Stunning. Chose this #ozfiction for my book club to read this month. It was announced as a Stella Prize longlisted book this week. A very special, quiet exploration of grief.

This book has sat patiently on my #tbr shelves, gifted to me in an Aussie book swap years ago. The cover is so beautiful, just like this beach (background) I was at yesterday.
The cover belies the contents of this dark read. I found it confusing yet engrossing. Multiple narrators over multiple timelines. Disturbing.

My mum has advanced dementia and this novel feels very real and how I imagine things have been for my mum. So many parallels. I have often pondered how utterly discombobulating it must be. This book captured the unmooring nature of dementia so well. Beautiful 🥺

In this novella, Nabila is 80 and lives in present day Australia. In 1948 she and her family were expelled from their village in Palestine. This modern parable is beautifully written and very accessible at only 102 pages. I hope it is read widely.

This is an unusual choice of book for me. I didn‘t know anything about Gina Chick before I bought it. But this memoir just kept jumping onto my radar from a bunch of diverse places. It was calling to me.
And “Wow!” 🤩 I loved it 💖
What a fascinating, awesome woman. As the saying goes, ‘It takes all sorts to make a world‘. And the world is better for having Gina in it.

Read for book club. I‘m still not sure how I feel about Rooney, having read three of her novels now. She‘s a ‘blokey‘ writer, which I think is the reason my husband likes her. That and the sex scenes 😉.
Overall this one is a pick. I was engaged and many of the brother/family issues felt very realistic. Looking forward to our book club discussion.

#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii
1. Today‘s #breakfastandbook 🤤
2. Returning to work & getting to spend a rare 2 full training days with colleagues. As a school psychologist working in schools, I hardly ever get to do this.
3. Karaks (black cockatoos) in a tree in my neighbourhood.
4. Going to the museum with the family & doing a Kimberley VR (far north Western Australia).
5. My son getting his first professional job promoting early childhood literacy!

This book 💔🇵🇸. I learn about the world, history and perspectives from quality fiction. This book certainly ‘schooled‘ me. Extraordinarily harrowing and beautiful. Published in 2020, a good friend recommended it at the time. And oh, what has happened since then. So glad to have read it. 🥺🙏

Loving this book. I‘m a big fan of watermelon 🍉, especially now when we are in the middle of summer (over 40C again today). But roasted watermelon seeds that you crack open? I can‘t imagine shelling them or what‘s actually inside. We now have only seedless watermelons here, although I always remember collecting up the seeds and spitting them out as a kid.

Oh my, what an engrossing, immersive book this was. Auto-fiction by a Bengali Australian telling of her experience of psychosis. Talk about the ultimate unreliable narrator! I am grateful to have been given access to her world. She deftly depicts some of the inherent difficulties in treating acute MH episodes. Of course when you‘re paranoid & delusional you think your reality is real, the system is out to get you, & you refuse your meds 🤯❤️‍🩹🙏.

Stopped reading Picoult years ago for a reason: I am a book snob. This was naff.
Case in point: 2 lovers are reunited,
“A small cry climbed the ladder of her throat, & then she was in his arms & pressed against him & his mouth was crushed to hers. His hands speared into her hair, scattering the pins like raindrops around them. She melted like wax, shaped against him, remade.” 🤮
Why did I read it? It was gifted in my book club Secret Santa.

Once again I must thank @Rissreadswithcats for literally putting a book in my hand and commanding me to read it 🤣🙏. I loved it so much. Is there a movie or series adaptation of it I should watch?

Black or Carnaby cockatoos are endemic to southwest Western Australia & are endangered, mostly due to habitat loss. This book outlines how we can work to retain them in urban environments. I learnt that the native garden I planted in our last house was unwittingly consistent with the principles in this book - I just wanted to be waterwise, grow local plants & attract birds to my birdbath 😁. Now I need to work on the garden in my new house…

My final read of 2024. It didn‘t grab me. I can do no plot if the character development is excellent or the subject of interest. It was beautifully written and there were moments, just not quite enough of them for me.

How I‘m heading into 2025. #currentlyreading

Each year I aim to read roughly a book a week. In 2024 I read 53 🙌. Here are my 10 favourites (for a variety of reasons). If you‘re a detail person you‘ll note there are only 9 books pictured. That‘s because The Prophet Song by Paul Lynch is currently loaned to a friend. I struggle to choose THE best book, but if I had to, it would be the tagged book, which was an incredible, unexpected, devastating and beautiful read. HNY from Western Australia.

