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Treating myself on my first day back at uni, after a(nother) long stint away from study Sometimes you just have to 🤷🏼♀️
This semester, I’m easing back in with an Australian Literature class and a Maccas breakfast 😂 Fingers crossed I can take on a bit more next semester.
GO me!!!!!
@lizziethereader I know you were keen to see which book was number 65, so here it is - The Other Side of Beautiful by Australian author Kim Lock. It's a highly readable tale about a thirtysomething woman with severe anxiety who takes a road trip from the South Australian capital of Adelaide to the Northern Territory capital of Darwin after her house burns down.
Aren’t libraries just the best? So grateful to be close to mine during lockdown while they offer click and collect services. I’d forgotten I was on the wait list for Billy-Ray Belcourt’s memoir, and have since purchased a copy that is now on the way to me 😂 Perhaps I’ll get a head start with the library copy through all the postage delays.
Currently making my way through Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin on ereader and finding it easy on the brain as well as intriguing. I think it’s the slim books keeping me going at this point, helping me feel somewhat accomplished when reading is tough. Settling down with a coffee now to continue on.
**Flood Damages by Eunice Andrada (2018)**
Andrada’s debut collection covers themes of immigration and displacement, colonial occupation, violence in its many forms and more. The body - particularly the brown female body - becomes the battleground where events (both personal and political) are most keenly felt.
I read this in one sitting, after having it on my shelf for literal years, bought during a Melbourne Writer’s festival several years back. I’d seeing Andrada speak and was touched by her words. I’ve now got her second collection lined up to (hopefully!) read much sooner than I did this one.
Content warnings for domestic violence and sexual assault.
Spending a day off work today to try to make my way through Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au. So far it’s a quiet, nostalgic read. I’m really enjoying this one in between the usual day-off errands, playing the audio of She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan when life calls me to get off the couch 😂
Planning to get stuck into some other books now that I’m finally finished with Levy’s Real Estate (thoughts coming later). Tonight might be the night I finally delve into Melbourne Writers Fest digital. I’ve been feeling off these past few days and it’s been uncomfortable to concentrate on anything on a big screen.
Really crossing all my fingers and toes that I do, because I severely MISS author events. In the meantime I’m very excited to crack open Echoes by Shu-Ling Chua with my coffee.
She is Haunted by Paige Clark (2021)
I ordered this one while on a reading high post-Smart Ovens for Lonely People. I hadn’t realised at the time this one would be longlisted for the Stella Prize. For the most part, I enjoyed the stories, particularly the exploration of race and of relationships between friends, between mothers and daughters, between partners. There is a certain way that Clark talks about isolation and love that has stuck with me. As the title suggests, Clark follows characters that are left feeling haunted by others, their past selves, their emotions.
Ultimately, though, something felt a little lacking to me. Perhaps the writing felt too sparse at times, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I did find some things repetitive - the certain way some women pined after a man and the oddly repetitive appearance of chihuahuas (I mean, they are adorable). So, I’m glad I finally read it, but perhaps I expected a bit much from this one, maybe I just wanted something this book could not have been.
May ở nhà (Working from Home) by Emma Do and Kim Lam
My first book of 2022. It wasn’t large but it WAS fantastic. Informative personal narratives paired with beautiful illustrations, following an often overlooked workforce behind the fashion industry. This slim book focusses particularly on the Vietnamese migrant community. Do and Lam thoughtfully portray personal narratives of hard work and artisanship while also shining a light on the terrible treatment of many outworkers in Australia, whether through industry regulations or employers.
I would highly recommend picking up a copy from their online shop.
