Culture Club - The Best & Worst Books We Read In 2024

00:00:00.000 the best worst and most unexpected books we read in 2024 i'm maggie zow and i'm jasmine

00:00:13.660 wallace and you're listening to culture club where we chat about pop culture current affairs

00:00:18.720 the internet and our lives. Today we're on the land of the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people of the

00:00:31.860 Kulin Nations. First Nations people have taken care of our lands and waterways for over 60,000 years

00:00:38.040 and have been sharing knowledge and culture through oral history from time immemorial.

00:00:43.080 We would like to pay our respects to elders past and present and extend this to any

00:00:48.100 Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander listeners today. Look I think it might be too late to say

00:00:57.480 this as it is late Jan but happy new year Jazz. Happy Culture Club new year. We had a pretty good

00:01:05.480 summer break like a bit of time off the pod. We had our interview go live with Concetta Caristo

00:01:12.600 which that was one of my favorite. It's hard to choose because all I love all our interviews but

00:01:17.660 i think that was a really lovely chat so go back and listen if you haven't yeah and now we are back

00:01:25.620 at work back in the swing of things or trying to get into the swing of things but okay speaking of

00:01:32.100 swing of things we've been watching a lot of rackets swinging segue australian open bad jokes

00:01:39.740 yeah so we were at the australian open last week we've yeah been there a few times for fun and for

00:01:45.740 work and we got to do a very special live podcast at Top Court which is the AO's new

00:01:52.680 activation kind of a hangout space and it was really fun we did our celebrity predictions

00:01:59.340 ins and outs and a little bit of tennis fashion history which was really fun to research

00:02:04.180 it was good and I feel like you were at the tennis like maybe three or even four days that

00:02:09.480 week it was my first time watching like a proper game and we were at Rod Laver together it was

00:02:15.620 genuinely so fun like life's fault can be so fun guys this is like the culture club arc where we

00:02:22.620 suddenly get really into sport I feel like we dabble in and out every year we say that but

00:02:27.260 yeah there's been really fun but now we're back behind the mics actually getting recorded this

00:02:32.920 time. And we thought we would go through our favorite, least favorite and unexpected books

00:02:40.600 of 2024. Yeah, we did this a year ago and we had some nice feedback from you all. I know that

00:02:48.240 a lot of you like reading books as well. So we love talking about books. Yes, we bring up our

00:02:54.160 bloody book club every episode, but we're here for a reason. And we're going to get started with

00:03:00.700 our least favorite books of last year so disclaimer um when we say worst or least liked it is

00:03:08.120 definitely our personal opinions obviously these are always our personal opinions but

00:03:12.260 i never want to make artists or authors feel bad about their work so much time and effort

00:03:19.780 and creative energy goes into writing a book getting it published etc so i hope this doesn't

00:03:27.640 come across as nasty it is just our personal opinion as the consumers so with that in mind

00:03:35.980 mags do you want to kick us off yes and let this also be a reminder that we all have free will

00:03:41.580 it's actually great when we disagree with each other and have differing interpretations of books

00:03:46.880 i know that some of my favorite books of this year will be on other people's least favorite books of

00:03:51.320 the year list as well so just keep that in mind all personal opinions but let's get to it yes I'll

00:03:58.240 kick us off with the one that I'm going to be bringing up oh it's like ripping off a band-aid

00:04:02.900 isn't it so one of the least favorite books that I read last year was called Others Were Emeralds

00:04:08.640 by Lang Leav and this is an Australian fiction coming-of-age novel that I actually picked for

00:04:16.280 our book club in the middle of the year. So being a book club read I also read this one

00:04:21.440 and I'm really keen to hear your thoughts outside of book club as well on this because I probably

00:04:29.400 had similar gripes with it. And you know I'm not going to butcher the plot line I'm actually just

00:04:34.900 going to read the supplied blurb so here's a rundown of the book. The daughter of Cambodian

00:04:40.040 refugees I grew up in the small Australian town of Whitlam populated by Asian immigrants who once

00:04:46.980 fled war-torn countries to rebuild their shattered lives. It is now the late 90s and despite their

00:04:53.280 parents harrowing past I and her tight-knit group of school friends lead seemingly ordinary lives

00:04:59.400 far removed from the unimaginable horrors suffered by the parents. But that carefree innocence is

00:05:05.380 shattered in their last year of school when an incident involving Ai and her friends spirals

00:05:09.920 into senseless violence, leaving behind a trail of unresolved trauma. Years later, Ai is compelled

00:05:15.560 to look back on the tragedy that shaped her adolescence to examine the role she may have

00:05:20.420 unwittingly played. Okay, so look, I chose this book for Book Club because it's a story that

00:05:28.300 pique my interest I obviously am Asian Australian so I do like to read books from people with

00:05:37.140 similar backgrounds I'm thinking like Benjamin Law, Michelle Law, Alice Pung like I've read a lot

00:05:42.420 of books that are kind of similar I would say I will also admit that I then unconsciously this 0.99

00:05:49.960 is very unconscious but I know I do it I am more critical of fellow ABC so Australian born Chinese

00:05:55.100 or similar background again and I do hold these books to a higher standard I don't think it's a 0.97

00:06:02.440 great thing I think I'm just like preemptively thinking about how other people will interpret

00:06:07.260 these books and other and I guess like how that reflects on our community and stuff which is

00:06:13.080 really problematic like I know that and then the added layer of this was I picked it for book club

00:06:19.900 and I think when you pick a book for book club you do want people to enjoy it so I was also extra

