404 INK – NASTY WOMEN (Various Authors)
Soooo behind on reviewing books! Here’s number 8 in my 52 Books by 52 Publishers reading challenge. Today’s publishing house is…
404 Ink!
404 Ink is a new, alternative, independent publisher of books
and literary magazines based in the UK.
Who are 404 Ink?
Laura Jones is a freelancer who works in book production & promotion and is Bloody Scotland crime festival’s social media manager. She worked as Editorial and Marketing Assistant for Saraband and currently has numerous clients across publishing. [@laurafjones / Website]
Heather McDaid is a freelance writer and publishing person, who has worked with music magazines since the age of 18, including Upset, Rock Sound and DIY. She also works across the book world doing odd jobs, like marketing and coding. [@heathermmcd / Website]
Unsurprisingly, the book I’m reviewing from them is:
With intolerance and inequality increasingly normalised by the day, it’s more important than ever to share real experiences and hold the truth to account in the midst of sensationalism and international political turmoil. Nasty Women is a collection of essays, interviews and accounts on what it is to be a woman in the 21st century. Punk, pressure, politics, people – from working class experience to racial divides in Trump’s America, being a child of immigrants, to sexual assault, Brexit, pregnancy, contraception, identity, family, finding a voice online, role models and more, Laura Jane Grace of Against Me!, Zeba Talkhani, Chitra Ramaswamy are just a few of the incredible women who share their experience here. Keep telling your stories and tell them loud.
My review is never really going to do this book justice. This is an incredibly important book, and I don’t even really know where to start. But I’ll give it a shot.
All of the women in this book are incredibly inspirational, brilliant writers, unique in their voices and outlook. Their insights are so valuable in a society that is becoming more and more terrifying by the minute.
The book doesn’t seek to preach or to dictate; instead it hands you stories that are possibly alternative to how you see the world, and asks you to do the very simple task of opening your mind in order to realise that there is no “normal”. Every single point of view in this book is valid and should be celebrated. Every single story educates you in a compelling, non-patronising way.
The book is easy to read while challenging you to either change your way of thinking, or to encourage those around you to do the same. It highlights the importance of women in society and it tackles subjects that so many people deem either too scary to face, or else not important enough to discuss.
The book is funny in places and heartbreaking in others, but always it is fascinating and eye-opening. There are things I thought I knew about in the world, but a lot of these essays taught me that actually often I just think I know what I’m talking about. And it’s books like these that prove to me that even though I am liberal and tolerant and open minded, I have a lot of self-educating to do as well.
I dog eared so many pages with the intention of including lots of quotes in this review, but actually I think if I did this I would be robbing the reader of discovering them while reading the book, and the enjoyment of finding profundity in the words themselves.
Read this book; it is essential reading for men and women alike. It will give all of you a new respect for women and what we all go through in day-to-day life.
Definite five stars from me.
Buy the book here: http://www.404ink.com/shop/nasty-women