Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #625 Read All About It (October Book Club)

Transcript

#625 Read All About It (October Book Club) · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast. It's the podcast for.
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  Speaker 2: The time poor parent who just on answers.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Now.
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  Speaker 2: While it deals with some really intense themes, it's done
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  Speaker 2: in such a beautiful and gentle way without rushing over
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  Speaker 2: the realities of war.
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  Speaker 1: And now here's the stars of our show. My mom
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  Speaker 1: and Dad has nothing to do with parenting. But my
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  Speaker 1: favorite podcast every month now is our book club, our
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  Speaker 1: book reviews, the chance that we.
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  Speaker 2: Get to what I just say. You say that your
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  Speaker 2: favorite podcast every month, there's a different one every time
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  Speaker 2: because you like everything we do well.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, I really like the doctor's desk, and I
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  Speaker 1: like I'll do it tomorrow, and I love your insights.
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  Speaker 1: But I love book Club like I get properly excited.
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  Speaker 1: It's like, oh, book Clubs coming around again. We get
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  Speaker 1: to talk about the books we've been reading. And that's
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  Speaker 1: what we're doing today. Hello. This is Justin and Kylie.
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  Speaker 1: We are the parents of six kids. We're a husband
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  Speaker 1: and wife podcast team, well life team really, and we
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  Speaker 1: we love to podcast and share our ideas with you
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  Speaker 1: about how to make your family happier. But today we're
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  Speaker 1: taking a break from Happy Families and we're just indulging
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  Speaker 1: in books because we love them. We absolutely love them.
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  Speaker 1: Today we're going to try and stick to time. I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to completely cheat. I know we're only supposed to
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  Speaker 1: talk about one book, but I've read three absolute crackers
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  Speaker 1: in the last month since we did book club, and
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  Speaker 1: I've got to talk about all of them. But I
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  Speaker 1: promise I'll be brief.
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  Speaker 2: What about you, I'm going to talk about two.
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  Speaker 1: Right, Okay, So I'm going to go first. It's going
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  Speaker 1: to be me, me, you, and then me again to
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  Speaker 1: finish it off, because why not. So the first book
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  Speaker 1: that I'm going to talk about is by Taylor Jenkins.
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  Speaker 1: Read at the start of the year, I read one
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  Speaker 1: of her books and it completely pulled me in, totally
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  Speaker 1: loved it. It was called Malibu Rising. I think at
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  Speaker 1: the time I said it was a great book. But
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  Speaker 1: it's pretty raw, it's pretty edgy, it's kind of unfiltered,
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  Speaker 1: and there's a there's some really big themes and it's
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  Speaker 1: not for sensitive eyes and ears. But I loved it
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  Speaker 1: so much that when I heard that she had a
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  Speaker 1: new book coming out that was a spin off about
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  Speaker 1: one of the minor characters that we barely heard anything
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  Speaker 1: about in Malibu Rising. She's written a book completely about
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  Speaker 1: that character called Carrie Soto is Back. So in Malibu Rising,
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  Speaker 1: there's this girlfriend of the brother of the main character.
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  Speaker 1: I know. That's how minor of her role was. She
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  Speaker 1: appears for a few pages, has a big fight at
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  Speaker 1: the big party, and then disappears. That's all we get
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  Speaker 1: in Alibi Rising. But she's a tennis star. And what
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  Speaker 1: Taylor Jenkins Read has done with Carrie Soto is said
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  Speaker 1: that tennis star sounds interesting to me. And we've got
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  Speaker 1: a whole lot of stuff that's been happening in the
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  Speaker 1: world of tennis lately, with people like Serena William's retiring
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  Speaker 1: and women's tennis is just a fascinating sport anyway, And
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  Speaker 1: so she's created this character, Carrie Soto, based on a
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  Speaker 1: whole lot of women's tennis players and the world of
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  Speaker 1: women's tennis, and it is absolutely brilliant. Just like the
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  Speaker 1: last one. Once again, there's a fair bit of raw,
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  Speaker 1: edgy sort of stuff in there, but oh my goodness,
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  Speaker 1: I loved it.
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  Speaker 2: Tennis.
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  Speaker 1: No, you don't, in the same way that you don't
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  Speaker 1: have to like tennis to like Andre Agassi's biography. Open
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  Speaker 1: you don't have to like tennis to Joy Carries Soto
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  Speaker 1: is Back. Did you like King Richard the will Smith
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  Speaker 1: movie which should have been about Serena Williams but was
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  Speaker 1: really about Serena Williams.
