Tag Archives: LGBTIQ

Perfume & Pain by Anna Dorn

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

Every so often, I’m prompted to do a literature-adjacent project that (happily) sends me down rabbit holes. The podcast Once Upon a Time… at Bennington College started one, and this summer, Anna Dorn’s Perfume & Pain has started another. It’s a television-related rabbit hole.

It’s no secret that I have no standards when it comes television. Reality TV? Dish me up. True crime doco? Sure. SBS subtitled drama, seemingly filmed without lighting? Yep, I’ll watch that. I’m unapologetic about the fact that I will enjoy an episode of Love Island as much as Deutschland 83, and Succession as much as Derry Girls. I mention this because halfway through Perfume & Pain, I realised that I had to watch all six seasons of the 2004 drama series, The L Word, to grasp Dorn’s pop-culture-lesbian references. Continue reading →

The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

I began 2025 with The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden and it was an excellent start to my reading year.

I am loathe to say too much about the plot (I think the blurb gives too much away and, if you know a bit about post-WWII history, you won’t need to get far into the story to understand where it’s going).

Set in the Dutch countryside in 1961, it’s focused on a woman, Isabel, living in her late mother’s large home. Isabel is set in her ways, and her routines are disrupted when her brother insists that his girlfriend, Eva, stay with Isabel while he works overseas for the summer. Eva is the antithesis of Isabel and as the days progress, tensions rise. Continue reading →

Evenings and Weekends by Oisín McKenna

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with , , , , , , ,

I was lured by the cover of Oisín McKenna’s debut novel, Evenings and Weekends. And the comparisons to Sally Rooney and Zadie Smith. And the fact that it’s by an Irish author, so I was hoping for some Irish-misery-porn.

The story focuses on a group of friends, over a hot summer’s weekend in London. There’s a party planned at a share house, which sets the stage for the drama. Continue reading →

Drawing a line under 2023 reviews

Posted by Kate W in Fiction, Non-fiction and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I’m loathe to do another bunch of short reviews, particularly as I have lots to say about some of these books (and a squillion quotes highlighted) but I also know that I’m unlikely to find the time required, so… Continue reading →

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with , , , , , , ,

I don’t think where I read Big Swiss by Jen Beagin (by the pool in Fiji) was a contributing factor to how much I enjoyed it (which was a lot). But it did assist in reading the entire book in two sittings.

I’m not sure who to recommend this book to me, because when I describe it to people, it sounds really weird. My summary has basically been: it’s about a middle-aged woman, Greta, who kind of drops out of life and goes to live in a town like Daylesford… or Byron Bay… but in America, and she transcribes counselling sessions for the town sex therapist, and because it’s a small town there’s effectively no confidentiality, and so she recognises peoples’ voices from the tapes. Continue reading →