HERE COME THE GIRLS

It's funny how sometimes you find yourself reading books that end up having similarities, even though you don't intend them to or plan it; they just seem to come along like buses in 2's and 3's (which is how we felt about our last book post).

These two books are my latest reads and were recommended by two very different women and although I thought they were going to be quite dissimilar they had more in common than I initially realised.

Both books are written by women, about women and both texts are easy and uncomplicated. Just below the surface, however, it is apparent that the issues they are discussing are a little more challenging than you realise at first.

The Midwife by Jennifer Worth is an autobiographical account of a nurse in the deprived Docklands area of London in the 1950's. It reveals the harsh conditions that most women had to contend with on a daily basis, basic amenities that people in the Western world take for granted. With little education, few opportunities and aspirations many of these women managed to give birth and raise several children into loving, happy families despite having so many obvious disadvantages.

How To Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran is a look at the challenges faced by women in today's society (and there is a chapter on childbirth too!) Although on the surface it would appear that our lot is a far easier one these days than the women's in the previous book we are all aware that along with multiple choices and opportunities that are available to us all, they carry with them the multiple pressures and expectations to live up to an ideal. Caitlin Moran is brilliant, funny and engaging and confronts the problems of growing up and then surviving in the modern world unflinchingly and honestly- it's like a good night in with your girlfriends and a bottle of wine!

As with all good reads these have been recommended and passed around amongst our friends and family. Three generations of women have read, enjoyed and taken something from these books to savour.