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  Speaker 2: Dad. I never actually got to finish it because my
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  Speaker 2: flight wasn't as long as the movie.
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  Speaker 1: All right, okay, boy, did you like what you saw? Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: I did, and you're not a tennis lover, but you
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  Speaker 1: enjoyed the movie. The book is. The book is brilliant.
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  Speaker 1: The book is brilliant. I'm giving it five stars once again.
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  Speaker 1: Quick content warning for those who might be sensitive to
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  Speaker 1: content that needs to be warned about. But it is brilliant.
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  Speaker 1: That's my first book that I'm talking about. I'm super
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  Speaker 1: excited about it. I loved it. I didn't want it
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  Speaker 1: to be finished, and once I put it down, I
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  Speaker 1: kept on thinking about it for the next few days
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  Speaker 1: because it really sort of seeped into my bones and
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  Speaker 1: into my psyche. Kylie, what's your first book?
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  Speaker 2: So it's called Weir Wolves. It's by Katrina and Nanastad.
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  Speaker 2: I think is how you say your last name. You
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  Speaker 2: would put it in the Young Readers' literature section, so
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  Speaker 2: it's like.
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  Speaker 1: A young adult, not no young adult, like what tween? Teenage? Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: yealy teens.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, early teens and up. All of our children have
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  Speaker 2: read it, and really even our older children read it
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  Speaker 2: at older ages, so seventeen eighteen and really enjoyed it.
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  Speaker 1: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: So when I was the reason I ended up picking
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  Speaker 2: it up was because I looked at the bookshelf and
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  Speaker 2: I said to the girls, what were your favorite books
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  Speaker 2: out of all that we've got here, and at the
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  Speaker 2: top of the list all of them agreed. We Are Wolves.
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  Speaker 2: Was wow, it was a really great read.
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  Speaker 1: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: I have a personal love and passion for all things
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  Speaker 2: World War two when it comes to novels, I really
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  Speaker 2: enjoy kind of just delving into that space. And what
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  Speaker 2: I loved about this book was it's called We Are
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  Speaker 2: Wolves because their laughs name was Wolf.
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  Speaker 1: Oh okay, I thought you were kind of go all
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  Speaker 1: moldly rudgid kipling.
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  Speaker 2: It does a little bit go down that way because
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  Speaker 2: what happens is the children are separated from their parents
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  Speaker 2: for a significant amount of time, and so they're parenting
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  Speaker 2: themselves in the wild.
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  Speaker 1: Oh wow, actually it is. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: They have to seek shelter in abandoned homes.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know, I said Kumboya. I meant Rudyard Kipling.
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  Speaker 1: But anyway, sorry, Yeah, so they seeing sheltern of bandonh homes.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sorry to interrupt your carry on.
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  Speaker 2: And they're going through the process of what is right
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  Speaker 2: and wrong.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, so they're developing their own morality.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, because all of a sudden they're in a
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  Speaker 2: position where they're running for their lives and they take
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  Speaker 2: shelter in somebody's abandoned house, and they need food, but
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  Speaker 2: they've learnt that stealing is wrong, and the food in
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  Speaker 2: the cupboard is not theirs, and the clothes and the
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  Speaker 2: shelves are not theirs, but they need new clothes and
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  Speaker 2: their shoes are broken, and so going through that process
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  Speaker 2: of this is wrong, but in this setting it's not wrong.
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  Speaker 2: And then finding themselves, you know, having to kill our
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  Speaker 2: animals because they need food and they've always, you know,
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  Speaker 2: kind of been taught that you treat animals with kindness,
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  Speaker 2: but recognizing that right now they actually need it, and
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  Speaker 2: so their humanity and their morality is questioned all the
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  Speaker 2: way through this book. And one of the very last
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  Speaker 2: things that grandparents said to them before they were taken
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  Speaker 2: was to remember who they were. And so you see
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  Speaker 2: the oldest daughter, who obviously takes on the mothering role
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  Speaker 2: for her younger siblings, just fighting that urge between the
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  Speaker 2: animalistic of each of us and her desperate need to
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  Speaker 2: hold on to the fact that she is a wolf
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: and she wanted to do things that would make her
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  Speaker 2: parents proud. It was just honestly a beautiful read, and
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: while it deals with some really intense themes, it's done
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: in such a beautiful and gentle way without brushing over
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: the realities of war.