00:06:24.780 conscious of this so with those things in mind why is it on your least liked I just think I expected

00:06:34.100 something different I think if it was labeled a YA novel I would have given it more grace I would

00:06:41.100 have given it more grace I think it was kind of undercooked and under flesh in so many different

00:06:47.200 areas as mentioned in the blurb like we're talking about big themes like war racism identity belonging

00:06:53.080 but god I just think I found some of the protagonists and main characters quite

00:06:58.440 annoying and I get it they are teenagers but so much of this book was like me and my boyfriend

00:07:03.980 this and me and my boyfriend that and I felt like it just missed the mark for me yeah I struggle

00:07:11.820 with YA novels as an adult now it did I think it was a great book personally um for what it was

00:07:21.700 and I think I can see it on like a school curriculum for like year seven year eight

00:07:27.660 kind of yeah I agree that it might have been like a marketing um misstep to have most of it be

00:07:35.220 centered on the teenage like because they say it goes back in time and it's like an adult looking

00:07:40.020 back but it's really only like the first and last sections that are her like reflecting when she's

00:07:45.400 in her 20s at uni um a lot of the book is centered on this like year when they're in high school in

00:07:51.300 like 16 I would say that the twist like the accident that happens was like crazy and that's

00:07:58.760 really memorable for me we won't spoil it obviously but I remember I was listening to the

00:08:03.800 audiobook for book club and I stopped I was like cleaning or something and I stood in the middle

00:08:07.800 of the room and like my jaw dropped I was like what the hell so but I guess that doesn't like

00:08:12.500 a crazy plot twist doesn't equal a good book but I think that was like one of its positives yeah

00:08:16.980 Yeah. And I think too, that the plot twist you're referring to does involve an instance of racism

00:08:22.800 again, won't spoil it, but I found it quite jarring. Like it did feel like almost a plot

00:08:29.940 twist for the sake of a plot twist. And I don't know, I think my other observation is that the

00:08:36.640 portrayals of racism felt a bit off or at least not akin to my own experience. And obviously it

00:08:43.980 doesn't have to but I also think the fact that it was set in the late 90s is maybe why I had that

00:08:49.840 disconnect and why it wasn't as I guess relevant to lived experience around now okay my band-aid

00:08:57.400 has been ripped off it is your turn what is the first book you're bringing to the table so this

00:09:02.620 is a controversial one I'll do controversial first um and I will explain so I have said one of my

00:09:09.980 least liked books of 2024 was All Fours by Miranda July. Wow. Controversial because it has been picked

00:09:18.200 as like the New York Times like top 10 book of like 2024 and it's on a lot of these lists. The

00:09:23.840 reason I have picked it is because I stopped reading it about halfway through and I haven't

00:09:29.000 picked it back up again which I think says a lot for my personal taste. I'm curious though so do you

00:09:34.740 not have many um did not finish books that you um like stop reading halfway through or is this

00:09:41.580 quite like a rarity when you put down a book I'm the type of person who has multiple books on the

00:09:46.420 go and it's something that I'm really working on to actually I think it's an attention span thing

00:09:51.540 which is so bad but to actually stick with books even when there's lulls and then you get busy and

00:09:57.500 then you're like I haven't read I think that's what happened with this book it's like you get

00:10:00.440 busy and then you think I haven't read in two weeks oh but there's something new and shiny like

00:10:05.100 on my tbr or like get sent a book or something and I want to open that straight away so I'm trying

00:10:10.120 to work on my impulse control around books and I think being in a book club has really helped that

00:10:14.360 because obviously we're all going to talk about it whereas sometimes with books I've chosen myself

00:10:18.800 like it's literally on my kind of coffee table and I stare at it all the time and I feel really

00:10:23.880 guilty oh but yeah it's on my list because when I was reading it I was enjoying it and I I liked

00:10:32.940 the prose I thought the protagonist was sometimes a little irritating but I think that's the point

00:10:41.540 like she's not going through a breakdown of course but she's going through this big like

00:10:46.040 realization I should probably say explain yes yes give us a plot first and then let's get into it

00:10:51.860 yes yes yes so if you haven't read it or seen it all fours is um a book by Miranda July who's an

00:10:59.660 American woman and the book follows a semi-famous artist who announces her plan to drive from LA to

00:11:08.380 New York 20 minutes after leaving her husband and her child she turns off onto a free well it turns

00:11:15.480 off the freeway and gets a room at a motel and then she immerses herself in this motel um there's

00:11:26.220 affairs some yeah interesting personal things happening and so it's hard to explain a book

00:11:32.740 without spoiling it it's basically just this one woman's journey through middle age and she's kind

00:11:39.240 of reckoning with her identity so there were elements that I really really liked um about it

00:11:44.960 but I think given I've put it down and I haven't felt compelled to pick it back up I don't know I

00:11:51.720 think I have to like put that on my list you know but you really enjoyed this book right

00:11:56.800 yeah I just checked I gave it 4.25 stars and what I did like about it was I don't read that many

00:12:04.960 like novels where the character is so like oh I was gonna say the word like chaotic that's not

00:12:12.160 the best way to describe it but I don't get to read these many like weird girl fictions as much

00:12:17.120 even though I understand it is quite a trend at the moment so for me this was like an escapist

00:12:22.720 surrealist read and I was just like oh my god it's so fun being in her like wacky brain because

00:12:28.000 I would never do what she's doing and that's why I found it entertaining yeah I still have hope that

00:12:34.740 I will pick it up and finish it but I'm reading a few other good books and I have so many on my

00:12:40.980 tbr but i'm like i don't know so fair i think i like i stopped reading it at a point where she

00:12:48.000 like goes back home only halfway through though so i kind of maybe was like okay where's she

00:12:53.880 gonna go from here but i don't really care enough and i've seen a lot of tiktok commentary on this

00:12:58.020 book as well like a few people being like saying like i don't get why everyone loves this book

00:13:01.660 because i didn't understand it yeah and that's fine as well and if you don't finish it i honestly

00:13:08.120 don't think you're missing out on much. Okay, time for your second least liked book of 2024.

