How To Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran

This month we were treated to tea and cake at Rachel's house, thanks to Jen for her yummy cakeypops :-)

Sadly it was Dave's last meeting, so we subjected him to talking about waxing, childbirth and wedding planning - yes, that's actually what this book is about.  An autobiographical rant about feminism made all the more amusing by Caitlin's anecdotes about her bizarre family.  Once you are past the first chapter (lots of sex, periods and more sex) this book is quite good fun.  We liked her self-depreciating style and her explanation that feminism isn't about hating men, more about why women seem to accept that their life is very different to men's.

Concept: 6/10
Plot: n/a
Characters: 8/10
Ending: n/a
Cover: 8/10

We didn't want to slap anyone, well maybe the crap boyfriend ....

Overall: 8/10

We didn't choose our next book as we chose 'Fifty Great Short Stories' a while back but didn't want to have two short story books back to back.

Our next meeting will be at Louise's house (I think Louise offered, correct me if wrong) on Wednesday 11th July.  Again we don't need reviews for this meeting as we already have September's chosen.  Can you bring along your copy of 'Fifty Great Short Stories' to the next meeting so we can choose which stories to read (unless you'd like to read all 50).

As I said above, this meeting was Dave's last, he's moving away with a new job.  Good luck Dave and it's been great having you in our little group.  Sadly we also have to say goodbye to Shelley who is moving back to America, good luck to you too Shelley, we will miss you.  Stay in touch you two :-)

In other news, last night myself, Jen and Rachel braved Reading's finest brains in the Reading Library Mid-Summer Quiz, 80 questions on Sport, Books (only managed 3/10), Nature, Local, Jubilee, General Knoweldge and Geography.  We came a respectable 6th out of 8 with 45/80.  It was a fun evening and we shall we going to the Christmas quiz ... time to study local history and maybe a little on books too.

Never Trust A Rabbit by Jeremy Dyson

This month we were back at a rather busy Copa Bar to discuss 'Never Trust a Rabbit' by Jeremy Dyson, a collection of short stories from one of the writers of 'The League of Gentlemen'.

It's quite a dark, depressing book with only a few stories which had an uplifting outcome.  The stories ranged from curious twists to some with an 'is that it' ending.  In the introduction the author says that some of his ideas came from just putting two random words together and, to be honest, that would sum up this book, entirely random with flashes of inspiration.  As Jen put it, 'he has nailed the odd concept'.

We agreed on the best and worst stories: the worst being 'All in the Telling' and the best were 'We Who Walk Through Walls' and 'Love in the Time of Molyneux'.

Concept: 7/10
Plot: 5/10
Characters: n/a
Ending: n/a
Cover: 3/10
Slap: The author!

Overall Total: 5/10

After reading this collection of short stories, we decided to take a breather from them for the moment and so we will not be reading 'Fifty Great Short Stories' for June.  We will read this later in the year.

We chose our next book from the following:

• How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
• American Gods by Neil Gaiman
• Great House by Nicole Krauss
• Tinkers by Paul Harding

We chose 'How to be a Woman' by Caitlin Moran (sorry Dave) which we will be reading for the June meeting.

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 9th May, 8pm at Susie's house.  The theme for book reviews will be diamonds, in celebration of the Queen's Jubilee.  Be as random as you like.

Our book of the year 2011-12 was voted as 'A Town Like Alice' by Nevil Shute.