Kaz Cooke

"You're doing it wrong: A history of bad & bonkers advice to women" by Kaz Cooke is both hysterically funny and shockingly true all at the same time. Sadly I recall being offered some of this advice as I was growing up (and hope that young women today are spared the same). It is a lighthearted (but still serious) look at some of the more ridiculous expectations of women since the (Western) Industrial Revolution. Cooke makes sure to cover off on some of the even more offensive and ridiculous show more expectations of women of colour throughout history too. It is well researched, dotted with Cooke witticisms, and replete with many amusing (and mortifying) historical photos. A great read, but a little disturbing at times - read it anyway! show less

Kaz Cooke reckons it is our duty to devote our entire lives to personal grooming - with her tongue firmly in her cheek, as usual. Here she shares some of her favourite beauty tips!

Could anything be more important than the state of your fingernails? Do you want people at your funeral to be commenting on your usefulness to society, or the size of your facial pores? Forget world peace, forget trying to live a moral and vaguely useful life - spend days conditioning your elbows and rubbing show more seaweed into your baldy spots.

Highlights include: Remember, if God had wanted us to look frumpy, he wouldn't have invented the sequinned crop top with matching lycra hotpants and rollerblades! Green and purple eyeshadow can make a startling statement - usually, 'I've just been in a fist fight', but at least it is a complete sentence.

There's also some handy hints for blokes. Like: don't wear your Y-fronts for more than one day unless you are lost in the desert; and we already know you have a bum crack, display is unnecessary. show less

Put simply, I could not have survived teenagehood without it. Before I read this, I was terrified of pretty much everything and I hated the thought of "growing up."

The book was not condescending, as too many of these "puberty and growing up" books are. It was funny in places. The cartoons made me laugh. A girl could honestly feel like they were having a one-on-one about everything to do with life.

I can't think of a single question I had that it didn't answer, and let's be honest, you don't show more really want to ask your mother or friends some of these questions. The "F Word" section was great - far too many girls these days have never even heard of Feminism, and vastly misconstrue what it means.

Get your girl this book. Please. Every teenage girl needs a copy. Kaz Cooke, you are a genius. show less

If you want a book that will have you in stitches, then this is it! I laughed so hard I cried. Kaz Cooke's dry humour really appeals to me.

The book is a collection of columns she has written for various newspapers in Australia. Kaz writes about fashion, sex, women's rights and politics to name a few.

"It seems there has always been a rather magical link between artists and livestock", she writes in 'Is That a Chicken in Your Pocket, or Are You a Conceptual Artist?'. "Perhaps the real show more question is 'what is the artist saying, and do we give a toss'? Could the message be 'I am tougher than a number 15 boiling fowl'? Or might it simply be 'the post modernist use of roofing nail tin for use in the narrative possibilities of nailing chook pieces to the wall'? Or even 'if only I 'd gone to life drawing classes, I wouldn't be standing here in a rubber pinny with an Arts' Council grant application and a blunt axe?' show less