WWW Wednesday: 12th October 2016

October 12, 2016October 11, 2016 Ali@abookishlife24 Comments

The WWW Wednesdays meme is currently hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words and is a great way to do a weekly update on what you’ve been reading and what you have planned.

To take part all you have to do is answer the following three questions:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Here’s this weeks WWW.

Currently Reading

I just finished Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares about five minutes before starting this post but as I’m still basking in a post book glow (and haven’t started my next book yet) I thought I’d leave it in my currently reading. It’s a YA contemporary romance set over Christmas in New York and I am absolutely loving it. It is just so funny and cute, the characters are very likeable (Dash in particular) and it makes me smile. Expect a big gushy review soon as this is definitely going on my happy book list and possibly all time favorites list.

No progress with Grim this week as I’ve been busy reading other books. As it’s a collection of short stories I suspect this is one I’ll dip in and out of over a long period of time.

Recently Finished

First book finished over the last week was Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Enjoyable sci fi book but not one of my favorites and probably not one I’d be rushing to read again. It was just that little bit too sci fi and too geeky fo Dark Water (DCI Erika Foster #3) r me.

The next book read was Dark Water by Robert Bryndza which I received from NetGalley. It’s the third in the DCI Erika Frost series and I was so excited to get it I couldn’t resist picking up straight away. Unfortunately I fear I was too excited about it as it didn’t quite meet my expectations. I found the MC to be a little too emotional and the writing seemed a bit stilted for some reason. It was still enjoyable but not as much as the previous book in the series. That may just be me though. Full review coming soon.

Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass, #5) The third book finished over the course of the weekend was Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas, the fifth in the Throne of Glass series. This is another book that I was ridiculously excited about reading but unfortunately ended up feeling a little bit let down by. I did enjoy it, particularly the second half, but it doesn’t quite live up to previous books in the series. I think it’s maybe just a case of it becoming too big and epic and losing a little bit of the emotional connection that I need to make a book great. Again, a full spoiler free review is coming soon.

Reading Next

Still a couple of books carried forward from last week, Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo and The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh so hoping to get to them soon. However I did get The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily, which is a follow up to Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares, from NetGalley so I think that will be up first.

Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows, #2) The Wrath & the Dawn (The Wrath & the Dawn, #1) The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily

Have you read any of the books above or have any other book you’d recommend? Leave comments and links below.

Happy Wednesday everyone.

Teaser Tuesday: 11th October 2016

October 11, 2016October 10, 2016 Ali@abookishlife11 Comments

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Books and a Beat If you want to join in grab your current read, flick to a random page, select two sentences (without spoilers) and share them in a blog post or in the comments of Books and a Beat.

Teaser Tuesday | BooksAndABeat.com
This week my teaser comes from Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn which I picked up yesterday after finishing Empire of Storms. Only around 20% in but I’m absolutely loving it. It’s cute and very, very funny (my fellow commuters probably think I’m nuts). It also turns out it that it’s Christmas themed and set in New York so I’m in book heaven.

Anyway the teaser…

My Teaser

I was horribly bookish, to the point of coming right out and saying it, which I knew was not socially acceptable. I particularly loved the adjective bookish, which I found other people used about as often as ramrod or chum or teetotaler

~ page 3

Blurb

I’ve left some clues for you. If you want them, turn the page. If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please.

At the urge of her lucky-in-love brother, sixteen-year-old Lily has left a red notebook full of dares on her favourite bookshop shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept. Curious, snarky Dash isn’t one to back down from a challenge – and the Book of Dares is the perfect distraction he’s been looking for.

As they send each other on a scavenger hunt across Manhattan, they’re falling for each other on paper. But finding out if their real selves share their on-page chemistry could be their biggest dare yet….

Happy reading everyone.

WWW Wednesday: 5th October 2016

October 5, 2016 Ali@abookishlife26 Comments

The WWW Wednesdays meme is currently hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words and is a great way to do a weekly update on what you’ve been reading and what you have planned.

To take part all you have to do is answer the following three questions:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Here’s this weeks WWW.

Currently Reading

Two books on the go at the moment both of which are physical books which is quite unusual for me but which I am enjoying. I love my e reader but it doesn’t compare to a physical book. Ready Player One

The first book is Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I got this from the library a couple of weeks ago and just finally managed to get round to reading it. It’s a YA dystopian set in the not too distant future and is about the hunt for an object hidden within a virtual reality game. I have a bit of a rocky relationship with sci fi books but I’m starting to get into the story a bit more now and for the most part enjoying. I am liking all of the 80’s references as I’m a child of the 80’s but occasionally it goes a little too geeky for me and gets bogged down in endless trivia that I couldn’t care less about.

