Compiling a generous collection of her London Times columns written since 2011 and adding brief introductions for each that tie the anthology together, Caitlin Moran (How to Build a Girl) has composed a manifesto. "After twenty-three years of commenting on things, you're not really just commenting on things anymore. You're starting to... suggest alternatives. You're forming a plan." Moranifesto is the result: witty and intelligent, honest and silly, a shrewd combination of culture, politics and feminism--a conversation worth joining.
Moranifesto is divided into four sections, each including humorous articles intended to entertain--like "I Am Hungover Again," in which she concedes she will "never learn to have just two glasses" because she simply doesn't want to--sidled up next to thoughtful pieces offering social commentary, such as Moran's thoughts--oozing with sarcasm--on "Women Getting Killed on the Internet":
"I'll be frank--it does my head in to see someone who lives in a democracy, wears artificial fibers, drives a car, has a wife who can vote and children whom it is illegal to send to work up a chimney, saying, on the Internet--invented in 1971!!!!--'NOTHING CAN CHANGE!' "
Her love letter to books in "Reading Is Fierce" will endear her to bibliophiles, while her capitulation in "It's Okay My Children Do Not Read" may make them cringe. Moran offers advice, reveals encounters with celebrities and laughs in the face of decorum. She's blunt and colorful, inspiring and authentic. Moranifesto exposes the many facets of this complex, wickedly smart woman. Missing it would definitely be a crime. --Jen Forbus, freelancer