The Booby Trap and Other Bits and Boobs

by Dawn O'Porter (Editor)

In aid of breast cancer charities. A collection of stories from famous names with one thing in common - boobs!

Knockers, baps, bazoomas and hooters - big ones, small ones, man boobs, boob jobs and lopsided lady lumps - every boob tells a story.

From teenage diaries that will make you laugh out loud and squirm with embarrassment, to heart-breaking first-hand celebrity confessions, journalist and author Dawn O'Porter is joined by celebrities such as Caitlin Moran, Chris O'Dowd, Jameela Jamil and Sarah Millican in a big book of all things booby. Bestselling authors also contribute with writing from Maureen Johnson, Marian Keyes, Patrick Ness, Laura Dockrill, James Dawson, Will Hill, Maude Apatow and Benjamin Zephaniah. This is a full-frontal insight into breasts, nips, pecs and all the other bits and boobs.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dawn O'Porter is a broadcaster, novelist and print journalist who lives in London with her husband Chris, cat Lilu and dog Potato. She has made thirteen documentaries about all sorts of things, including polygamy, childbirth, geishas, body image, breast cancer and even the movie DIRTY DANCING.

Dawn has written for various UK newspapers and magazines including GRAZIA and STYLIST. Her first novel, PAPER AEROPLANES, was published by Hot Key Books in 2013. Although Dawn lives in London she spends a lot of time in LA and travels a lot. You may have seen her dragging two huge pink suitcases with broken wheels and a Siamese cat (Lilu) in a box through international airports. At some point she plans to get new suitcases - the cat, however, has a few years left in her yet. Follow Dawn on Twitter: @hotpatooties

Genres: Nonfiction, Short Stories, Feminism, Anthologies, Chick Lit, Humor

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 15, 2013

About the author

DAWN O’PORTER lives in London with her husband Chris, her two boys Art and Valentine, and her cats Myrtle and Boo.

Dawn is the bestselling author of the novels The Cows and the Richard and Judy Book Club picks So Lucky and Cat Lady, and her non-fiction title Life in Pieces was also a Sunday Times bestseller.

Dawn started out in TV production but quickly landed in front of the camera, making numerous documentaries that included immersive investigations of Polygamy, Size Zero, Childbirth, Free Love, Breast Cancer and the movie Dirty Dancing.

Dawn’s journalism has appeared in multiple publications and she was the monthly columnist for Glamour magazine. She is now a full-time writer, designs dresses for Joanie Clothing, and has a large following on her Patreon blog.

Instagram: @hotpatooties

www.patreon.com/DawnOPorter

Reviews

[Vicky Crowther · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great concept for raising money for a worthy cause. However, not as good as I had hoped. Most of the stories are pretty much the same with each author writing a similar story of having no boobs in their early teens & being miserable and then growing big boobs as an adult! Became quite monotonous after a while. It only deserves 1 star but given 2 as money goes to Breast Cancer charities.

[Hayley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the stories very hit and miss and it got a little samey by the end of the book. But it's for a fantastic cause (£1 from the sale of every book goes to breast cancer charities) so definitely don't let me put you off!

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 4.5 Stars

So, in case you hadn’t already guessed this book is about boobs. Yes, BOOBS. I’ll be honest, I never really though about mine much before I read this. I just stuff them into a bra on a daily basis and get on with life, but when you think about boobs in general you realise they’re kinda amazing. Well, I did anyway. And nothing compares to the feeling of taking your bra off at the end of the day.  Anyway, back to the book! This is a lovely little collection of stories, confessions and poems about boobs, edited by Dawn O’Porter (author of Paper Aeroplanes). The best thing is that money raised from the sale of this book goes towards three breast cancer charities.

Compilation books are always hard to review, so I’ve decided to list my favourite pieces:

Pillow Talk by Chris O’Dowd

Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others by Sarra Manning

Mooby Trap by Patrick Ness

Uplifted by Matt Whyman

Beauty and the B(r)easts by Holly Baxter

The Booby Trap by Dawn O’Porter

While those were my favourite pieces, I did enjoy all the contributions in this book. They were funny, poignant, thoughtful, honest and, most of all, heartfelt. This was a thoroughly enjoyable read and one which I definitely recommend to all women. However, there was a very important message behind it: get to know your boobs because early detection is key when it comes to breast cancer.

Thank you to The Five Mile Press/Hot Key Books for providing a copy of the book for review.

This review and many more can be found at Maree's Musings.

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Warning!

To all Caitlin Moran fans out there: if you are buying this book and hoping for an article not included in Moranthology, then you'll be disappointed. There is a really funny picture relevant to the book, but I thought you should know so that you know what you're getting into.

While I did have some difficulty getting thought the first 50 or so pages of this book, overall, I ended up having a good time and I can safely say it was because of the skill of the authors. They brought out so much to what can feel like a repetitive theme and I especially liked the stories by Patrick Ness, Will Hill, Maude Apatow, Maureen Johnson. The only problem I had with the book was that the first 50 pages or so included essays by famous people which were pretty dull, but afterwards the professional authors (I wish I could find a better way of naming them, but I can't) came into play and all was well.