Grim My second book, Grim, is one I found in the bargain bin of my local newsagent/bookshop. It’s a collection of 17 fairy tale inspired short stories by YA authors, some I’ve heard of and some who are new to me. I love all things fairy tale and it’s a very pretty hardcover so I couldn’t resist. So far I’ve read the first two stories and while the first was ok I’m very happy to report that the second, Fragments by Jeri Smith-Ready (who I’ve never heard of) was brilliant. In only around 30-40 pages it had me in tears. I’m a big softie but that could be a record even for me.

Recently Finished

A slightly slower reading week with only two books finished. The first of those was What Remains of Me by A.L. Gaylin which I received from NetGalley. It’s a psychological thriller set in Hollywood and follows Kelly Lund who, 30 years after she was jailed for killing a famous director as a troubled teen, is now suspected of murdering her father in law in a similar way. It’s a well written and twisty story that jumps back and forwards in time but I found it a bit of a struggle. It just didn’t grip me the way I hoped it would and I thought there could have been a bit more action. You can read my full review here.

After What Remains of Me I was badly in need of something lighter and more upbeat so picked up new adult romance If We Were A Movie by Kelly Oram which has been on my kindle for a couple of months. It’s part of the matchmaker series of twelve books by twelve different authors with a common link and is by the author of one of my all time favorite books.

It tells the story of music student Nate, who trying to escape his over powering brothers, ends up roommates with film student Jordan. There are lots of music and film references which I love and the whole thing is just sweet and fluffy with a lot of laughs.

Reading Next

I’m ashamed to admit that, after more wandering off track, my reading next list is pretty much the same as the previous few weeks with Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas, Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo and The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh still at the top of the list. I also managed to pick up Dark Water by Robert Bryndza from NetGalley. I have been loving his DCI Erika Foster series so I doubt it’ll be long before I start reading.

Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows, #2) The Wrath & the Dawn (The Wrath & the Dawn, #1) Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass, #5) Dark Water (DCI Erika Foster #3)

Have you read any of the books above or have any other book you’d recommend? Leave comments and links below.

Happy Wednesday everyone.

Teaser Tuesday: 4th October 2016

October 4, 2016October 3, 2016 Ali@abookishlife20 Comments

Teaser Tuesday | BooksAndABeat.com
This week my teaser comes from Ready Player One by Ernest Cline which I’m around halfway through. This is one of those books I feel like I should have read ages ago but I was put off by the fact that it’s science fiction and I don’t always have the best relationship with that genre. Suffice to say the first 70 pages were a real struggle but I’m finding it easier going now. Anyway the teaser…

My Teaser

OK, on second thought, maybe honesty isn’t the best policy after all. Maybe it isn’t a good idea to tell a newly arrived human being that he’s been born into a world of chaos, pain, and poverty just in time to watch everything fall to pieces.

~ page 18, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Blurb

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune — and remarkable power — to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved — that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt — among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life — and love — in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Are you ready?

Happy reading everyone.

ARC Review: What Remains of Me by A.L. Gaylin

October 1, 2016 Ali@abookishlife3 Comments

What Remains of Me by A L Gaylin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“The world’s a stage, Little Miss, but very few of us get to write our own roles.”

I hadn’t read anything by this author before but when I spotted it on NetGalley and read the blurb it sounded just the kind of book I was looking for. A psychological thriller about the darker and seedier side of Hollywood, it’s incredibly well written but I’m afraid to say that for me it fell a little bit flat.

I loved the language of the book, the twists and turns in the story but it felt a little bit too slow and too drawn out. The characterization is excellent and the descriptions make every person and every place feel very real. However for whatever reason I couldn’t quite connect with the story. I did have a lot of distractions going on in my life at the time of reading so that may have been part of the problem but it just didn’t hook me in and at points it felt like a struggle.Read More »

ARC Review: Miracle on 5th Avenue by Sarah Morgan

September 29, 2016 Ali@abookishlife3 Comments

Miracle On 5th Avenue by Sarah Morgan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s Christmas!!!

OK it’s not yet (please don’t hate me) but having read Sarah Morgan’s latest Christmas themed book, Miracle on 5th Avenue it’s definitely put me in the festive spirit.

