This was so unexpected - I picked it up and ripped through it in two days, which I have not done to a book in ages. Christie's story is relatable espeThis was so unexpected - I picked it up and ripped through it in two days, which I have not done to a book in ages. Christie's story is relatable especially in light of the (enforced) isolation many of us have been in to one degree or another. On the the surface she is going brilliantly, top of her law school class with a promising career ahead of her. Inside she is feeling so disconnected from people and herself, she finds herself wishing someone would shoot her.
Enter Dr Rosen and his groups. Now I am the first to admit that like Christie I would struggle to put my deepest secrets in front of a group of strangers but there is also a certain appeal of Rosen's philosophy of only honesty can help you open up and all secrets bring is internalised shame (yours or on behalf of other people). This book wont be for everyone - Christie opens up to both her groups and us as readers about everything from worms in childhood, to body issues, to sex (there is a fair bit of sex), to jealousy of others, and all those other little niggles we push down and hide because we are embarrassed or ashamed.
While I did on occasion want to tell Christie to dump her useless boyfriend or stand up for herself (as I am sure Dr Rosen and her fellow group members wanted to as well) I can see the value of allowing someone to make mistakes and workout for themselves what they need rather than stepping in and making decisions for them as the latter results in dependence and the former results in growth.
The see-saw between suburban banality and bloody horror is like nothing else I have ever read! At first it was entertaining but in the later part of t
The see-saw between suburban banality and bloody horror is like nothing else I have ever read! At first it was entertaining but in the later part of the book the suspense kicks in as we wait and wait for Patricia to make her decisions in my head the horror really comes to the forefront. ...more
Another great graphic novel from Telgemeier. Mental heath, anxiety, phobias, disordered eating, therapy, friendships, puberty all come together in thiAnother great graphic novel from Telgemeier. Mental heath, anxiety, phobias, disordered eating, therapy, friendships, puberty all come together in this highly readable story based on Telgemeier's experiences in her early teens. What starts out as a little stomach bug spirals out of Riana's control as her anxiety starts to control her behaviour at home and in school. Guts manages to be funny and completely relatable - even if you aren't having as many worries as Raina was. Normalising worries, tummy issues, and therapy is always a good idea and this book is perfect for opening those discussions with 8 -12 year olds. ...more
Fast paced action and lots of intrigue in this new crime (what I hope will be a series) book. Nikki Griffin has issues from her past. She seen what viFast paced action and lots of intrigue in this new crime (what I hope will be a series) book. Nikki Griffin has issues from her past. She seen what violent men can do and she is determined to help other women end troubled relationships - she specialises in speaking to violent men in a language they will have no trouble understanding... When not acting as a Private Investigator, Nikki's love of literature has lead her into owning a second hand book store complete with resident cat, Bartleby. When approached by a tech CEO to investigate one of his employees, Nikki soon realises something is very wrong with the whole situation but it's too late one person is dead and Nikki will be too unless she thinks fast and acts quicker!
If you love action-packed adventure and suspense along the lines of Lee Child's Jack Reacher and dark heroines like Lisbeth Salander (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) Nikki Griffin is the hero you have been waiting for! ...more
Wow! This memoir is bound to intrigue and appal in equal measure. The brutality of Tara's childhood and teen years as her father becomes stricter and Wow! This memoir is bound to intrigue and appal in equal measure. The brutality of Tara's childhood and teen years as her father becomes stricter and stricter in his belief system and more irrational due to mental illness will horrify any rational person.
Tara Westover was born the youngest of 7 children. Her parents were strict Mormons as well as being survivalists - the survivalism is mainly driven by her father. By the time Tara came along her father's paranoia about the government was well established and Tara's birth was never registered (or even well recorded, causing problems when she eventually wants to get a driver's license). Tara's 3 oldest siblings went to the local school but were removed by her father when the curriculum clashed with his beliefs so Tara never got more than basic lessons from her mother - the desire for learning anything more (apart from the book of Mormon & related works) was mocked and ridiculed. Tara's life was defined by the seasons, helping her mother with herbal remedies, working in her fathers scrap yard, and preparing for the end of days. Encouraged by one of her brothers, Tara studied for and passed an exam to get into Brigham Young University, a Mormon university in Utah. The culture shock for 17-year old Tara was extreme, but encouraged by her teachers, she persisted and after a year of struggle managed to get on top of her grades and began to impress her teachers. BYU was followed by Cambridge and then Harvard, but at home things were disintergrating. Tara had to face her past and the harm it had caused her and others in her family. Her mother's compliance to her father's irrationality even when she had the means to leave, and one of her brother's bullying and abusive behaviour cause Tara to question even her own recollection of the past - creating a downward spiral as Tara begins to doubt herself on every level.
