I recently joined the Aussie Readers group on Goodreads. They have a challenge for 2015; read 12 different books in different genres in 2015 (Aussie Author Challenge 2015). It's been a struggle but I've finally picked 12 (most of which I already own thankfully!). I will update this blog post with my reviews as I finish the books :).
1. Non-Fiction: Crime & Punishment: Offenders and Victims in a Broken Justice System 2. Short Stories: Peripheral Vision 3. Autobiography: Am I Black Enough For You? 4. History: Forgotten War 5. Science Fiction: The Swan Book 6. True Crime: 1. Non-Fiction: Crime & Punishment: Offenders and Victims in a Broken Justice System
Crime & Punishment: Offenders and victims in a broken justice system by Russell Marks
My rating: 5 of 5 stars [cw: talks about drug use, sexual assault, r*pists, child sex offenders and other criminal/criminalised activities] After having finished Angela Y. Davis' book, Are Prisons Obselete?, I was definitely open to reading more books that were critical of the current 'justice' system. This book had a lot of what I was looking for. It explores the problems in a 100% Australian context, which makes it much more relatable. It gave some real examples of alternatives that have been used recently, and talks about their successes without ignoring the problems. I found this book to be really exciting and compelling and recommend it to all people who want to help reduce crime by actually looking at the social factors that are usually the cause. We need to create a better society and look at symptoms, rather than locking people away. Special shout out for the acknowledgement of how racist our current system is and the especially unfair treatment of Aboriginal Australians. View all my reviews 2. Short Stories: Peripheral Vision: Stories
Peripheral Vision: Stories by Paddy O'Reilly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars [cw: r*pe, sexism, racism, suicide, drug use, animal abuse, abusive men] I enjoyed this mix of stories. Some were a little flat, some left me wanting to know more and others were just right. The one that had the r*pe story in it was a bit confronting and could have done with a warning so as not to trigger people. My favourites were: "A Short History of Peace"; this one made me sad and think of how lucky I am, as well as feel horror at what we do to one another. "Territory"; this one did not go where I was expecting and in fact made me really happy with where it went :). "Serenity Prayer"; this story was horrific in its own special kind of way and I loved it. View all my reviews 3. Autobiography: Am I Black Enough For You?
4. History: Forgotten War
5. Science Fiction: The Swan Book
6. True Crime: Tall Man
7. Anthology: A Country Too Far
8. Feminist Theory: The Sex Myth
The Sex Myth: The Gap Between Our Fantasies and Reality by Rachel Hills
My rating: 4 of 5 stars This was a very interesting book. At first I struggled to relate to some of the pressures that the people Rachel had interviewed were talking about; I had never been that interested in sex I thought, nor felt much pressure to dress in a certain way. Then I remembered feeling a lot of weight attached to the label of 'virgin' and a lot of relief when I got that label out of the way. I still have never dressed up to attract someone or project my sexuality (real or otherwise) as far as I'm aware. I very recently have been struggling with endometriosis, which has resulted in some very painful sex; this made me question my ability to 'perform' properly in my relationship (I still do to be honest). Luckily we talked. But why is sex even seen as such an important part of a relationship? Why isn't cuddling, spooning, talking, kissing and other things also seen as the cornerstone/s of a relationship? I really recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It does seem caught up in a very "western" context though. This is likely due to the author's location and access to data, and people to talk to. There also did not seem to be any discussion of sex workers. There was some cissexism in the conflation of penises with men and vaginas with women (I also didn't notice any mention of intersex people but may have missed that). I'm glad that transgender people were talked about, especially as I myself am genderqueer and am not in a binary gender category. I'm also glad that asexual people were talked about, as they are often assumed to not exist (merely being seen as 'dysfunctional', part of the Sex Myth). Overall I really enjoyed this book and saw it as a book attempting to challenge what we consider to be normal sex-wise and why. View all my reviews 9. Historical Fiction: Sister Kate
10. Politics: Scorcher: The Dirty Politics of Climate Change
11. Horror? - TBA
Recommend me something!
12. Crime Fiction: Peepshow
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Keira's Blog
This blog contains posts about my personal life, as well as feminism, gender, comics, eco-friendly products and other things I find interesting. My fiction/poetry works can be found here. All posts are written by Keira Edwards-Huolohan and belong to me. Please credit me if you share them. My pronouns are they/them. Archives
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