What I’m Reading: Airini Beautrais

I’m always anxious about answering the question of what I’m reading. At the moment due to work, life and mental health, my reading practice isn’t stellar. I am reading The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson. I’m enjoying all the Swedish placenames and feeling a weird technological nostalgia for the early 2000s.

I keep renewing a book from our local library, An Encylopaedia of Plants in Myth, Legend, Magic and Lore by Stuart Phillips. I’m completely fascinated by the human tendency to superstition.

I just finished reading The Hunger Games to my children. They got quite obsessed with these books. I have been reading to my kids at bedtime since they were born, and we have gone from picture books to YA novels.

In a work capacity, I have been reading some studies about gut microbiology lately because there is a lot of misinformation out there; also I have to make sure my digestive system lectures are up to date. On a more literary note, an American poet friend sent me a book called Tributary by Carey Salerno. It’s a book of poems about a river, which is relatable! I’m looking forward to reading it.