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I aim to read 150 books a year, so am always looking for recommendations!

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Lots of interesting books read in March this year! 📚

Long Yarn Short, Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts

"I share my story not because it is unique, but because it is not."

Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts is a proud Bundjalung Widubul-Wiabul woman. She is a lawyer and human rights activist whose research focuses on the consequences of the forcible removal of First Nations children from their families.

This book is the intersection of her academic research and personal experience—Vanessa herself was stolen from her family, community and kinship systems as a child.

It's an unflinching look at a broken system. A tough, but important read.

#IndigenousBooks #IndigenousBookstagram #TruthTelling #BlakBooks #AusLit #FirstNationsWriters

Drop Bear, Evelyn Araluen

I don’t usually read poetry, and as a result I probably tend to read it like a novel, speeding through it without taking the time to savour all the sounds of the words. An English teacher once told me that poetry is meant to be read aloud, and I think I agree.

That being said, I did really enjoy Araluen’s collection. Her voice is clear and truthful as she turns her gaze onto the modern myths of colonial Australia, family, Country, and more.

This International Women’s Day, make sure you’re reading books by and about a diverse range of women 💜

#InternationalWomensDay #IWD #IWD2025 #RightsEqualityEmpowerment #feministbooks #bookstagram #australianbookstagram #australianbookstagrammer #bookrecommendations #diversebooks

Strong Female Character, Fern Brady

It took Scottish comedian Fern Brady until she was 34 to be diagnosed with autism. Her good grades and social masking, eye contact and ability to ‘get boyfriends’ were all reasons she was denied an autism diagnosis for so long.

This is despite the fact that she spent many of her child and teenage years in mental health crises—in and out of psych wards and counselling, frequently suicidal, and misdiagnosed.

Brady’s story is more confronting than many; after being kicked out of home, Brady experienced violence, homelessness, substance abuse, disordered eating and domestic abuse. She also mistreated people she cared about and made poor decisions.

So much of this book is about the tragedy of being unseen and unknown. Until health institutions have adequate research and data about how all kinds of conditions—including autism—present in women, they will continue to ‘slip through the cracks’ and miss out on appropriate care.

Toxic: The Rotting Underbelly of the Tasmanian Salmon Industry, by Richard Flanagan

A blistering exposé of Tasmania’s salmon farming industry, Toxic unveils the hidden environmental cost behind the industry’s glossy facade.

Flanagan argues that the Tasmanian salmon industry is responsible for a huge amount of ecological destruction, from polluting waterways to putting unique marine life at risk of extinction. Flanagan critiques the Tasmanian government’s unwillingness to challenge corporate profit, even as evidence mounts of the industry’s inefficiency and environmental destruction.

To Flanagan, this issue is personal. His initial observations of the environment's 'slow destruction' occurred at his family's shack on Bruny Island, where he witnessed the decline of marine life first-hand.

Much of Flanagan's argument relies on this concept of collective ownership of Tasmania's land and waters. He argues that Tassal + its compatriots owe it to the Tasmanian people to protect—or at least stop damaging—the natural environment.

There is some irony here, given that Flanagan's family's ownership of a parcel of Bruny Island was necessarily predicated on a violent and genocidal colonial campaign that sought to remove the Traditional Owners, whose culture advocates for protecting land and waters from individual greed.

That being said, I don't think it negates the harm being done by the salmon industry, nor the truth of the need to look after and care for our planet. Just another example of the long arm of colonisation and its impacts.

It is disheartening to read of yet another instance of profit taking priority over people and planet. This is a powerful book that has no doubt changed many people's minds about what kind of salmon (if any) they consume. Let's hope it is able to lead to more concrete and wide-scale change.

#auslit #ozlit #bookstagram #bookreviews #nonfic #nonfiction

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I'm always looking for books to add to my ever growing (and out of control) TBR list!

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