I’m really not sure how best to write this post, so I’m going to plunge straight in and hope that what I type follows some kind of track. My reading slump continues, which isn’t great timing considering I’m trying to model positive reading behaviour, but there you have it. However, I suppose, from another angle I needn’t feel so despondent for I did finish two novels. Romy Ash’s Floundering is an impressive debut novel, solidly plotted and she has a tough, unflinching eye that I really respect. She wrote a lovely essay in Voracious: Best Australian Food Writing, which was published by Allen & Unwin in 2011, and although it was touted to be the first in an annual series, I don’t believe any follow ups have been subsequently published (and I can’t find evidence of the original on the Allen & Unwin site). I’ll be keeping my eye out for anything else of hers that comes out.

Although I love Jeanette Winterson, I’ve got to say that Written on the Body is my least favourite of her works that I’ve read to date. The evocative, sensual language crossed the line into ‘purple-ness’ a few too many times, and I just didn’t see enough of the female love interest to become fully invested in the sadness of her situation, and therefore understand the downward spiraling despair of her lover.

I’ve gotten about a third of the way through Damned and about a quarter of Wish. It won’t bother me not to finish Damned, and I think I’ll return it to the library, but if I was to do the same to Wish, I think that would bother me. Maybe I’ll re-borrow. I love Peter Goldsworthy’s writing, and have done since I studied Maestro in high school (as did so many others my age) – even at university, when I was set the quirky, oddball text of Honk If You’re Jesus and didn’t quite know what to make of it. I know so many people who love it, which makes me think it’s worth the persistence.

I also bought and finished Tampa while I was at the Problogger Event last week. It has caused considerable noise since publication and a variety of articles have been written about its subject matter, such as Daily Life’s Is Tampa the most controversial book of the year?. Ultimately I felt that the examination of the predatory main character, Celeste, although done well and was fascinating in its own way came at the expense of the rest of the characters, who remained fuzzy and undefined. This may have been deliberate – after all, sociopaths only care for themselves and cannot ‘know’ or empathise with others – but still, especially at the end, I saw ways that this could’ve been overcome, even just a little.

What are you reading this month?

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Me, elsewhere

This past week I’ve had pieces published elsewhere on the internet that are very different to each other – over at Kidspot I shared some tips about how to care for your child’s thick hair and over at The Hoopla I opened up about my history with disordered eating and how triggers may not be what you always ‘expect’ them to be.