Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath …
The massive burden of trauma
4 stars
Trauma is a major unrecognised public health issue. Talk therapy and drugs are not effective; emotional & social engagement has to be revived. Not as useful as I hoped for my own issues, but neurofeedback and EMDR are intriguing.
Fictionalised autobiography of an Aboriginal stockman in the pastoral outback. Despite simple prose, it absorbingly evokes that long gone world with its tall stories, colourful characters (so much grog!) and damages of colonisation.
The future is blue. Endless blue...except for a few small places that float across the …
Darkly humourous
4 stars
The last remnants of humanity are adrift on a flooded earth, clinging to a giant life raft built from the refuse of the 'fuckwits' who destroyed it. Morbid & irreverent, with everything taken to extremes.
Xander Maze is a list-maker. But can his list of 100 Remarkable Feats really save …
Sweet & reaffirming
3 stars
A dying grandmother gets her autistic grandson to write & complete a list of difficult but everyday challenges. In the process, he engages with a cruel & scary world and finds it full of love & connection. Sweet & reaffirming.
After the sudden death of their parents, the three Baudelaire children must depend on each …
A dark children's story
3 stars
A dark children's story about three orphans who get farmed out to their evil & conniving relative, who has eyes only for their fortune. The baddies are over-the-top, and the good adults frustratingly disregard the children's inadequate cries for help. Some questionable plot points.
"A practical guide to the vagus nerve and polyvagal theory, emphasizing exercises and self-help techniques …
Worthwhile but repetitive and long-winded.
3 stars
Using manual therapy to regulate the nervous system based on polyvagal theory. Worthwhile, but repetitive and long-winded. But most importantly, the self-help exercises actually seem to work, giving me that post-osteo chill.
Edna Adan Ismail endured it all – for the women of Africa. …
An incredible woman
5 stars
I first heard of Edna Adan Ismail through reading Half The Sky although I admit I had forgotten why her name looked familiar until she gave that book a mention in A Woman Of Firsts. Edna is a truly amazing and inspirational woman who has used every opportunity open to her throughout her life, and forced opportunities to open up when none were forthcoming due to her gender or her Somaliland nationality. I was reminded of Dr Hawa Abdi's similar struggles in neighbouring Somalia. As a Somaliland woman, Edna spent much of her early life being exactly the opposite of what her very conservative society expected from its female population. I loved how she portrays this clash to readers especially as her encouragement to continue being her natural self came from a desire to emulate her father, a doctor, and his willingness to allow his daughter firstly to be educated …
I first heard of Edna Adan Ismail through reading Half The Sky although I admit I had forgotten why her name looked familiar until she gave that book a mention in A Woman Of Firsts. Edna is a truly amazing and inspirational woman who has used every opportunity open to her throughout her life, and forced opportunities to open up when none were forthcoming due to her gender or her Somaliland nationality. I was reminded of Dr Hawa Abdi's similar struggles in neighbouring Somalia. As a Somaliland woman, Edna spent much of her early life being exactly the opposite of what her very conservative society expected from its female population. I loved how she portrays this clash to readers especially as her encouragement to continue being her natural self came from a desire to emulate her father, a doctor, and his willingness to allow his daughter firstly to be educated and then to actually have a job.
A Woman Of Firsts is written in an engaging style so I was able to learn a lot about Somaliland since its independence from Britain (and our subsequent poor treatment of our former Protectorate) without feeling like I was studying a history book. I loved glimpses of different places such as Borama and Hargeisa. Edna's is a story of amazing changes with extreme highs and lows. Coming from an influential family and marrying into another seems to have caused as many doors to close as to open, yet I loved how Edna repeatedly picked herself and carried on fighting for her patients. This is truly a story of dedication to duty. Now in her eighties and still working at the hospital she was finally able to build, I am in awe of Edna's energy and the legacy she will leave, both within Somaliland and much further afield, of changing attitudes towards women's health and maternity care.
I highly recommend A Woman Of Firsts as a We Need New Stories read.
The Second World War is drawing to a close, but the world is far from …
Evocative, vivid and horrifying
5 stars
In The Shadow Of Wolves by Alvydas Slepikas is newly published in an English translation and I was very impressed with Romas Kinka's work in preserving the Slepikas' stark prose. In common with How We Disappeared it brings to light a forgotten aspect of World World War Two, in this case the plight of destitute German women and children forcibly evicted by resettling Russian soldiers and civilians. I was intrigued by eerily similar scenes to those I recently encountered in The Hare With Amber Eyes depicting people being forced from their homes purely on account of their ancestry. There Germans perceived starving Jews as little more than animals; here, just a few years later, Russians talk of starving Germans in identical terms.
I feel that In The Shadow Of Wolves is an important novel to read and talk about even though the actuality of reading it is not a pleasant …
In The Shadow Of Wolves by Alvydas Slepikas is newly published in an English translation and I was very impressed with Romas Kinka's work in preserving the Slepikas' stark prose. In common with How We Disappeared it brings to light a forgotten aspect of World World War Two, in this case the plight of destitute German women and children forcibly evicted by resettling Russian soldiers and civilians. I was intrigued by eerily similar scenes to those I recently encountered in The Hare With Amber Eyes depicting people being forced from their homes purely on account of their ancestry. There Germans perceived starving Jews as little more than animals; here, just a few years later, Russians talk of starving Germans in identical terms.
I feel that In The Shadow Of Wolves is an important novel to read and talk about even though the actuality of reading it is not a pleasant experience. Don't get me wrong - I loved the evocative writing and vivid portrayals of people and place, but that clarity of description is extremely difficult to bear. An East Prussian winter is bitterly cold, even more so when one's home is a woodshed and 'meals' more often than not are boiled water, perhaps with raspberry stalks for a little flavour. The chill emanates from every page.
There were frozen corpses along the side of the road and, at a little distance from the road people were sitting on logs. The children asked: 'Why are they doing that, what are they waiting for?' Lotte explained. 'They're dead, they couldn't walk anymore, they sat down and froze.'
That quote was one of the most shocking moments for me. Not so much that people had simply sat down knowing they would die as a result, but that those still walking past could be so matter-of-fact about it. This horror has become normality. That anyone could have survived these years is astonishing, yet this novel incorporates the memories of some of these wolf children whom Slepikas talked to. In The Shadow Of Wolves is a timely literary reminder of just how easily everything can be lost when intolerance is allowed to thrive.
Growing up #gay in an all-boys Catholic school in 70s Australia, then straight into the horrific tragedy of the #AIDS epidemic. Lots of explicit sex. Jesuit priests surprisingly supportive. Lost my attention part way through - got a bit then-this-happened. Thankful we provided a supportive medical system for AIDS victims.
In A Day of Fallen Night, Samantha Shannon sweeps readers back to the universe of …
A decent escapist holiday read
3 stars
A decent escapist holiday read, otherwise overly long. Well done gender reversals and critique of monarchy as a womb trap. Characters never quite gripped me, and climax is a bit of a deus ex machina let down.