00:13:20.400 Yes, I am bringing up a book called Really Good Actually by Monica Hasey. I really wanted to like

00:13:27.840 this book. Okay, no, before I get into it, let me give you a rundown on what this book actually is.

00:13:32.860 And funnily enough, the main character's name is Maggie. So I'm going to read out the blurb,

00:13:37.480 but I'm not talking about myself in third person. Maggie is fine. She's doing really good,

00:13:42.200 actually. Sure, she's broke. Her graduate thesis on something obscure is going nowhere,

00:13:47.580 and her marriage only lasted 608 days. But at the ripe old age of 29, Maggie is determined to

00:13:54.520 embrace her new life as a surprisingly young divorcee. Now she has time to take up nine hobbies,

00:14:01.000 eat hamburgers at 4am, and get back out there sex-wise. With the support of her tough-loving 0.91

00:14:07.200 academic advisor her newly divorced friend and her group chat naturally maggie barrels through

00:14:13.280 her first year of single life intermediately dating occasionally waking up on the floor

00:14:17.820 and asking herself tough questions along the way okay it sounds from the blurb like something that

00:14:23.800 you and i would really like yes and no though i feel like that blurb encapsulates that book

00:14:29.800 as in I do love a fun fun book like this I don't even know what you'd call it like a

00:14:37.720 akin to chiclet I guess but this was like this was a pain in my my ass honestly it was another

00:14:45.980 kind of like sad girl novel that sent it a really like what's that called like when someone's a hot 0.93

00:14:51.800 mess yeah it was a hot mess book right yeah but it wasn't it wasn't redeemed and I just found it

00:14:59.200 really laborious I was eye rolling quite a bit I said in my review when I just finished reading it

00:15:05.460 that it was like a grocery list of millennial traits and pop culture references like she was

00:15:09.800 just trying like the author I felt like was just trying to be relevant and the thing is why this

00:15:15.200 disappointed me and the reason I actually picked this up in the first place is I actually really

00:15:19.240 like Monica's um the author the her articles and her tweets I think she is really funny she works

00:15:26.000 as a screenwriter and a comedian as well and i just felt like this really um fell flat like i

00:15:32.700 was annoyed reading it and i don't mind an unlikable main protagonist but it was just like

00:15:37.800 really really annoying oh that's such a shame i have heard similar things actually only this week

00:15:46.680 about another millennial sad girl novel um which is green dot by madeline gray no i like that one

00:15:53.500 I really like oh you liked it okay because I read a couple pages of that and was like I can't do this

00:15:59.160 right now and I still haven't gone back to it but she and that protagonist there I would like to say

00:16:03.260 she's like 23 years old or something and she is quite chaotic and stuff but this person's supposed

00:16:08.180 to be you know almost 30 and getting divorced whatever but fair enough interesting I still

00:16:15.300 kind of want to give it a go despite this review I listened to it as an audiobook so I would

00:16:21.480 recommend the audiobook as well though i feel like that makes a difference though yeah true

00:16:27.180 plus like an american accent like it's testing yeah this is why i hate audiobooks the narrator

00:16:35.260 can really influence your like if the narrator has annoying voice or someone that's like yeah

00:16:40.120 grading voice you might be more likely to turn it off and be like oh that was bad

00:16:45.740 if I like wrote a book I'd be so picky about who reads it out yeah I'm less picky than you because

00:16:51.900 you have real strong opinions about this you will like absolutely hate some narrators I kind of just

00:16:56.820 like I'll get into them after a few minutes but I do think you're right like tone and cadence of

00:17:01.920 speech and everything does affect especially like a book like this where the main character

00:17:06.100 can be seen as so annoying so actually good point all righty it is your turn to share your last

00:17:13.860 least favorite book and I think you need to do some explaining because I actually think you

00:17:18.940 recommended this book on the podcast did I I feel like we talked about it on the podcast I could be

00:17:24.180 very wrong continue and I will check this okay yeah okay this I'm putting it as my least liked

00:17:33.380 because I was sitting here before the episode racking my brain over what book to have as my

00:17:39.940 second pick I would have put um the Langley book as well but I didn't want to bore the audience

00:17:46.860 and have the same one as you so I was just racking my brain and then I went back through

00:17:51.040 our book club spreadsheet and I remembered this book and that it was lower on my star rating

00:17:57.420 and I think the discussion we had at book club um made me realize the flaws with it so I can't

00:18:05.120 remember if I did recommend on the pod I might have recommended it before or after

00:18:07.880 before sorry the book retreat yeah okay I'm still searching but so far I don't think you did

00:18:14.120 actually so forgive me so this book is called the retreat by Sarah Pierce it is the second

00:18:23.580 installment of a detective novel series and I was recommended at book club we went on a little

00:18:34.580 retreat away during winter and this was the novel picked for it so the synopsis is an eco wellness

00:18:41.900 retreat has opened on an island off the english coast promising rest and relaxation but the island

00:18:48.540 itself known locally as reaper's rock has a dark past once the playground of a serial killer it's