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  Speaker 1: How many stars for We Are.
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  Speaker 2: Wolves it would be five?
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  Speaker 1: Wow, Okay, sounds great. My second one is an Aspargo Ryan.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: We had her on the podcast a few weeks ago
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: at the start of Mental Health Awareness Month, talking about
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  Speaker 1: her own mental health journey, being a mum, flourishing, thriving
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  Speaker 1: in spite of some of the most severe mental illness
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  Speaker 1: that is imaginable. She had to be hospitalized because of
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  Speaker 1: her mental health challenges. The book is called A Kind
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  Speaker 1: of Magic. It came out just a couple of weeks ago.
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to give it four stars just because there
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  Speaker 1: are a few times where it didn't quite resonate with me.
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  Speaker 1: But the writing is brilliant. The second chapter is about
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  Speaker 1: one of her biggest psychotic episodes, and it is expletely
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  Speaker 1: riddled and really really I don't know what the word is,
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  Speaker 1: but it's an intense chapter. You could buy the book
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  Speaker 1: not read that chapter. If you sends it to those
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  Speaker 1: kinds of things, read the rest of it and probably
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  Speaker 1: really love it. But that was the one reason I
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  Speaker 1: just thought, oh gee, that was so heavy. I know
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  Speaker 1: that she needed to put it in there for her
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  Speaker 1: to document what it was like. But that's why I'm
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  Speaker 1: bringing it back to four stars. But I'll tell you
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  Speaker 1: what, what an incredible book about a woman who has gone
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: through things that most of us can never imagine. It
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  Speaker 1: was wonderfully insightful, and what I loved most about it
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  Speaker 1: was a completely unsanitized look at mental illness, which incorporated
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  Speaker 1: a whole lot of love and a whole lot of
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  Speaker 1: life and a whole lot of parenting. It really showed
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  Speaker 1: the multi dimensionality of life. Too often, we're so reductionists.
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  Speaker 1: Now that person's got depression, now that person's got anxiety.
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  Speaker 1: Oh that's why they do this, that's why they don't
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  Speaker 1: do that. But she brought us into her world, and
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  Speaker 1: she showed that you can have all of these challenges
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  Speaker 1: and still actually live a full life, a life of gratitude,
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  Speaker 1: a life of joy, a life of hope and optimism,
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  Speaker 1: even when you're down in the darms, even when you
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  Speaker 1: feel like you need to go to hospital, even when
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: you're being rejected by the people around you who are
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  Speaker 1: supposed to love you. It was a really touching, really
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  Speaker 1: meaningful book, and a couple of times I even got
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  Speaker 1: a bit weepy. I'm surprised that I'm saying that I
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  Speaker 1: liked it so much because Clementine Ford loved it, and
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  Speaker 1: I never ever agree with Clementine Ford. But it was
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  Speaker 1: a really nice book. Anna Spargo Ryan A kind of magic.
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  Speaker 1: Four stars. That's my second.
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  Speaker 2: One and my second one. I'm actually I'm being a
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  Speaker 2: bit cheeky. I've read a couple of really good novels,
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  Speaker 2: so I'm just going to share my two novels.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so no nonfiction this month, no heavy reading.
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  Speaker 2: I will give a special mention to What Happened to You.
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  Speaker 2: It's actually a book by Oprah Winfrey and her psychologist,
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  Speaker 2: doctor Bruce Perry Harry.
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  Speaker 1: He's the one who wrote The Boy Who was raised
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: as a dog.
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  Speaker 2: That's on my shelf. I haven't got there yet.
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  Speaker 1: That's only getting a special mention. I would have thought
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  Speaker 1: that would be the top of your life.
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  Speaker 2: Because this other novel was amazed.
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  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, but wow.
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  Speaker 2: What I loved about Oprah's Bork was just this acknowledgement.
