Too soon by Betty Shamieh, Avid Reader Press, 2025
This book tells the story of three generations of Palestinian/American women. In 2012 Arabella wants to be known more for her art than her cultural heritage, almost at any cost. In 1975, her mother Naya, never wanted to marry and struggled with the motherhood that came with it and in 1963 her mother Zoya had to leave her homeland and an old love story behind. These women, fallible and flawed, and their lives tell the personal cost and inheritance of dispossession more than any historical or political commentary could and that was even before the current occupation of Gaza.
Labour of Love by Oceane Campbell, Pantera Press, 2025
Oceane was my guest for the September Books at the Bowlo and it was such a pleasure to complement the book with even more background and detail from our chat. This is a memoir of both her midwife and motherhood journey. We follow her as a student midwife through to the experienced practitioner she is today, concurrent with her IVF experiences.
She is a passionate advocate for respect and consent in the birthing space and shares stories of love and loss from her time in the birthing suite. I loved hearing about hospitals and the system from the inside. Lot’s of tears from me reading this one – happy and sad.
Frog – the Secret Diary of a Paramedic by Sally Gould, Simon & Schuster, 2025
Another health system memoir – completely by chance. This book also charts the journey from student paramedic through to experienced professional. Sally Gould’s father was a paramedic, so she grew up with all his stories. For her, being a paramedic is a calling but not everyone welcomes a young female who has come through the university system. She loves what she does but there’s a balance that needs to be struck between what she witnesses on-the-job and how to process it.
This was also compulsive reading for me. I just swallowed up the insider insight of her stories and it was interesting to reflect on my ambo interactions, having more detailed knowledge and context of the system.
Thanks for Having Me by Emma Darragh, Joan, 2024
I’m always up for short stories that can stand alone or work as a connected narrative. I also spend so much time reading British, Irish and American authors that it’s such a pleasure to read an Australian story which also has such a specific and detailed sense of place – in this case suburban Wollongong. Then you’ve got mothers, daughters and sisters. Yes, yes and yes. Coming of age, the darker corners of motherhood and the quotidian – all right in my sweet spot.
Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan, Hutchinson, 2024
Anyone who’s read the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy will be familiar with Kevin Kwan’s work – established money, new money and humble money try to get the balance right amidst the generational and cultural pull of those around them.
Rufus Leung Gresham is set to be the next Earl of Greshamsbury but the estate is bankrupt. His mother, a former Hong Kong model, wants him to make it right by marrying money but Rufus has just realised he’s in love with his best friend and neighbour, Eden Tong.
This looks big at 435 pages but was great fun and completely compulsive reading. I also have no interest or knowledge in fashion/designers, so just skipped all the bits where he lists what everyone is wearing.
The Matchmaker by Saman Shad, Viking, 2023
Saima is a Matchmaker. It’s her job. Despite being young and single, business has been good but some in the Desi community think her methods are too modern. Her cash flow is low when Kal’s wealthy parents offer her a slightly different job. She needs to convince him to use her services without knowing it’s his parents who set it up.
You don’t see Sydney much in novels and I loved seeing it on the page here from Bexley to Harris Park, along the Parramatta trainline, then dropping in to Ultimo or Gordon. Kal and Saima had great chemistry and this was a great insight into to the cultural complexity of being a third culture kid with home simultaneously in many places and none.
Signs of Damage by Diana Reid, Ultimo Press, 2025
When Cass is 13, she joins the Kelly family for a holiday in the south of France. In a dual narrative of that time and the present, we work towards an incident which some think shaped events in the present while others have a more complete picture.
I heard an interview with Diana Reid when she’d just started writing this and she talked about wanting to examine the over-use of the trauma trope in fiction. If I hadn’t heard that, I would’ve thought maybe it was more just using trauma rather than examining it as part of the narrative.
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Nina Cullen 