Cure by Katherine Brabon

I have many feelings about the ‘wellness’ industry (which I touched on here and here, but to save you reading, the theme is ‘skeptical’), so I pounced on Katherine Brabon’s latest novel, Cure.

The story focuses on a mother and daughter, Vera and Thea. Vera has suffered an unnamed chronic illness since she was a teenager and, as she watches her daughter’s health follow a similar path, Vera becomes increasingly preoccupied with a blog written by a woman named Claudia, a mother whose daughter also has a chronic disease. Continue reading

Six Degrees of Separation – from Ghost Cities to The End of the Morning

It’s time for #6degrees. Start at the same place as other wonderful readers, add six books, and see where you end up.

This month we begin with the winner of the 2025 Miles Franklin Literary Award, Ghost Cities by Siang Lu. Continue reading

Things That Are Making Me Happy This Week

01. It’s time for Melbourne’s winter arts festival, RISING.  We started with Swingers – it’s an art installation, with mini-golf as an added bonus. Such fun. The hole designed by Miranda July, Wave of Fortune, which finished with your ball landing in a ‘fortune’ was my favourite, closely followed by Soda Jerk’s ‘Algorithmic K-Hole and the Techno-Serfdom of Simulated Entrapment Under Slop Capitalism’ (which features the Teletubbies and scenes from Heathers). Continue reading

The Top 55 from the Best Books of 2023 List of Lists

Presenting the 2023 Commonly-Agreed-by-the-People-Who-Publish-Best-of-2023-Book-Lists-Before-December-31 top 55 books.

(This is my annual community service to book-bloggers – a list of the books that appear most frequently on the 49 lists that I listed on Best Books of 2023 – A List of Lists – enjoy!). Continue reading

I’m waiting for… 2023 edition

Proving that I don’t actually care about my never-really-shrinking-TBR-list is this list of new releases that are on my radar for 2023. Continue reading

Things that are making me happy this week

01. The Melbourne Theatre Company 2022 program (don’t talk to me about Opera Australia – I’m fuming). So much to look forward to at MTC, including some books transformed for the stage (Touching the Void by Joe Simpson; Fun Home by Alison Bechdel; Come Rain or Come Shine by Kazua Ishiguro; and Laurinda by Alice Pung). Continue reading