Welcome to another instalment of #BookishBloggersUnite – a tag put together by a group of friends who wanted to talk about books together. I’m hosting this week, so pop your link in the linky at the bottom if you’d like to play along.

The news is pretty rotten wherever you are right now. Here in Australia politicians are continuing to behave in ignorant and appalling ways, and I have nothing but admiration for the Aboriginal community who kicked out the new “Indigenous Envoy” Tony Abbott, whose previous behaviour shows him to be completely incompatible with the job (not to mention that the Aboriginal people were not consulted).

If you are in the US you’ve been subjected to some pretty hideous behaviours from old white guys in the form of Brett Kavanaugh’s testimony to the senate. I hope you’re all taking whatever form of self care you need during this time and not subjecting yourselves to the news cycle, especially if you find it triggering.

This week we will talk about empowering reads, comfort reads or an amalgamation of the two depending on how people are feeling.

I’m feeling a little ragey, so I’m going for some empowering reads.

I’m pretty excited about Clementine Ford’s new release Boys will be Boys which is all about toxic masculinity. I haven’t read this one yet, but if it’s anything like her breakout book Fight Like a Girl it will be totally awesome.

I’ve just started this one today and I’m pretty hooked. Chemaly examines anger and how socially acceptable it is depending on your gender/s and race, and the health effects it has on people who are expected to swallow their anger. I’m really enjoying this and doing some aggressive highlighting.

I think I’ve mentioned before on the blog that I wished I was better with poetry. I don’t always get it and don’t always appreciate it as much as I wish I did. This book by Amanda Lovelace is brilliant. It’s full of love, wisdom, insight and encouragement.

Take care of yourselves people.