Reading for Pleasure - November 2015 "How to be a Woman"

How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

In this book Caitlin Moran gives a personal account of her intricate but happy and ongoing path from being a young girl, the oldest of eight children living in a council house in Wolverhampton, to being a young-middle-aged woman, working as a journalist in London, and raising two girls of her own. 

Her story is interspersed with thoughts and observations about how society has different expectations for women and men and how miserly and restrictive these expectations can be. What makes the book special is how she writes about the occasionally sticky process of liberating herself from unwanted expectations with such humour (mostly wicked!), courage, generosity and sheer glee. The book often reads like a brilliant and ingenious manual for living life to the full. I would very much agree with the blurb on the book “The book every woman should read”, and add that men are highly likely to enjoy reading it too.

Reviewed by Bill Mortimer, Academic Liaison Librarian.