Books I've Read: The Unexpected Consequences of Bleeding on a Tuesday

I'll admit 100% to picking this book up because of the title.  I mean, how could you not? 

Turns out it was a good choice because not only is this a genuinely frank book about endometriosis, something that isn't talked about nearly enough given the number of women who suffer from it, and as voicey as hell.

Delia has a great life with big plans for her future.  She's in a exclusive prep school, has been accepted at her dream college and is just about to start an internship with the doctor she's dreamed of working beside.

Then, off schedule, she gets her period.

No big deal, right?  A little inconveninece, maybe, an uncomfortable day or two.  No.   Delia's periods are a nightmare that rule her world.  Not just that they're heavy, but the pain that accompany them is enough to make her throw up and pass out.   They rule her life and she knows something is wrong with her.  Unfortunately, all the doctors she's seen up until now don't seem to take her seriiously or understand quite how debilitating this is.

Which is why she's so determined to intern with Dr. Steele who has a reputation of really listening to women and finding solutions for their health issues.  And why she's so determined to become the kind of doctor she really wants to see. 

But, with her period threatening to force her to skip school (again), Delia does something desperate and uses marijuana for the first time as a way to manage her pain so she can make it through this all-impotant meet and greet with the doctor of her dreams.

It does not go well, and weeks from graduation, Delia finds herself expelled, her college acceptance rescinded, her internship cancelled and with it, her chance to get close to the one doctor who might have answers for her.  To ensure her period doesn't continue to wreck havoc on her future, Delia is forced to advocate for herself as she navigates the final weeks of high school, having to face the best friend who humiliated her back in middle school and a boy who seems to really care about her.

This is the first book I've read that deals with endometriosis and the frustrating realities of how difficult it is for women to get treatment for it.  I have several friends who have suffered for years with periods as painful and debilitating as Delia's and who have had an equally difficult time gettitng diagnosed and treated for it.  In fact, I recently discovered that I had endometriosis, but only found out when having a hysterectomy because my periods had become so unmanageable.  Which made me angry because I'd suffered through it for 40 years with no one ever mentioning the word endometriosis.

So, I'd recommend this book.  I think it's important to talk about this topic and for young women who are suffering through this debilitating pain every month to understand that they're not freaks and that there is treatment.  If only they can get a doctor to actually hear them.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

Delia Bridges is striving to become the compassionate doctor she's been unable to find in her journey to diagnose her excruciating period pain--but when a single rule-breaking incident jeopardizes her future, she must find a way to reclaim her dreams in this funny, period-positive novel.

High school senior Delia Bridges has the most amazing mom and sister, a killer GPA--and periods that are so painful they make her scream, pass out, and throw up. Though she doesn't know it yet, Delia has endometriosis, an affliction plaguing millions of people that is notoriously difficult to diagnose.

Pain makes everything harder, but Delia is just one semester away from graduating from Stockwood Prep and pursuing her dream of become the kind of doctor she's never one who takes her symptoms seriously. But when she breaks a rule for the first time ever and is caught using marijuana at school to manage her pain, Delia is expelled.

Her expulsion jeopardizes her college acceptance, her planned mentorship, and everything she had carefully planned for years. Without her academic success and no closer to a diagnosis, is Delia anything more than her period?

Weekly Goals 28-9-26

 This week I'm going to try to get back into my writing routine.  I have next week off work and want to start a new book.  I don't know a whole lot about it yet, but I think I have enough of an idea to start and figure it out as I go.  I hope I have enough to start and figure it out as I go...

So this week I'm going to try to write at least four pieces of flash fiction to get my imagination geared up and to stretch those unused writing muscles a little.  It's still going to be pretty busy at work, so I may not make it to four, but we'll give it a go.

Next week I start teaching all three morning classes at the gym for five or six weeks, so that will impact on my writing time, but because I'm not working that week, I should be able to make it up at other times.

That's the plan, anyway.  Let's see what the week ends up throwing my way.

What are your goals for the week?

Celebrate the Small Things 25-9-26

 

 It's the end of the week so it's time to celebrate the small things!

So what am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

I have a few things on, but they're mostly fun things like a catch-up with my girlfriends and a haircut.  I've been easing myself back into writing again, getting prepared for the week I plan to start a new novel - although that week is already going to be interupted with a few work related things and some boring life admin.

Things have started to settle down at work, which is good.  Means I will have time to get all the things I need to get done before the end of the year done in plenty of time.

Spring hasn't exactly been springy yet, but daylight saving stats this weekend, so I'm hoping nature will get the messae and warm up a little!

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: Youthjuice

I'm kind of a sucker for anything that skewers the modern obsession with beauty and aging, so this one felt like it was right in my wheelhouse.  Part satire, part horror, and I'm pretty sure, part portrait of a sociopath, this book was pretty icky!

Set mainly in the world of high-luxury skincare, the main character is Sophia.  After struggling for several years in New York as a barista, she's thrilled to be hired on the storytelling team at Hebe, a luxury beauty product company founded by the impossibly glamorous and enigmatic Tree.

At first, it's a dream come true for Sophia.  Hebe gives her access to a world she's only ever managed to rub up against through her trust-fund baby roommate.  The new cream Tree asked her to try has even helped erase the scars and damage caused by a years-long, extreme nailbiting habit.

But when the secret ingredient in the miracle cream comes to light, Sophia is forced to make some tough decisions about how far she's willing to go to stay young and beautiful.

Woven through the present day story are glimpses of Sophia's past and a single event that has shaped the woman she has grown up to be.  It's these sections that convinced me she's a sociopath and made her reaction to what was going on at Hebe so much more understandable.

