This is of particular interest to me. My mum has dementia & can‘t tell me when she experienced menopause. I know it was well into her 50s. She used to tell a story of her Irish GP telling her she could still “hear the pitter patter of tiny feet” when she was in her mid-50s. 😆

My eldest sister just went through it a few years ago at 57.

So at 51 I might be waiting a while. I have Adenomyosis, a condition purported to be “cured” by menopause.

“Trauma literally rewires the brain & the body.” 😞

#currentlyreading for a friend 😉.

Life sux & then you die? Only kidding. Or am I? 😳🤔🤷‍♀️

I have had this #classic on my #tbr shelf for years. Now that I‘ve finally read it, I‘m not sure what I think about it. Stoner‘s world is dull & drab & sad, yet I wanted to read on.

All can say is thank goodness for KD because the sadness & drabness was really getting to me.

I‘m glad I finally read it. And I can see why it still gets read.

Making a start on this. I‘ve had it on my #classics radar for some time. #currentlyreading

This pretty little cover belies the contents. And maybe that‘s the point? A metaphor for Australia perhaps?

This collection of poems & essays explore Australia‘s colonialist history, stories & literature. New light is shone on iconic stories Australians hold dear, like Gumnut Babies.

I had to work hard to process it & supported my understanding by listening to interviews with the author & reading reviews.

Very clever & thought provoking 🖤💛❤️

None shall sleep alright! At 1.45am 13yo Clem bursts into our room. He can‘t sleep because of his head cold. I drag myself out of bed to get him some meds. He proceeds to tell me that when he found himself unable to sleep he decided to read. He read so much, he finished the book.
Now that he‘s shared the ending with me I can see it might‘ve been more than his cold keeping him awake 😳. This was a Litsy rec 🙏 & it‘s a massive ‘pick‘ from Clem.

Indigenous Australian Tony Birch sure can spin a yarn. Short stories told from the perspective of men and boys on the edges. Gritty, punchy and real. #ozfiction

Seems I might be the first person on here to read this 2014 book of short stories by Indigenous Australian writer Tony Birch. I‘ve read one of his novels The White Girl (was OK) & another more recent book of short stories, Common People, which was excellent. I figure more of his short stories might be the way to go. #currentlyreading #ozfiction

Well, I did it. Needed to get this read for BC tomorrow. Like @Jeg I wish I hadn‘t rushed it, because this book is to be savoured. As with any book of essays and stories, I didn‘t love them all equally, but the ones I loved were just stunning. I‘ve read 5 of her books & loved 4. Reckon I‘d better get on & read the rest.

“Death always thinks of us eventually. The trick is to find the joy in the interim, make good use of the days we have left”

I am feeling all the feels with this book.

My mum, who I inherited my love of books from & who now has advanced dementia, made a very similar statement to me a few years ago. I am one of 5 kids & she told me I was the only one she & my dad never had to worry about.

I got to visit her today for the first time in a month, because she (& most other residents in her facility) recovered from a recent Covid outbreak. 🥰💕🙏

Can I get this read in 4 days? Chose this much anticipated read for bookclub and we are meeting Monday night - eeekk! I like to read book club books close to our meeting but this is pushing it. 😆😬
Better get to it. #currentlyreading

A gentle, meditative read. Many reminders to notice & be thankful for all the beauty in the world. Just the ticket 🌅🌿🙏

WTF was that I just read 😱😢?

First half felt like I was running. Fast paced; words tripping over themselves. Second half like a hallucination or a really bad dream.

Some clever, poignant stuff here about how we increasingly live our lives online. I don‘t do twitter, but I ‘do‘ just about everything else.

I am confronted, disturbed and self-conscious. So much provocation in one little book. ☄️

This book is freaking me TF out 😱. #currentlyreading

(The white-out at the beginning is an attempt to avoid a ‘spoiler‘)

I was a fan of Normal People. I love quality fiction that is unique and subversive. So I was keen to read Beautiful World.

However this one didn‘t quite work for me. The four main characters weren‘t developed enough for me to know and invest in them. They felt somewhat whiney and annoying. Maybe I‘m just too old to ‘get‘ them?

The writing was good. There was just something missing here for me 🤷‍♀️🤔.

