Really an exceptional piece of writing. A friend bought this for me, and at the time I didn't realise I had already read another of her books. This one is of a totally different character; basically telling the story of a woman's engagement with pregnancy, and the way society encourages it be handled. Being myself now a partner and a witness to this, I found it a very interesting perspective and helped me relate to the birth parent more. It's a stressful read, but an amazing one I think. Highly recommended!

I picked this up because I've quite enjoyed his other books. This one was also pretty good; certainly compelling and readable. That said, it doesn't particularly challenge ideas about borders or immigration in any way that I would find agreeable. There's no doubt Keefe is a great story-teller, and I did enjoy reading this one, but you could be forgiven for passing it up for something else. That said, it did at least highlight to me some of the challenges building an effective immigration policy.

Absolutely extraordinary book. Extremely informative, powerful, emotional, inspiring, and poetic. I was struck at first by the amazing writing (which comes across really well in translation, I think, not that I've read the original ...), but stayed for the amazing story-telling and information about various illegal practices in Brazil.

It's really an impressive piece of work, I can highly recommend it, but do note that it is also, in parts, quite traumatic. Still; one of those books that you feel sad when it ends; well worth reading!

I'm not sure how I feel about this book. I enjoyed the last book by this author; but I certainly can't say I "enjoyed" this one. It covers the (horrible) story of one families drive to make money, in particular in the pharmaceutical industry. I think it's "good" to read it; but for me I think it just shows the dangers of incentives. In many ways I agree with one of the reviewers who said they felt guilty for enjoying it. Hopefully we can move beyond stories like this and into other kinds of analyses and understanding.

This was picked out for me by my partner, and I absolutely loved it! It's very funny and personal and interesting. I really enjoyed the way she writes, and while it didn't have a great deal of content about Antarctica itself, it was a very interesting and engaging personal story. It is just nice to read about how she experiences life. Well worth the read!

Honestly not too sure what to make of this book. Certainly it gives me a perspective into other lives that I would not normally get; the topic being the (quite differing) sex lives of three women. But the differing stories were all, for me, quite extreme, which made it a bit hard to relate. Nevertheless, it felt very raw and real and compelling. Not my usual thing, but I'm glad I read it.

Another amazing book, this one was written by a refugee who was imprisoned at the time. It is about his experience in the prison; something that had been totally covered up by the Australian government. At the time the book was published he was still in prison! It's exceptionally readable, interesting and engaging, but it does have some quite traumatic sections. It's has a beautifully written style interspersed with sections of poetry. You will certainly leave with very strong feelings for what people like this have been put through by our governments. I really gained a lot from reading it.

This was interesting reading, but probably overall not quite my kind of thing. I found the style quite stressful; but I do think that was the intention. The idea, I suppose, is to convey the chaoticness of reading Twitter every second; and constant changing of attention. But this is something that I personally find a bit stressful, and this was conveyed very accurately through the writing. I do think it had some nice jokes, and variously interesting bits of social commentary; and, as one review I listened to, clearly this author is very familiar with social media. But it's not one I'll likely read again. Might be of interest to those who want another perspective on what engagement with social media can look like!

An amazing story and great reading. I picked up this particular second-hand copy in Hay-on-Wye, a self-proclaimed "Book Town", and in it we found a photo of someone, probably the loved-one of a previous reader! The book itself is highly readable; in fact I could barely put it down and read it in just two days!

This books wasn't what I thought it would be. I admit I thought it was going to be about some kind of adventure in Antarctica; but in fact it's a novel about a stroke. I found it very very stressful for read, but I think that's the intention. To some degree I think it managed to convey the difficulties with having a stroke, and the impact on people around you. But mostly I was stressed because of how I felt the characters would be feeling, and because I think I could get a raw feeling of how it would be if *I* had a stroke, and that caused me a lot of anxiety. Probably an interesting book for some, but not one that I would read again in a hurry.

This is a very hard book to read; and it contains some very traumatic stories. Nevertheless, I feel better having read it. I learned a lot about what domestic abuse looks like, and what people suffering from it have to deal with, and how to support them. Highly recommended.

I was really surprised and amazed by this book. I saw Ariel Levy talk at the amazing festival in Melbourne. I didn't know anything about her, but the image I did form didn't match what was revealed in this book. Very thoughtful and captivating, and a relatable account of one persons life and dreams. Definitely recommended reading for an insight into a life that is quite different from my own.