Sara Pascoe

Sometimes I confuse myself. I get wildly and pointlessly jealous. I spend too much time hating my bum. And you know what I hate more than my bum? My preoccupation with my bum. I've had sexual experiences with boys I wasn't really in to, but I got a post-coital crush on them. I've ruined the start of a relationship by immediately imagining it going into reverse. There is so much about my behaviour I want to understand. So I started researching what makes me – and us – tick. And what I read made my eyes fall out of my face. Reader, here is everything I've learned from science about love, sexuality, infidelity, boobs, periods, pubes, broodiness, and clever old fat. Merry Christmas and Hallelujah, suddenly being a woman doesn't look like such a minefield after all.

Take a funny and illuminating tour of the female body with award-winning comedian Sara Pascoe Women have so much going on, what with boobs and jealousy and menstruating and broodiness and sex and infidelity and pubes and wombs and jobs and memories and emotions and the past and the future and themselves and each other. Here's a book that deals with all of it. Sara Pascoe has joked about feminity and sexuality on stage and screen but now she has a book to talk about it all for a bit longer. Animal combines autobiography and evolutionary history to create a funny, fascinating insight into the forces that mould and affect modern women. Animal is entertaining and informative, personal and universal – silly about lots of things and serious about some. It's a laugh-out-loud investigation to help us understand and forgive our animal urges and insecurities.

When you’re fourteen and life has been nothing but hurt and disappointment, maybe it’s time to strike out on your own. But after leaving the boring village and foster home for the excitement of London, Raya finds out she’s a witch, with this annoying habit of time-travelling – by accident. And this sarcastic witch’s cat Oscar tags along for the ride. But why would she fling herself into the midst of the Essex Witch Trials in 1645 England? After being arrested by Matthew Hopkins, one of history’s most notorious witch hunters, her social worker and witch mentor Bryony goes back to try to save them from the gallows. But returning to present day London remains out of reach with Raya’s powers still out of control when they find themselves in 1645 Istanbul/Constantinople. There, life is more amazing than she ever dreamed. Can she stay? And at what cost?

Part comedy, part anthropological study, here is everything Sara Pascoe has learned from scientists, sex education teachers, pornographers and 90s films about love, cruelty, domination, masculinity, status, and economic pressures. Is internet porn ruining marriage? 'Mind Rape' isn't a thing, is it? Like her much-loved first book, Animal, Pascoe overthinks and overshares in the name of our entertainment and education. Sex Power Money is a whip-smart, winningly funny look into who – and what – we are, and what makes us tick.

Tonight, Sophie is working at a pub, about to wrap cutlery, when she turns to find Chris ordering two G&T's.Chris: the man she travelled to Sydney to see. The trip which cost so much money it maxed out her credit card on the flight alone, just so she could 'accidentally' bump into him on Bondi beach is now standing in front of her. In Essex.Sophie is trying not to think too much about Chris, as well as trying not to think about:1) Debt collection letters.2) Her mum, her sister and her sister's new fiancé, James, who is also Sophie's ex - and the money she owes them.3) Texts from Ian, her current boyfriend - although that's not as hard as 1 & 2 as he's quite good at coming up with reasons for them not to have any physical contact.Chris is back. It's a sign. It must be a sign.Sophie is about to find out how far she'll go to see if she has a future with Chris. If only she can work out how to behave like a normal, laid-back person first.

Deep in Essex and her own thoughts, Sophie had a feeling something was going to happen and then it did. Chris has entered the pub and re-entered her life after Sophie had finally stopped thinking about him and regretting what she'd done. Sophie has a chance at creating a new ending and paying off her emotional debts (if not her financial ones). All she has to do is act exactly like a normal, well-adjusted person and not say any of her inner monologue out loud. If she can suppress her light paranoia, pornographic visualisations and pathological lying maybe she'll even end up getting the guy she wants? Then she could dump her boyfriend Ian and try to enjoy Christmas.