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| Clever Girl... >> Entertainment >> Books The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf is my absolute favourite book ever, and I recommend it to everyone, male or female. You don't have to read it in its entirety, but if you just understand the general flow of the argument... it could change your life. It's the only feminist book I've ever read which is not only interesting, but holds actual relevence to daily modern life. Ben Elton is one of my favourite writers and, as a consequence, his books make up many of my favourite books. Highly recommendeds include: Popcorn Stark Blast From The Past Inconceivable Virginia Andrews may be dismissed as sleazy and trashy, but I think that's a bit of an elitist statement. If we consider for a second what the elites consider to make a good book - they're basically saying it must be well written and, I suppose, make some statement about society. While V C Andrews's books tend to get a bit formulaic after a while, My Sweet Audrina is fabulous. It's well-written, engaging, and emotive, as well as having something interesting to say about female sexual repression. In fact, I think it follows the Tennessee Williams |
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| tradition of the southern secret... and no one thinks Tennessee is trashy, do they? "Aren't you happy to see me?" Smiling, she cocked her head to one side and looked over me again, then laughed. "No, I can tell you aren't. Are you still afraid of me, Audrina? Afraid your boy husband might find a real woman twice as appealing as a modest, shy bride who can't really give him any pleasure? Just looking at you in that white dress tells me you haven't changed. It's November, little girl. Wintertime. The season for bright colours, parties, good cheer and holidays, and you wear a white dress." Mockingly, she laughed again. "Don't tell me your husband is no lover at all, and you are still Papa's pure little darling." "It's a wool dress, Vera. The colour is called winterwhite. It's an expensive dress that Arden selected for me himself. He likes for me to wear white." "Of course he does," she said even more mockingly. "He indulges your need to stay a sweet little girl. Poor Audrina, the sweet and chaste. Audrina, the pure and virginal. Dear Audrina, the obediant little darling who can do no wrong." My Life Is A Toilet by Gretel Killeen captures perfectly what it is to be a girl aged 14-16. It's getting dark now. It's hard to write. At the moment I'm lying face down on the ute roof, hiding from a bird that wants to nest on me. Actually, I'm almost grateful for its attention. If it asked me on a date I'd probably go. In a change of tone, I also like Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. She is so immeasurably superior to them all, to everyone on earth, is she not Nellie? And I'm obsessed with Arthur Miller's The Crucible, to the point where whenever I quoted anything people would assume it was from The Crucible. I only hope you'll not be so sarcastical no more, Mr Proctor! Alternatively, I also like Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding. More specifically the second one, The Edge Of Reason. 'There's only one explanation,' Jude was declaring. 'Mark Darcy's gay.' 'Of course he's gay,' snarled Shazzer, pouring our more Bloody Marys. 'Do you really think so?' I said, excited by the bizarre yet ego-comforting theory. 'Why else would he go off wiith someone freakishly tall, with no breasts, no sense of girlhood and no bottom: ie a virtual man?' I'm reading Gangland by Mark Davis at the moment - a must read for anyone who wants to understand the current cultural climate in Australia. Mark Barrowcliffe's Girlfriend 44 is deliciously funny, reminding me of many of the guys I know. It also has a fabulous introduction, which you can read by clicking here. I had run from the provinces specifically to get away from people like him and the things they do, the places they visit. I don't want to go anywhere near the ordinary, hardworking men and women who are the backbone of this country. I grew up with them, I did my stint are Garden Gnome-land and that's me finished. I want to stay here in London, getting off my tits with a bunch of over-opinionated media twats who wouldn't know a day's work if it came up and bit them on their pampered arses. I don't want the dignity of labour and a job well done, I want a laugh. Each to his own, you know. Fanclub, by Barry Divola, is an interesting look at obsessive fans and pop culture in general. Back to depraved-Rachel, I also like 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell, and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Oh, and Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tounge taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. To Die For, by Joyce Maynard, is arguably better than the movie, switching perspectives every few paragraphs. Memoirs Of A Geisha by Arthur Golden is touching. And memories of year 10 English return with the mention of Ibsen's A Doll's House. Which reminds me of year 11 English and The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, which I've got to get around to reading again some time. TS Eliot and John Donne are poets, but I like them, so they get included here anyway. ;) And, of course, as I grow old, I will continue to check out what Liz and Jess are up to in Sweet Valley, that quintessentially eleven year old fiction. But only Sweet Valley Twins, although I think that's now extinct. back |