00:18:54.900 rumored to be cursed this detective is called to the retreat when a young woman's body is found

00:19:00.360 on the rocks below a yoga pavilion but the victim wasn't a guest and she wasn't meant to be on the

00:19:06.800 island at all so it's a murder mystery and I think it's a good holiday read it's pretty easy to read

00:19:16.080 you know a murder mystery is a page turner easily I think but I just have put it on my list because

00:19:24.360 I think there are some plot holes in this it left some questions unanswered for example like

00:19:32.280 it's kind of one of those books where multiple bodies start showing up and I think a few of

00:19:38.060 those characters were half-baked so it's still like yeah like I said a good holiday read something

00:19:44.340 I think if you're in a um a reading rut and you want to get out of it it's a good one it wasn't

00:19:50.020 my yeah favorite or strongest of the year so that's why I put it down and I would say like

00:19:54.740 before we discuss it with book club both you and I did enjoy this book I think we started off with

00:19:59.600 higher star ratings and then kind of re-evaluated after everyone like pointed out really good things

00:20:06.460 yeah and good points about it but I do think if you're someone like us who like isn't that

00:20:12.040 familiar with a genre like it is entertaining and I don't know I wasn't thinking that much

00:20:17.420 about it a lot of the other people like read a lot of thrillers so they're kind of more attuned

00:20:22.740 to the genre tropes and stuff like that but yeah fair enough fair enough girl

00:20:27.600 okay now we're gonna go to unexpected what's your like litmus test for this unexpected is it

00:20:39.380 yeah you explain your side I think it's just an excuse to talk about books that we want to talk

00:20:45.080 about and that could be either books that we really loved, books that were more experimental

00:20:49.800 or just like piqued our interest. I think actually, sorry, a good test is like what has

00:20:55.160 stayed with me, like what have I thought more about after reading it. So what is your first

00:20:59.940 most unexpected read of the year? Yes, this book is called A Language of Limbs by Dylan Hardcastle

00:21:05.960 and this is a relatively new book. It was published last year in 2024 and it's by a

00:21:12.280 non-binary australian author this is their like third book let me give you the synopsis the first

00:21:19.080 love of a teenage girl is a powerful thing particularly when the object of that desire

00:21:23.800 is her best friend also a girl it's the kind of power that could implode a family a friendship

00:21:29.520 a life on a quiet summer night in newcastle 1972 a choice must be made to act upon these desires 0.55

00:21:37.400 or suppress them, to live an openly queer life or to try desperately not to. Over the following

00:21:43.740 three decades, these two lives almost intersect in pivotal moments, the distance between them at

00:21:49.360 times drawing so thin they nearly collide. Against the backdrop of an era, including Australia's

00:21:55.000 first Mardi Gras and the AIDS pandemic, we see these two lives ebb and flow with joy and grief

00:22:00.840 and loss and desire until at last they come together in the most beautiful and surprising

00:22:05.520 of fashions. Interesting. I can literally picture the cover of the book I've seen in so many

00:22:12.060 bookstores and I always pick it up, but I've never bitten a bullet and bought it. What was

00:22:18.640 unexpected to you about this book? It was a free audio book in BorrowBox. That's a lot of my

00:22:23.500 books. And that means I can give books I don't know too much about like a chance because it's

00:22:29.360 free and after I started listening to it I saw a few people posting about this so I was like okay

00:22:35.700 people talking about this one I really love this so I listened to this in December so it is

00:22:42.080 relatively fresh the other thing with these audiobooks is most times I really don't really

00:22:46.500 read the synopsis like I'll take a quick skim and then listen so I didn't really know what to expect

00:22:50.680 with this one what really like got to me while listening was just like how beautiful the writing

00:22:57.600 was there were some really like poetic lines and imagery throughout that like kind of made me

00:23:04.260 stop whatever I was doing and just like pause it is a big undertaking like this is technically like

00:23:10.160 a dual perspective or sorry like a dual narrative book I did read this quite differently and I

00:23:16.760 spoke to someone else who read this as well because I read it as like a sliding doors book

00:23:23.740 like this is what happens if this person went down this path and this is what happened if they

00:23:28.860 didn't choose to like be openly queer and I think it's supposed to be kind of like uncertain

00:23:34.540 and I think that's a normal-ish reading of the book as well that's why I put it in my most

00:23:40.260 unexpected because it felt like a big undertaking um yeah and in that way I found it quite experimental

00:23:47.180 and yeah, a really beautiful book. Wow. Well, yeah, it's already been on my imaginary list for

00:23:55.460 so long. So that's a beautiful review. So I would definitely pick it up and always great to support

00:24:01.160 Australian authors as well. We love that. 100%. What is your first unexpected book that you're

00:24:07.940 bringing to the table? My first unexpected book is The Panic Years, Dates, Doubts and the Mother

00:24:15.720 of all decisions by Nell Frizzell. So the panic years can hit at any time, but they're most

00:24:22.060 commonly triggered somewhere between the ages of 25 and 40. According to the blurb, during this

00:24:27.600 time, every decision a woman makes from postcode to partner, friends to family, work to weekends

00:24:33.620 will be impacted by the urgency of the one decision with a deadline, the one decision

00:24:38.820 that's impossible to take back, whether or not to have a baby. I had heard reviews of this

00:24:45.560 because it came out a few years ago um but I was just not in that space at all and I still don't

00:24:51.920 think I'm totally in the space of like thinking about pregnancy and babies and stuff but I it's

00:24:57.240 like seeing it like coming over the hills towards me I know like in the next couple of years like