As a subject for book club this biography will ensure wide ranging discussion - we covered mental health, education systems, healthcare, belief systems, family dynamics, vaccinations (we were all shocked no-one got tetanus in the many varied accidents they have in the scrap metal yard), gender roles, and many more. ...more
To say this is gripping is a serious understatment. I started reading this at about 7am over breakfast on a Sunday and finished it about 7.30 pm. I diTo say this is gripping is a serious understatment. I started reading this at about 7am over breakfast on a Sunday and finished it about 7.30 pm. I did not get much else done that day... The dissapearance of Sheila and Kate Lyon has haunted the American town of Wheaton, Virginia for more than 40 years. The sisters, just 12 and 10 years old, walked to the nearby Wheaton Plaza to meet some friends and get some pizza in March 1975. When they weren't home by dinner their parents grew concerned and called the girl's friends, fully expecting they had gotten distracted and not realised the time. By dark a full-scale search was mounted as the girls couldn't be located. The search went on for weeks and involved thousands of people. They were never seen again. Over the years various cold-case officers have pulled the case out again and again only to hit dead-ends. Mark Bowden was a young reporter when the girls went missing. His first article about it was published two days after the girls vanished and the case has clearly haunted him as it has haunted the police. For dectectives in Wheaton this was a personal case - not only were the victims so young and innocent, but one of the girls' brothers became a police officer - and even after so many years it had the power to fascinate. Then one day in 2013 while re-examining the evidence a detective finds a statement that was disregarded as the witness came across as an unreliable liar. The witness' name was Lloyd Welsh and detectives thought he might be able to provide a link to a man who is now a known peadophile, who was operating in the area at the time the crime happened. Lloyd was a witness, that's all. But with each encounter with Lloyd the detectives were left with more questions. As the detectives question further they begin to unravel the web of family loyalty and abuse which shaped Lloyd. Lloyd however, is anything but clear. His story changes with each interview. Detectives are left to wonder if he truly knows anything or is just playing them? One thing is clear: he does know something.
Pulled from police and court records, as well as interviews with the detectives and the girls' parents Bowden has put together an extremely gripping crime drama as well as a shocking insight into a family with far too much to hide. ...more
This book will make you angry, so very, very angry. The needless pain these women suffered and the lenghts the Radium companies went to in order to noThis book will make you angry, so very, very angry. The needless pain these women suffered and the lenghts the Radium companies went to in order to not pay for their treatment will disgust you. Kate Moore follows the lives of sereral women who worked for two different companies in two different states in the USA. Their excitement at landing a well-paying, kind of glamourous job in a "clean" environment turns slowly into horror as they realise years later the toxic nature of the "perfectly safe" and "healthful" radium they were encouraged to put in their mouths as they painted numbers on dials of clocks, watches and gauges. They were taught to keep their brushes neat and tidy by putting them in their mouths - Lip. Dip. Paint. All day long, dail after dail. Some did it after every number. Others after two or three. The owners of the factory were aware of what radium did to bodies from the outside but initially at least thought the "miniscule" amounts in the paint wouldn't effect people. When they realised what it was dong they actively suppressed that information from the girls. You see, Radium is mistaken by the body for Calcium and it settles into bones and teeth. Usually the first symptom noticed by the girls was loose or sore teeth. For others is was arthritis-like symptoms. Over time the pain became crippling and the wounds where teeth were removed didn't heal. Strange growths appeared and joints became "locked". Doctors diagnosed everything from Arthritis to Phossy jaw to hysteria. The symptoms were so broad and information so scattered that it took years before all of the conditions were linked back to Radium. And thats when the Radium Girls really had to start to fight - for acknowledgement, recognition and finally for compensation.
The Radium Girls was a great book club discussion topic as we ranged from our feelings for individual people and actions within the story to the wider issues of workplace reforms, the importance of workplace culture as well as legislation, government and industry responsibility, personal liability, other industrial toxins, and the limitations of law.
