Novel Feelings

Two people meet in the Art Institute by chance. Prior to their encounter, he is a doctoral student who manages his destructive thoughts with compulsive calculations about time travel; she is a bipolar counterfeit artist, undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy. By the end of the story, these things will still be true. But this is not a story about endings.

Our December book club discussion is on Alone with You in the Ether, a novel by Olivie Blake. We dive into the representation of bipolar disorder, both how its written and the author's note on her intentions for the story. We also have an update about the future of the podcast.

• Book club info, detailed show notes, and other links: linktree.com/novel_feelings
• Get a 10% discount through Amplify Bookstore with the code NOVELFEELINGS10: http://amplifybookstore.com/products/novel-feelings-book-club

Additional content notes: Bipolar Disorder, substance use, mandated/compulsory therapy, medication side effects

Our podcast was recorded on Wurundjeri Land, which is home to both of us in Naarm/Melbourne. Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land.

Our latest book club discussion is about Freshwater, a semi-autobiographical novel by Nigerian writer, Akwaeke Emezi. We talk about multiplicity and the character's experience with alters, and the role of trauma in its development. We aimed to view the story through the lens that the author intended while acknowledging our Western understanding and training - hopefully we succeeded!

• Book club info, detailed show notes, and other links: linktree.com/novel_feelings
• Get a 10% discount through Amplify Bookstore with the code NOVELFEELINGS10: http://amplifybookstore.com/products/novel-feelings-book-club

Additional content notes: Trauma (inc. sexual assault), gender identity, disordered eating, self-harm, suicide attempt, dissociation, Dissociative Identity Disorder

Our podcast was recorded on Wurundjeri Land, which is home to both of us in Naarm/Melbourne. Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land.

Romance author and academic Dr Jodi McAlister shares her insights on her latest release, an Academic Affair. Meet academic rivals Sadie and Jonah; when a position comes up that Sadie and Jonah are both perfect for, their ongoing enmity explodes into a red-hot competition. We dive into the world of early career academia, rivals to lovers, and sibling and family dynamics.

Detailed show notes, and other links: linktree.com/novel_feelings

Content notes for this episode: job loss, academic power structures

Our podcast was recorded on Wurundjeri Land, which is home to both of us in Naarm/Melbourne. Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land.

Recording her dialogues with her psychiatrist, and expanding on each session with her own reflective micro-essays, Baek begins to disentangle the feedback loops, knee-jerk reactions, and harmful behaviors that keep her locked in a cycle of self-abuse.

Our July book club discussion is about I Want to Die, But I Want to Eat Ttteokbokki, an intimate therapy memoir by South Korean writer Baek Sehee. We talk about dysthymia, black and white thinking, beauty standards, the stigma of help seeking in East Asian cultures, and a questionable psychiatrist.

• Book club info, detailed show notes, and other links: linktree.com/novel_feelings
• Get a 10% discount through Amplify Bookstore with the code NOVELFEELINGS10: http://amplifybookstore.com/products/novel-feelings-book-club

Additional content notes: Major depression, suicidal ideation, invalidating mental health professionals, psychiatric medications, histrionic personality disorder

Our podcast was recorded on Wurundjeri Land, which is home to both of us in Naarm/Melbourne. Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land.

We sit down with Neal Shusterman to discuss his latest Young Adult novel, All Better Now, which speculates on what could happen if there was another pandemic, but this time, of a virus that brings contentment to its recoverees. We have a lot to talk about, including what a happiness virus would really entail, and its impacts on characters with lived experience of mental ill-health - as well as Neal’s writing and character development.

Detailed show notes, and other links: linktree.com/novel_feelings

Content notes for this episode: covid-19 pandemic; depression; suicidal ideation; cult; psychosis.

Our podcast was recorded on Wurundjeri Land, which is home to both of us in Naarm/Melbourne. Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land.

Join us for a fascinating interview with Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion, authors of the Menzies Mental Health series – i.e. The Glass House and The Oasis. We have a lot to talk about including the complexity of the Australian mental health care system, balancing technical accuracy and storytelling, and telling the lived experience of healthcare professionals while also prioritising the rights of people living with complex mental health conditions.

• Detailed show notes, and other links: linktree.com/novel_feelings

Content notes for this episode: inpatient hospital settings, burnout, involuntary treatment, burnout of medical professionals, stigma and discrimination facing people living with mental ill-health.

Our podcast was recorded on Wurundjeri Land, which is home to both of us in Naarm/Melbourne. Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land.

Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with six directives to help her “Get a Life".

Our May book club discussion is about Get a Life, Chloe Brown, a romance novel that features characters experiencing chronic pain and trauma. We talk about impacts and healing from abusive relationships; the mental toll of chronic pain and ableism; and accurate representations of being triggered.

• Book club info, detailed show notes, and other links: linktree.com/novel_feelings
• Get a 10% discount through Amplify Bookstore with the code NOVELFEELINGS10: http://amplifybookstore.com/products/novel-feelings-book-club

Additional content notes for this episode: This book is sexually explicit. We don't discuss details of sex scenes in the episode, but maybe listen to the podcast episode (or the audiobook) with headphones on!

Our podcast was recorded on Wurundjeri Land, which is home to both of us in Naarm/Melbourne. Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land.

A daring literary account of a young woman’s experience of psychosis by Bengali-Australian writer Sanya Rushdi.

This March, our book club discussion features Hospital, which explores the experience of psychosis and subsequent hospitalisation, drawn from the author's real-life experience. We unpack the limitations of the medical model approach towards treatment of mental health issues, shared decision-making, and the importance of empowerment and identity in recovery.

• Book club info, detailed show notes, and other links: linktree.com/novel_feelings
• Get a 10% discount through Amplify Bookstore with the code NOVELFEELINGS10: http://amplifybookstore.com/products/novel-feelings-book-club

Additional content notes for this episode:  involuntary hospitalisation, stigma of psychosis, harmful psychiatric treatments, coerced medication prescribing

Our podcast was recorded on Wurundjeri Land, which is home to both of us in Naarm/Melbourne. Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land.

Tara Calaby joins us on today's episode to discuss her latest novel, The Spirit Circle: a speculative historical fiction on the intersection of spiritualism and grief. The novel features women who are haunted by grief and come together as a church under the charismatic leadership of a medium. Tara discusses writing cult-ish dynamics in the story, marginalised identities in a historical context, and the impact of grief.

• Detailed show notes, and other links: linktree.com/novel_feelings

Content notes for this episode: death of a child.

Our podcast was recorded on Wurundjeri Land, which is home to both of us in Naarm/Melbourne. Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land.

This week, we get on the mic to discuss an unexpected identity crisis: we seem to be growing out of Young Adult (YA) fiction. We try to define what exactly YA is (a tough job!) and what we still love about books in this category, as well as grapple with why we no longer gravitate towards this area in the bookshop. And oh, we took a slight detour into discussing Middle Grade (MG) books as well.

Book club info, detailed show notes, and other links: linktree.com/novel_feelings

Our podcast was recorded on Wurundjeri Land, which is home to both of us in Naarm/Melbourne. Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land.