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  Speaker 2: We so often think that there is something wrong with
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  Speaker 2: us because of the things that we've experienced, and doctor
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  Speaker 2: Perry just changes that whole narrative to what happened to you,
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  Speaker 2: not what's wrong with you, what happened to you and
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  Speaker 2: how that has impacted on your world and the way
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  Speaker 2: you see it. My second real book, YEP, is a
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  Speaker 2: novel that I just just recently read. It's called The
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: Book of Dreams. It's by Nina George and this was
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  Speaker 2: a ridiculously heartbreaking, moving, an unforgettable story about a dad
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  Speaker 2: who finds himself in a coma and his son, who
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: he's had nothing to do with, is alerted to the
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  Speaker 2: fact that his dad's in hospital and he's always known
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  Speaker 2: about his but he has had very little to do
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  Speaker 2: with him, and so as a result of this experience,
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  Speaker 2: the son actually spends most of his waking time in
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  Speaker 2: hospital next to his dad who is non responsive, and
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  Speaker 2: the book actually goes through the son's life and another
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  Speaker 2: patient that he meets who's in a coma, but she's
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  Speaker 2: in she's in a different kind of coma. She's completely awake,
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  Speaker 2: but she's not there, whereas his dad is completely non
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  Speaker 2: responsive at all. And so the book goes through the
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  Speaker 2: son's life, the dad's life, and this other girl's life,
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  Speaker 2: both of them are in comas, and just talks through
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  Speaker 2: the process of what it's actually like to be in
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  Speaker 2: that coma and to be aware of the world around
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  Speaker 2: you but not able to have any response, not able
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  Speaker 2: to you know, that feeling of being trapped and not
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: being able to express yourself and share the feelings of
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: your heart. And so quite a few chapters are almost
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: over and over again because there's that sense of being
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: trapped and going having those da ja vous moments, knowing
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  Speaker 2: that you're there but you're not there. And it was
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  Speaker 2: so intriguing to read, and I have never cried so much.
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  Speaker 1: Wow. Okay, so I've got it on my list of
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: books to read. You've thrown it into my pile along
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: with the forty three others that are sitting there that
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  Speaker 1: I want to get done by the end of the year.
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  Speaker 1: Don't like my chances, but it sounds really intriguing. So
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  Speaker 1: can I dive into my last one? Sure? Okay, here
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: we go, the final book, the one that I've saved
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: till the very end. My favorite book of the last
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: month or so is Stolen Focus by Johann Hurry. And
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: I've put it on your book list, I've put it
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: on your pile and said you've got to read this book. So,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: in some ways, there's not a lot there that I
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: wasn't already aware of. We're aware that technology companies are
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: literally working to that Their model is designed to make
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: sure that we give them as much attention as possible.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: They're not trying to ruin our lives. They're just trying
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: to make money. In the way they make money is
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: by having us spend more time on their platform. But
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: this book talks about how our focus is being stolen
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: by these companies and what we can do about it.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: There's not a lot solution oriented, and yet it tells
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: a compelling story. He is a great writer. He's a
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: little bit crass at times, unnecessarily so, I think, but
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: overall the content is brilliant, it's compelling, it's a great
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: riproaring read. I'm giving it five stars. I totally loved it.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: Stolen Focus Johann Harry, I Reckon. I could talk about
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: the book for about an hour and I could read
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: page after page of highlighted bits and pieces that I
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: really really loved. But I'm not going to say that.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to say that one is definitely worth buying.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: So they're my big three to talk about. Johann Harry,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Stolen Focus, carry Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Read
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: and Anaspargo. Ryan's a Kind of Magic, You're Two, Were
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: We Are.
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  Speaker 2: Wolves by Katrina and Nanostat And The Book of Dreams
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: by Nina George, with a special mention of What Happened
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: to You by Oprah Winfrey and doctor Bruce Perry.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: I can't believe that book didn't end up at the
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: top of your list. Anyway, We really hope that you
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: enjoyed our book reviews. Book Club on The Happy Families
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Podcast can't wait to come back for one more month
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: and share what we've been reading and let you know
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: what we thought and maybe give you some Christmas reading ideas.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: The Happy Family's podcast, as always, is produced by Justin
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Ruwland from Bridge Media. Craig Bruce is our executive producer.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: A quick plug if you haven't already grabbed your tickets,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: please come along and see the Happy Family's Hot Mess Summit.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: It's this Saturday. Tickets are only one hundred and ninety
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: nine dollars for ten world class keynote speakers who will
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: blow your mind and help your family to be less
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: of a hot mess. We would love to see you there.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: All the details are on our Facebook page, Doctor Justin
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Coulson's Happy Families or at happy families dot com dot
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: au