If you want a book that will make you think this is the one for you....more
I normally end up hating time travel books. Simply because the vast majority of them fail miserably at any sort of logic. This was different. InitiallI normally end up hating time travel books. Simply because the vast majority of them fail miserably at any sort of logic. This was different. Initially it reminded me of Deborah Harkness's A Discovery of Witches. It had that scholarly feel to it. Which I enjoyed. It is also presented as a series of documents -diaries, letters, video transcripts, etc, which give it different voices and view points without having to track which characters are presenting the information - given the size of the book and the multiple characters this was definitely a major bonus. Toward the end I did feel it was dragging a bit but overall this is a really good story. It certainly is a cut above 99% of time travel sci-fi. I also enjoyed the no-so-subtle jabs at the US military-industrial complex and the bureaucracy of big companies in general. I feel anyone who has ever worked in a big office will get a laugh out of some parts....more
Light and fluffy romance a la Sex and the City but with less graphic sex. Fun, frothy, fashionable romance that is clearly dated in the early 2000's.Light and fluffy romance a la Sex and the City but with less graphic sex. Fun, frothy, fashionable romance that is clearly dated in the early 2000's....more
This is a fascinating and personal look at the disenfranchised poor white people of America's rust belt. Vance gives us all a glimpse of the social, eThis is a fascinating and personal look at the disenfranchised poor white people of America's rust belt. Vance gives us all a glimpse of the social, economic, religious, and political influences on the breakdown of working class society in America. Vance is an exception to the usual in his home town and family - not only was he the first in his immediate family to graduate college, he was the first in his extended family to graduate law school. His mother's love of education, his grandparents encouragement and insistence on finishing school, a stint in the marines and the experience of seeing extreme poverty in other parts of the world motivated him to achieve what most people in his life couldn't even imagine - but something that most of us would take for granted He is educated, employed, and is happily married. These might not seem like massive achievements but in the world Vance grew up in employment, education, and emotional stability are not the norm. Intergenerational violence, drug & alcohol abuse, and a never ending stream of step-fathers marked Vance's early life. He moved between his mother's house and his grandmother's - later living entirely with the latter in his final years of high school as his mother's substance abuse took it's toll.
This is a story of one person's (and one family's) experience - but it echoes what is happening in the larger society as a whole and the attitudes go a long way to explaining the rise of Trump and rise of distrust American's have in science, authority, and the press. As a non- American I found it fascinating and I wonder about the parallels in Australian society.
When a friend saw this on my 2018 reading challenge they said that this was "interesting, but not my favourite Bryson book" and after finishing it I fWhen a friend saw this on my 2018 reading challenge they said that this was "interesting, but not my favourite Bryson book" and after finishing it I fully understand what they meant. This book is interesting in a randomly scattered, QI-facty, sort of way. There isn't really an overall plot - Bryson rambles from topic to topic as he wanders through his house; covering varied subjects from windows, to books, to plague, to wigs, to cremation, to surgery, to country pastors and their contributions to science, and so many more it is impossible to list them all. Using his own house as a starting point, Bryson looks into the history of european / western domesticity with his usual thoroughness. There are many strange happenings and inventions that have gone into making our homes what they are today. In the rooms we take for granted, and the basic services of power and water, there is a wealth of innovation, suffering, and disasters - Bryson goes into them all in (occasionally very) gory detail (I had to skip through one description of a mastectomy performed in the pre-anethestic era!).
Overall this was interesting but too rambling to really settle into for a good read - If you want to read Bill Bryson I recommend "A Walk in the Woods" or "A Short History of Nearly Everything" over "At Home"....more
Overall, this is a fascinating look at a section of American history - not just the space / technological race but also the social, political, and gloOverall, this is a fascinating look at a section of American history - not just the space / technological race but also the social, political, and global feelings at the time. Shetterly does a really good job of putting the fight for civil rights into a personal perspective - the subtle and overt aggression these ladies and their families put up with everyday - even at the relatively advanced Langley - and also the truly ridiculous lengths white people went to in order to keep black people down (closing school rather than allowing integration, etc.).
I did have a few mixed feelings about the way the story was written - I found the subject matter fascinating but the style of telling was sometimes a little confusing. There are various women we follow from childhood and because of that I sometimes struggled to keep the timeline straight as we spend several chapters on one person and then move back in time to follow another from childhood - and then Shetterly takes us on a segway into how each of the characters lives intersect / run parallel / almost crossed earlier. Which, for me, resulted in occasional confusion or having to re-read sections to get back on track.
Even with that frustration I feel Hidden Figures is still well worth reading for many reasons and I'm curious to see how this book was adapted for film - now I just need to fin the time to watch it :D...more
This is one of the few books in my 2018 reading challenge I couldn't wait to finish - I just wanted it over! I had often heard of Hunter S. Thompson'sThis is one of the few books in my 2018 reading challenge I couldn't wait to finish - I just wanted it over! I had often heard of Hunter S. Thompson's "Gonzo" journalism style And I was intrigued by the subject but I found Thompson's personality to be both obnoxious, and far to present, for the book to be objective. Maybe it's just me. This isn't the kind of book I normally pick up. But I just felt it could have been better told if Thompson had put less of himself in the story and more of his subjects.
I can see why this was considered a breakthrough style of journalism - Thompson fully immerses himself in the culture and gets a very different story to what other news outlets are reporting about this fringe of society group that both fascinated and terrified. I was disturbed by Thompson's treatment of the crimes the Angels proudly admit to -in particular rape - but it is hard to know how much of his attitude (and my response to it) is a result of Thompson's personal style, the attitudes of the people he is reporting on, or the attitudes in society at the time and how much they have changed. Either way I''m glad I read Hell's Angels - I now know what people are referring to about it BUT I don't think I'm ever going to pick up another Hunter S. Thompson book. I've had my fill. ...more