Claire Bowditch is a successful Australian folk singer. This memoir has been lauded by many, so I took the opportunity to check it out for myself.
It fClaire Bowditch is a successful Australian folk singer. This memoir has been lauded by many, so I took the opportunity to check it out for myself.
It focuses primarily on Bowditch's struggles with anxiety and depression. The death of one of her older sisters when only seven years old, years of dieting, from when she was just eleven, relationship breakups, and probably a genetic disposition - accumulated to the point of a major nervous breakdown at only twenty-one when living in London. What followed was a period of slowly but steadily fighting her demons. She was lucky enough to have had the love and support of loving parents and siblings, finding the right kind of books to read and the right therapist to guide her towards reframing the way she thought of things - what you think is your reality, after all, the brain doesn't know what's real or not. Bowditch's writing is straight forward and non-preachy. She doesn't overshare but gives the reader a detailed enough overview of events in her life and of things she felt and thought. Her diaries must have been cathartic to re-read and very useful when it came to writing this memoir.
I listened to the audiobook which was narrated by Bowditch herself. She did a great job. She also provides resources for those who need help....more
I was looking for fun, happy books to read and Jenny Lawson's name kept popping up, so I headed out to my local library to grab a copy of one of he4.5
I was looking for fun, happy books to read and Jenny Lawson's name kept popping up, so I headed out to my local library to grab a copy of one of her books.
I'm glad I did. Furiously Happy was highly entertaining and well written. Lawson is a clever cookie, with a penchant for drama (to put it mildly) and exaggeration, but the things she comes up with are just kookie - in the best kind of ways. I sometimes felt bad about enjoying this book given the many mental and physical health issues that afflict Lawson. She's not the type of person to ask for pity, just understanding and compassion. Obviously, she's become a very good maker of lemonade out of the lemons life threw her way. She's got one thing that many people don't - the love and support of a husband and extended family and a bunch of good friends. It doesn't hurt that she's financially well-off, so she can afford the many medications and therapy hours she needs. I won't hold that against her.
I'm keen to read her Let's Pretend This Never Happened.
A huge shoutout to the cover designer and to Lawson for providing this taxidermied racoon, the cutest, funniest looking thing ever. You can't look at it and not smile, unless you've got a racoon and/or taxidermy phobias, that is....more
Don't let it be said that I don't give authors a second chance ... well, there's at least one I refuse to read again. I didn't enj3.5 stars rounded up
Don't let it be said that I don't give authors a second chance ... well, there's at least one I refuse to read again. I didn't enjoy Jordan's Our Tiny Useless Hearts, but I wanted to try another novel.
Addition was a much more enjoyable experience than the above-mentioned book. Thirty-five-year-old Grace Vandenburg is obsessive compulsively counting and has very strict routines that she follows adamantly. She loves numbers and her idol is Nikola Tesla. The nerd in me enjoyed the bits about Tesla that were interspersed throughout the novel. The guy was a genius!
I enjoyed getting to know Grace. For someone so rigid, she sure had a sense of humour and could be self-deprecating. When she goes shopping she buys things in tens. When in the cashier line, she discovers she only places nine bananas in the basket. What to do, she doesn't want to miss her place in the line. So she steals one banana from the guy behind her. And that's how she meets Seamus O'Reilly. And that is where the cynic Bianca reappears. The dude was too good to be true. And Grace's behaviour was a bit contradictory to her usual self. I guess there wouldn't be much of a plot otherwise.
With Seamus' help, Grace decides to address her issues and seek professional help. Will she be cured? Does she need to be cured? Do we all have to fit the mould? These are questions that Toni Jordon attempts to answer.
So, if you're after quirky heroines and are interested in a light romantic read, give this one a go.
Caroline Lee, one of my favourite Australian narrators, did a brilliant job, as always.
Loading...