It’s a light and funny, opposites attract romance that left me with a huge smile on my face and an overwhelming desire to book a flight to New York. The main characters are very likeable and the chemistry between them is electric. Ms Morgan definitely knows how to write the perfect holiday read.Read More »

WWW Wednesday: 28th September 2016

September 28, 2016September 27, 2016 Ali@abookishlife15 Comments

The WWW Wednesdays meme is currently hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words and is a great way to do a weekly update on what you’ve been reading and what you have planned.

To take part all you have to do is answer the following three questions:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Here’s this weeks WWW.

Currently Reading

I started What Remains of Me by Alison Gaylin yesterday so I’m around the 20% mark at the moment. This is a psychological thriller I received from NetGalley about a 17 year old girl who shoots and kills an Oscar nominated Hollywood director. She’s sent to jail but 30 years later and five years after she’s released her father in law is found dead in a similar manner. Her past comes back to haunt her as she becomes the prime suspect. The story jumps back and forward in time telling the story of the events leading up to the first murder and the investigation of the second.

While it is early days I have to say that I am enjoying the authors writing style. There’s something very engaging and slightly addictive about it. If I had one criticism it’s that I’m finding the jumping back and forward in time a little confusing.

Recently Finished

Another diverse mix of books read this week with the first one finished, Feminist Fight Club by Jessica Bennett. While I usually stick to fiction there was something about this that appealed when I spied it on NetGalley. It’s probably the first one of these types of books I’ve ever managed to finish so that’s definitely a big plus. It manages to deal with serious issues in quite a light hearted way and the structure of it makes it easy to dip in and out. You can read my full review here.

The second book I finished during the week, All She Ever Wished For by Claudia Carroll, was another NetGalley pick (I’m determined to get my shelf down). Due to my own total ignorance and failure to read the blurb properly I thought this was a Christmas book and was a little disappointed to find it wasn’t. It’s Claudia Carroll so it is a pretty good read but I have read better from her. I think I just didn’t quite connect with any of the characters. Again, I’ve written a full review (I was definitely on a roll this week)

The next book read was Settling the Score by R.S. Gray which is a new adult, sports romance. I pretty m Settling the Score (The Summer Games, #1) uch just spotted this on Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited and thought why the heck not. I’ve liked other books by this author and I do love sports romances. This one is the first in a series set at the Olympics in Rio and tells the story of a British swimmer and American Soccer (football for those of us in Europe) player. I thought it was ok rather than anything spectacularly great. For me it was let down by a lack of detail around the sports. I’m not convinced the author knows anything about them (I mean she didn’t even attempt to explain the offside rule).

Fourth and final book this week was the quick read, Seduced by a Pirate by Eloisa James. Mostly chosen because it worked for a challenge, it’s a fun and quirky little novella about a Viscount who runs out on his new bride on their wedding night and ends up becoming a pirate (as you do). When he finally returns 14 years later he finds his wife and her three children (???) aren’t exactly thrilled to see him.

Reading Next

Another week and Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas is still on my reading next list. I currently have the ebook and the paperback from the library and expect a hardback in the next couple of days so I really have no excuse.

My book buying/ borrowing/ requesting spree continued with a vengeance this week (my credit card is getting worn out) so I picked up another few books I really, really want to read soon.

Hopefully arriving today (please, please, please) are hardback copies of Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo and The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh. I am ridiculously excited about both as I have been waiting for Crooked Kingdom pretty much since finishing Six of Crows and The Wrath and the Dawn has been on my wish list forever. I had to get hardbacks though as I put together a new bookcase at the weekend and need to fill it with something 🙂

From NetGalley I also received The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (honestly I saw that cover and read “inspired by Russian fairytales” and couldn’t resist) and The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.

Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows, #2) The Wrath & the Dawn (The Wrath & the Dawn, #1) The Bear and the Nightingale The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily

I think I may be in book overload. So many books so little time…

Have you read any of the books above or have any other book you’d recommend? Leave comments and links below.

Happy Wednesday everyone.

Teaser Tuesday: 27th September 2016

September 27, 2016September 26, 2016 Ali@abookishlife10 Comments

Teaser Tuesday | BooksAndABeat.com
This week my teaser comes from Feminist Fight Club by Jessica Bennett which I finished reading yesterday but felt I really should share a teaser from. I don’t usually read non fiction but this has some fascinating ideas and useful tactics for dealing with sexist behaviour and self sabotaging in the work place.

My Teaser

Luck: a thing that women give credit to for their success. What men give credit to: skill.

~ location 119, Feminist Fight Club by Jessica Bennett

Blurb

Part manual, part manifesto, a humorous yet incisive guide to navigating subtle sexism at work—a pocketbook Lean In for theBuzzfeed generation that provides real-life career advice and humorous reinforcement for a new generation of professional women.

