#firstlinefridays @ShyBookOwl #currentlyreading

“The Christening party took a turn when Albert Cousins arrived with gin”

😆

This made me laugh. How I love Ann Patchett‘s writing & character development. #currentlyreading

Neurodiversity is one of my favourite words. We are all wired a little bit differently. I liked the comparison to biodiversity.

Another work read done and dusted. Some great strengths-based ideas in this 2012 classic. 📗🤓☑️

#aussiesecretsanta
Look what arrived for me today 🤗. Reckon I know who sent it 😁🙏.

@thegirlwiththelibrarybag @LeeRHarry @CarolynM @Lizpixie @Cathy_J @LapReader @Freespirit @Flingogal @Teresereading

A useful work read for me. Adding to my toolbox. ✅

Kon is the CEO and founder of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC), an independent human rights organisation for refugees in Australia.
I loved this memoir and feel all the love for Kon. What a guy. What a powerhouse and treasure trove of good. We can all learn a thing or two from this book. ❤️

This book ❤️. Think I am falling a little bit in love with Kon. What a man 🥰.

Only reading books that match my nails from now on 💅🏻😆. Starting this today. @JennyM seems to think I‘ll like it. #currentlyreading

Ok, so this wasn‘t the easiest book to read. However I am very glad I read it. So much to unpack in this academic critique of best seller Dark Emu (which attests that Aboriginal Australians were more farmers than hunter-gatherers). It‘s hard to argue with the evidence presented here. On the other hand Pascoe‘s book has reach that this academic text can only dream of. Having read this I know more than I did before & that‘s gotta be good, right 🤯?

I am getting stuck into this non-fiction read today. It‘s a critique of a book I loved ‘Dark Emu‘, but I knew I had to read it, because I really do want to develop a deeper understanding of the true history of Australia. This quote summarises the critique. Wish me luck 😬.

#aussiesecretsanta On its way to someone somewhere in this wide brown land. 🤗📚🎄🇦🇺

Thanks for organising @thegirlwiththelibrarybag 🙏🏻

Beautifully written memoir about love by the irrepressible Australian feminist icon that is Clementine Ford. 💗❤️💕💪🏼🙏🏻

Almost finished this book about love.
💕❤️🥰
#currentlyreading

Sure hope everyone participating in the #aussiesecretsanta has their Litsy #tbr list up to date ‘cause there‘s people snooping and procuring 👀📚.

Exciting 🤗👏🙌

@thegirlwiththelibrarybag @CarolynM @LapReader @Lizpixie @LeeRHarry @Flingogal @Teresereading @Jhullie @Freespirit @Cathy_J

1. I am always wanting to visit my favourite local Crowbooks in East Victoria Park, Perth, Western Australia. Once we are allowed to leave the state again (government is locking people out to keep COVID out) I would very much like to visit some hometown Melbourne bookstores like the city downstairs Dymocks and Readings.
2. Often & I use my Litsy #tbr.
@TheSpineView Thanks for the tag @Nute @Teresereading #two4twotuesday

Signed copy just arrived 😍🎉🤗. #fangirling

This is Hannah Kent‘s third novel. She is a #mustreadauthor for me. Her books champion women on the fringes. Historical fiction with a twist. Her writing is sublime. It‘s a ‘yes‘ from me. #ozfiction ❤️

Kate Ellis was a federal MP in Australia (2004 to 2019). At 30 she was the youngest person to be appointed a federal minister. Kate left politics because she couldn‘t bear to be away from her eldest son when he started school. By then she also had a younger child. In this book she interviews current & former female politicians about their experiences. She acknowledges we have come a long way, but still have a long way to go.
Thanks @Jeg

Women should ‘carry themselves with the confidence of a mediocre white man‘. 🤭😆
#currentlyreading

Look what I got 🤗🤓📖. And it‘s a signed copy 😍. #newrelease #ozfiction #currentlyreading #mustreadauthor

We discussed this Bookclub read on Monday night. I haven‘t read Station Eleven, despite it coming highly recommended by @Rissreads . I feel I might have to now that I‘ve read this one. I really liked her writing: well drawn characters, setting & story. 👍🏼

What a little gem 💎❤️😭. So much packed into this debut novel by Sarah Winman. Reminiscent of Kate Atkinson.
(Might‘ve neglected my family a little this evening in my quest to finish it 🙊).

#currentlyreading This one‘s been on my #tbr shelves for sometime. I have high hopes. 🤞
Reading spot: Fremantle, Western Australia.

This well-written biography covers Nick Cave‘s early years growing up in rural Victoria, then his move to Melbourne where his rock ‘n‘ roll career began in the 1970s. It ends as he and his band The Boys Nextdoor head off to find fame in London when Cave was 22.

Mark Mordue interviewed people close to Nick including his mother & siblings. If you‘re a fan of the man I think you‘ll enjoy this portrait of the young Nick.