Creepy AF. @Rissreads and I came across a mountain of Doris Lessing novels in a secondhand store a while ago & vowed to read one/some. This is my first Lessing. Oh my goodness. An unsettling, disturbing & thought-provoking read.

Ok Aussie Secret Santa recipients, where the bloody hell are you? It‘s most definitely Christmas Eve here and I‘ve opened my beautiful #aussiesecretsanta parcel from @Freespirit
Will you look at these gorgeous gifts 👀🎁? Thank you Sally & thank you @CarolynM for organising this year 🙏.
Come on now, it‘s show and tell time…

Holy 💩⚽️⚽️! Climate dystopian #ozfiction, written by a local #mustread author. Finished reading it today, a day that reached 43C 🔥, whilst hibernating in air con. Absolutely terrifying and affecting. This is Winton desperately trying to WAKE US UP. Read it… if you dare. #chunkster

#aussiesecretsanta
It‘s arrived! How exciting. Thank you in anticipation Sally @Freespirit 😁🙏💕. Bring on Christmas Eve. @CarolynM

Australian author Helen Garner is a must-read for me. She‘s an octogenarian and this is her first book in a while. She says she wrote it about her youngest grandson‘s U16 football team as a way to connect with him “before he turns into a man and I die”. As a mum of boys obsessed with AFL myself (whilst I have minimal interest 😬), there was a lot for me to relate to.

I want to be Helen Garner when I‘m 80. Here she is talking about running after a football and “chucking” it to the umpire, along with her characteristic anachronistic commentary (in this instance body-shaming 🤦🏻‍♀️). The kind of stuff that gets her in trouble. I don‘t want to be like her in that way, but physically and mentally, to be able to ‘run‘ and ‘chuck‘ and write books in her 80s! Wow!

Hannah is 25. This is her second book in 18 months. I learnt a lot from her first book Bite Back and I wasn‘t sure I‘d learn anything new from her second, being the worldly wise 53yo that I am 👵😆. I‘m pleased to say that I was wrong. She is so bloody clever! I highly recommend this, particularly to any budding feminists in your life. @Rissreads and I saw her live show on Monday night here in Perth, which was the first show of her national tour.

It‘s my wedding anniversary today. 17 years 💕🎉🍾. Love that this is what my husband got me. The latest book by one of my absolute faves, Tim Winton. #ozfiction

Radical empathy. What a book. Exceptionally propulsive, brilliant and devastating. Bravo 👏🥹🙏

Finished reading this great #ozfiction when I should be packing up my house to move.

#shelfie We‘re moving house and I‘m so sad about leaving my beautiful book shelves behind. We had these made for us, to take up the entire wall in our lounge room. We don‘t have shelves ready to move them into, so the books will sit in boxes for a while…
My husband and I are trying to cull, but it‘s tough. I know you feel me. 🥺📚📦

Someone put this ARC in my Little Street Library. It‘s set in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia. It was pretty good and provided an excellent palate cleanse for me 😁🙏. #ozfiction

Talk about a #mustreadauthor. Had to go grab this latest Lucy Barton, where Strout brings a bunch of characters, including cranky 90yo Olive, together. Let‘s hope it‘s not the last 📚🤞🏼💕.

How good is Elizabeth Strout? 💕#currentlyreading

Craig Silvey is a local (Perth Western Australian) author. I‘ve read all of his books and this is his latest, a children‘s book that has just been made into a movie that I‘m going to see this weekend. If anyone is looking for Australian fiction recommendations my favourites written by Silvey are Jasper Jones and Rhubarb. #ozfiction

Read for book club. Sped-read by me yesterday 😬. Liked by most in my club. A reasonably page-turning story of Murano glass makers in Venice, commencing in the 1400s. A time-warping device takes the reader through time to the present day.

Oomph! That packed a punch 🤛. I think the epigraph says it all.

“After a certain distance every step we take in life we find the ice growing thinner below our feet, and all around us and behind us we see our contemporaries going through.” Robert Louis Stevenson

Reminiscent of Bonfire of the Vanities. Epic read 👏.

