- Going Under – Sonia Henry
When Dr Katarina ‘Kitty’ Holliday finished medical school and found gainful employment at one of Sydney’s best teaching hospitals, she thought her dream was just beginning. The hard years were finally over. But Kitty is in for a rude shock. Between trying to survive on the ward, in the operating theatre and in the emergency department without killing any of her patients or going under herself, Kitty finds herself facing the situations that rock her very understanding of the vocation to which she intends to devote her life.
Going Under is a rare insight into the world of a trainee female medic that takes an unflinching look at the reality of being a doctor. It explores the big themes – life, death, power and love – through the eyes of Dr Holliday as she loses her identity and nearly her mind in the pressure-cooker world of the hospital. But it is also there that Kitty might find her own redemption and finally herself for the first time. Darkly funny, sexy, moving and shocking, Going Under will grip you from the opening page and never let you go.
- Control – Hugh Montgomery
A dark and twisty medical thriller that will keep you guessing until the end.
- Pain and Prejudice – Gabrielle Jackson
In 2015, Guardian journalist Gabrielle Jackson wrote a piece about her own struggles with the crippling pain caused by endometriosis. It triggered such an overwhelming response that the Guardian launched a worldwide investigation into the disease. This time, the response was so huge it almost crashed their website. Thousands contacted the Guardian and hundreds of thousands more read and shared the material.
This was the catalyst for Gabrielle thinking more widely about women’s pain and how it is viewed and treated not just by the medical profession abut wider society. The stark reality is that women’s pain is not taken as seriously as that of men’s. They are more likely to be dismissed, fobbed off and denied treatment than men even though their bodies are vastly more complex. One of the most important things a woman can do to help herself is to understand more about how her body works.
- Pretty Unhealthy – Dr Nikki Stamp
Why are we so obsessed with wellness, but our health is getting worse? We are more obese, less active and more stressed than ever before and it’s killing us, Today, we’re more likely to die from a lifestyle disease than any other cause, and many of these would be preventable if we took better care of our health. Enter a vast wellness industry that has emerged in recent years, making big money promoting ‘healthy’ lifestyles. Except the aim isn’t to make your body work better: it’s to make your body look better.
Equipped with Instagram accounts or wellness blogs, each health advocate leads an army of people towards what is labelled ‘health’ but might actually be far from it. We are obsessed with body transformation and fitspiration, but the wrong advice is making us poor, tired and pretty unhealthy instead. Pretty Unhealthy is a call to reclaim true health: to aim for bodies that are resilient to disease and can do everything we need; and for us to feel emotionally happy in those bodies.
- – Emma Barnett
Somehow, despite women having had periods since the dawn of time, we’ve totally clammed up on anything to do with menstruation. Why, oh why, would we rather say ‘Auntie Flo’ than ‘period’? Why, in the 21st century, are periods still seen as icky? Why are we still so ignorant about such a fundamental bodily process?
Now, in Period., Emma draws on female experiences that will make you laugh, weep (and, most probably, squirm), in a fierce and funny rallying cry to smash this ridiculous taboo once and for all.
