Our Shared Shelf, April 2016

How To Be a Woman – Caitlin Moran

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“It’s a good time to be a woman: we have the vote and the Pill, and we haven’t been burnt as witches since 1727. However, a few nagging questions do remain…

Why are we supposed to get Brazilians? Should we use Botox? Do men secretly hate us? And why does everyone ask you when you’re going to have a baby?

Part memoir, part rant, Caitlin answers the questions that every modern woman is asking.”

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History

What a hilarious and at times cringe worthy book. Caitlin pulls no punches with her brutally honest account of being a woman in our society. As a journalist and broadcaster, Caitlin has built her career on her humor and honesty. So many parts had me laughing out-loud.

She is a bestselling author with How to Build A Girl and an advocate for equality.

The Book

Based on different points in her life that she feels define her transition from girl to a woman we follow her across 16 chapters. Each chapter is written in her witty and sincere voice, and has a great title; The Worst Birthday Ever, I Start Bleeding, I Become Furry, I Don’t Know What To Call My Breasts, I Am a Feminist, I Need A Bra, I Am Fat, I Encounter Some Sexism, I Am In Love, I Go Lap-dancing, I Get Married, I Get Into Fashion, Why You Should Have Children, Why You Shouldn’t Have Children, Role Models And What We Do With Them, Abortion, and Intervention.

How to be a woman sets out to ask and attempt to answer the questions on every western woman lips. Whilst other equality books can be quite serious and daunting How to be a Woman sets out to keep it lighthearted and more of a conversation among others in the same predicament.

Numerous times parts of the book had me opening conversations with my partner, or whoever was nearest. They turned out to be great spring boards for discussing different aspects of feminism that are rooted in my own society.

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Final Thoughts

The entire book is quite refreshing, jumping from a serious note to a rant and back to an amusing story involving Caitlin. At times I was shouting out with agreement and others shaking my head.

Caitlin is completely unashamed of the choices she has made in her life and I applaud that. I can see me re-reading this and have since added How To Build A Girl to my TBR pile.

I think this is a great entry level book to the discussion of equality and where woman stand in our current society.