Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
We’re diversifying your bookshelf in our 2025 book club
51 Plays3 days ago
You are invited to join Novel Feelings' 2025 Book Club (a.k.a. season 4!) in collaboration with Amplify Bookstore. Tune in to learn about how the book club will work, to hear about our book club choices, and for a special interview with Marina from Amplify about their mission and history.
Amplify is a bookstore dedicated to books by authors who are Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Colour – with the aim to diversify your bookshelf. Get 10% off our book club picks with the code NOVELFEELINGS10.
- Book club info, detailed show notes, and other links: linktree.com/novel_feelings
- Amplify Bookstore: http://amplifybookstore.com/products/novel-feelings-book-club
Our podcast was recorded on Wurundjeri Land, which is home to both of us in Naarm/Melbourne. Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land.
Recommended
Transcript
Season 4 Announcement: Novel Feelings
00:00:04
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Novel Feelings, where two psychologists take a deep dive into your favourite books. I'm Priscilla. And I'm Elise. Today we are telling you all about what to expect in Season 4 in 2025. That's right, it's happening. Woohoo!
Support and Community Engagement
00:00:20
Speaker
So, remember to follow us on Instagram, join our Facebook community, or subscribe to our blog on novelfeelings dot.com to keep up to date with the show.
00:00:30
Speaker
And you can also support the show by buying us a coffee, so that it is making a once-off donation. Any amount, no matter how small, helps keep the show sustainable. All of those links are in our show notes. But back to the main event, which is season four, of course. Now,
00:00:47
Speaker
we were arming and airing a little bit about whether to do season four. So thank you to everybody who contributed to our um ah posts and our pleas for thoughts and feedback that we've been giving over the past couple of months. And yeah, we ultimately decided that it would be you know a great idea, but we wanted to, I suppose, enhance our content and make it even even better than it has been in the past. So it's basically the same, but there are going to be just a few minor changes, um which will hopefully make season four our best one yet. We really would love to engage more with you guys and know what you're thinking and make it more of a community. So that's part of why we've made the changes that we're making.
Book Club Format and Schedule
00:01:30
Speaker
In terms of the key facts though, so we are going to have one book every two months, just what we did with our last
00:01:36
Speaker
book club season. So we will be announcing all of the books today though. So you can plan ahead if you want to and read ahead if you wish. As per usual, our episodes will start with non-spoilers and then go into spoilers in the second half. So if you are not sure yet, or you haven't had a chance to read the book, feel free to still listen to the episode. You won't be, um, you absolutely will not be spoiled until we very clearly warn you of when that spoiler is coming up. Yes, there will be our spoiler music thingy that happens.
00:02:05
Speaker
We will post book club questions in our detailed show notes and chat about the books in our Facebook community group. If you're on Facebook, search novel feelings community in the search bar and we should pop up. If you're not interested in the book club, that's also okay. We will still do our usual author interviews and written reviews as we've always done.
Season 4 Book Selections with Amplify
00:02:27
Speaker
Yeah. Let's maybe just talk about some of the books that we have planned for season four in 2025. We won't tell you all about them now, as it would be quite a long episode to go through all of these, uh, these biographies and these briefs, but we will post links in our show notes. So for January, we are going to be talking about tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. Or March, we will be reading Hospital by Sanya Rushdie. In May, we will be covering Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert.
00:02:56
Speaker
And in July we are reading I Want to Die but I Want to Eat to Bocky by Bexayi. In September we'll be covering Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi. And lastly in November we will be reading Alone with You in the Aether by Olivia Blake.
00:03:12
Speaker
you might have noticed some themes amongst all of these authors. This season, we ah have specifically chosen books by authors who are Black, Indigenous and or people of colour in collaboration with the lovely folks at Amplify. So if you haven't heard of Amplify, they are an online bookstore that aims to diversify your bookshelf and only includes books by authors who are Black, Indigenous and or people of colour.
00:03:37
Speaker
And really excitingly, we have an interview coming up with Marina from Amplify, but just a couple of notes about how our collaboration, our partnership is going to work. So first of all, the books that we've chosen for the book club will be available to purchase in a bundle. So if you are keen to just purchase all of those books in one go, we've made that really easy for you. So you can do that by going to the Amplify bookstore website or by visiting their brick and mortar location.
00:04:05
Speaker
So Amplify do you have a pop-up bookshop, which is going to be open in Melbourne from November until February. um Marina will tell you a little bit more about that in the interview.
00:04:15
Speaker
Amplify Bookstore has generously offered 10% off the purchase of the book bundle that we've just mentioned or any individual books in that bundle with the discount code novelfeelings10.
