Author: Hilary Webb

  • Review: Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl

    Review: Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl

    Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl – Carrie Brownstein

    CB

    I must say that I had no idea who Carrie Brownstein was, nor had I heard of Sleater-Kinney, when Emma Watson suggested Hunger Makes me a Modern Girl for her Good Reads book club: Our Shared Shelf. I hadn’t actually joined the club, I just saw Watson share something about the book and in my blind loyalty I added it to my TBR. And I’m so glad that I did.

    Friends of mine will know I have a pretty odd, dated and specific music taste, and typically Sleater-Kinney does not tick any of my boxes. Reading Hunger was a weird experience though, as I read about the songs and the musicians before I heard what any of it sounded like. As Brownstein mentions different songs, albums, tours and concerts throughout the book I would search them on YouTube to hear and see them for the first time.

    This meant that music I would normally have had nothing to do with was telling a story about ‘characters’ I had already become invested in. It was a reading experience like nothing I’ve had before. My appreciation for autobiographies grows and grows and after Brownstein’s I’m thinking I’ll add a few musicians as well as actors to my TBR.

    P. S. It’s a testament to Brownstein’s convincing and heartfelt writing that she managed to make me feel sad about a cat… that’s no mean feat.

    4/5

  • Blood, books and Vagina

    Blood, books and Vagina

    A year ago I was living in Lyon with A LOT of spare time, that I mostly spent reading, and today is one year since I finished reading Vagina: A New Biography by Naomi Wolf. I’ve spoken on this blog already about how this book ‘changed my life’ but nope, I’m still not over it.

    My mum bought the book for me as a joke, as my family had noticed a trend in my university work, the books I was reading and a tendency to talk about menstruation, suggesting that my feminist agenda was beginning to form around vaginas. They did not anticipate that Vagina would fuel that fire tenfold, neither did I.

    It’s fair to say I was feeling pretty inspired after reading Wolf’s biography; inspired by Wolf, by womankind, by science, by psychology and of course by vaginas. In fact this week I quoted Vagina in my undergraduate dissertation (which the book inspired, of course). I’m looking at my 2016 journal and am amazed to see that after talking about Vagina on 21st February 2016, I wrote: ‘I can feel it in my blood. Is that weird? I can literally feel a novel floating around my blood, ready to be typed and penned through my fingers. I just wish it would stop bloody leaking out my fucking vagina!’

    This makes me laugh for so many reasons, a few of which I’m sure my mum will yell at me for putting on the internet, so I’ll skip those ones (for now). Mostly, it makes me laugh because little did I know then, but eleven days later I would start writing my first novel. Four months later I would finish the first draft of Project 27 (cat’s out the bag!) and by the end of summer I had a novel that was whole, complete and, in my totally unbiassed opinion, pretty great.

    Now, with a new years resolution to submit my manuscript to three literary agents a month, it’s been sent to seven agents and I’ve had my first two rejections. Project 27 may never be published but the point is that I started, wrote and finished a novel and will do it again and again, all off the back of being inspired about a nonfiction book about pelvic nerves, female sexuality and the yoni.

    I cannot wait to read the next book that inspires me as much as Vagina did. Thanks Naomi Wolf, I owe you a pint.

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  • REVIEW: Fifty Shades of No Thanks

    REVIEW: Fifty Shades of No Thanks

    Fifty Shades of Grey – E L James

    I am aware that I am years late on the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon train but this month my dissertation and my flatmates’ cinematic plans for our Valentine’s Day prompted me to finally give the first book of the franchise a go.

    I had heard that it was something of a Twilight fan fiction yet I was still surprised to find just how many flagrant parallels there were between the two franchises. From Christian Grey’s Edward Cullenesque piano playing to Anastasia’s parents, it was cringingly similar. Just as much though, Christian’s stalking, possessiveness and jealousy make Edward Cullen look like a laid back, easy-going boyfriend, no mean feat.

    Frustration, not arousal, it what I felt while reading the book cover to cover, mostly because of Anastasia’s ignorance but also with the irritating repetition of ‘Ah,’ ‘Mmm,’ and dozens of other things. Please may Anastasia’s experiences remind the world that we have a serious sex education problem!

    I’m thrilled that discourse around female sexuality is finally becoming mainstream but did it have to happen like this? As I’m currently writing my dissertation on female sexuality I’m starting to become very well acquainted with critically acclaimed erotic fiction which I suspect has only worsened my frustration with the actual sex in the book. E L James seems just as obsessed with the (insatiable) mutual orgasm as D. H. Lawrence, and Anastasia’s naivety about peeing after sex and going on the pill DRIVES ME MAD. Does it get better in the rest of the books? Someone tell me, I daren’t find out for myself…

    Fair play to E L James, credit where credit is due: I can’t stop thinking about the bloody book, but perhaps not in the way she intended. I’m sure most of my rants about Fifty Shades of Grey have already been heavily discussed in the five years I managed to go without succumbing to the (over) hype, so I’ll spare you. Instead I’m going to move onto my next read: a collection of essays I got for christmas: Fifty Shades of Feminism. Ah, mmm, back to reality; lovely, lovely reality.