I called myself a feminist out loud for the first time only last year. Mostly I felt proud, but lurking underneath this pride was an undeniable layer of guilt. I Call Myself a Feminist—an anthology compiled by Victoria Pepe, Rachel Holmes, Amy Annette, Alice Stride and Martha Mosse—helped me answer two questions at the heart…
Read more
If you’re looking for BOLD in a bookstore, you’ll definitely know when you’ve found it. Its striking cover is mostly red, splashed with the title across the lower half. On the back, it has some impressive cover quotes from Benjamin Law and former Greens leader Bob Brown. Flipping through the pages, you see the many photos collected by the…
Read more
Honor Jane Newman is the author of a short and handy self-help book for women titled Killing the Perfectionist Within: A Self-Help Guide for Women Suffering from Perfectionism, Anxiety, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The book includes tips and tricks to tackle the difficult emotions and situations that can arise when you seek perfectionism on a daily basis….
Read more
W.H. Auden once said of Sigmund Freud that he was no longer just a person, but had become a ‘climate of opinion’. These days, it is challenging to think of many others in the public eye that merit this description, even with the effusive presence of reality television stars and the ever-growing relevance of pop…
Read more
Since its first incarnation at Melbourne’s Trades Hall in 2010, Women of Letters has toured the world to sold-out audiences. Curated by Marieke Hardy and Michaela McGuire, its original purpose was to encourage women to read aloud letters set to a specific theme, directed at a live audience. It has evolved to include a Men of Letters variant and has several accompanying book anthologies, but the underlying principle remains the same: allowing a gathering of people to speak intimately without reservation. In From the Heart, the latest Women of Letters,…
Read more
Sometimes, as a reader you’re lucky enough to chance upon a book that draws you in until you are so fully immersed in its world that it haunts you for days. Anna North’s The Life and Death of Sophie Stark is one such book. Indeed, the word ‘haunt’ is apt, as Sophie herself haunts the…
Read more
Putting together a Best Of list isn’t easy, which is especially true when it comes to books. The Lip Crew is a literary bunch, so we’ve put together a list of our best reads of 2015. Did any of your favourites make the cut? * “My attitude toward children is more of an appreciation than…
Read more
There are two types of people in the world, according to Nicole Trilivas’s protagonist Kika Shores: those who travel, and those who don’t. Kika belongs to the former category: she enjoys the thrill of walking through a city whose name she can’t pronounce, and finding herself an alien culture with nothing but a well-worn backpack….
Read more
Ask Me Anything is acclaimed writer Rebecca Sparrow’s endeavour to answer a tangled and awkward mess of questions posed to her by teenagers. On the surface Ask Me Anything sounds like the kind of book that worried parents might buy their teenage daughter for Christmas, a remedy for unwanted pregnancies and a clever way to avoid…
Read more
Rosie Waterland’s The Anti-Cool Girl is the Australian antidote to Lena Dunham’s controversial memoirs but with much more bite. Waterland, a writer for the Mamamia Women’s Network, is most commonly known for her hilarious recaps of The Bachelor. In the The Anti-Cool Girl Waterland smoothly takes us through her life, from birth to the present…
Read more
Honor Jane Newman is a psychologist currently living in Melbourne who has penned a short and easy-to-understand self-help book for women living with perfectionism, anxiety and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Killing the Perfectionist Within is a simple little book that gives the reader an insight into the various symptoms of these conditions and then delves…
Read more
Sophie Hardcastle’s memoir Running Like China is not just about shattering the stigmas of mental illness or about providing a safe place for those who may be going through similar issues. Running Like China is also about an artist who finds her true self through the good and the bad times, and who emerges victorious…
Read more
Geraldine Brooks is a genius. Historical biographical fiction is difficult to write at the best of times because of issues with source evidence and conflicting views; Brooks does a superlative job in her latest novel, The Secret Chord, taking inspiration from a historical figure from three thousand years ago. King David’s story of rags to…
Read more
At the heart of any great book, whether fiction or non-fiction, sci-fi or drama, lies a character arc that we can personally relate to on some level. The core of all good books often pulls at our heartstrings at a moment’s notice, leaving us breathless and wanting more. With Robyn Hennessy’s memoir, Worthless, the average…
Read more