A question about the tagged book featured in an awesome Book Nerd Quiz I attended with my book club pals last night. It was so fun & we came third 🥉.
A bunch of young, gorgeous librarians on the adjacent table won. There is hope for the future book nerds! 🙏😆🤓.
*Our club‘s been meeting monthly since 1997 ❤️📚

Learnt some things (neuroendocrine system) and was reminded of some other things (HRT research & the U-shaped happiness curve). All helpful contributions to my arsenal of information, enabling me to stay focused on living my best life, through menopause and beyond ℹ️ 🧠.

Sure am looking forward to this chapter 🤗😂

I have read and learnt a lot about menopause over the past few years. Lisa Mosconi is one of my important sources. Menopause can have
“…an array of well over thirty different symptoms..”
I sure did not know that a few years ago. At 53 now and being perimenopausal I reckon I‘ve experienced a few of them that I previously had no awareness were linked to the dramatic fluctuations then drop of estrogen.
#currentlyreading

Australian Aboriginal man and academic Tony Birch is an exceptional short story writer. He writes from the perspective of the down-trodden and marginalised with skill and empathy. Absolutely love his work. #ozfiction ❤️🖤💛

What a disturbing, sad little book 😳. The cold, simple style contributed to the atmosphere. Cannot say that I enjoyed it, but I was affected by it. Creepy.

Decided it was time to read this novel set in 90s Ireland about the Troubles that‘s been sitting on my #tbr shelf. People may know that O‘Brien died recently at 93. I traversed Ireland from Dublin to Northern Ireland & back again in 1992 with my then boyfriend who was from Derry. I recall the people, places, stories, army presence & on one occasion having our car strip-searched. This quiet, menacing, masterfully written novel made me work. 🙏❤️

*When your book kinda matches the floor at your hairdressers*
When I saw Evie Wyld had a new book out, I raced out to buy it, having read The Bass Rock and All The Birds Singing, which were 👌.
Set in Australia and London this book explores how each generation is molded by the one before it in overt and subtle ways. Grief, abuse, love, self harm and even the Stolen Generation and a ghost feature in this affecting gem of a novel. Bravo 👏

This was my first Lisa See. It was chosen for my book club this month.
It took me a while to get into this Korean story of female friendship, tragedy and the amazing haenyeo, diving women. I was reminded a little of Pachinko (although Pachinko was better IMO).
From about halfway I started to engage with the book and characters, particularly the protagonist Young-Sook.
Looking forward to discussing it at boob club on Monday.

TW for child sexual abuse.

Thanks @Jeg for passing this one on. I am so glad to have read it. Grace stood up to her high school teacher who sexually abused her and in doing so stood up for victims everywhere. 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually abused. What a vile man. And what a woman Grace is 💪❤️. Can‘t wait to see what she does next. (She did just come first in an ultra marathon - phew!).

This is my 7th Patchett, and I have loved all but one of them (State of Wonder). This one read a bit like an Anne Tyler, another favourite author.
An accident is the catalyst for a story of grief, love and separated family. The novel takes place over 24 hours, with Ann embodying each character at different times to develop the story. Bravo 👏😭❤️

Psychological flexibility 🧠🙌

Did a quick skim read of this today, because I‘ve recommended it to my husband & he‘s currently reading it.
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a widely-used cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), & this book kind of started it all for Russ Harris.
I‘ve done his online introductory course & found it a useful approach in my work & life.
I find his style a little irritating, but it‘s good stuff 👍.
Be present. Open up. Do what matters.

A soft pick. Just finished reading the debut #ozfiction by Sri Lankin-Australian author Ayesha Inoon. I learnt some things and look forward to our book club discussion tomorrow night. I appreciated the opportunity to step into the shoes of someone emigrating to Australia. It was just a little clunkily done IMO.

#currentlyreading #ozfiction #WTF 🤷🏻‍♀️

‘Wow‘ seems vastly inadequate to describe this novel, but I guess that‘s why I‘m a reader not a writer 😆. I don‘t even know how I came to have this book on my radar, but I‘m so glad. I can‘t say much about it without spoiling it for those who‘ve yet to have the pleasure. I wish I‘d slowed down a bit at the beginning to appreciate the setting of the scene and descriptions of Bill‘s art. Complex. Beautifully written. Magnificent 😍👏🙏

Just finished a road trip with my husband and 15yo son. We listened to this, one of my favourite teenage reads. Our son really liked it & now we‘re trying to source the movie ❤️🙏💯.