The Girl Aquarium by Jen Campbell is an enchanting collection of poetry exploring bodies and disfigurement, girlhood/womanhood/motherhood, the male gaze, and relationships. If you're familiar with Jen Campbell from booktube, you won't be surprised that The Girl Aquarium is quintessentially "Jen": the style is whimsical and eerie and dreamlike, with motifs of the sea, the … Continue reading Book Review: The Girl Aquarium by Jen Campbell
How could I resist a contemporary romance with multiple narratives based around astrology? (Heart-eyes emoji forever!) Star-Crossed follows Justine (Sagittarius); a sometimes-shy but driven, hopeless romantic working at the local magazine. Justine randomly runs into her childhood best friend (and fleeting teenage sweetheart), Nick; an Aquarian actor between jobs, bereft in his love life. Justine … Continue reading Book Review: Star-Crossed by Minnie Darke
Jennifer Egan is an auto-buy author for me and when Manhattan Beach came out, I was very excited to read the first book released by Egan in 6 years! I didn't really know what to expect from the historical fiction novel set in the 1930's and 40's, largely around the Brooklyn Naval Yard, following gangsters … Continue reading Book Review: Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
I love supporting local talent. There are some inspirational Aussies out there! So I thought I would run through just a few creative Australian individuals, businesses and bookish groups that I think you should know about. Check out their websites, subscribe to their mailing lists, follow them on social media, browse through their stores, add … Continue reading 6 Amazingly Creative Aussies To Check Out This Year
I've always loved books that challenge me; books that make me re-think the ordinary; books that teach me something about writing. Usually those are the books with strange narrative structure. By 'strange', I mean non-linear. Or maybe just told in an unexpected way. Books with time jumps, or multiple perspectives, or cross-mediums. Here are 7 … Continue reading 7 Books With Strange Narrative Structures
Good luck finding a bookworm who hasn't: given up on a book because it was boring or badly written given up on a book because it was good but they 'just weren't into it right now' forgotten about a book they thought was average and just never finished it It's common. And life is too … Continue reading 4 Books I Did Not Finish Reading (And Why I Want To DNF More Often)
Let's cut right to the chase. February was a disappointing month. I had a lot of big plans and I was probably too ambitious and now the fall-out has hit me hard. But it's time to get out of this hole! Dwelling on the disappointments only leads to dark places. And there's no potential for … Continue reading Writing Life Recap: February 2017
October has been an exciting month for me, with fun writing projects coming to fruition and lots of planning for the months ahead. I started off, rather ambitiously, tackling three bookstagram photo challenges. I was overlapping the photo prompts and lasted a few weeks. I gave up (for reasons I'll go into below) but took … Continue reading Writing Life Recap: October 2016
This month I took part in an instagram challenge called #lilbookishseptember which was hosted by @lisalostinlit and @lostinlit_becca. I took photos for almost all the days, and only skipped a few at the end when I was a bit busy having my birthday 😉 Check out my favourite photography from the month in the gallery … Continue reading Gallery: Instagram Book Photo Challenge September 2016
September has been a wonderfully creative month for me. I've been writing more than I have all year, colouring in and making crafty things, and dabbling in book photography on Instagram... You sometimes forget that there are so many other creative pursuits, and it's good to nurture your muse in as many ways as possible. … Continue reading Writing Life Recap: September 2016
