Have you ever read a book that was absolutely paradigm-shifting? 

That was WHAT WE DON'T TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT FAT for me. This is absolutely essential reading. Aubrey Gordon is thorough and authentic in this damning and honest indictment of the unrelenting and unapologetic anti-fat bias that pervades mainstream culture and especially the wellness space.

This book has already impacted the way I engage in conversations around health and fitness, which so often stray into implicit fatphobia. Thank you, @yrfatfriend. ❤

🍎 TO TEACH? 
I would give anything for every PDHPE teacher in the country to read this book. 
While it isn't appropriate for my ELA class, really, I may have to speak it on my classroom library shelves when I'm back in my physical classroom. 

Well Met is a delightfully cosy, lived-in contemporary romance centred around a small town Renaissance Fair. The Ren Fair was a fun site for the heroine, and particularly the hero, to break out of the their own expectations for their regular selves and find some swagger as their wench and pirate alter egos. Do I sort of what to attend a Ren Fair now? Maybe. 

I'll definitely be continuing this sweet contemporary series. Perfect light escapism for this remote learning winter term! 

She's on the Money is an comprehensive handbook for getting better with money in Australia. Victoria Devine's approach to getting one's financial life together is flexible and values-based - no "rice and beans" advice here. With so much of the online personal finance space being US-centric, this is a useful tool to get your head around how financial systems such as super and income insurance work specifically in the Australian context. 
 

💜💜💜 4.5 stars 

🍎 TO TEACH?
I wish they'd taught me this stuff in high school! It's not one for my English classroom, but certainly this could be an interesting resource for social science teachers in Australia. Also an excellent graduation gift idea, to help the young people in your life get off to the right financial start straight out of school! 

The Last of the Spirits is a fun middle grade historical fantasy that follows a brother and sister living on the streets on the fateful Christmas Eve of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. As an adult reader, there were some places where the affected Dickensian syntax felt forced, but the central value of redemption makes this a sweet ghost story for the child who may want to dip a toe into the Western Canon but might be intimidated by English Classics. 

💜💜💜 3.5 stars 

🍎 TO TEACH? 
 Excerpts could be appropriate for teaching voice or atmosphere. And I will definitely pop this one on my classroom bookshelf for the students to read during DEAR time when we are allowed back in the classroom! 

Seven Days in June by Tia Williams is a masterclass in second chance romance that has catapulted its way into my top romances of all time. ❤

This book may not be for everyone - the romance is inextricably interlaced with the characters' trauma, and the hero and heroine’s initial teenage tryst is characterised by risk-taking and enabling behaviour. There is drug use and abuse, alcohol dependence and self harm on the page (never romanticised, I would argue.) Tia Williams refuses to lean on convenient plot machinations that could be "cleared up with a conversation" (the argument often - and sometimes rightly - levelled against second chance romances) to break these contemporary ‘fated mates’ up before they are emotionally capable of being good partners to each other.

Both fiction writers, Eva and Shane have found literary success in writing the fictionalised version of each other - a deliciously romantic premise. By the time they reconnect as functional, successful, sober adults, they do have that relational capacity, and the result is a well deserved HEA.

Seven Days in June is an engrossing, sumptuous romance that celebrates Black joy and love without shying away from the complexities of modern relationships, intersecting with issues of poverty, addiction and chronic pain.

💙💙💙💙💙 5 stars

🍎 TO TEACH?
Certainly not in high school, which is where I teach! 🙊 But I would recommend it for anyone hoping to craft their own second chance romance story. Seven Days in June is now firmly in my romance canon.
 

Ophie's Ghosts is an engrossing paranormal adventure set in 1920s Pittsburg. Navigating grief, class and racism, Ophelia is a resilient young heroine learning the rules of the ghosts she can now see. Justina Ireland refuses to patronise her young readers, engaging difficult topics with subtly and respect. 

💙💙💙💙💙 5 stars 

🍎 TO TEACH? 
Certainly! This would be a lovely book for teaching historical fiction or paranormal fiction for a Year 6 or 7 novel study. Otherwise, a perfect choice for middle grade lit circles. 

Thank you to Libro.fm for providing a copy of this lovely audiobook through their ALC program.