00:25:02.860 I'm going to be 29 in 2025 so it's something that's like in the back of my mind at the moment

00:25:08.700 and I guess last year turning 28 I and obviously I got engaged at the start of last year as well

00:25:16.700 so I think those kind of like big life decisions were um I was thinking about them a bit more

00:25:23.460 consciously and so I picked this book up and I'm so glad I did because especially the first

00:25:30.320 kind of half, I felt very seen. It definitely made me feel less alone in like the anxiety

00:25:38.780 and the rumination around this topic, especially as someone who has like some chronic reproductive

00:25:44.940 issues and disorders. It's written by, yes, as I said, Nell Frizzell. She's a writer,

00:25:50.980 journalist and Vogue columnist. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, Vice, Sunday Times,

00:25:55.860 L, BBC and more. And in this book, she's weaving in her own lived experience with some really great

00:26:02.420 journalism about motherhood, birth rates, you know, money, all the things that intersect with

00:26:09.020 having a baby. So it's unexpected because first of all, it's a non-fiction book. I wondered when

00:26:17.420 I picked it up if I would still feel a bit like, oh, that's so far away. Like, why did I even buy

00:26:23.300 this but I literally teared up like multiple times like posting my close friend story like

00:26:28.540 big passages of it when I first was reading it of like oh my god this is crazy like she's

00:26:33.460 literally explaining exactly how I feel um interestingly I did start to switch off a bit

00:26:38.980 from it when she spoiler alert when she does actually have a baby um because yeah clearly

00:26:45.040 I am not in that exact stage yet where I'm want to have a baby right now so it's interesting that

00:26:50.820 I was like wow this is so great I'm so relating to this the very like when she's about 28 and then

00:26:55.500 she gets older into 30 so I'm like okay interesting that I thought that was interesting observation

00:26:59.280 but yeah I really enjoyed it and I recommend it to any person in their in their panic years like

00:27:05.900 it's not just about babies as well it's like the panic of marriage and getting a house and all those

00:27:11.720 like societal things that women especially I think can feel the pressure of when we get to a certain

00:27:19.900 age so if you're also in that boat I recommend nice and I'm curious if whether later on the

00:27:28.280 second half of her book or later on in her book will resonate more with you or will be something

00:27:33.980 that you'll come back to as well exactly yeah I've bought it so it's on my bookshelf ready to

00:27:38.920 go before that time comes as well what is your second most unexpected book this is a book called

00:27:46.740 The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka. And I did bring this up on the podcast at the time that I did

00:27:53.520 read this and reflecting back on the year, sorry, I didn't get to brag at the top. I read 56 books.

00:27:59.980 That's so good. Thank you, freelance life. Yes. Yeah, but this was actually one that came top

00:28:08.340 of mind when I was putting together my notes for this one. I'll take you through the blurb now.

00:28:13.680 for the people who swim there each day the local pool is a haven for unexpected kinship and private

00:28:20.380 solace for Alice her daily laps have become the ritual that gives her life meaning even though

00:28:26.680 she may not remember the combination to her locker or where she put her towel but one day a crack

00:28:32.220 appears deep beneath the surface of the water and then another and then another the pool must close

00:28:37.900 for repairs and with that Alice is plunged into dislocation and chaos. Away from the steady

00:28:43.620 routines of her swimming she is engulfed by difficult memories of her past and as a sense

00:28:49.180 of home and of herself slip further out of her grasp her daughter must navigate her newly

00:28:55.100 fractured landscape of their relationship. I haven't heard of this book. Yeah again this was

00:29:00.940 an audio book that I just borrowed for free so not something I'd ever heard of too and I was

00:29:10.300 kind of it was a really random listen because number one it's quite a short book and number

00:29:16.300 two the first half of the book is literally just about the ongoings of a like public pool it's

00:29:23.080 about the people who visit it's about kind of like the community there and like just at the

00:29:28.280 pool it's based half at the pool and I was like oh my god this is so random I'm just listening to a

00:29:32.800 book about the pool but as a narrative and I was like okay cool but yeah as a narrative progresses

00:29:39.360 and as I mentioned in the blurb like there's these like random cracks that appear in the pool and

00:29:45.140 then that's kind of where it starts to kick up momentum and as mentioned up top it's yeah it

00:29:51.820 deals with memory loss and grief in a really spectacular way like one that was very unassuming

00:29:56.680 like I didn't actually really know what I was like in store for and the second half was really

00:30:02.640 really moving and really touching and it surprised me how much I was like like it made me cry while

00:30:08.200 and it's by a Japanese American author yes yes yes yes and I always it gets me when they're

00:30:16.380 talking about like old Asian grandmas uh I'll cry anyway oh interesting that this book is on

00:30:27.300 your unexpected and it's like I feel like it's been a theme over the past few years this theme

00:30:31.660 of like water in novels and like contemporary novels um for Melbourne Writers Festival last

00:30:37.900 year i went to a um panel i guess it was called aqua profunda and it was um a chat with three

00:30:46.940 different authors katherine braben who wrote body friend nadine j cohen who wrote everyone and

00:30:52.820 everything and mavoni jones who wrote cool water and all the novels had this through line of water

00:31:00.240 and the ways in which water can help heal grief and ghosts of the past it was in conversation with

00:31:06.720 Nadia Bailey and so when you said that it just reminded me of that panel and those Australian

00:31:13.040 authors as well and how important water is to like human connection and human psyche yes and

00:31:20.640 yes you just gave me the perfect segue very quickly a legal another recommendation because

