Why women are stupid (a lifetime of personal investigation)

Penelope Adams

available from lulu.com

The title is a bit misleading, one would think this is a tirade against women by a loony lesbian feminist, but its not (thankfully). Its actually a moving story of a woman growing up in a very difficult enviroment in South Africa, moving on to England to find herself. She hits rock bottom but pulls herself back up again and is now living a happy life in Switzerland. And she shares this story with the reader in a very frank and humourous way.

This book is part heart renching, and at times hilariously funny biography, and part a collection of essays on what she has learnt in her life inhabiting the female form. And I guess this is where the title comes from, its basically a lesson to women not to get duped by advertisers and society into doing things that make them unhappy or uncomfortable.

Ms Adams does admit to being a feminist but of the more practical, logical, sane variety. More a Naomi Wolfe type than the man blaming, victim type. She believes women should take control of their lives and think for themselves, good advice for all I think.

There are also some hilarious and insightful anecdotes, my favourite being when she joins AA (Alcoholics Anonomous) in Germany, even though she was not even an alcoholic but was a compulsive eater. The reason being that the people in AA were more entertaining than the whinging women in the eating disorders help group. An interesting way to meet fellow English speaking ex-pats if ever I heard one, I'm even tempted to try it myself one day.

All in all a fun read and for many people they will learn a great deal about the workings of the female mind, and for women especially they could find in the author a guiding light through dark times.

David Campbell