#upnext #fangirl #currentlyreading #biography

This was so damned good 🔥👌🏼♥️. Claire G. Coleman is awesome. I‘ve read her two novels and now this book of essays examining the settler colonisation of Australia. Do yourself a favour and get hold of anything she writes. #truthtelling #knowyourtruth

Quote from Chapter 13 ‘Bloody Australia Day‘.

For any Australians out there still struggling to understand why our National day of celebration on 26 January needs to change.

This book of essays about the colonisation of Australia is👌🏼🔥☄️.

Making a start on Claire G Coleman‘s latest offering. The title says it all and this quote in the Introduction sets the scene for “a personal exploration of the impact of colonisation” in Australia. I‘m strapping myself in. #currentlyreading #truthtelling

Common sense advice from Dr Swan. Like having an unlimited consult with your favourite GP. A reminder of the importance of agency in health and well-being outcomes.

I‘ve procured some pretty interesting Australian non-fiction reads lately including these two and Claire Coleman‘s latest offering Lies, Damned Lies.

Which one to read first 🤓🤔?

#spoiltforchoice

Amanda Lohrey recently won the Australian Miles Franklin award with her latest book Labyrinth.
This 1995 novel was loaned to me by a friend who said it was a favourite of hers. I can see why. It was a complex, quiet little gem. #ozfiction

My plans for this morning are to eat this breakfast 😋 and finish this book, during a spring thunderstorm ⛈. Happy days 🤗. #ozfiction #currentlyreading

Oh how I love the hammock time of year ☀️😎📖. #currentlyreading #ozfiction #spring #djilba

I find Celeste Barber‘s Insta spoofs of celebrity posts absolutely hilarious and I get the sense that she is a pretty cool human too. I put off reading this memoir for fear I‘d be disappointed. Turns out I needn‘t have. I really enjoyed this #palatecleanser and think I might love her even more now. 😍❤️👏🙏

What a beautiful little book. I thought it was poetry, but have learnt it‘s actually a transcript of conversations with an Aboriginal elder, born early last century.

“The land for us never change round. Places for us, earth for us, star, moon, tree, animal, no matter what sort of animal, bird or snake…all that animal same like us. Our friend that.”

🖤💛❤️

I was recently gifted this book by an Aboriginal friend who knows I like to read all I can about the world‘s longest living culture.

On the inside cover of this book of poems first published in 1989, “begin to care for nature and nature cares for you”.

I am so far excited and moved. #currentlyreading

This memoir by Aboriginal Australian Veronica Gorrie chronicles her life from her childhood filled with adversity to adulthood, focusing mainly on her time as a police officer. I‘m so glad that she got to be a police officer, but so sad about what she experienced there.

How do we support & encourage representation in our institutions without retraumatising minorities and expecting them to educate us 🤷‍♀️. We have to do better.

Racism in the Australian police force. From the perspective of an Aboriginal police woman 😔.

Making a start on this one.
“The story of an Aboriginal woman who worked as a police officer”.
Bracing myself for a harrowing read.
#currentlyreading

Grieving mother Erica uproots her life to live in an oceanside shack, where she plans to recreate a garden labyrinth from her childhood.

Beautiful #milesfranklin2021 winning #ozfiction

Chose this new release #ozfiction for my book club read. First heard about it on a FB group from my home-town-suburb Altona, Melbourne. It was inspired by a true story of twins in my year at high school. They were lovely young men and one of them died tragically at 19 in a waterskiing accident. He was a prodigious footballer drafted early to the local professional team (Footscray). Of course I had to read it. ⬇️

This is where I finished reading this #australianclassic today 😍. Patrick White requires your full attention and I‘m glad I was able to give it. Profound, lyrical, epic, it traverses life from birth to death of Stan Parker.
This is my second White and I was interested to see (from my Litsy review) that I finished my first, Eye of the Storm, on holiday in this very location 2 years ago 🤔. Hard work but worth the effort. 🙏🏻❤️ #ozfiction

Not the worst reading spot. 😍🙏🏻
Balingup, Western Australia.

On Gnaala Karla Booja Noongar country.

🤣😂 Upwardly mobile Thelma is newly married to her solicitor boss. It‘s the 1950s so she is now a lady of leisure. She and her new husband are visiting her parents in the countryside. Her mother Amy asks her whether she reads…

And this is why I will persist with this challenging, dense tome. Because I read a section like this and sigh. So evocative, beautiful, satisfying. I find Patrick White‘s writing exquisite. ❤️❤️❤️ #currentlyreading #ozfiction #australianclassic

It‘s taking me a while to get through this one, but how good is this reading spot? 👏🏼😍😁
#currentlyreading #ozfiction #classics

Book exchange and chats with a good friend over cocktails before going to the theatre. My cup runneth over 🙏🏻. #milesfranklin2020winner