JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

The Sunday Story Club by Doris Brett and Kerry Cue

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cry. But the salons have given me the opportunity to look back and think about my life…I don’t talk to anyone about these feelings outside of the salon.’

We all carry stories within us – wrenching, redemptive, extraordinary, and laced with unexpected and hard-won wisdom.

These are the real-life stories that a group of women tell each other when they gather for a deep and structured conversation – once a month in a suburban living room – about the things that really matter.

They discover that life can be a heartbeat away from chaos; that bad things happen to good people; that good people do outrageous things; that the desire for transformation is enduringly human.

A mother tells of the heartbreaking loss of control when her daughter develops anorexia. A sister reveals the high psychological cost of being hated by a sibling over the course of her life. Husbands leave wives; wives take lovers; friendships shatter; wrong choices turn out to be right ones; agency is lost and re-claimed.

The Sunday Story Club is a compilation of profound, heartfelt, true stories from everyday women who have experienced incredible events in their lifetimes.

Each of the stories possess a unique perspective, a touching, warm voice that guides the reader through a really private moment in their life.

This is non-fiction — each story is the true story of a real woman. The women are anonymous and have given their permission to be in this book; Doris and Kerry have met these women in their story club and have chosen the most affecting, the most moving stories to include in their work.

Sometimes, it feels like you’re reading someone’s diary. You’re shocked, upset, or worried, but you also feel like you’ve been given access to someone’s private moments — someone’s well-kept secrets.

“Inside, of course, there was nothing clinical, detached or objective about my experience. I was a human being, not a science experiment, and my feelings oscillated between hope and disappointment. The overwhelming emotion I felt during the IVF treatments was frustration.”

The Sunday Story Club is about memories, healing, bonding, relationships and regrets. It’s about the moments in our lives that we carry with us, perhaps in silent.

Profound, layered and clear-sighted, this collection of real-life stories reveals the emotional untidiness that lies below the shiny surface of modern life and reminds us of the power of real conversation to enlighten, heal and transform.

“The state of our hair was an anxious undercurrent to our day. If we had managed to emerge from the house with it straight that morning, that was wonderful and afforded us a moment’s relief as we looked in the mirror. But in half an hour’s time, and every half-hour after that, the internal question assailed us: was it still straight?”

Naturally, some of the stories resonated with me more than others. There’s a story about a woman whose husband leaves her one day while she’s at work — takes his stuff, empties their bank account, leaves a note, and abandons his wife and child.

There’s another woman whose father was an abusive alcoholic for most of her life. And another woman talks about her daughter’s anorexia — a dangerous illness that almost kills her.

These stories are all so different that I’m confident any female reader will be immensely affected by at least one of them. It’s impossible to read this and not feel for the women who experienced these events. One woman spent years and many rounds of IVF trying to conceive, only to experience joy on the final chance. How could that not affect you?

“My distress faded eventually. and I could at last think about what happened without a sense of heartbreak and shame. And when I observed our friendship from a distance, I saw that the clues to its demise had been there from the start.”

The Sunday Story Club brings a wonderful group of women into your life, their voices rising from the pages with clarity and ease. I recommend this to female readers, and regular readers of non-fiction. Each story is relatively short, so it’s the perfect read for the daily commute.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Sunday Story Club
Doris Brett & Kerry Cue
July 2019
Pan Macmillan Publishers

More than Enough by Elaine Welteroth

A memoir from the revolutionary editor credited with bringing social consciousness to the pages of Teen Vogue and an inspiring exploration of what it means to be enough.

In this part-manifesto, part-memoir, the revolutionary editor explores what it means to come into your own – on your own terms.

Elaine Welteroth has climbed the ranks of media and fashion, shattering ceilings along the way. In this riveting and timely memoir, the groundbreaking editor unpacks lessons on race, identity, and success through her own journey, from navigating her way as the unstoppable child of a unlikely interracial marriage in small-town California to finding herself on the frontlines of a modern movement for the next generation of change makers.

Welteroth moves beyond the headlines and highlight reels to share the profound lessons and struggles of being a barrier-breaker across so many intersections. As a young boss and the only black woman in the room, she’s had enough of the world telling her – and all women – they’re not enough. As she learns to rely on herself by looking both inward and upward, we’re ultimately reminded that we’re more than enough.

Elaine Welteroth is a dynamic groundbreaker in media and fashion. In her memoir, More than Enough, she talks about her journey towards being a journalist and rising above the ranks in the world of fashion magazines. At 29, Elaine became the youngest Editor-In-Chief at Teen Vogue, and the second black editor-in-chief of a Conde Nast publication.

