Two people meet in the Art Institute by chance. Prior to their encounter, he is a doctoral student who manages his destructive thoughts with compulsive calculations about time travel; she is a bipolar counterfeit artist, undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy. By the end of the story, these things will still be true. But this is not aContinue reading “December Book Club: Alone with You in the Ether by Olivie Blake”
Category Archives: book club
October Book Club: Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
Ada carries separate selves within her. When a traumatic experience crystallises the selves into something more powerful, Ada’s life shifts in a dangerous direction. Our September October book club discussion is about Freshwater, a semi-autobiographical novel by Nigerian writer, Akwaeke Emezi. We talk about multiplicity and the character’s experience with alters, and the role ofContinue reading “October Book Club: Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi”
July Book Club: I Want to Die, But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Sehee (S4E4)
Recording her dialogues with her psychiatrist, and expanding on each session with her own reflective micro-essays, Baek begins to disentangle the feedback loops, knee-jerk reactions, and harmful behaviors that keep her locked in a cycle of self-abuse. Our July book club discussion is about I Want to Die, But I Want to Eat Ttteokbokki, anContinue reading “July Book Club: I Want to Die, But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Sehee (S4E4)”
May Book Club: Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert (S4E3)
Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with six directives to help her “Get a Life”. Our May book club discussion is about Get a Life, Chloe Brown, a romance novel that features characters experiencing chronic pain and trauma.Continue reading “May Book Club: Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert (S4E3)”
March Book Club: Hospital by Sanya Rushdi (S4E2)
A daring literary account of a young woman’s experience of psychosis by Bengali-Australian writer Sanya Rushdi. This March, our book club discussion features Hospital, which explores the experience of psychosis and subsequent hospitalisation, drawn from the author’s real-life experience. We unpack the limitations of the medical model approach towards treatment of mental health issues, sharedContinue reading “March Book Club: Hospital by Sanya Rushdi (S4E2)”
January book club: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (S4E1)
In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. Join Priscilla and Elise for a book club discussion on Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow‘s complex characterisation and videoContinue reading “January book club: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (S4E1)”
Novel Feelings 