I won't give any more detail because to do so would ruin the surprises this innocuous-looking pink covered book serves up.

It's grotesque and relatable and will probably make you think twice before you put your moisturizer on tonight.  Or try out the next hyped product that shows up on your social media timeline.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

American Psycho meets The Devil Wears Prada: outrageous body horror for the goop generation

A 29-year-old copywriter realizes that beauty is possible—at a terrible cost—in this surreal, satirical send-up of NYC It-girl culture.

From Sophia Bannion’s first day on the Storytelling team at HEBE (hee-bee), a luxury skincare/wellness company based in New York’s trendy SoHo neighborhood and named after the Greek goddess of youth, it’s clear something is deeply amiss. But Sophia, pushing thirty, has plenty of skeletons in her closet next to the designer knockoffs and doesn’t care. Though she leads an outwardly charmed life, she aches for a deeper meaning to her flat existence—and a cure for her brutal nail-biting habit. She finds it all and more at HEBE, and with Tree Whitestone, HEBE’s charismatic founder and CEO.

Soon, Sophia is addicted to her HEBE lifestyle—especially youthjuice, the fatty, soothing moisturizer Tree has asked Sophia to test. But when cracks in HEBE’s infrastructure start to worsen—and Sophia learns the gruesome secret ingredient at the heart of youthjuice—she has to decide how far she’s willing to go to stay beautiful forever.

Glittering with ominous flashes of Sophia’s coming-of-rage story, former beauty editor E.K. Sathue’s horror debut is as incisive as it is stomach-churning in its portrayal of all-consuming female friendship and the beauty industry’s short attention span. youthjuice does to skincare influencers what Bret Easton Ellis did to yuppies. You’ll never moisturize the same way again.

Weekly Goals 21-9-26

 I didn't end up doing anything writing related over the weekend.  The weather turned out nicer than I expected and we ended up doing a lot of garden stuff and housework.  Which was very much needed.  We ended up taking four sacks of garden waste to the tip!

It's going to be another busy week at work, but hopefully at least a little calmer than last week.  I have quite a few things I need to do, plus a concert on Wednesday night.  So far I haven't been asked to cover any extra classes at the gym either, so I might actually have a week where I just do my own, regular classes.  I'm not counting on it though...

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 18-9-27

 

 It's the end of the week so it's time to celebrate the small things!

So what am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

And boy do I need one.  It has been a crazy week, but a very successful one.  I think it's going to be busy for another week or two, but nothing like as insane as the last two.

I have nothing planned for the weekend, which is nice.  I'm not even teachiing at the gym!  The weather isn't looking great, so I'll probably see if I can go to the movies one of the days.  The other, I think I'll spend reading.  I may even get back to reviewing for my critique group which I've been very bad about the last few weeks.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: All Our Shimmering Skies

I've added Australian author Trent Dalton to my list of favoriite authors.  He has a way of writing brutal stories beautifully.  And I am so there for it.

All the Shimmering Skies is set in Darwin, in the far north of Australia before and during World War II. The main character is a young girl called Molly Hook and in the first chapter, her mother dies, leaving her to grow up with her drunken father and uncle who run the family boneyard.  Before she dies, Mollly's mother told her to always look to the sky, to trust it.  Molly takes this to heart and through all the indignities she suffers, never stops believing in the sky and its gifts. 

Believing the family is cursed, as the Japanese bomb Darwin, Molly takes her trusty gravedigging spade and heads into the outback in search of a mythical man known as Longcoat Bob.  Supposedly he is theone who cursed the family, so Molly is going to ask him to lift the curse.  Along with Molly comes Greta, a razor-tongued actress and sometimes lover of her evil uncle Aubrey.  And on the way they pick up a fallen Japanese pilot, Yukio.

This unlikely trio journey through some of Australia's most unforgiving land as they follow a fever-dream map scrawled by Molly's grandfather on a battered gold pan.  Unbeknownst to them, Uncle Aubrey is on their tail, furious and hungry for the vast stores of gold Molly's grandfather told tales of after his own venture into the bush.

The people Molly and her travelling companions come across on their jorney are some of the worst people you could imagine, yet somehow, this scrappy band of three, guided by Molly's unwavering belief in the sky, manage to elude the worst scenarios.

The story in this book is often horrific and brutal, but it's written in such a poetic and beautiful way it doesn't feel heavy.  And the landscape is described so well it feels like perhaps the most important character in the story.  I enjoyed it immensely!

If you like beautiful writing that doesn't forget it's supposed to be telling a story (I've read too many books that are beuatifully written, but say nothing) this one is very recommended.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

The bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe, Trent Dalton returns with All Our Shimmering Skies - a glorious novel destined to become another Australian classic. Darwin, 1942, and as Japanese bombs rain down, motherless Molly Hook, the gravedigger's daughter, turns once again to the sky for guidance. She carries a stone heart inside a duffel bag next to the map that leads to Longcoat Bob, the deep-country sorcerer who put a curse on her family. By her side are the most unlikely travelling companions: Greta, a razor-tongued actress and Yukio, a fallen Japanese fighter pilot. Run, Molly, run, says the daytime sky. Run to the vine forests. Run to northern Australia's wild and magical monsoon lands. Run to friendship. Run to love. Run. Because the graverobber's coming, Molly, and the night-time sky is coming with him. So run, Molly, run.

All Our Shimmering Skies is a story about gifts that fall from the sky, curses we dig from the earth and the secrets we bury inside ourselves. It is an odyssey of true love and grave danger, of darkness and light, of bones and blue skies; a buoyant, beautiful and magical novel abrim with warmth, wit and wonder; and a love letter to Australia and the art of looking up.