At first, I wondered if Elaine had enough of a story for a memoir. The book moves quite slow to begin with and I worried that it was going to be another one of those memoirs where the person has written it quite young and perhaps too early — I often question the need for a memoir from someone under the age of 35. Wouldn’t it be better if they waited another ten years and had more to tell readers? But I soon squashed that thought, because this book has so much to offer and so much insight for all types of readers.

“When I look back, I see a little girl running, pushing, working creatively to compensate for things that were beyond her control. For years, I felt like an imposter with a hidden flaw waiting to be found out. I worried that I might be stained, too, just like that cheque in my dad’s pocket.”

Elaine grew up in California, the child of a black mother and a white father. From childhood, she was ambitious, devoted and determined to succeed. Elaine talks a lot about how different she felt from other kids — because of her hair, her skin colour, her upbringing or her heritage. As a biracial girl, she didn’t always feel like she belonged with the black kids, but she knew she didn’t belong with the white girls either.

But, in college, Elaine met like-minded people who shared the same drive and passion for a successful career as she did, and she prospered. She thrived with internships and work and by trusting her instincts and always pursuing what she felt was right, she climbed to the top of the fashion world incredibly quick. She worked for fashion powerhouses such as Ebony, Glamour, and then Teen Vogue.

Young girls will read this memoir and be inspired — particularly if those young girls are interested in working in the fashion industry. But, more importantly, young black girls will read this memoir and be reassured that they have a place at the table. They’ll realise how important it is for their voices to be heard and acknowledged, and they’ll realise that they have the power to make real change in the world.

“When I returned to college after my New York internship, I felt overwhelmed and intimidated. Not just by East Coast White People and the extremely ill-fitting advertising world. But by the entire world. And the daunting notion of figuring out where I belonged in it.”

More than Enough highlights Elaine’s devotion to celebrating diversity in the fashion industry — an industry that is predominantly full of white and privileged people. Elaine uses her own experiences to transform Teen Vogue into a more socially conscious publication, with girls of all colours on the covers and feature stories within its pages that reflect our multicultural society.

An empowering memoir from an incredibly inspiring trailblazer.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

More than Enough: Claiming Space for Who You Are (No Matter What They Say)
Elaine Welteroth
July 2019
Penguin Random House Publishers

Women’s Work by Megan K. Stack

After her first book was published to acclaim, journalist Megan K. Stack got pregnant and quit her job to write. She pictured herself pen in hand while the baby napped, but instead found herself traumatised by a difficult birth and shell-shocked by the start of motherhood.

Living abroad provided her with access to affordable domestic labour, and, sure enough, hiring a nanny gave her back the ability to work. At first, Megan thought she had little in common with the women she hired. They were important to her because they made her free. She wanted them to be happy, but she didn’t want to know the details of their lives. That didn’t work for long.

When Pooja, an Indian nanny who had been absorbed into the family, disappeared one night with no explanation, Megan was forced to confront the truth: these women were not replaceable, and her life had become inextricably intertwined with theirs. She set off on a journey to find out where they really come from and understand the global and personal implications of wages paid, services received, and emotional boundaries drawn in the home.

Women’s Work by Megan K. Stack is a memoir about raising children abroad, and the relationship that Megan forms with her hired help — Xiao Li, Pooja and Mary.

I identified many issues with the work. Megan is incredibly naive and at times snobby, and her husband Tom really doesn’t come off well. I’m surprised they’re still married, and Megan never seems to confront his role in their relationship and their family. Tom doesn’t help, and he doesn’t even try to help. He’s lazy and judgemental, and makes no effort to understand how much work goes on at home to look after the children. And…..Megan lets it happen. It’s like she doesn’t even care to notice. Her entire book is about the role of women in taking care of children, and rarely does she seem to confront the role of the husband and father in her household, and how he’s not aiding the situation?

“On Sunday Tom discovered that hanging out with tiny children was not a sun-washed field and overflowing picnic basket, but a jumble of physical needs and messy rooms and senseless tears. On Sunday I discovered that my partner didn’t know where the diapers were kept and thought it prudent to let crusty dishes fester in the sink because a ‘maid’ would arrive twenty-four hours later.”