Amplify Bookstore's Mission and Challenges
00:04:28
Speaker
So that's novelfeelings10. You can visit amplifybookstore dot.com to purchase any of these books or any of their other books, which they have a pretty excellent collection. So you might want to check out that catalog.
00:04:41
Speaker
but Absolutely. But without further ado, let's introduce Marina from Amplify and a huge thank you, of course, to Marina for agreeing to come on the show and to Amplify for partnering with us in 2025. Well, thank you, Marina, for joining us today. This is very exciting for me because, well, I've bothered you quite a bit in the past with my purchases. My purchase is really bothering someone.
00:05:07
Speaker
But yes, thank you for joining us today. um For our listeners who aren't familiar with Amplify Bookstore, can you please tell us about Amplify's mission? So Amplify Bookstore is a mostly online bookstore that is dedicated to selling books by authors who are Black, Indigenous, and or people of colour. We started it out of the knowledge that Well, the realisation that these authors are vastly underrepresented in the publishing industry, they only make up about 10, 11% of what's published, which is an American stat, and to be honest, the Australian statistic on that is probably worse, but it's unrecorded.
00:05:46
Speaker
ah and ah yeah So it just makes it hard to find those books and it also then feeds into this really toxic feedback loop of the publishing industry and like gatekeepers at large thinking they're not profitable or people don't want them. So we are making sure people can find them, making sure that everyone knows they exist, and making sure that people can see that there is a huge demand for them because there's this huge swath of readers who are being underserved.
00:06:17
Speaker
So quite literally amplifying the the voices of this one you represented at the moment. I know Amplify has now been around for a few years. how if at all has Amplify changed since its launch and what have you learned since launching? So Amplify was started just by my friend and now colleague co-founder, Schwen, and it's still just the two of us running it and working on it. And we neither of us had retail experience or actually knew anything about running a bookstore. um So we've learned that along the way, there's been bits and pieces that have sort of still slotted in
00:06:59
Speaker
ah like a year, two years down the line, but I think we've got there now. But like what we actually do and the books we sell and the authors that we platform have always been in the same, um in line with the same mission. So it hasn't changed that much in that regard. But yeah, it's grown a bit. We've moved a few times just to upgrade how much room we've got. How old is Amplify now?
00:07:29
Speaker
It will be four on the 12th of November, 2024. Well, that's exciting. So at the time of release, that will be a recent birthday, so happy birthday to Amplify, of course. It's such an important mission and it's been great to see, it's been great to see the bookstore grow and your online following of course has grown too. So yeah, it's wonderful to see so many people getting involved and really passionate about the mission.
00:07:55
Speaker
Like, we knew it was always going to be sort of a community oriented project, um but it's been really heartwarming and uplifting to see that we have actually really built like a community around our socials and the store itself.
00:08:10
Speaker
Yeah, I remember walking around maybe like big design market or finders keepers one time and I could see like three or four of those empire totes and I was like, ah, fellow readers, that's cool. I was so jealous. I would get photos of people wearing the totes and I never saw anyone in person. and People wear them sometimes when they come to an event that we're selling at and I know you.
00:08:36
Speaker
A very good fashion and choice. Yes. Well, if I see any next time, I'll take a photo and send them to you. and completely What are some of your favorite books that Amplify has in stock at the moment? At the moment, it's been a really strong year in Asian-Australian debuts and releases broadly.
00:08:56
Speaker
ah so I can't reach them. At the moment, some of my recent favorites this year have been Jade and Emerald by Michelle Sito, The Borrow by Melanie Cheng, which has just come out, um The Degenerates by Raiden Richardson, which came out a couple months ago and but came out earlier this year, but Amma by Sarad De Silva has also been one of my favorites this year. I've had a really good reading year, so I could keep going, so I'm going to stop.
00:09:25
Speaker
and
00:09:27
Speaker
That's cool. The barra just got a strong review from me. So I i really love that one. I believe that was a five star, five star review that you gave. So yeah, but that's, yeah. And Jade and Emerald is on my TBR. It's sitting on my shelf at the moment. So I'm excited to get to that one as well. I feel like we have pretty similar tastes. So you'll love it. Yeah. Excellent. Very good overlap. And of course we have chosen six
Insights on Selected Books and Future Aspirations
00:09:53
Speaker
books for our book club collaboration, which we introduced at the start of the episode. I'm just curious if you've read any of them and if you have, can you give us maybe a little bit of a hint at your thoughts?
