It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Monday, Monday - what will I be reading this week?

Hopefully more than last week!

I've been in a bit of a mood lately (third book down might explain why!) so I only managed to complete one book last week *sigh*.

I've also been very lax about checking in on my favourite blogs (sorry! I hope to get on top of things again soon).

But I did read a few of fabulous Zola posts from fellow Zoladdiction particpants:

O @Behold the Stars wrote a post that listed all the characters to be found in the Rougon-Macquart series with a helpful timeline.
Ruth @A Great Book Study has convinced me to try Virginia Woolf again with her review on The Voyage Out.
And Ali @Heavenali has helped bump My Beautiful Friend higher up my TBR pile with this lovely review.

But for now I am focused on finishing my readalong books - more Wharton's and Gone With the Wind.


The Reckoning (Little Black Classic #48) by Edith Wharton

'If marriage was the slow life-long acquittal of a debt contracted in ignorance, then marriage was a crime against human nature.'

Two moving stories of love, loss, desire and divorce, from one of the great chroniclers of nineteenth-century New York life.

Roman Fever by Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize, in 1921, for her classic novel The Age of Innocence. She was also a remarkable short story writer, publishing more than seventy-two stories in ten volumes during her lifetime.

The best of her short fiction is collected here in Roman Fever and Other Stories. Her subjects range from erotic love and illegitimacy in "Roman Fever," to a ghost story with a wry twist in "The Angel at the Grave," to the aftermath of divorce explored in three very different and intriguing stories, "Souls Belated," "Autres Temps..." and "The Last Asset," Wharton emerges as a superb satirist "skilled in dissecting the elements of emotional subtleties, moral ambiguities, and the implications of social constrictions," as Cynthia Griffin Wolff writes in her introduction.

Roman Fever & Other Stories is a surprisingly contemporary volume of stories by one of our most enduring writers.

You're Still Hot to Me by Jean Kittson

A fact-filled conversation starter on menopause by comedian and health campaigner Jean Kittson.

When Jean Kittson hit menopause, she was amazed at what she didn't know. Given that 1.5 million Australian women are menopausal at any one time, why, she wondered, was menopause so little discussed and then only in hushed tones?

So Jean set out to write the sort of book she felt she needed to read: 'An easy-to-read book full of useful information that didn't make you want to put on an old chenille dressing-gown and a pair of comfortable slippers and throw yourself under a marching band.'

You're Still Hot to Me is a chatty - sometimes robust - conversation between women and with some of Australia's top experts. Discover how to recognise symptoms (would you like hot flushes with that chocolate?), get the medical attention you deserve, and the lowdown on which treatments really work. You will learn about combining menopause with work, sex and parenting, and how to emerge at the other end still talking to those you love.

Candid and frequently hilarious, this is your starter kit on how to cheerfully embrace and confidently manage this momentous time of life.

I'm also hoping to read and review a few more of this year's CBCA shortlist books including a few picture books and...

Coming of Age: Growing Up Muslim in Australia by Amra Pajalic and Demet Divaroren

In this refreshing and fascinating collection, twelve Muslim-Australians - some well known, some not - reveal their candid, funny and touching stories of growing up with a dual identity.

Muslim people in Australia come from over seventy countries and represent a wide variety of cultural backgrounds and experiences. Yet we are constantly bombarded by media stories feeding one negative stereotype. What is it really like to grow up Muslim in Australia? In this book, famous and not-so-famous Muslim-Australians tell their stories in their own voices.

The beard, the hijab, the migrant - these are all familiar images associated with Muslim people. But delve deeper and there are many other stories: the young female boxer entering the ring for her first professional bout; a ten-year-old boy who renounces religion; a young woman struggling to reconcile her sexual identity with her faith. These honest and heartfelt stories will resonate with all readers, providing different snapshots of Muslim life in Australia, dispelling myths and stereotypes, and above all celebrating diversity, achievement, courage and determination.

'Coming of Age is the kind of book that will change how readers look at the world... Coloured with many shades of humour, warmth, sadness, anger, determination and honesty, it will resonate with readers from all backgrounds and beliefs.

What will you be reading this week?
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