Amie Albrecht
@nomadpenguin
Professor of Math Ed. Dormant mathematician. Thinks a lot about teaching. Pedagogical pragmatist. Tsundoku master. Champion napper. Dirty lefty. Blogging at
Slow to find its footing. But it shifts into something luminous and contemplative, patient rather than plotted. Hard not to read the three fathers as Patchett working through her own family’s shape. #read2026
A biologist rewilding wolves in the Scottish Highlands, circling a death she can't explain. I didn’t really become invested in the mystery because I was caught in the tension of the violence men do to women. An evocative book but take care while reading. #read2026
Set on a million-acre station in WA, Stedman follows the MacBride family across four decades from 1958. Epic and intimate, beautifully written, with an authentic feel for Australian station life. Loved it. #read2026
Tóibín excavates shame, guilt, desire through stories of people living far from home, at a distance from their past selves. Some land harder than others, but that’s the joy of a collection. #read2026
For the first third, I thought Sybil a poorly drawn Olive Kitteridge. But I’m glad I persisted as this opened out through interwoven arcs, told entirely in letters, into an examination of loving openly and putting past wrongs to right. #read2026
A remarkable book. I was a little wary, having not yet read Roy’s celebrated fiction, but I was quickly hooked into this memoir of a complex, combative relationship with her mother, Mary, and the interwoven stories of a singular life. Electric writing. #read2026
O’Hagan examines all the facets of friendship in this collection of essays. Elegant, warm writing. #read2026
A narrator reflects on his past in a mostly flattering light until something sends it askew and forces him to reexamine the events. The title is a promise with multiple meanings. #read2026
Echoes of Garner’s The Spare Room, but more tender and more haunting—Adelaide writes toward a death she knows is coming, and that knowing shadows every sentence. Beautiful. #read2026
Each sister works as her own portrait, but when they speak everyone’s just too articulate, too witty, and too quotable. Eventually I got bored … a real shame because there is also a lot to like about this book. #read2026
Set in The Hague, following an interpreter at the international court. Kitamura is a master of rendering the interior life. What I loved here was how she sets discrete moments of experience side by side so the reader does the thematic work of connecting them. #read2026
“Aunty Amie. I’m not good at fractions.” Be still, my heart. #QuarterTheCross
Disappointed when I realised this was verb noun and not noun noun.
Heather Mitchell is utterly superlative as the indomitable RBG. On for another two weeks at the State Theatre Company. An absolute must see.
Franny follows the last Arctic terns to Antarctica, running both toward and away from something. McConaghy writes a woman who is both strong and fragile, and builds toward an ending that gives both tension and resolution in exactly the right measure. #read2026
Abdel-Fattah on narrative control: who gets to tell the story of Gaza, and what it costs those who choose silence. Fiction is a lesson in empathy, which might explain the furore around this author. A good read but the message drove the plot rather than the other way round. #read2026
Still ten seats in doubt but this type of landslide is not good for anyone …
Twelve years after his wife’s affair, once the children have left home, Tom goes on a road trip across America without a destination in mind. Someone is going to need to explain to me why this was shortlisted for the Booker …#read2026
Kitamura follows an actress auditioning for roles on stage and in life—the parts we play, the selves we perform. Atmospheric, unsettling, and a compelling construction. #read2026
That’s degrees Celsius, folks. In a town of ~15,000 people. Climate change has literally cooked us.
The first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. It was a bit corny, the middle needed more propulsion, it felt written ready for a dramatic movie script, and the sister was completely unbelievable. And yet a small moment at the end had me in tears. Still a good read. #read2026
Tóibín novelises the life of the lauded German author Thomas Mann, including the rise and aftermath of Nazi Germany. I didn’t intend for this to be a paired text with present day events but it was chilling. #read2026
We regularly had days above 40C when I was a kid, but this is something else.