I found the structure of the book quite problematic. Megan is talking about these WOC who help her raise her kids — the fact she has more than one WOC helping her in India should give you an indication of their level of wealth in the countries they’re living in — and while she’s trying to articulate her experiences with them and their role in her family, what she’s really doing is attempting to capture their journey and their life struggles but it’s from her own perspective. And her perspective is skewed. She’s a privileged, rich white woman. What could she possibly understand about these women and their struggles?

To give you an example, she hires Pooja in India to help with the family responsibilities. At first, Pooja is responsible for the cooking, but then afterwards, Pooja takes on more responsibilities looking after the kids. After a while, Pooja develops a drinking problem and becomes irresponsible around the kids. Megan fires her. We learn later that Pooja’s husband was incredibly abusive towards her — physically and emotionally — and no one helped Pooja when he physically attacked her. She got pregnant and performed a self-induced abortion in Megan’s house because she knew she couldn’t go through with the pregnancy, and then she turned to alcohol to cope with what happened to her. But we don’t learn this until the final pages of the book. So when we’re reading from Megan’s POV and she’s angry at Pooja for being reckless around her kids, we can’t help but agree. Pooja is a liability! She must be fired! And then we don’t find out until the very end just how hard Pooja’s life has been and how her poverty and her social status and her total lack of support system attributed to this.

“I agreed to move our family to India with one explicit condition: I would hire domestic staff guiltlessly and lavishly. I’d outsource shopping, meal planning, cooking, cleaning, and laundry. It was Tom’s career that pushed us into India, but I was determined that my work, too, should benefit.”

This book is actually incredibly well-written, so I finished it rather quickly. I enjoyed the direction of the chapters and I wanted to find out more about Megan’s live-in hired help. I wanted to hear their stories, so I kept reading. But Megan? I don’t think this book paints her in a positive light, and I didn’t really take to her. She’s privileged and she’s rich and she takes it upon herself to tell the stories of her help, when really, she doesn’t have a strong cultural understanding of their lives or their suffering. She’s telling their stories from her perspective, and her perspective is incredibly warped and narrow-minded.

I guess I can commend Megan on her acknowledgement of her own judgement. in the beginning, her maid takes her child for a walk and immediately Megan stresses out and worries that they’ve kidnapped her child to sell into slavery. Acknowledging this incredibly judgemental thought means she’s not holding any secrets back in the book. I guess there’s bravery in allowing yourself to look bad.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Women’s Work
Megan K. Stack
May 2019
Scribe Publications

No Country Woman by Zoya Patel

No Country Woman is the story of never knowing where you belong. It’s about not feeling represented in the media you consumed, not being connected to the culture of your forebears, not having the respect of your peers.

It’s about living in a multicultural society with a monocultural focus but being determined to be heard. It’s about challenging society’s need to define us and it’s a rallying cry for the future. It’s a memoir full of heart, fury and intelligence – and the book we need right now.

No Country Woman by Zoya Patel is a feminist memoir about what it means to never feel at home where you live.

Zoya Patel is the founder of Feminartsy and is a Fijian-Indian writer. She’s based in Canberra and moved to Australia when she was very little. No Country Woman is an exploration of her heritage, culture and place in this country.

‘I was born in a hospital in Suva, Fiji. …It is not a place I’ve thought of often, but I think of it now and wonder how it has shaped me. I am Fijian-Indian, and have lived in Australia since I was three years old. Memories of my early life in Fiji are limited to flashes, like an old film projector running backwards. I remember a blue dress, a trip on a boat where my father handed me a dried, floating starfish that I clutched in my fingers, determined not to lose it back to the ocean.’

Zoya explores her identity through a number of lenses — location, family, religion, relationships, holidays, education. She reflects on her own experiences as a migrant to Australia, and how she’s experienced racism and prejudice in this country. She examines her childhood and her attempts to rebel against her heritage, and she also documents the times she travelled away from home and how her experiences shaped her identity.

No Country Woman is an eye-opening read for anyone who isn’t a migrant to this country, and who hasn’t experienced racism. Zoya tries to help us understand the complexities of a multicultural society, and how important it is to be aware of one’s privilege and circumstance.

Zoya also touches on discrimination, because many people in the world experience it. Sometimes it may be because of the colour of their skin, or their culture, or it may be because of sexuality, gender or disability. It’s important to be an ally for the disadvantaged and marginalised in society.

I admire Zoya’s ability to look at many issues from different perspectives, so that she’s not just pushing one agenda to the reader but presenting a situation from many different sides to allow the reader to make up their own mind.