00:31:26.700 one of my other favorite books of the year which I did not include in this list is called there

00:31:30.840 are rivers in the sky and that's by ilaf shafak and that is all about water so that's all i'll say

00:31:37.380 and what's your final unexpected book of last year all right this might not be surprising to a few it

00:31:45.760 was unexpected to myself because about a quarter of the way in i was ready to give up i thought it

00:31:52.280 was all hype but it came through and that is cleopatra and frankenstein by coco mellors

00:31:57.940 it is obviously a quite instagram and tiktok famous book um the author is a british american

00:32:05.820 writer she used to be a copywriter this is her debut novel came out in 2022 but it's been hanging

00:32:12.620 around for a few years so plot if you're unsure a 24 year old british painter cleo has escaped from

00:32:20.220 england to new york and is finding her place in the sleepless city when a few months before her

00:32:25.860 student visa ends she meets frank 20 years older and a self-made success frank's life is full of

00:32:32.460 all the excesses cleo's lacks he offers her the chance to be happy the freedom to paint an

00:32:38.420 opportunity to apply for a green card but their impulse of marriage irreversibly changes both

00:32:43.820 their lives and the lives of those close to them in ways they never could have predicted

00:32:48.280 have you read this yeah i actually just read it last month so it's fresh in my brain and i'm keen

00:32:55.220 to hear your thoughts because we haven't spoken about it no I didn't recommend it on the podcast

00:32:58.920 because it took me a good couple of months to read like get through it I kept putting it down

00:33:04.200 picking it up going I think I even post on Instagram stories being like what is the hype

00:33:08.380 with this like I can't I don't know if I'm going to finish it um but I did I think around yeah the

00:33:15.760 halfway or just after halfway it turned for me and I found myself really hypnotized by the pros

00:33:23.240 and wanting to see through Cleopatra and Frank's story and I also bought Coco's second book Blue

00:33:33.560 Sisters it's been on my TBR for a few months it's literally on my bookshelf I've heard mixed reviews

00:33:38.360 about Blue Sisters as well but I'm keen to give that a shot as well so yeah I really I by the end

00:33:44.360 I enjoyed Cleopatra and Frankenstein I think that's why it's unexpected because similar to 0.96

00:33:48.620 all fours like I was so ready to give up on it I was like this is I don't get the hype behind this 0.99

00:33:54.600 it's on every hot girl's bedside it's the classic tropes of like age gaps and this like artist in

00:34:02.840 New York who has no responsibilities and like sometimes I can find that really grating because

00:34:09.580 I'm like this is not reality but it is reality for some people so I think it's just very those

00:34:16.120 kind of themes can very easily fall into stereotypes and tropes that have been like

00:34:20.440 done so many times um but in the i think it made me cry in the end actually so yeah that's why it's

00:34:28.500 unexpected but what did you think of it i'm so happy we get to talk about it because i found i

00:34:35.280 end up actually really enjoying this book but the first few chapters were insufferable yeah i thought

00:34:41.920 the author felt like she was cosplaying more like a cool rich like like misty like you know

00:34:47.280 you don't understand her artist girl she's so beautiful and so blonde like whatever she's so

00:34:54.260 like misunderstood and that it was infuriating it felt like this like fake fake fake like New York 0.97

00:35:02.220 fantasy and she was like trying to prove something to people that she understands like this high

00:35:07.700 society-esque socialite life and then it did grow on me it really did end up growing on me

00:35:14.220 the characters um kind of broke through of those like stereotypes that you were talking about and

00:35:19.820 then I ended up liking it but I I'm curious I just I would have if I was the editor I would

00:35:25.580 have really changed the starting like why make I don't know it was just so unlikable at the start

00:35:31.680 yeah and i wonder if that's its charm like you do like the unlikable

00:35:36.840 narrators and stuff um but yeah i agree like she the protagonist cleo reminded me of

00:35:44.340 jessa from girls have you seen girls yeah a little bit of it but yeah yeah

00:35:49.480 so keen to read blue sisters though you can borrow it after me if you'd like thank you i

00:35:55.480 really would like to all right drum roll time to get into our best reads of 2024 what are you

00:36:09.560 starting with maggie i'm starting with mad woman by chelsea beaker this is actually probably going

00:36:16.760 to be my favorite book of the year because this is a book that comes to mind instantly if anyone

00:36:21.140 asked me what I enjoyed reading I did talk about this on the podcast but I have some new observations 0.96

00:36:27.260 about it and let me give you the proper rundown this time clove has gone to extremes to keep her 0.99

00:36:33.360 past a secret thanks to her lies she's learned the life of her dreams complete with a safe husband 0.97

00:36:39.040 and two adoring children who will never know the terror that was routine in her own childhood

00:36:44.120 if her buried anxiety threatens to breach the surface clove if that is her real name focuses

00:36:51.080 on finding the right supplement the right gratitude meditation but when she receives a letter from a

00:36:56.640 women's prison in california her past comes screeching into the present entangling her in

00:37:02.340 a dangerous game with memory and the people she thought she had outrun as we race between her 0.86

00:37:07.760 precarious present day life in portland oregon and her childhood in a waikiki hive rise with her

00:37:14.140 mother and father clove is forced to finally unravel the defining day of her life how did

00:37:20.000 she survive that day and what will it take to end the cycle of violence will the truth undo her or

00:37:25.860 could it ultimately save her this book has been making the rounds and honestly i know that it's

00:37:34.760 pretty contentious like I think on Goodreads it's like a 3.6 out of 5 average which is not high at