It was a fight club—but without the fighting and without the men. Every month, the women would huddle in a friend’s apartment to share sexist job frustrations and trade tips for how best to tackle them. Once upon a time, you might have called them a consciousness-raising group. But the problems of today’s working world are more subtle, less pronounced, harder to identify—and, if Ellen Pao is any indication, harder to prove—than those of their foremothers. These women weren’t just there to vent. They needed battle tactics. And so the fight club was born.

Hard-hitting and entertaining, Feminist Fight Club blends personal stories with research, statistics, infographics, and no-bullsh*t expert advice. Bennett offers a new vocabulary for the sexist workplace archetypes women encounter everyday—such as the Manterrupter who talks over female colleagues in meetings or the Himitator who appropriates their ideas—and provides practical hacks for navigating other gender landmines in today’s working world. With original illustrations, Feminist Mad Libs, a Negotiation Cheat Sheet, as well as fascinating historical research and a kit for “How to Start Your Own Club,”Feminist Fight Club tackles both the external (sexist) and internal (self-sabotaging) behaviors that plague today’s women—as well as the system that perpetuates them.

Happy reading everyone.

ARC Review: All She Ever Wished For by Claudia Carroll

September 26, 2016 Ali@abookishlife1 Comment

All She Ever Wished For by Claudia Carroll

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Probably wrongly, I feel a little bit misled by this book. Based on the cover, the title and the release date of October I kind of thought that this was going to be a Christmas romance and unfortunately it’s not. I no doubt should have paid a bit more attention to the blurb but I just got too excited about a Claudia Carroll Christmas story. I absolutely loved Meet Me In Manhattan and would probably rate it as one of my all time favourite Christmas romances.

Alas in this case it was not to be. That’s not to say this is not a great story, because it is. It’s the story of two women, Kate and Tess who are at very different points in their lives. Kate’s marriage to billionaire Damien King is over and Tess is planning her wedding to art historian Bernard. Their lives intersect one day on the Ha’penny bridge, when Tess comes across Kate in tears, and then a couple of years later when Tess is called for jury duty and ends up embroiled in a legal dispute between Kate and Damien over a painting.

The chapters alternate between Tess and Kate for the most part (Bernard gets a couple of chapters) with Tess’s chapters set in the present and telling the story of her wedding plans, the court case and her relationship with Bernard, his family and hers. Kate’s chapters are mostly flashbacks, telling the story of her relationship with Damien from their first meeting to the events that resulted in them in court battling over custody of a painting.

I have to admit that initially I found the story a little on the slow side and this wasn’t helped by the fact that I didn’t really take to either Tess or Kate. Both came across as quite weak characters, with Tess particularly frustrating me with her blindness to the fact that she and Bernard were a complete mismatch.

Where the story really picks up however is when the court case begins. I really enjoyed Tess’s attempts to get out of jury duty and loved some of the conversations between the jurors who are primarily composed of pensioners.

I don’t think I ever took to Kate unfortunately and this is probably the main reason why I rated it as I did. The flashbacks were interesting but as a lot of them were in the form of newspaper articles it was kind of difficult to get that connection. She felt a bit absent to me and honestly I don’t think I cared what the outcome of the case would be.

Bernard and his family were also a little annoying to me. They were just that bit too stereotyped as socially awkward, eccentric, intellectuals. I think I spent most of the story waiting for Tess to come to her senses and call the wedding off which I suppose in a way did keep me reading.

As a Claudia Carroll book it is well written and there is some fantastic dialogue but it just seemed to be missing that little spark for me.

Overall, therefore I’d say good rather than great.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Blurb (from GoodReads)

A gorgeous story of chance meetings and unexpected friendships . . . because sometimes what you’ve always wished for isn’t necessarily what life has in store . . .

Marriage. It’s a dream come true. Isn’t it?

One wet winter night, two women meet on a bridge. One is Tess Taylor, a personal trainer on the way to meet her boyfriend for date night. The other is Kate King, a celebrity married to a handsome billionaire who just happens to make her cry. In the cold dark evening, there is nothing to link them together but the bridge they shiver on. Little do they know they’ll both hold the key to each other’s future marriage…

All She Ever Wished For tells the story of what happens when your dream is about to come true. And what happens when that dream turns into a bit of a nightmare…

Book Review: Feminist Fight Club by Jessica Bennett

September 26, 2016 Ali@abookishlife5 Comments

Feminist Fight Club: An Office Survival Manual for a Sexist Workplace by Jessica Bennett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first rule of Feminist Fight Club is that you must talk about Feminist Fight Club. The second rule, you MUST talk about Feminist Fight Club. So I’m going to talk about Feminist Fight Club. To use the books own words to describe it:

It is an action, an attitude, a state of mind, a collective call to arms.

