Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Glow baby, glow

Phosphorescence by Julia Baird

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If you’re to Google this book, you’ll note that it is the winner of the Australian Book Industry BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD (emphasis not added, this just seems to be an award that comes with CAPITAL LETTERS). You’ll read that it is about ‘awe, wonder, and things that sustain us’. If you access the audiobook version, as I did, you’ll experience hours of Baird’s breathless, softly spoken and earnest voice in your ears. You’ll hear her talk of surviving cancer, and relationship breakdowns. She […]

Shining a light in dark places

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

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When Julia Baird was very sick with a horrible cancer she became obsessed with searching out phosphorescence in nature and this metaphor about finding a source of light and wonder during dark times drives the premise of this book. It is at once quite personal and very well researched. It contains sage advice as well as interesting anecdotes. The prelude starts out with a lot of fascinating facts about bioluminescent phenomena – ‘living lights’ such as glow-worms, ghost mushrooms and vampire squid. I loved reading […]

“Is there anything more beautiful than living light?”

Phosphoresence: On awe, wonder and things that sustain you when the world goes dark by Julia Baird

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CBRBingo:  Self-help This book has a glorious cover that is well-matched to the contents.  Julia Baird – historian, journalist, TV presenter – blends  personal experience, scientific research, philosophy and theology to outline her argument that instead of asking how we stay happy we should ask “how do we survive, stay alive or even bloom when the world goes dark, when we are, for instance, overwhelmed by illness or heartbreak, loss or pain?”. Beginning with a discussion of literal phosphoresence – light released by natural substances […]



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