Bloody hell this was good. @Rissreads recommended it ages ago & my husband, a dystopian fiction aficionado, read her copy. He gave it an Ok, but didn‘t share her enthusiasm, so I didn‘t bother to read it, not being a huge fan of the genre.
Then someone chose The Glass Hotel for book club & I liked the writing, so my husband bought me a copy of Station Eleven for my birthday.
The lesson here? Listen to @Rissreads when she recommends a book 😆👍.

Is there anyone who has read both The Glass Hotel and Station Eleven? I read the former about 6 months ago and am #currentlyreading the latter.

I am feeling a tremendous sense of deja vu reading the scenes with Miranda & Arthur at their house in the Hollywood Hills. Am wondering if there‘s some crossover, like the two Kate Atkinson novels. Maybe Miranda & Arthur are characters in both books 🤔? Or maybe they just feel similar?

My second audiobook this month! Enjoyed listening to this memoir about Chinese-Cambodian Alice growing up in the western suburbs of Melbourne.

#audiopuzzling
I have never done puzzles while listening to books before. I don‘t generally ‘do‘ audiobooks. But I recently discovered the free audiobooks on ABCListen and enjoyed listening whilst on a road-trip to Albany, Western Australia (5 hours each way). #currentlylistening #oznonfiction

I loved this book 💕. I bought it selfishly to go in our book club Kris Kringle, knowing that if I got it I‘d be happy (I have often either already read the books or snobbishly don‘t want to 😂). I didn‘t get it for Christmas & the person who did hated it 😜. Luckily she was happy to share it around.

Excellent, contemporary, debut #ozfiction about the sexual politics of privileged university college life. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Listened to this free audiobook on a recent road-trip. It‘s available to Australian listeners on the ABC Listen app.

A comprehensive book about anxiety written & read by psychiatrist Mark Cross, who has lived experience of mental health difficulties. What a lovely man he is. This is a very worthwhile book.

My Little Free Library is open for business 🤗📚👏. My husband and son put the kit together & painted it for me. Today it finally got bolted to our front wall. Yay! It‘s already been raided by the neighbours. #streetlibrary

A retired German academic finds purpose & meaning by supporting a group of refugees.

An interesting, well-researched exploration of the plight of those seeking asylum, in particular present day refugees from African countries entering Europe.

I‘d like to hope this novel could be read by people who might change their views after reading it. I imagine that was Erpenbeck‘s intention too🤞.

I look forward to discussing it at book club on Monday.

My family get me 🥰📚🙏. This birthday stack is from my husband and son. And a little free library that I‘ll be sure to photograph when it‘s installed out front. Squeeee!

And here we are at Day Two of the Writers Weekend. Ready and waiting to see national treasure Helen Garner.

So wonderful to share book love with book-loving friends. On the far left is the gorgeous @Rissreads and then me in the blue dress. The rest of our crew are from my bookclub.

We are sitting up the back and social distancing as Perth, Western Australia heads into its first significant community spread of Covid. Wish us luck 🍀🤞.

Saw Hannah Kent speak today at the Perth Writers Weekend. Due to Covid and our travel restrictions she appeared on-screen from her home in Adelaide. I can see the back of my head and @Rissreads in this photo taken by the program curator. 😂🤣😁

😭🥰💕 I adored this novel. Yes @CarolynM it was easy to read and yet covered so much ground, exploring some dark terrain. I fell in love with Della and Jasmine. Behrendt cleverly explored their different perspectives of the same events, reminding me to be empathetic. So often we don‘t really know all that others have been through. #ozfiction #bekind ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Thank you @Jeg for this beautiful yet simple book for children about the lifespan.

On eye witness testimony…👀

“Life just passes you by and the next thing you know it‘s Christmas all over again.”

Ain‘t that the truth 😂? Loving this book so much, especially Della‘s musings.

Just a little bit excited to start this #ozfiction by impressive indigenous Australian Larissa Behrendt. #currentlyreading #firstnationfiction

P.S. With matching nails 😉😆

Finished this historical fiction about Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro‘s mother. This was my first Hoffman & I‘m glad to have read one of her many novels.
However, I‘m not sure she‘s for me 🤔. I don‘t know what it was that made it a bit of a chore at times. Maybe the slightly ‘romancy‘ style? Maybe a case of ‘it‘s not you it‘s me‘? It was evocative of place and time.
Thank you @LeeRHarry for broadening my reading horizons 🙏🤗📖. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

#wondrouswednesday Thanks for the tag @Lizpixie . You‘ve tagged me in a bunch of these & I am finally posting one. 🙌

