Big Night Out

by Jessica Adams

A collection of over 30 short stories with illustrations, recipes, music, beauty and party tips, in aid of the charity War Child. With Nick Hornby, Nick Earls, Marian Keyes, Candace Bushnell, Kathy Lette, Kate Moss, Julian Clary, Joan Collins, Bob Geldof, Boy George, Jamie Oliver's hangover cure, comedians, a white witch... and much more.

Genres: Short Stories, Chick Lit, Fiction, Humor, Anthologies

560 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Jessica Adams is an astrologer and author. Her books include 2020 Vision, Handbag Horoscopes and Astrolove (Penguin) and Essential Astrology for Women (HarperCollins). Her recent book 2020 Astrology: Your Five-Year Horoscope Guide, was a #1 Amazon bestseller in America and Australia. Jessica has worked as a team editor on the Girls' Night In and Kids' Night in series, for Penguin and HarperCollins, with contributors including J.K.Rowling, Stella McCartney and Nick Hornby. She is the Editor of The Holiday Goddess Guide to Paris, London, New York and Rome (HarperCollins). Jessica lives in Australia and her astrology has appeared everywhere from VOGUE (Japan) to GQ (Great Britain). Her latest book is Your Birthday (Hachette/Running Press) with Rachel Wells. She is the astrological consultant on The Aries Billionaire by Rachel Wells (Audible UK).

Reviews

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was a good collection of stories and enjoyable

[Marieclaire · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was up for something light and funny and easy to read. The stories fell flat and I wasn't impressed.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first read this when I was 15 and decided to re-read some of it before donating it. Big Night Out is full of short stories, playlists, recipes (for party food, cocktails or hangover remedies) and other tidbits.

Some of the better short stories were:
1. "Cinderella Gets a Brazillian" by Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin. It was the first story that I ever read that was in second person point of view.
2. "When I Feel Really Tired in the Evening" by Marie Darrieussecq. Reminded me a bit of Never Let Me Go
3. "Carry on Camping" by Gil McNeil. Was funny.
4. "Eden" by Rebecca Ray. Was sad.
5. "The Old School Museum" by Scarlett Thomas. Was sort of bittersweet.

"Which One?" by Candace Bushnell was kind of depressing and full of cocaine. I was going to read "The Latex Girl Who Loved Christ" by Luke Davies, because who wouldn't with that title? But I read the first sentence and thought "nuh uh".

I loved most of the playlists. I couldn't find most of the songs in 2006, because Youtube was still pretty new. My favourites were the ones by Grant McLennan and Claudia Winkleman.

There were also some sweet illustrations, my favourites being the ones by Muriel McCleod and Anthony Stewart Head.

[Vanya · Rating 1 out of 5]

Finished. It's mentioned on the back cover that it's the biggest read of the year. Big it was, indeed. It took a gazillion days to finish. After reading three fourth of the book, I stopped trying. I just skimmed through the rest. Not one story I could say is worth reading. Boring.


Midway: I am midway & this is getting increasingly tough to read. None of the stories are the slightest bit interesting. Some are just lists of songs or mocktails.
Why did I buy this crap?

[Meg · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of short stories from Australian and British writers, in the 'general fiction' genre. A couple of the stories were quite good, most were OK, a few were terrible. Some weren't actually stories but were just really brief 'top 5' lists. I listened to the audio book which was good because a lot of the stories were read by the writers themselves.

[Preet · Rating 3 out of 5]

With a wide variety of authors, from well known authors to celebrities, there is a melange of reading material. Some stories were my cup of tea, others thought provoking material, and some were, well, just out there.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to the audio book version of this and thought it worked well having different readers for the different stories. As you would expect with such a collection, the stories varied a lot in quality and entertainment value. Still a perfect way to enliven a dull car trip.

[Karschtl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some stories I only scanned or didn't read at all, others were nice and even had a morale sometimes. All in all I prefer novels.

[Yvette]

Big Night Out by Jessica Adams (2002)

[Uci · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't finish reading it. Didn't get it.