I am frustrated today. Honestly, the day could not have felt more shitty if it tried. Sure, there were lots of okay things that happened, but my general mood has oscillated between “Fuck this” and verging on tears. I am currently looking for work, an arduous task done in silence and solitude because heaven forbid … Continue reading
As Winter slowly but surely approaches the Northern Hemisphere, I felt that a book on Alaska would help me get into the mood of all things cold and frosty. As an Australian, it is hard to imagine the cold that is experienced in places like Alaska and Northern Sweden and Finland. I did not see … Continue reading
TRIGGER WARNING: This review deals with death by suicide. The Virgin Suicides were first published in 1993 and it was Jeffrey Eugenides’ breakout debut novel. It was received with critical acclaim and some reviewers at the time called his novel a modern Greek tragedy. It has captured readers since its release and was turned into … Continue reading
Cheryl Strayed is 22 when her mother dies rather suddenly of lung cancer. After losing the glue that held her family and life together, Cheryl starts to spiral. She is lost and hurt and in being so, hurts and loses people around her. She cheats on her husband, takes up a brief heroin addiction, divorces … Continue reading
Noose: True Stories of Australians Who Died at the Gallows written by Xavier Duff is a brief history of some of Australia’s most infamous capital punishment cases. The book opens with the Mile Creek massacre, which was one of the first times recorded in Australian history where white Australians were trialed and found guilty of … Continue reading
Writing about mental health and getting it right is tough. Writers need to understand and articulate what mentally ill people are feeling and it cannot read like a cliche. Readers, whether they have mental health issues or not, are going to see through platitudes, flat characterisations, and overly dramatic writing. And just like mental health … Continue reading
I love books. I love reading them, reviewing them, talking about them, and even being photographed next to them in a book-coordinated outfit (see above)! I feel like I have been doing a lot of really interesting and thought-provoking book reviews recently, but I also feel that they have been heavy. So to bring some … Continue reading
I know several men and women who have been affected by sexual assault and rape. Some of the cases of rape involved strangers, the man waiting in the shadows ready to attack. What I would call the traditional understanding of rape. However, the majority of the cases of rape from the people I know have … Continue reading
Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel Middlesex is a breathtaking inter-generational novel that addresses issues of the complex history of Eastern Europe, Greek identity, Greek-American identity, growing up in the U.S., and intersex and other LGBTQA identities. It would be easy to talk all day about the complexities of this novel as well as Eugenides’ exquisite prose writing, … Continue reading
If you are a fan of true crime writing, you will be well aware of Michelle McNamara’s work: I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer. It is a truly chilling, terrifying, unsettling, and complicated story that spans decades. Since its release, the cold case also became extremely … Continue reading
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