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 ❤️🙏💯.

I chose Circe for Bookclub a couple of years ago, and am now glad to have read this, Miller‘s first novel.
Whilst a ‘pick‘ I did not love it. The characters felt a bit flat and I was not particularly emotionally invested. An interesting take the relationship between Patroclus & Achilles.

@DebinHawaii #5joysfriday
It‘s Saturday morning in wintery Western Australia, but I have some weekly joys to share:
1. Watching this cormorant find the only patch of sun to dry itself.
2. Waking up to this double rainbow 🌈🌈.
3. Celebrating the start of two weeks holiday with my husband, & my promotion. I‘m a ‘Senior School Psychologist‘ 😁.
4. This sunrise 🌅😍.
5. Plasma donation number 6 for 2024 💛💪.

Wanna share some joy @Rissreads @Jeg ?

Finally getting into this. It‘s been on my radar since I joined Litsy many years ago, when it seemed that everyone on Litsy was reading it. I found this well-read copy in my Little Street Library. Bonus 🙌. #currentlyreading

Bloody hell he‘s good. A sequel to Brooklyn which I read years ago. The narrative style seems so simple and almost impersonal, but Tóibín is masterful at drawing characters and setting up dilemmas. What will the characters do? ???‍♀️?

How pretty is this cover? 😍 It belies the content within. I love Gail Jones. Her writing is beautiful, and I was reminded this week that she is Western Australian. Quality #ozfiction

Mini book haul. Untethered is my book club read for this month & I‘ve had Run on my wishlist for years. 🙏

I love Anne Tyler‘s books so very much. Thanks @Jeg for passing this one on for me to read. 🙏❤️

I love Lohrey‘s gentle, meandering style. A retired lawyer contemplates the conversion of a church in the Australian countryside. Loose ends not all tied up, but an enjoyable, satisfying read. #ozfiction

Bumped this one up my #tbr due to all the rave reviews and the intriguing conceit. What a hilarious, upsetting, entertaining and devastating read it was. Bravo 👏.

📚📚📚
Hard relate James. Hard relate. #currentlyreading
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#currentlyreading Slaves James and Luke are talking to/about a white man about whisky.

Just starting this much anticipated read. Didn‘t expect it to be so hilarious 😂.

Two unputdownable books in a row? Feeling lucky, appreciative & hopeful🍀🙏😁.

Wow 😮. Great debut #ozfiction. Dark themes written about with humour. Can‘t wait to see what my book club thinks, because some of it was a bit edgy and out there, and we are old ladies 🤣.

Chose this for my Bookclub to read. Can. Not. Put. It. Down. I feel a weekend of neglecting my family coming on, if I don‘t finish it before then. Why am I the first person on Litsy to read this? Where for art thou Australian Littens? #currentlyreading #ozfiction

I heard this novel being reviewed glowingly on an Australian radio book show and added it to my long #tbr list. Written in 2011, but set mainly in the 1920s & 30s, it is a beautifully written, rural family saga about horse jumping. It felt a little Grapes of Wrath to me 🤔. I thoroughly appreciated (rather than enjoyed) this harrowing, affecting #ozfiction.

#5joysfriday @DebinHawaii
5 things that bought me joy today:
1. This photo of my little reading room, which gets the best light.
2. We are in Autumn or Djeran, as the first people of this area, Boorloo/Perth call it. Djeran is 1 of 6 Noongar seasons & it‘s my favourite.
3. These plants, a cyclamen & bromeliad 😍😍😍.
4. Had another nice visit with my mum, who has dementia, today. 🥰
5. Takeaway Japanese teriyaki chicken for dinner tonight 🤤🙏

A Bildungsroman beauty 😍. Thanks goes once again to @Rissreads for making me buy it 🤣. I‘m not sure why this classic passed me by up ‘til now 🤔. Wonderful 🥰

Well, that wasn‘t boring! 😧 It probably shouldn‘t surprise me that Bri Lee‘s foray into fiction is full-on.
Two ambitious young things on opposite sides of the globe get it on amidst the New York art scene.
Contemporary ethical issues abound as do evocative sex scenes. Lee did some things well and other things quite clunkily. The ending was disappointing.
A wild ride & all I can say is… strap yourself in! #ozfiction

Starting on this one today. Went to see Bri speak about her debut novel last night. I have read two of her non-fiction books. Eggshell Skull is my favourite. #currentlyreading #ozfiction

I am #currentlyreading this little book that has sat on my TBR shelves for many years. I think I was loaned it (oops) by someone when I did my country school psychology placement in the 90s. Has anyone heard of the author or her short stories?

