Ten Women Who Shook the World (2012)

Sylvia Brownrigg's Ten Women Who Shook the World is a collection of fanciful short stories loosely held together by a common thread; these tales portray women who talk, women who plan parties, a Wild Wild West woman who tames horses and bulls, a woman who orchestrates a theatrical company out of a flock of ducks, and even one who has overseen the building of every great structure known to man, from Egypt's pyramids to the cathedral at Chartes. Suspension of disbelief is required for this occasionally obtuse volume, but if you can set aside expectations of logic and linear progression, these surreal stories are intriguing. B-