Book Club Review: Phosphorescence–On awe, wonder & things that sustain you when the world goes dark: by Julia Baird

The Book:

Published: 23rd March 2020

ISBN: 9781460757154

Number Of Pages: 320

A beautiful, intimate and inspiring investigation into how we can find and nurture within ourselves that essential quality of internal happiness - the 'light within' that Julia Baird calls 'phosphorescence' - which will sustain us even through the darkest times.

Over the last decade, we have become better at knowing what brings us contentment, well-being and joy. We know, for example, that there are a few core truths to science of happiness. We know that being kind and altruistic makes us happy, that turning off devices, talking to people, forging relationships, living with meaning and delving into the concerns of others offer our best chance at achieving happiness. But how do we retain happiness? It often slips out of our hands as quickly as we find it. So, when we are exposed to, or learn, good things, how do we continue to burn with them?

And more than that, when our world goes dark, when we're overwhelmed by illness or heartbreak, loss or pain, how do we survive, stay alive or even bloom? In the muck and grit of a daily existence full of disappointments and a disturbing lack of control over many of the things that matter most - finite relationships, fragile health, fraying economies, a planet in peril - how do we find, nurture and carry our own inner, living light - a light to ward off the darkness? Source: Booktopia

The Author:

Julia Baird is a globally renowned author and award-winning journalist. She hosts The Drum on ABC TV and writes columns for The New York Times and The Sydney Morning Herald. After the publication of her first book, Media Tarts - based on her history PhD on the portrayal of female politicians - she moved to the United States to take up a fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School. In 2007, she became senior editor of Newsweek in New York. Her work has earned her four Walkley Our Watch awards, a Walkley Award for team election reporting, and two further Walkley nominations. Julia's biography of Queen Victoria was published in several countries to critical acclaim and was one of 'The New York Times' top ten books of 2016.

She lives near the sea with two children, a tyrannical cat and an abnormally large dog. Source: Booktopia

Reader and Industry Reviews

· It’s a magical book to read and it really stimulates your imagination. Julia shows great empathy with people and the planet. Reader: Michelle

· Wonderful, thoughtful, insightful, soul searching, mesmerising read - absorb and enjoy. Reader: Sally

· Wanted to love it as I love her reporting but sadly lacking . Unfortunately it reads like a string of quotations by notables thinly bound by autobiographical snap shots to keep you hooked. Sorry that's how I see it. Disappointed. Reader-JD

· “A luminously beautiful book, full of grace.” Magda Szubanski

· “Literary, insightful, curious, pellucid and glinting with insights…. Aboundlessly generous book, full of little luminous treasures.” Annabel Crabb

Booktopia reviews = 87% of respondents would recommend this to a friend

Our Review:

What a very different book to those that we usually read in Book Club. We mostly agreed with the following quote from a reader as published on the Booktopia website, “Wanted to love it as I love her reporting but sadly lacking. Unfortunately it reads like a string of quotations by notables thinly bound by autobiographical snap shots to keep you hooked.”

I personally got a lot out of this book. I enjoyed experiencing how she coped with her battle with cancer at such a young age and especially her letters, to her very young son and daughter, were beautiful and full of insights, experiences and hopes for their futures. Thankfully she is a cancer survivor.

I did get bored with the endless quotes but they did lead me to do some research into many of the people she quoted, so thankyou Julia for extending my learning of the world and introduction to ideas and theories I had previously never known. I’m glad I read this book.

The Author : Julia Baird

Book Cover

Thank you to Margaret Cassidy for supplying this review