00:10:06
Speaker
I wrote about half. Get a Life, Chloe Brown is one of my all time favorite books because that whole trilogy is incredible. Chloe Brown is such a like a tender and sensitive portrayal of chronic illness, like physical chronic pain and anxiety and it being on both sides of the relationship rather than only one of them supporting the other, which is I feel like often what you get in that kind of narrative. um And it's all done with so much care and Talia Hibbet is quite open.
00:10:35
Speaker
online, the author about having to do these things usually with a lot of lived experience. And you can really tell in the way that she writes about things. And I've also read I Want to Die but I Want to Tell Puppy, which to be so honest was not for me.
00:10:52
Speaker
but But you know what, I envy the people who it is for, because I do know that people love it quite a lot, but it's just if you've ever been depressed or in therapy at all, it just it's you already but know and have gone far beyond any of the observations in that book.
00:11:09
Speaker
I've heard such mixed things about that book, which is one of the reasons we chose it because we thought it might be interesting to sort of, you know, go into maybe one of some of the reasons why people don't like it or haven't responded well to it for various reasons. But we have a bit of a tendency to pick books that we've already read and we love. So sometimes we need to pick those that are maybe a little bit more divisive.
00:11:33
Speaker
yeah i mean I know a lot of people have gotten a lot out of it. I just think that probably none of those people have had to go to therapy before, so like good for them. yeah um I would say though on that one, there are some like genuinely problematic bits about the psychiatrist of some of the things they say, which is tray just sort of like of the era and of East Asian attitudes to mental health.
00:11:56
Speaker
And I have also read Freshwater, but I listened to it on audio, which was not the way to go like probably four years or so ago. And I don't remember it that well, because it's like kind of a fever dream of a book. Like I remember thinking this is incredible. This is so intelligent. I need to read it like with my eyes so that I actually absorb what's going on properly. But it's like, it's really, it's very unique. And I can't remember what happens.
00:12:25
Speaker
But I've seen, um I do know that there's been a lot of like discourse, because the author has gone in interviews to say that they're not a fan of how basically Western media has picked up on some of the themes. know I'm not entirely sure, um and I actually should've fact checked this before I started yapping. um But I think, because I might be like saying it completely the wrong way around, but I think if I remember right, it's that the author, the book gets classed a lot as magical realism, but the author is coming at it from, has written it as from like an EPO spirituality lens. And it's, so it's not like magic, it's just sort of like belief, system like their belief system. And so there's like a weird sort of colonialist lens on viewing
00:13:17
Speaker
a narrative told that way as magic instead of just like a different way to feed the world. And then that element of it is also very much what ties in with what it gets picked up on for being mental healthy. It's worth looking up some interviews. Yeah. Yeah, that that's just a good reminder to us of the importance of yeah listening to other or author interviews and reviews before we just go in with our own thoughts as well and you know trying our best to not view books in a vacuum of our own opinions and our first impressions. So good to know. Thank you.
00:13:53
Speaker
Well, that all bodes well, generally, for the sort of content that we're going to be covering in our next season, though, which is very exciting. It's a great list of books. I really want to read a hospital, but I haven't got there yet. But I've loved seeing it pop up on all the literary awards lists. You just have to read along once we get to that book later in the year.
00:14:14
Speaker
oh Oh, and it's a short book too, but like it's translated and it's still been, it's the only translated book really that pops up on local awards lists. So that's been really interesting to see. Yeah. And this is probably a good point to plug Amplify's online directory. It's such a comprehensive list. It's amazing. I can't vary.
00:14:37
Speaker
I like organizing things. yeah yeah I love it. When we were picking books for the season, all I had to do was like type, you know, control control F, mental health, control F, anxiety, and just look through what, you know, what is available on your catalog. And then like, while I was scrolling through, I was like, oh, that's an interesting theme. We love a good filter. We love a good tag. It makes makes things very easy for us.
00:15:03
Speaker
I like to think they serve sort of a dual purpose because especially when you're talking about and like reading about mental health and people's experiences with mental illness, it's nice to have like the warning that it'll be in there, like especially for things like eating disorders that you're not always ready to you know engage with it. So it's easier to just sort of click away and read something else.
00:15:24
Speaker
um But then also like if you are actively looking to find stories that are representing what you're going through or what your friends going through or whatever and you want to like engage with that, then ah try to make it easier to find. So I'm glad it's been helpful.