00:37:41.020 all but it really stuck with me I think it was probably one of the books I couldn't put down

00:37:47.360 the most of this year there it's compelling unfortunately for like the really upturned life

00:37:55.400 that the protagonist has experienced and also up front because yeah domestic violence is like

00:38:01.640 the main undercurrent of this story um the author herself has unfortunately had lived experience in

00:38:08.260 this I think the dedication is like to her mother being like you know look at what we've gone

00:38:12.860 through kind of thing and I do feel like that um rooted in reality-ness of this fiction story

00:38:19.620 um made it so much stronger right it didn't feel like the salacious story which it could have felt

00:38:26.140 like but it felt really real something that I found interesting because we we get a sneak peek

00:38:32.040 into so many different people's lives from her um her mother who was obviously a victim of domestic

00:38:37.420 violence we see her violent father um friends and people else in her life we kind of see people's

00:38:44.600 really warped motivations and desires and like how they intertwine it was it was just such an

00:38:50.360 interesting read um the thing is it was very thrilling but it was also very funny at times

00:38:56.640 and um there is that kind of um little storyline of like wellness culture that really brings it

00:39:03.780 to the present which I really enjoyed so I was hooked by this book you have been raving about

00:39:08.840 this book like you did recommend it on the podcast as well in a regular app and ever since I feel

00:39:14.040 like it's been staring at me for my bookshelf but I have some book club reads I need to finish

00:39:17.960 and one of our book club reads is really long so I'm yeah it's really up there my tbr I can't wait

00:39:24.000 to read it and especially after this kind of more comprehensive review so yeah thank you for sharing

00:39:30.760 of course I think it is like you got to be in the right headspace ish to dive in so just be wary of

00:39:35.960 that too okay what is one of your favorite reads of last year another podcast wreck um someone that

00:39:44.960 we were lucky enough to interview last year and that is Brie Lee and her book The Work uh it came

00:39:52.640 out in April last year so I almost like thought it was the year before time is weird but no it was

00:40:00.080 2024 going back through my reads I thought this really stood out to me aside from being like a

00:40:05.780 local Australian author. I loved the two narrators. The fact one's a woman, one's a man.

00:40:14.920 I liked the romance through it. I will tell you about the plot now. It is basically a portrayal

00:40:21.300 of modern romance and work life. So Lally has invested everything into her gallery in Manhattan

00:40:28.620 and the sacrifices are finally paying off. Pat is a scholarship boy desperate to establish himself

00:40:34.860 in Sydney's antiquity scene. When they meet at New York's Armoury show, the chemistry is instant.

00:40:40.800 Fighting about art and politics is just foreplay. Their international affair ebbs and flows like

00:40:46.160 the market, while their aspirations and insecurities are driving them both towards

00:40:50.520 career-ending mistakes. If love costs and art takes, what price do we pay for wanting it all?

00:40:57.440 The work is about the biggest intersections of life, of art and commerce, of intimacy and distance,

00:41:03.640 of talent and entitlement and of labor and privilege so i enjoyed this book a lot one

00:41:13.720 it's quite smutty in a very modern way it literally starts with a sex scene yes

00:41:21.060 i forgot but i think one thing that stood out for me is the fact that it's a real commentary on

00:41:28.340 class culture and class economics in Australia which is something that due to tall poppy syndrome

00:41:36.960 essentially which if you don't know if you're international it's an Australian phrase where

00:41:42.380 you cut down the poppy that's the tallest because we all need to be equal. I think that that is

00:41:47.200 something that Australians aren't proud of our class system and we all like to be the Aussie

00:41:53.260 Battler. We are all hard workers. We're all grafters. And I think this book is a really

00:41:59.380 good commentary on that. Brie Lee is incredibly smart. This is her first novel. So she's written 0.88

00:42:07.220 nonfiction before, including a book called Who Gets to Be Smart, which is about the inequities

00:42:13.400 in education and the private systems and stuff. So yeah, I really enjoyed it. I felt really

00:42:21.660 immersed in the story I thought the characters were really really well written I could still

00:42:25.920 think about them now and imagine what they're doing which I think is always like a good sign

00:42:29.960 of a proper like a well-written character and if you haven't listened to it yet go back to our

00:42:34.780 interview with Brie Lee last year for some more insight into her process and her debut novel

00:42:41.140 love it I love that line about like being able to imagine the characters now post you know you

00:42:47.500 read that book almost even like almost close to a year ago so that's saying something and what is

00:42:53.460 your final best book of 2024 oh we're not biased I promise but this is another culture club guest

00:43:02.620 and this is one of my favorite interviews we've also done in um recent times and that was with

00:43:08.400 Lucinda Price aka Frooms and I'm putting all I ever wanted was to be hot up in my top reads I

00:43:17.020 just think this was like such a magnificent non-fiction book that is so needed and I think

00:43:22.840 it's resonated with so many people so in case you don't know here's a quick rundown of the book 1.00

00:43:28.800 for her entire life Lucinda's mission was to look as hot as possible she nipped tucked bleached cut 1.00

00:43:36.180 plucked plumped shaved lasered tanned crunched squatted and starved and then she broke all I

00:43:43.120 ever wanted was to be hot is a funny provocative retrospective on the last 30 years of western

00:43:49.140 beauty standards from victoria's secret to extreme makeover playboy bunnies to the australian media's

00:43:55.680 fascination with lara bingle lucinda unfurls the tentacles of a culture hell-bent on making women

00:44:01.780 feel like happiness is always just five kilos away i am sure that you have seen this front cover

