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House of Leaves – Mark Z. Danielewski
The Vegetarian – Han Kang
This Census-Taker – China Miéville

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Just a cheeky #selfiesunday - chilling and catching up on some 20th century absurdist literature. How is your weekend shaping up? 😉 📖 • I spent today immersed in the mesmerising world of Patricia Piccinini’s Curious Affections. Her exhibition imagines a possible future which hybridises human, animal and botanical, the biological with the botanical, and raises questions about the nature of our relationships and what we define as human in a world populated by these new, chimerical beings. The exhibit was so immersive as we moved from room to room, like walking through a Jeff Vandemeer novel, both hyper-real and surreal, and deeply affecting. I’ve included photos of some of my favourites from the exhibition, but I recommend seeing it in person if you get the chance! • • #goma #patriciapiccinni #modernart #sculpture #hyperrealism #art #brisbane #franzkafka #metamorphosis #book #bookstagram #bookworm #bookish #booklover #reader #readersofinstagram #goodreads #booklife #chimera #hybrid #brisbanereader

I’ve finally finished Season 2 of the Handmaid’s Tale. Please excuse me while I hibernate in bed in a blubbering mess for the next year while I wait for season 3. The ending was utter, anxiety-inducing perfection, and I’m holding my breath to find out what happens next. We’re studying the novel this week in my Gothic and Spec Fic unit at uni, so I’m looking forward to diving back into it - as much as anyone can look forward to returning to a dystopian nightmare in which women are stripped of basic human rights and used as vessels for procreation. It’s been nearly ten years since I first read it in high school, and I’m looking forward to reading it again with new eyes, finding where meaning has changed for me and which parts still resonate the same way. • • #handmaidstale #margaretatwood #litstudent #vintageclassics #currentlyreading #books #booklove #bookworm #literary #womenwhowrite #womenwhoread #reader #alwaysreading #bookstagram #instabook #specfic #praisebe #underhiseye #favouritereads #readthis

So many of the books I’ve read this year have fallen, inadvertently into a pattern - I, Tituba, The Crucible, Circe, Prelude to Christopher, Burial Rites, Not That Bad, Her Body and Other Parties, and now - Wide Sargasso Sea. A theme that intersects womanhood with post-colonialism, sexuality, violence, persecution, the ‘madwoman in the attic’ trope. I made it my goal to read more female voices this year, and it is both interesting and heartbreaking to read the same story told by so many different voices across history - a story that too often conflates female sexuality or agency with madness, witch-craft, murder, isolation, painting a grim and constant reminder of the limits to female freedom. • How is your reading year shaping up? Have you noticed any patterns emerging, intentional or otherwise? • • #jeanrhys #widesargassosea #books #womenwhowrite #womenwhoread #feministfriday #bookstagram #litstudent #literature #bookish #bookworm #booklover #currentlyreading #bookphotography #blackandwhite #classicliterature #brisbanereader @penguinbooks #alwaysteading #goodreads #instabook #readersofinstagram

“She began to wonder half-absently, and not at all as Nigel would have wondered, just where among the queer conglomeration of identical substances that composed their bodies, the salt and fat and iron, the phosphorus and lime and water, lay the specks of magic that thrust them, ultimately, so many worlds apart.” • The last couple of weekends have been packed with weddings, work and whisky tastings, so it’s nice to be able to settle into a couple of days off and catch up on uni work. I am shamefully unacquainted with classic Australian literature, so I’ve been enjoying the opportunity to dive into Eleanor Dark’s 1934 Prelude to Christopher - a dark and psychological mystery that raises questions about the nature of madness, motherhood, eugenics and the right to freedom. I can see the influence of Virginia Woolf in Dark’s writing, with a gothic tenseness that reminds me of Jane Eyre and Frankenstein. Although it meandered at the start, it picked up the pace after the first 100 pages and I’m bracing myself for the conclusion. • What are some of your favourite classic novels from your country? • • • #eleanordark #preludetochristoher #readaustralian #australianliterature #houseofbooks #litstudent #classicliterature #literary #books #bookstagram #booksandflowers #bookish #bookishfeatures #instabook #igreads #openbook #currentlyreading #bookquotes #brisbanereader #alwaysreading #bookworm #readersofinstagram #goodreads

A belated happy book birthday to Trent Dalton for his debut novel, Boy Swallows Universe! This is one of the books I’ve been most excited for this year - set in the 80s in my home town of Brisbane, with a dash of grunge and magical realism thrown in. I haven’t read many books set in my city, and I love the feeling of a story that leads you down well-trodden paths to familiar places. After reading so many books set in foreign countries and fantasy worlds, it almost feels almost dislocating, strange. • What are your favourite home-grown books? • • #books #trentdalton #boyswallowsuniverse #debutfiction #brisbanebooks #reader #brisbane #brisbanereader #readersofig #instabook #alwaysreading #tbr #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookishfeatures #goodreads #goodreadswithaview #igreads #bookfeaturepage #brisbaneanyday #reader #booklover #newrelease #bookworm #alwaysreading #beautifulbooks @harpercollinsaustralia

[what bookworms eat for breakfast] Delicious breakfast with friends at @theburrowwestend before scurrying home to dive back into Carmen Maria Machado’s Her Body and Other Parties. Because I’m already reading three other books at the moment I’d planned on only reading one short story a day, but now I can’t put it down and I want to spend my day wallowing in every delicious morsel of Machado’s prose. This book is a luminous gem, dark, earthy, sexy, magical, feminist and just the right amount of unsettling, reminding me of Helen Oyeyemi, Karen Russell, Angela Carter. Her writing glows on the page - a baby’s eyes in the morning sun are “Venus flytraps yawning wide to vibrations and heat”, a virus “bloom[s] on the horizon like a sunrise,” and already I’m despairing that I will have to put it down to go to work this evening. • Tell me about the last book you couldn’t put down! • • #herbodyandotherparties @carmenmmachado @graywolfpress #books #booksandfood #foodporn #booklover #shortstories #literature #womenwhowrite #goodreadsgoodeats #booksforbreakfast #breakfast #reader #readersofig #instabook #alwaysreading #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookishfeatures #goodreads #igreads #bookfeaturepage #brisbanereader #reader #westendbrisbane #bookreview #fivestarread

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