[Emma Farley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Booby Trap is a hilarious and heart-warming collection of essays and short stories by celebrities about their relationships with boobs – edited by the ever-fabulous Dawn O’Porter, with proceeds going to charity. I picked it up in Poundland of all places; keep an eye out for it cos it’s worth a read.

This mini review first appeared on A Cornish Geek on 12 May 2017
https://acornishgeek.com/2017/05/12/t...

[Jaycee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm going to be 100% honest here, I only bought this because Patrick Ness had a story in it. That's also the reason it's on my favourites shelf, I LOVED NESS'S SHORT STORY! Everything else was more of the same, either talking about how they hated their boobs but then started to love them when they got older, or talking about their mum's boobs, etc. There were some very creative ones though, like the poems or images. Those were the ones I enjoyed the most.

[Kay · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had such hi hopes for this book but it failed, the same stories over and over again.

[Fieke · Rating 3 out of 5]

You should get this book if only because you’d be donating to charity.

This book is exactly what you think it is. About boobs. A collection of different people talking about them.

I especially liked it at the beginning, but grew a bit bored as some stories were very similar.
However there were real great ones and just the idea of it to spread awareness for breast cancer is great.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whilst it's great that this book is to make money for breast cancer charities, it really isn't a great book, just a lot of people talking about boobs, usually their own and usually along the lines of "I remember growing boobs, they were small, now they're big". Plus, it's actually pretty insensitive for someone who has had breast cancer and has had a mastectomy (me) to read all these stories about how people want boob jobs, people who have had boob jobs, people who panicked about being flat chested, etc etc.

[Louise Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

THIS BOOK WAS RAISING MONEY FOR A GOOD CAUSE WHICH IS ALWAYS A GOO BUT ALTHOUGH IT WAS EASY REad and the chapters easy to read and a pretty wide variety it seemed to follow the same thread of boobs to big and small but yer raises the profile so that cant be bad

[Chlo · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book had good stories to begin with and i read 60 percent of it and then i just got bored it's 2 stars because i enjoyed the first ones but the rest seemed to be complete garbage i've never rated a book this low.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pleasant, easy, fun read. Some many different & great contributions. Well put together & for a great cause & awareness.

[Ipswichblade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some funny, some sad stories and in a great cause

[Jeni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this anthology of tit bits. Should be mandatory reading for teenage girls.

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fab little anthology. Thoroughly enjoyed.

[Cherie • bookshelvesandtealeaves · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing book for an amazing cause. I feel like all young girls/women should read this. And men too. But mostly women.

[Jennopenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

some stories I really liked, others where just okay but overall an enjoyable collection.

[Chloe Macphail · Rating 2 out of 5]

great cause . however thought the book would be funny. it just felt like a super long comic relief ad. was a nice idea that didnt really turn out well.

[Maria Jary · Rating 2 out of 5]

some stories were funny. But a charity book. So all good intentions!

[Faye Ducker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice compilation of stories about boobs, and for a great cause!

[Vicki Littler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marian Keyes' story is funny. The rest, not so much. Plus, Caitlin Moran hasn't written an article at all - it's just a captioned picture. Disappointing.

[Neha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I quite liked the idea of including man-boobs too in this book because without two fictional stories (both written by male authors!) on man-boobs and very nice reads at that, rest are by female authors and on female breasts and surprisingly or is it? all quite meh. I don’t think if it weren’t for ADULT men’s obsession with female breasts there would be any need of sexy bras, breast enlargements-firming-augmentation which has become ubiquitous since many years now. There was a quote on breasts I had read long ago and it has stayed with me, ‘Breasts are a scandal because they shatter the border between motherhood and sexuality.' There are other books too written on them but mostly exploring anatomy or historical or cultural aspects. Not psychological, which could be an interesting thing because otherwise as a body part(s) I doubt they could be treated any differently than Adam’s apple.

Anyway, coming to the book I found all real accounts penned by females quite monotonous with barring one exception, all yearning for bigger boobs at young age and then getting them after puberty hits. So it is quite generic like that and I don’t think it is the actual case. Also the writing is quite boring and doesn’t engage at all. This is a case of too much boobs but not enough (right kind) of them?

[Willow Rankin · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is something really dull about reading these sorts of essay style books based on a specific topic. Whilst the concept is a great idea - and the proceeds for the book goes to charity, I very quickly found this book to become monotonous and dull. Each essayist wrote essentially the same story - and tbh I pretty much skimmed through this.
Whilst its a worthy cause, I think I am going to avoid these types of books in the future.

[Apriel · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with all anthologies, your mileage may very. Some stories were really good, some really weird, and others just meh. But some of the proceeds go to charity so buy and read the book anyway if you’re even just a little interested.

[Vicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a brilliant idea to raise awareness and money for breast cancer charities.
It highlights the importance in my view of becoming comfortable with your breasts but also checking them and makes you realise that the only person usually hung up on the size of them is just yourself.

[Helena]

Can’t rate because I absolutely loved certain stories and others were meh. Love that this book raised money for Breast Cancer Research!!

[Gemma Birkett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone woman should read this book! Amazing!