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Great conversations with authors from Australia and around the world.

  1. قبل ٣ أيام · إضافة

    Book Club - Kay Kerr’s Might Cry Later

    Summer time in the Final Draft household brings lots of new release and pre-release titles and the corresponding challenge of knowing where to start. When the titles started rolling in though it was very easy to pick up Kay Kerr’s new novel, her first aimed at adult readers because I’ve enjoyed her Young Adult writing, as well as her strong autistic characters and her approach to neurodiversity.  Kay is an author and journalist based on the Sunshine Coast, Australia. She’s the author of Please Don’t Hug Me, Social Queue, and Love & Autism. Kay’s latest novel, Might Cry Later, is our book club title for today. Nora is home for Xmas, Actually she’s been home a little longer than that and will probably be staying a bit after.  At twenty-one and living in Melbourne Nora found her life imploding. What came next, well Nora’s not quite ready to face yet, but she came home with a brand new Autism diagnosis that no one in her family wants to talk about. Holidays are hard enough, but as Nora watches all the people in her life gather round she questions whether her neurodiverse brain can regulate through all this stimulation. Might Cry Later is the story of Nora and her journey through late-diagnosis of Autism. For context, and acknowledging differences in reporting, average ages for diagnosis are typically reported within childhood and females are generally diagnosed later than males. Nora’s story of declining mental health before a diagnosis represents so many women’s experience of having their neurodiversity misunderstood or misdiagnosed on the pathway to diagnosis. That’s the stats but what Kay Kerr gives us is the heartfelt and raw story of what that means in the real world and confronts us with the challenge that getting a diagnosis is just the beginning. When we meet Nora at her parent’s home in the Gold Coast Hinterland it seems like she’s in paradise. Nora acknowledges how the peace and natural environment are good for her and helps her regulate a sensory system she’s learning reacts differently to other people’s. Nora’s also having to deal with how her family, and particularly her family at Xmas care little for sensory regulation if it does not fit in with a rigorous regime of decorating and social engagements. The story weaves between Nora’s Xmas struggles and her memories of her younger, undiagnosed self and all the struggles that now make so much sense to her. These memories force her to face the ways she wasn’t supported as she needed, but also how her behaviours also hurt those closest to her, particularly her best friend Fran. Might Cry Later flirts with a range of classic text structures including rom-com, bildungsroman and quest, whilst ultimately carving its own path through an inevitably messy world. Nora is both endearing and unlikable to the reader, as she is to herself and it’s a strength of the storytelling that we go on this journey of uncertainty with such confidence. I found myself rooting for Nora in her everyday work to figure out her life. Her story is a wonderful look into the autistic experience, and part of a growing body of writing exploring the neurodiverse world.

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  2. ٠٨‏/١٢‏/٢٠٢٥ · إضافة

    Book Club - On the Danger of Xmas reads

    Xmas time is here and as sure we’ll be reaching for mince pies, gravy and white wine in the sun, we’ll also be turning our attention to festive tales that make us feel warm and full of cheer. Because festive cheer is what makes a Xmas story Xmassy right? I saw the other day that this year marks the 35th anniversary of Home Alone. Feeling old yet? This iconic Xmas movie is full of all the festive staples like child neglect, break and enter, and attempted murder (are we going to need a content warning Andrew?). And Macaulay Culkin has a job for life, trotting out every five years or so and acknowledging his place alongside Mariah Carey in the modern Xmas pantheon.  On the occasion of Home Alone’s 35th Culkin decided to indulge another great Xmas tradition; weighing in on whether or not Die Hard is a Xmas movie. About now you’re probably wondering what this has to do with books. This is book club after all.  Well Die Hard was a book; Nothing Lasts Forever, a 1979 action thriller novel by American author Roderick Thorp. Home Alone was novelised after the fact, so do with that what you will. What I’m interested in though is the fascination with danger and in particular our predilection for mayhem and murder alongside our carefully hung stockings. Agatha Christie knew all about this. The phrase ‘A Christie for Xmas’ was synonymous with the reading public's love of a cosy crime around the holiday season. The Golden Age great wrote several books and short stories with Xmas at the centre of the narrative. The larger motif of festive murder was celebrated more through the release of a new novel around Xmas time each year. The tradition continues long after the author’s death through the release of adaptations of the novels around the festive season.  Cynics may wonder if this is simply a commercial imperative. Cashing in on a public with time on their hands, but of all the types of diversion I wonder why murder is so popular a choice. It’s not just Agatha Christie.  I’m waiting to read Benjamin Stevenson’s 2024 installment of his Ernest Cunningham series, Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret. I gifted it to my wife, so I guess I have to wait for her to finish it first. Horror is also a big part of the Xmas cannon. From the thorough exploitation of Krampus, through to Gremlins and with many straight up slashers in between, we love some violent Xmas storytelling. It’s beginning to look a lot like whether it’s Kevin McCalister, John McClaine, or just Joe from How to Make Gravy, everyone is looking to survive their Xmas and praying that there’s no one in her who wants to fight. So if you’re hanging out for a tightly plotted, or wildly bloody Xmas story this year, don’t fight it. You’re in good company, whether we acknowledge it or not. The why may be harder to decipher, but I’ve got my elves working on it and I think I may have something for you for our next (and last) book club for the year!

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Great conversations with authors from Australia and around the world.

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