Ele Jenkins
Ele Jenkins is from Readings Carlton
Review — 27 Jun 2022
Big Beautiful Female Theory by Eloise Grills
Eloise Grills’ debut book is a boisterous examination of beauty standards, sexuality, misogyny, consumerism and the cruel vicissitudes of modern life. Part memoir, part cultural commentary, the book shapeshifts between…
Review — 28 Jun 2020
Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin
Several friends have remarked ‘But that sounds like an episode of Black Mirror!’ when I have explained the premise of this book, which is: people around the world are buying…
Review — 6 Sep 2021
Underground: Marsupial Outlaws and Other Rebels of Australia’s War in Vietnam by Mirranda Burton
It’s the 1960s, and the Australian government has begun conscripting young men to fight in Vietnam. Melbourne housewife Jean McLean and her friends, the Pughs, are determined to protest the…
Review — 28 Jun 2021
The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel
Alison Bechdel must be the graphic novelist with the richest density of ideas-per-square- inch; no blurb could do justice to the wide-ranging subject matter of her new book, The Secret…
Review — 26 Apr 2021
Still Alive: Notes from Australia’s Immigration Detention System by Safdar Ahmed
It is difficult to find the right words when you want to recommend a book that made you feel sick with rage. So I will start by telling you how…
Review — 26 Apr 2021
Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer
‘Jane Smith’ is a security consultant wary of search engines, who mistrusts all her colleagues, has disabled her smart-fridge as a privacy precaution, and keeps an emergency ‘go-bag’ in her…
Review — 2 Aug 2020
Wild Nature by John Blay
This year of staying at home has made me ravenous for the wild places I can’t visit, and John Blay’s new book is a balm for this frustrated urge. Blay…
Review — 29 Mar 2020
The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
The idea that places or cities might have their own unique personalities or ‘souls’ is a theme with a long history, stretching as far back as the Ancient Roman notion…
Review — 27 Jan 2020
Braised Pork by An Yu
Wu Jia Jia is abruptly widowed in her early thirties when her husband inexplicably drowns in the bath. Cast adrift with little money and even less sense of direction, she…
Review — 25 Feb 2019
The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie
For the people of Iraden, faith in the gods is a highly transactional and complex affair. Any prodigy of nature – be it a meteorite or a recurring swarm of…