1. The tagged soon to be released debut novel by feminist powerhouse Selma El-Wardany.

2. Hmmm, don‘t think so, but Selma‘s book might be my first 22 publication. 🤔

3. I am currently reading my first Alice Hoffman, The Marriage of Opposites.

I tag @LeeRHarry @Rissreads @CarolynM

@Eggs

@LeeRHarry sent me this one as part of our #aussiesecretsanta book exchange. I am making a start on it just as school resumes, in the hope that it will provide the escape I‘ll appreciate in my downtime. #currentlyreading

This. Book. Just when I think I get it; when I think I‘ve informed myself enough about the first people of (so-called) Australia, along comes another book by an Aboriginal writer that opens up my skull & rummages around in there 🤯. Maybe I‘m a bit slow on the uptake 🤔, but this book has stopped me in my tracks & made me THINK. The last book to do that was Lies Damned Lies by Claire G Coleman. I look forward to many more. 🙏 🖤💛❤️

I was once one of those ‘white kids‘ Watego refers to here. Along with 100s of others in a lecture theatre, enrolled in a compulsory Aboriginal Education unit.

When the ‘angry‘ Aboriginal lecturer shared some information with us about the true history of Australia. When the shock, denial and ‘hysteria‘ kicked in and confirmation bias went into overdrive.

But that lecture on that day was a crucial step in my journey of understanding.
❤️💛🖤

Gulp. As a “whitefulla” and “coloniser” I am apprehensive and yet eager to read this book of essays, understanding that they are not written for me. #anotherdayinthecolony

Making a start on this book of essays. In the lead-up to Australia Day on 26 Jan I try to read a book about the true history of this country from an Aboriginal perspective. This is the book I choose for 2022. #currentlyreading #oznonfiction #notadatetocelebrate

This is Amor‘s third novel. We read his second A Gentleman in Moscow for bookclub a couple of years ago. It was universally acclaimed, which is unusual in our club.

Amor says he tries to head in a completely different direction with each novel & this is very different to Gentleman. It felt a tiny bit reminiscent of Of Mice & Men 🤔.

Think he might‘ve become a #mustreadauthor for me. Need to get my hands on his first Rules of Civility now.

#bookandlunch I have been craving these locally made walnut & honey lavosh with soft cheese. Today I went to my local cheese room (yes cheese ROOM), & here is a photo of the lunch I just devoured 🤤😋.

I am half way through the book & I‘m hooked. #currentlyreading

(Also eaten, but not pictured, giant fresh lychees). #summerfruits

Time for a #chunkster #currentlyreading

Received this book in our book club Christmas gift lucky dip & would like to have it read before our first meeting of the year in Feb. Enjoying it so far.

Not sure how I came to be reading this book 🤔. The writer is from the UK & lives in Western Australia. She is doing her PHD at the same uni my kids attend, 10 minutes down the road. She‘s written other bestsellers. Has anyone read them?

I really enjoyed this speculative fiction, full of female characters and with a YA, handmaid‘s tale vibe. I did have to suspend judgement at times, but it wasn‘t too hard. I happily went along for the ride 😁.

This was an excellent little read about creativity, with a dedication to Georgia Blain and a chapter about her final and most wonderful book Between A Wolf & A Dog 🥰😭💔♥️.

On aging and the happiness U-curve. 😁🥰💪🙏

#nextup I seem to be reading about writing ✍️ a lot lately, which is interesting given I am not a creative writer 🤔 (as a school psych I write plenty at work).

But anyway, how beautiful is this cover? 😍☁️

#currentlyreading #oznonfiction

This copy of the 1999 Miles Franklin winning novel Eucalyptus has been sitting patiently on my #tbr shelf for many years. After several failed attempts at reading it….success! The time was right as I‘ve just read Bail‘s ex-wife Helen Garner‘s latest book of diaries which cover the period when he wrote this, his best-known work. I‘ve been voyeuristically immersed in he & Garner‘s late 90s world. Their marriage failed just as this was released.

My final read for 21 was Aussie icon Helen Garner‘s 3rd volume of diaries, covering 3 years (95 - 98) during which her marriage to Murray Bail was disintegrating; the years he was writing the tagged book, a classic I‘ve had on my #tbr for years. I‘ve picked it up many times, but couldn‘t get into it. I am now struck by the biographical elements (knowing what I do from Helen‘s diaries). Fascinating life/art parallels. #currentlyreading #ozfiction

Christmas present from my husband. Done ✅😊❤️.