What we're reading: Jennifer Wright, Katherine Heiny and Anna Starobinets

Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films we’re watching, the television shows we’re hooked on or the music we’re loving.


Lian Hingee is reading It Ended Badly by Jennifer Wright

I came across mention of this book in an article titled ‘The One Book You Need to Read After a Breakup’ and thought: challenge accepted.

My last breakup is thankfully a distant enough memory that I can recount outrageous stories to my friends and laugh along with them, but the 13 true stories in Jennifer’s Wright’s book really do a magnificent job of putting even my worst breakups in perspective. For instance, I’ve never replaced an ex with a life-size sex doll that I took to dinner parties. I’ve also never sent clippings of my pubic hair to my ex, along with a letter asking for them to return the favour with a bit of blood. I’m not Timothy Dexter (go ahead and google him, you won’t regret it), and as bad as some of my exes behaved at least none of them stabbed me twice during a party… and got away with it. (I’m looking at you, Norman Mailer.)

Jennifer Wright is deliciously funny, chatty and sympathetic, and lends a fabulous feminist spin to stories that we’re so often used to hearing only from a male perspective. I want to bulk buy copies of It Ended Badly so that I’ve got an endless supply to gift my girlfriends every time they find themselves single again.


Nina Kenwood is reading Single, Carefree, Mellow by Katherine Heiny

I’m not really reading this book right now – I’m cheating because I’ve written about this book before in an earlier What We’re Reading column, as well as in a blog post on five books that made me happy last year. But I’m bringing it up again (last time, I promise) because a gorgeous new format is out and now it will only cost you $17.99 to read one of my favourite books from last year.

If you like smart, funny, rather cynical, Nora Ephron-esque short stories about women in troubled and confusing relationships, this is the book for you. If you enjoyed Hot Little Hands, Six Bedrooms, Barbara the Slut and Other People, Dietland, The Divers Clothes Lie Empty, Fates and Furies or The First Bad Man, then you should consider putting Single, Carefree, Mellow on your to-read list. (And yes, you should probably read all those other books too.)


Holly Harper is reading Catlantis by Anna Starobinets

I picked up Catlantis for two reasons: one, there’s a cat on the cover. Two, it’s published by Pushkin Press, so I had a strong suspicion it was going to be delightfully odd. And I was right – Baguette the ginger housecat seeks to woo his kitty love Purriana, but in order for him to do that, he has to perform a feat in her honour. That’s how he finds himself travelling back in time to the lost island of Catlantis to save the lives of cats everywhere with the help of a magical flower.

Like I said, delightfully odd. Perfect for the crazy cat lady, man or child in your life.

Cover image for Catlantis

Catlantis

Anna Starobinets

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