Reviews

It's Messy: Essays on Boys, Boobs, and Badass Women by Amanda de Cadenet

lisciareads's review against another edition

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4.0

Reading It's Messyfelt like listening to a podcast about what it feels like to be a woman. The writing is accessible, the stories are relatable, this is not a novel It's Messy is more like a collection of essays or short stories about Amanda de Cadenet's life seen through a feminist prism.

Did I agree with everything? No. Was it groundbreaking? No. But I did read the book in one go and I can say I wish I had read those stories when I was younger, struggling with body image and navigating female friendship.

I would love to meet to Amanda de Cadenet to debate feminism, friendship and love while drinking wine. I am finishing the book with a big smile on my face :)

hannasbooked's review

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4.0

Great, quick, and conversational

tinysealoot's review

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3.0

watch her show "the conversation with amanda de cadene"t: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acqFelXxAws

abookishaffair's review

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4.0

"It's Messy" is a series of essays by Amanda de Cadenet who is now probably most well known for her show "The Conversation" even though she has been on television since she was in her teens! I have seen a few episodes of "The Conversation" and one thing I have been impressed with is how de Cadenet is able to get very powerful women from politics and Hollywood and a myriad of other places to let down their armor and get real. She is a great interviewer that gets right at the meat of what's going on and that's what she does in this book: she gets real. It's refreshing in a world where so many people feel like they have to put up walls around themselves.

This book covers a whole variety of issues from finding yourself, having kids, being married, and being divorced. De Cadenet was born into a very wealthy family but this didn't protect her for having some pretty wild early years and she goes into all of these stories in the book. She was married to a famous musician before she was 20 years old and had a child very early on. Later on, she was divorced and then remarried to another musician before she had twins. Side note: Yup! she's a fellow twin mom so she has me there. Admittedly, her thoughts on how you get fraternal twins doesn't jive with science but she's a fellow twin mom all the same). She's been through a lot and has a lot of wisdom and interesting insights to pass on.

You start feeling like de Cadenet could be someone you know well, maybe a friend letting you in on some secrets. It's easy to see how de Cadenet is able to get the interviews that she gets on how once she's able to land an interview how she gets people to open up to her. I thought this was a good and insightful collection and I'm looking forward to sharing it with some women in my life.
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