Wild West: candid and untamed

Fans of confessional, conversational memoirs are enjoying a genuine embarrassment of riches these days. With the likes of Cheryl Strayed, Nora Ephron, Lena Dunham and Caitlin Moran taking pride of place on the bestsellers lists in recent years, there has arguably been a hasty dash on the part of publishers to cash in on this phenomenon. A wonderful development, in some ways, but what goes up must also come down. This gleaming, rollicking wave of non-fiction reads has resulted in a scrum of sub-par imitators, some of whom are mixing a hefty dash of feminist polemic with hard-lived personal experience; others are regurgitating even harder-won wisdom. There is a maelstrom of women's voices to choose from; some the real deal; others, not so much.