Women From the Ankle down by Rachelle Bergstein

I have started my summer reading, which to me means light hearted, full of romance and fluff novels..but this new book by Bergstein is not a bit of fluff.  It is a very decent history of shoes and women, empowering and powerful.
It begins with the first shoe "designer", a young Italian man named Salvatore Ferragamo who thinks shoes should adorn the foot. He follows his brothers to America and opens a shoe business. It ends with Sex in the City's main character, Carrie Bradshaw and the role shoes played in that series.
But there are so many shoes and so much history in between. The world wars, a time when women had to enter the work force and the shoe of choice was steel toed. After the wars, in the 50's women are back in the home and back in heels. The 60's roll around and we were either barefoot or Birkenstocked with flowers in our hair..the 70's bring the platforms !! Oh my!! Grunge brings Doc Martens..and on and on....and who would have thought that a red glittery pair of shoes worn by a young girl from Kansas would have created such a fuss?
Author Bergstein has done her research and provides so much history in this book..it is a genuine education about how shoes have defined the decades. So, if you are like me and have 20 pairs of shoes by your front door (after I read the book , I had to count them) then get yourself into a pair of your fave shoes and head to the bookstore to pick up this book :)