She wrote this memoir in her early 40s, which seems too young to be feeling so tired. Although it was 1939 and no doubt women‘s lives were very different then…🤔

This book. Once I started, I could not put it down. Anne Deveson writes about her son Jonathan‘s lived experience of schizophrenia, focusing on the impact it had on her and the family. Deeply moving, tragic and devastating. Absolutely outstanding and essential reading for anyone wanting to better understand chronic mental health issues. Vale Anne Deveson (and her daughter, writer Georgia Blain).

This month‘s Bookclub read was debut #YA #ozfiction & I loved it. Allegra lives with her grandma & her other grandma lives next door. They adore Allegra, but hate each other. Set in the 1970s, it explores the feminist movement of the time, particularly the emergence of ‘safe houses‘ for women & children escaping domestic violence.
It wasn‘t perfect and one character in particular felt like a caricature, but overall this was a very enjoyable read.

Had one of those blissful days with @Rissreads yesterday where we met up at the Elizabeth‘s second hand book warehouse, browsed and rummaged, then followed it up with a decadent lunch. This is my little haul 📚. I was so happy to find the tagged book & can‘t wait to read it.

What a jaunty little read that was. My first Georgette Heyer. Love discovering #newtomeauthors. An enjoyable #palatecleanser ❤️

#TLT @dabbe

It‘s well and truly Friday here in Western Australia, but I‘ll play anyway 😁. For the last 25 years or so I haven‘t re-read books because there are just too many new ones waiting, and I‘ll never get to them all 😱. So these are from my teens and early 20‘s.

1. Clan of the Cave Bear.
2. The Shell Seekers.
3. The Outsiders.

Wanna play @Jeg @Rissreads ?

Lucashenko is a Goorie (Aboriginal) author who has become a #mustreadauthor for me. Her #ozfiction is punchy, raw and very entertaining. Her novels explore the true history of Australia and I highly recommend them to anyone wanting to better understand what went on here in an accessible way. Having just read a non-fiction book about the Native Police in Queensland I appreciated reading a fictional account here. Bravo 👏
❤️💛🖤

Explain to me indeed. Another day in the colony.

I remember as a child being taught about the “settlement” of Australia in the 1800s, stories of Aboriginal people stealing sheep and cows from the white farmers. At the time it did not occur to me that Aboriginal people may have felt they had a right to take, when everything was being taken from them 😞.

Traditionally, Australian Aboriginal people were given a totem plant or animal at birth, that they were expected to nurture & could not eat. My son, whose middle name is Kulbardi (magpie) after his dad‘s totem, was talking about this the other day, asking me to imagine if your totem was the kangaroo (yonga), because that would mean that you couldn‘t eat it. To this day his dad‘s family hunt & eat yongas, an abundantly available food source.

Just look what my lovely colleague, who first alerted me to Georgette Heyer, gifted me today. She bought this 1965 edition online. It had no dust cover and has some slight damage (a name cut out of the title page). She photocopied the dust cover from her own rare edition and put it on this one! So thoughtful 🥰. Book people are the best. 📚🙏❤️

Ok, stop the press everyone! I got my hands on my first Georgette Heyer. A little after dinner wander lead me into an Elizabeth‘s 2nd hand bookshop, and here she is. Let‘s see how I go. #newtomeauthor #currentlyreading

#currentlyreading #ozfiction ❤️🖤💛

“…eating the decisions of his ancestors…”

Sustainability in its purest form. We can learn so much…

I‘m kind of sad to give it a ‘so-so‘. Bought this copy many years ago for my mum, then borrowed it to read because she liked it. I also bought a copy for my sister, who loved it. It has sat patiently on my #tbr shelves for about 10 years. I‘ve moved it on & off my bedside table, never getting into it.
A buddy read popped up on Insta & I decided to commit. And now I just feel underwhelmed. It wasn‘t for me I guess. Glad I finally read it 💪.