I have to admit that I very rarely read non fiction and more often than not when I do I struggle to make it to the end. There was something about this book though that really appealed when I spotted it on NetGalley. I suppose I’m just fascinated by different thoughts on equality in the workplace and it’s something I am very passionate about. I would never describe myself as a feminist (I don’t like the term for some reason) but I do believe that no one should be discriminated against because of sex, race, religion, orientation or any other factor. To be perfectly honest I don’t think any of those factors should even be a consideration (possibly why I don’t like the feminist term). What matters is can you do the job, the rest is irrelevant.

As the book points out however, sexism in today’s workplace is a much more subtle thing than it previously was. It’s much more difficult to spot and more importantly to combat. This book is fantastic in helping you to identify the obvious and less obvious forms of sexist behaviour in the office and provides lots of helpful fight moves that can be used to combat them while keeping your professionalism. It also outlines the ways that women often sabotage themselves in the office and provides tactics for avoiding the traps.

These were probably the parts of the book that I found the most interesting and they definitely got me thinking about the office where I work and also my behaviour. It weirdly turns out that I already do a lot of the things they suggest. For example, I never volunteer to make teas and coffees or take notes in a meeting by claiming that I’m terrible at it 🙂

I suppose what’s more important about it is that it sparked some discussion among my team in the office (there are five men and me, the sole female). What these discussions indicated was that I was probably the exception to a lot of the statements in the book. I’m by far the chattiest, I’m a womanterruptor (oops), I’m pretty quick to speak out and I don’t really do any mummy-ing. I should also point out that I am the holder of the controls for the air con so the office is always at a temperature to suit me 🙂

I think however that I’m pretty lucky in where I work. There’s a really high proportion of women, a lot of whom are in senior roles and we pride ourselves on being inclusive and encouraging everyone to speak up. This book would make more difference to others who are in a less tolerant environment. Where I think I got most value from the book therefore was in looking at my own behaviour. I have definitely been thinking more about the language I use, although to be honest I often use qualifiers and caveated language on purpose.

If I had any criticisms of this book it’s that I felt it was a little on the long side and became a little repetitive. I was beginning to struggle in places and while it is very humorous and has some fantastic real life examples there were bits which just weren’t that relevant to me. Although it does suggest that you don’t need to read straight through but rather jump to the sections that interest you.

It’s also loaded full of Americanisms which I don’t overly mind but I would imagine others might. In addition I don’t particularly agree with the suggestion made that you should seek to promote women in the workplace. I’m all for supporting them, making sure their voice is heard and they aren’t being discriminated against but I don’t agree with the suggestion that you should seek to load the office with as many women as possible by selective recruitment i.e. if you’re in position where you hire staff you should actively seek to hire a woman rather than a man. I’m afraid I’m back to the best person for the job argument but that may be because I’m fortunate in where I work.

Overall therefore a good read and definitely one I’d recommend as it sparked some interesting discussions and gave me a much better understanding of myself.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis (from GoodReads)

Part manual, part manifesto, a humorous yet incisive guide to navigating subtle sexism at work—a pocketbook Lean In for theBuzzfeed generation that provides real-life career advice and humorous reinforcement for a new generation of professional women.

It was a fight club—but without the fighting and without the men. Every month, the women would huddle in a friend’s apartment to share sexist job frustrations and trade tips for how best to tackle them. Once upon a time, you might have called them a consciousness-raising group. But the problems of today’s working world are more subtle, less pronounced, harder to identify—and, if Ellen Pao is any indication, harder to prove—than those of their foremothers. These women weren’t just there to vent. They needed battle tactics. And so the fight club was born.

Hard-hitting and entertaining, Feminist Fight Club blends personal stories with research, statistics, infographics, and no-bullsh*t expert advice. Bennett offers a new vocabulary for the sexist workplace archetypes women encounter everyday—such as the Manterrupter who talks over female colleagues in meetings or the Himitator who appropriates their ideas—and provides practical hacks for navigating other gender landmines in today’s working world. With original illustrations, Feminist Mad Libs, a Negotiation Cheat Sheet, as well as fascinating historical research and a kit for “How to Start Your Own Club,”Feminist Fight Club tackles both the external (sexist) and internal (self-sabotaging) behaviors that plague today’s women—as well as the system that perpetuates them