00:44:09.040 all over social media or you've had your friends speak about it I love spotting it like randomly

00:44:14.860 on the train and out in public too and I just think it's resonated for a reason Lucinda does

00:44:20.360 such an impeccable job of being so vulnerable and open about her own struggles and her stories

00:44:26.060 as well as being extremely funny and hilarious as well as balancing academic research and kind

00:44:33.040 of the harder hitting stuff it's so it's really digestible and she also just isn't afraid of

00:44:40.300 being so honest and showing I guess like the ugly parts of like her eating disorder journey

00:44:45.840 as well as you know recognizing the ways that she experiences privilege through this as well

00:44:52.160 so I just think it's such a well-rounded book and an incredible debut yes this was going to be in my

00:44:58.280 top as well but you beat me to it such a great non-fiction read so proud of lucinda and all

00:45:06.080 she's achieved with it as well i think it was a great rollout as well lucinda did really well

00:45:11.820 at marketing the book i think and obviously her publicist loved the chat we had with lucinda

00:45:17.460 again not to self-promote but highly recommend if you've read the book um and you didn't get a

00:45:24.120 chance to listen to the interview when it came out it's literally laugh out loud funny but then

00:45:29.700 in the next essay you could feel like you're gonna cry yeah 100 which is amazing skills

00:45:36.060 we love lucinda we do and now can you take us home what is the other favorite book that you've

00:45:43.120 read last year probably not a surprise to you but my favorite read that just sucker punched me

00:45:50.600 was briefly a delicious life by Nell Stevens this is a queer historical fiction novel it's a very

00:45:58.440 it's a pretty short book as well I was recommended it by Cameron Gibb the cover got me as well it's

00:46:05.880 such a beautiful cover the plot is that in 1473 a 14 year old Blanca dies in a hilltop monastery

00:46:14.060 in Mallorca. Nearly 400 years later, when George Sand, her two children, and her lover,

00:46:20.180 Frederic Chopin, arrive in the village, Blanca is still there, a spirited, funny, righteous ghost.

00:46:27.740 She's been hanging around the monastery since her accidental death, spying on the monks and

00:46:32.280 the townspeople and keeping track of her descendants. But Blanca is enchanted the

00:46:36.580 moment she sees George, and the magical novel unfolds as a story of deeply felt, unrequited

00:46:41.960 longing a teenage ghost pining for a woman who can't see her and doesn't know she exists so I

00:46:48.520 was really swept up immediately in the beautiful writing of this novel um I thought it was really

00:46:55.060 creative the way one of the narrators was a ghost and it does travel through time it travels through

00:47:01.720 narrators in a really creative way loved the queer element of it as well so that was really

00:47:08.020 beautiful and just like it's musings on love and death and grief and descendants and ancestors

00:47:15.880 and it was could even be my most unexpected because it just felt really random the way

00:47:23.260 I read it like it was recommended by Cameron but it just yeah I just bought off a bookshelf one day

00:47:28.620 I think it was as like a birthday treat to myself and like just loved it and then I ended up you

00:47:34.120 You ended up borrowing it and you got some water on it in your bag.

00:47:39.460 No, I waterlogged it.

00:47:41.260 Let's be real.

00:47:42.100 It was waterlogged.

00:47:43.480 That's why I was laughing.

00:47:44.380 So sorry.

00:47:45.100 I feel really bad that your water has a bad treat to yourself.

00:47:48.960 But it's fine.

00:47:49.640 You've replaced it.

00:47:51.100 And I will say, like, I've kept the waterlogged version.

00:47:54.660 It's on my bookcase.

00:47:55.680 Like, it's still going to be read, but it's just bloody, like,

00:47:58.200 it's bloated to, like, double this.

00:48:00.060 Oh, my God.

00:48:01.200 and I think even when I gave it to you I was like okay this is like my favorite book of the year

00:48:06.220 you gotta be really careful because you have a tendency yeah I've got another one of your book

00:48:11.700 it's so bad but I feel like the other one I was like whatever it's fine but like it's just a bit

00:48:17.220 of water but with this one I was like no thank you for offering to replace it I will take you

00:48:20.920 up on that because it is like one of my most adored books yes and I want to keep it forever

00:48:25.140 I want to reread it one day so yeah what did you you enjoyed it right but it wasn't like

00:48:31.080 your fave yeah I I think that's a good summary of it I loved also how like the historical fiction

00:48:36.900 um went into um the musician composer Chopin and essentially like and his like wife and family as

00:48:44.080 well so that was really cool seeing that musical element um but yeah when I tried to bloody replace

00:48:49.980 your copy it was literally out of print in Australia like they had to wait till the publishers

00:48:53.800 sent over that that's why it took me so long so people get around this and then maybe it'll be

00:48:59.280 quicker if you waterlog your friend's coffee and you have to get a replacement well there you go

00:49:06.320 that was really fun to like look back over the reads of the year it's made me feel a bit more

00:49:11.140 motivated to like keep a record of the books and to read more and to finish books bad trait it's

00:49:19.420 okay as sorry so many shout outs to cameron this episode but as she said that one of her goals this

00:49:24.500 year is to put down more books if she's not enjoying it so like funny isn't it the grass

00:49:32.020 is always greener fair uh thank you so much for tuning in listeners please like dm us about your

00:49:39.460 favorite books or these favorite books or any type of books you want to talk about because

00:49:43.080 we love to hear it we love books okay we'll talk to you soon thanks for listening bye

00:49:50.960 Bye.

Culture Club - January 20, 2025

The Best & Worst Books We Read In 2024

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