January Reads

Summer reading is such a delight. A total mixed bag here.

Reread of Bryce Courtney’s Jessica. A tragic Australian tale set early in the 20th century and as relevant today.

I read this and the rest of Coutney’s amazing books three decades ago and am now devoted to rereading them all again!

I’d love to hear what you are rereading…

Tony Birch is another loved Australian writer because he crafts a story and its characters so beautifully.

His new book, Women and Children, is a heartbreaker set in 1960s Melbourne. Three generations of a family sticking together, negotiating the violence and limitations of their environment, accepting each other.

Michael Mohammed Ahmad is a new author for me. His book The Other Half of You set in contemporary Sydney, was shocking in ways I was not expecting, making me cringe and laugh in equal measure. This was a story of immigrant families negotiating their cultural and religious way forward with their young adult children and of the young adults negotiating their early relationships.

These three novels have left me feeling grateful to be alive in these times and desperately sad for the toll discrimination, unchecked ego, power and othering takes on people. Although these are fictional stories they resonate because they are so grounded in what is familiar to human experience. My experience of these stories is deep contemplation and renewed commitment to the work I do in human connection.

I love memoirs for the same reasons, because they remind me that human connection is the essential ingredient to a life well lived, that adversity is part of the rich texture of a life well lived and gives us opportunity to connect to each other, and because of the reflective process inherent in sharing a life through memoir!

Vale Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter. Their book Songs From the Kitchen Table is a gorgeous book of story and songs that have been part of my life’s soundtrack. I loved it before I even opened the gorgeous cover. Deborah Conway’s Book of Life is a cracking read that appears to have little moderation. I loved it too, walking back through times I remember.

Finally, the much anticipated Right Kind of Wrong by Amy Edmonson to bring me back to work. This is one of the books as a psychologist I wish everyone would read, or at least let a psychologist reflect on it’s lessons with you, applying them to your life!!!

As a small business attempting to grow and pioneer new territory, Edmonson has given me an enormous amount to chew on. In an age where everyone is talking about psychological safety, but few are breaking the status quo enough to deliver a different kind of culture in healthcare, this is a very important book. In league with Peter Senge’s seminal work The Fifth Discipline in 1990.