00:15:38
Speaker
Yeah. And it's good because, you know, I'm Indonesian and I didn't even think about there being Indonesian Australian books or Indonesian authors that have been translated. And just like while scrolling through your list, I was like, oh, there's there are actually a few. And so they've gone onto my TBR for someone somewhere in the future. I teach it to them.
00:15:57
Speaker
Yeah, thank you. The wandering is meant to be super good. Oh, okay. It's like choose your own adventure, so. Wow, okay. I used to love this as a child, so I'm sure I would love that as an adult. Well, that just hit me right in the nostalgia, choose your own adventure books. A lot of those in our life. It's so thick and I was so intimidated by it because I was like, oh, it's like literary, literary. And then at some point realized it's choose your own adventures.
00:16:26
Speaker
yeah It's not as scary. and That's cool. Yeah. How interesting though. um what What are your goals for the future of Amplify and where do you see it in five years time? So in the near future, we are, well, it will be live, I guess by the time you hear this, but we are opening a short-term pop-up.
00:16:49
Speaker
um from November through February. It will be at 55 Peel Street in West Melbourne. It's right behind the Queen Vic Market um opposite the 58 tram line, so please come visit us. But yeah, we've got that space till February and then we're not we haven't locked in what's happening after that, but hopefully it goes well and it didn't we can extend it or find another space to move to more permanently.
00:17:17
Speaker
And in in five years, I hope we have some staff who are also running it. So I'm not me and she went out doing everything all the time, but we have like a little community of people who help us keep the project going. So exciting. Very exciting. ah All my friends will be getting an amplified book, I think. just I'll be popping into that. We have a rapping station. Oh, exciting.
00:17:42
Speaker
I love that so much. And this is like, this is quite a step as well, right? Cause I know you've done some in-person pop-ups, but they've just been very short-term, haven't they? Like a one day sort of event. Yeah. Yeah. We've yeah like, we've done event sales and then, yeah, we had our pop-up at Kyence, which would be us packing books the night before and then kiting them over in the morning and then packing it down again in the afternoon.
00:18:07
Speaker
And then like in the meantime, we've always had like a warehouse room in my house, um which which is to be fair, like now a full on a whole room, but we're going to move everything across. So it'll be really nice to have.
00:18:21
Speaker
it not be in my home and like have its own actual space. And the pop-up in Brodswick was really well attended for us literally being sat at like two trundle tables. Got to meet Priscilla a few times. and yes One fan girl, Priscilla, just wrapping up. Yeah, we love it. And like people would make quite a trek to get there. um So I'm hopeful that it will be it will be more accessible, it'll be indoors, which will be nice on a hot day.
00:18:54
Speaker
um And like it's right near Tram, Tram, Train, it's in the city basically. And we'll have everything, not just our two tables. So I'm really looking forward to it. And it'll be fun being able to actually like recommend and share our whole collection with people. Yeah, that will be awesome. I'm looking forward to seeing it in person.
Visit Amplify and Closing Remarks
00:19:14
Speaker
Well, I think you've already told us about where listeners will be able to find the physical store, but where, where can we find your online store? We are at amplifybookstore.com and we are at amplifybookstore across socials mostly on Instagram and TikTok. Amazing. Well listeners, if you aren't already following amplify, please go and do so. Can I check, do you do you do international orders as well? Yeah, we've got global shipping.
00:19:44
Speaker
There you go. There's no excuse not to. No excuse. I can't amplify. Perfect. All right. Well, listeners, I think, ah you know, go go check out Amplify, especially if you are looking for Christmas or end of the year gifts. It is now a perfect time to do that. um And we're going to have some upcoming opportunities. We've already mentioned our discount code and we are hopefully going to do a bit of a competition ahead of the Christmas season as well for those who celebrate.
00:20:11
Speaker
A huge thank you to Marina for joining us on the show. It was lovely, lovely. Well, first time I've met you. I know Priscilla has. Good to see you again. Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. I love what you guys do. So this has been a pleasure. Thank you.
00:20:30
Speaker
And that wraps us up for today. Thank you so much for listening, and thanks again to Marina for joining us today. If you like us, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can find us online via Instagram, YouTube, and the Storygraph through novel underscore feelings, or search novel feelings community on Facebook to find our group.
00:20:52
Speaker
If we've entertained you or taught you something, please consider buying us a coffee to show your thanks, links in the show notes. All proceeds go towards making the show stronger and more sustainable for the future. Thank you so much for listening today. We'll see you soon. Thank you. Hope you can join our book club. Bye. Our podcast was recorded on Wurundjeri land, which is home to both of us in Naam, Melbourne. We also acknowledge the role of storytelling in First Nations communities. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.