Oh my. So beautiful. So sad. What an incredibly special book. Read it if you dare. Thank you and vale Georgia Blain. 😍💔

“The best way to pay tribute to the Australian author, who died in the same week as her mother Anne Deveson, is to read her work” Sophie Cunningham, The Guardian, Dec 2016.

“Life is an amorphous mess, a huge soup of details we wade our way through, and in order to make sense of what is happening to us, we impose structure or narrative. It is inescapable.”

Writing about sharing news with her mother who has dementia Georgia says,
“Sometimes…she momentarily surfaces out of the goldfish bowl of Alzheimer‘s where she spends most of her time, swimming round, trapped, bumping up against her own reflection.
‘So what do I do now?‘ She asks.”
My mum has Alzheimer‘s and often asks that same question. It‘s a tough one to answer. I sometimes say, “surrender” or “it‘s your turn to be looked after now.” 🤷🏻‍♀️

I wasn‘t planning to start this right away, but couldn‘t help myself.
Georgia is reflecting on her daughter‘s reading here.
Having recently read Grapes of Wrath, this resonated. 😍💯🙌

As some of you may know, I have a bit of an obsession going on with Australian author Georgia Blain who died prematurely in 2016 😔. This book was one of two published that year. It is YA, specfic about teenager Fern and her Lotto Girl friends. I‘m not a big fan of the genre, so perhaps not the best judge, but I found it to be just an OK read. #ozfiction

@Rissreads @Jeg Look what I got my hands on today 😍.

Well that was a treat (in a weird, gloomy kind of way 😆). Thanks for putting the book in my hand @Rissreads . The inner lives of women of a certain age. Very relatable even though the book was set in a time and place where not getting married was considered sad and unfortunate. Some may say this is still the case 🤷🏻‍♀️. I loved Brookner‘s writing. She capture ideas, life‘s moments and “truths” so simply and effectively. I‘m keen to read more…

Absolute perfection. These short stories were written between 2012 - 2015. Georgia died from a brain tumor in 2016. The stories didn‘t get published before her death because Georgia put her energy into a getting a book she had just finished published, Between A Wolf & A Dog (a masterpiece).
I am so grateful that they have now been published & I got to read them. Thank you Georgia 🥹❤️🙏
#ozfiction

@Rissreads This is the book of hers I don‘t have, but very much want if you happen to see it on your travels. 🙏 I‘ll let you know if I manage to find it first.

@Rissreads is such a bad influence, in the best possible way. We were at the same show last night, sitting on opposite sides of the theatre. Nerissa comes over at interval to give me a random bag of books that she has ‘saved‘ for me. How lucky am I? 🥰👏📚🙏

WTAF was that? I acknowledge Tsiolkas‘ contribution to #ozfiction. I loved The Slap and found it ground-breaking. And I haven‘t minded a couple of his other books: Seven and a Half & Barracuda. But this was something else. Hist fic where Tsiolkas embodies St Paul. I was disoriented & revolted & read much of it with a scowl on my face. The abundance of “rutting”, “stench” & brutality were A LOT. Was it amazing or terrible 🤔🤷🏻‍♀️? Or was it both?

Valentines Day post.
I saw this book of short stories was being published posthumously & might‘ve hinted to my husband that I‘d very much like to read it 😉.
The card is locally made & will make sense to Perth people. There‘s this strange divide in Perth about north & south of the river (Derbarl Yerrigan or ‘Swan‘ river that runs through the centre). And never the twain shall meet. I moved from the north to the south when I met my husband 😱.