Young Women by Jessica Moor

I vividly recall the first time I became aware of the #MeToo movement. An acquaintance revealed something startling and frightening from their past on social media, accompanied by the tag #MeToo. It didn’t take me long to discover what #MeToo meant, and over the following days and months, I had numerous discussions with friends about the movement.

The thing was (is) that every single woman I spoke to, had something to contribute to #MeToo. Every single one. We had all had incidents at parties, work, on public transport, or walking down the street, where we felt unsafe, threatened, scared. But there was another element to these discussions – how do we reconcile the behaviours that we ‘dismissed’ in the eighties and nineties against current expectations – things that did not ‘traumatise’ me as a teen, might be reportable now. Was that me, and my processing of events, or was that social conditioning? Or both?

Young Women by Jessica Moor is the #MeToo novel for Millennials. There are a bunch of novels that explore the themes that Moor tackles, but this is one of the best I’ve read. Continue reading

Six Degrees of Separation – from The Book of Form and Emptiness to

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 Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki. Continue reading

20 Books of Summer (except that it’s Winter)

Cathy at 746 Books is hosting the 20 Books of Summer reading challenge again this year. As Cathy explains, it’s the most relaxed reading challenge you’ll participate in (swap books out, change your target, do whatever). The challenge is straightforward – read twenty books between June 1st and September 1st. Continue reading