Review:
Girls' Night In is a feast for females and a peep into the psyche of 'millenium women'. Written by different authors, the 31 short stories tackle everything from female bonding to broken relationships. Bikini lines and Blahniks are burning issues and one heroine fears that she is doomed to 'an entire life mapped out Hallmark card moments'! 'The Shell of Venus' by Victoria Routledge highlights the overwhelming obsession of many of the heroines with the imperfections of the female human body as they have their pubic hair yanked out and spend hours pulling in their stomachs. Taking quite a different tack, 'The Truth is Out There' by Marian Keyes stars a little yellow alien called Bib and stretches the imagination as only a female can. Easily the funniest story in the book is 'Dougie, Spoons and the Solarium Aquarium' by Jenny Colgan. She has a genuinely original talent and manages to make you laugh out loud. In complete contrast, Helen Simpson's 'Hurrah for the Hols' is a nerve-bitingly exact portrayal of a family on holiday with three small children. Out of kilter with the rest of the hedonistic female obsessions, it suggests that a very different kind of life may lie beyond the altar. An entertaining and worthwhile buy since a minimum of 1 per book will be donated to War Child, the charity providing playgrounds safe from landmines for children in the Balkans. (Kirkus UK)