pre-order it here
I gotta warn y'all before we even start, this is going to be another gushy review that's more about my experience than about the book itself. I know I've just written like 10 of that kind of review in a row. Bear with me for another one.
Honestly, I'm having trouble finding the words that properly express what I want to say about FIERCE WOMAN. This book is so important. It's so good. It's going to be big and it's a book that truly cannot be read by enough women. Powerful doesn't begin to describe it. Reading it felt like someone had dipped into my brain, pulled out everything I've been trying to do already, cleaned it up and polished it into something that made 10x more sense, and handed it back to me as a book.
And I'm so thankful that this book exists and that I got a chance to read it and that other people are also going to have a chance to read it. That's my mood, while I review this. Overwhelming thankfulness.
FIERCE WOMAN is essentially a self-help book for the modern woman. Which sounds kinda boring, and possibly overdone, I know--self-help books for women are doing really well right now (which, tangent, I think is amazing. Like. Go us for collectively deciding to not be OK with our status quos and choosing to read more self-help books and improve ourselves. That's a pretty cool thing). But. This is a really good one and this is the one you should read. The advice is amazing. Rhoda writes with such a fervent, confident conviction that as you're reading, you can't help sitting there like "girl, preach, hell yes we all goddesses, keep talking."
I was really sad when this book ended, actually, which I can't say for a whole lot of books.
I took my time reading it, too. This wasn't a book where I was like, "ok let me get this done in 3 days." It took a solid two weeks--and even after crawling through at a snail’s pace (for me) I’m still bummed that it’s over now.
Actually, to properly talk about this book I feel like I need to discuss the week I just had, right? Cuz I've been reading through FIERCE WOMAN and it's the kind of book that gives you a lot to think about, and you can't really help but follow the advice she gives because it'll stay on your mind through the day. I don't want to go too into detail on the advice - it seems like a spoiler to say too much, especially when the book isn't out until July - but suffice it to say I started following the advice.
Specifically, when this week started (so, Sunday, and as I write this review it’s Thursday night), I decided to just try on being a fierce woman. Because of this book, I challenged myself to do one week at my goal self, right? And it was kind of a no harm, no foul situation to see what would happen, more than anything. Let me tell y'all. I worked out 5 days in a row for the first time since October. My word counts for the week (I do freelance writing & I'm working on my first novel) are the highest they've been since March 2018, when I was trying to buy a new laptop. I actually learned that if I have my crap together when I wake up, I can have my writing day completely done by 10:15 AM, when I was literally under the impression that I could not get a full day of writing done before noon. My diet has been controlled, when normally it's all over the place. I feel like I'm in control and like I'm a confident person who could do literally anything right now. By spending just one week practicing what this book talks about, I've already learned that everything I thought was my limit on what I could do was a lie. It was a complete lie. I literally only added half an hour onto my writing time, but my word counts per day have doubled just because my mindset was challenged and changed.
And I know that obviously, that's all personal experience and it might just be in my head. But honestly, this book is a powerhouse. It's so good. So enlightening. So... important. This is the book you absolutely have to read this summer. I honestly can't wait to see it in stores. It's so well done. It has so much to say. It’s going to be big.