“One of the most pervasive stereotypes of Indian immigrants the world over is that of the Indian small-business owner, the savvy, stingy subcontinental with a cockroach-like ability to thrive in any environment, who infiltrates a milker or service station and takes over entirely, unable to be dislodged as they feed off the economy they have adopted.”

I struggled with the book’s jarring balance of memoir vs. academia. I connected with the book most when Zoya was exploring her history and her memories, when she was telling us about her parents and her family and other aspects of her life that were important to her.

But at times, Zoya moves between memoir and statistics, or memoir and academic research, and I found the transition very jolting and not as seamless as it could’ve been.

Additionally, some parts of the book felt very drawn out. For example, there’s one whole chapter on Zoya’s relationship with the water and swimming. Whilst the chapter is interesting and important to her identity, it’s seventeen pages long and I felt that she could’ve been more succinct in what she was trying to say.

Despite this, Zoya’s memoir will be enjoyed by many readers. There are moments of humour and light-heartedness, and Zoya’s writing is sharp. No Country Woman allows the reader to develop a greater understanding of issues surrounding race, culture and identity. It’s revelatory read.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

No Country Woman
Zoya Patel
August 2018
Hachette Book Publishers

Finding Nevo by Nevo Zisin

Personal, political and passionate, Finding Nevo is an autobiography about gender and everything that comes with it.

Meet Nevo: girl, boy, he, she, him, her, they, them, daughter, son, teacher, student, friend, gay, bi, lesbian, trans, homo, Jew, dyke, masculine, feminine, androgynous, queer.

Nevo was not born in the wrong body. Nevo just wants everyone to catch up with all that Nevo is. Personal, political and passionate, Finding Nevo is an autobiography about gender and everything that comes with it.

Finding Nevo by Nevo Zisin is an inspirational memoir about identity and discovery. This is Nevo’s journey towards understanding their body and discovering who they want to be in the world.

This isn’t a long read — about 200 pages — and the book is incredibly informative. Nevo explains a lot of things about being non-binary and also transgender that readers can learn from, and this is not just medically or physiologically, but mentally.

When Nevo was going through various stages in their adolescent life, like coming out or changing their body, Nevo’s family, friends and peers didn’t always react how Nevo would’ve liked them too. It was rather confronting to read, and important to understand what Nevo’s childhood and adolescent life was like.

“Gender dysmorphia is this fun thing that happens sometimes when you exist outside of society’s very narrow understandings of gender, and it slowly started sneaking into my life.”

Nevo’s biography is really insightful, and not just for young readers. The book masterfully captures what life has been like for Nevo, both mentally but also physically. I learnt a lot from reading this.

Finding Nevo also addresses how society and the media like to portray transgender people. For example, the media describing someone as ‘being born in the wrong body’ is common, but not something that Nevo feels they went through. That isn’t them. So, it’s important to remember that every transgender person’s experiences are different, and if you don’t know what they’d like to be called, ask them. It’s important to keep them in the discussion so that you don’t end up marginalising them.

“Maybe I was neither male nor female, man or woman. Maybe the idea of gender is socially constructed through institutions and social norms we’ve created. Gender has changed through time, cultures and geographies.”

There is only one thing about this book that I didn’t particularly like, and that was the slight repetition of sentences when reflecting on past events. Often, Nevo would explain how something in their life made them feel, and then Nevo would explain how they overcame that. However, after that, Nevo would then again explain how they initially felt about it, and that final sentence always seemed unnecessary. Here’s an example of a couple of pages in the book that end up circling:

“The situation with my mum wasn’t improving. I had thought she was dealing with things in her own time, but she wasn’t confronting my transition at all, rather she was pushing it to the side an hoping it would go away…I had a few more conversations with her, then realised she needed to speak to people who were more detached from the situation…Although I still feel pain in regards to how she treated me at the beginning of my transition, her ability to take responsibility for her mistakes and apologise is what has saved our relationship.”

Even though that final sentence allows Nevo to reflect, there are quite a few moments in the book where a reflection statement is made and I think they could’ve been cut from the book. It felt repetitive, and I think the reader is able to understand the significance of these moments already.

I recommend this book to any young reader who doesn’t feel comfortable in their body, or who feels unable to be themselves around family or friends. I also recommend this book to people who feel like they have a lot to learn about gender and identity and what someone who is transgender might be going through. Finding Nevo is as much a learning tool as it is a memoir.

Finding Nevo
Nevo Zisin
May 2017
Walker Books Australia

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