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Elaine Castillo

@_elainecastillo

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For all inquiries, please contact Emma Paterson @aitkenalexander (literary/film/TV) or Leslie Shipman @theshipmanagencyinc (speaking engagements).

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“In my thirties I decided I was going to put a grenade in the middle of my life and blow it up.” 📚

Beejay Silcox said that at How to Read for Joy, and it landed really close to home.

Elaine Castillo and Beejay told such beautiful stories of how their love of books came about. (More about this in future posts !)

Then the conversation turned to disagreement. Two people can read the same book and come away with
completely different stories, and that’s part of the joy.

It’s true of life too. We’ve got out of the habit of
sitting with a different view, and we’re poorer for it. Disagreeing well, with respect, means giving yourself
and others permission to think differently.
That’s where the joy is, on the page and off it.

Sometimes a book changes how you see one small thing. Sometimes it changes everything.

When did a book last change your mind about something? 👇

This conversation was so rich, I keep replaying it - I think this is a conversation I will still be telling you all about in 6 months time!

And if you were there: Elaine’s books sold out at the festival. Did you manage to get a copy? If not, ask
your local bookshop to order one in. 📖

More from the festival all week, and a walk this Sunday 25 October. Details on What’s On (link in bio).

#findingyourthing #cbrwritersfest #readingforjoy

@cbrwritersfest
@_elainecastillo
@putnisandra

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🎉📆 Maligayang FAHM! It’s a time for the FilAm community to learn, reflect, and recalibrate! If you’re looking for more information and knowledge on our community’s history here in the US, here’s four book recommendations from our Beginner Tagalog teacher, @itsamilagros! 🇵🇭📚

1) America Is In The Heart - Carlos Bulosan

2) America Is Not The Heart by @_elainecastillo

3) Empire of Care by @catherinecenizachoy

4) How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwahr

To deepen your FilAm studies and to better understand our culture and history, we have two more Beginner Tagalog classes starting at the end of October: one on Tuesdays, another on Sundays! Check out the link in our bio for more info on these workshops and to register. 🔗👩🏻‍🏫

Kitakits 😊😊😊

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The Canberra Writer’s Festival is over for another year and I'm still buzzing over it all!

I went to 7 events over the 4 days and I wish I could have gone to more. I also wish I could have been in 2 places at once as there were so many great options. What an amazing experience.

Highlights? So many! It was like Book Christmas!

Hearing from incredible authors such Andrew O’Hagan, Pip Williams, Inga Simpson, Jaclyn Moriarty, Emma Grey, Elaine Castillo and many more.

Catching up with my lovely book friends @where.the.books.go @hinda.sherwood @bookishbron

Running into multiple former workmates. It was an APS reunion.

Meeting Beejay Silcox my new favourite literary critic 🥰

In short I had the best time. I was inspired and filled with the joy of reading. Congratulations @cbrwritersfest you knocked it out of the park!

#cbrwritersfestival #ninareads #ninareadsbooks #canberragalreadsbooks

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Final day of @cbrwritersfest
@irma.gold and I co-hosted a panel about witch hunts and persecution with @kate_forsyth_ and @charliejaneanders which was recorded for our @secretsfromthegreenroom podcast (so it will be uploaded in a week or two if you missed it).

So many great events to attend.
Faithful and furious sisters with @gabbiestroudauthor and @ayeshainoon was also a fabulous conversation hosted by @sophiegreenbooks
Finished up with a wonderful discussion about reading for joy with Beejay Silcox and @_elainecastillo moderated by the wonderful @putnisandra , artistic director if the festival.

And what a festival it was!! The best yet! Congratulations and thanks to all the dedicated people who put it together and made it run so smoothly.
So good!!!

#cwf #canberra #writersfestival #writerscommunity #books

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until next time @cbrwritersfest ✌🏼

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Day one at Canberra Writers Festival definitely beat my year six excursion @cbrwritersfest @atriabooksaus

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“I don’t like being told what to think, but I like being invited to think.”

Literary critic Beejay Silcox said this at the Canberra Writers Festival session How to Read for Joy, alongside festival director @putnisandra and author @_elainecastillo . I filled pages with notes, but this line stayed with me.

Reading is that invitation. It’s why the decline of reading is so serious. Without it, we’re simply told what to think, by social media and by everyone else with an opinion.

Beejay also said we mistake disagreement for something adversarial, when it’s actually generative.

I reckon we see it that way because we are so often quick to judgement. The pace of life demands it. A book slows that down. It gives us time to marinate and ruminate in ideas, which matters more than we admit. We can spend hours inside a view that isn’t ours, with no one to win against and nothing to defend. We can push back, change our mind halfway through, or finish the last page still unconvinced and better for the argument. That’s how disagreement produces new ideas, new ways of thinking and new ways of seeing our place in the world. If we stop reading, we lose one of the few places where that happens at a pace we dictate.

And happily one of Beejay’s top 3 reads is also one of mine - Piranesi by Susannah Clarke.🩷📚

What book last invited you to think?

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I remembered to take some photos today at @cbrwritersfest. I loved all three sessions today - Faithful and Furious Sisters, Witch, Love, Hate, and finally How to Read for Joy. They were all magnificent!
Finishing my day at @nationallibraryaus listening to the top 10 of the ABC Countdown, absorbing the atmosphere and relishing the company of bookish people.
I think I might also have made a new friend today, too!
❤️📚

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last current next 💫

🪰 Fruit Fly by Josh Silver. This was a book club pick!
🐾 Moderation by Elaine Castillo. I went her talk this week and was aiming to finish it beforehand, but it is fun to still be reading it after hearing the talk.
🏙️ Strange Buildings by Uketsu. Thought this would be a fun spooky season book.

what have you been reading?

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Your Next Read…If you’re looking for something different, something totally unique that will make you want to talk to everyone about it afterwards, save this post! 📚

6 books unlike anything else I’ve read. All completely different, all brilliantly original.

🍓 Lonely Mouth — Jacqueline Maley

💻 Moderation — @_elainecastillo

🐎 The Horse — Willy Vlautin

🎩 The Illusions — @londonbessie

🍩 Piglet — @ldhazell

🎻 The Instrumentalist — @harriconstable

Save this for when you fancy reading something completely out of the ordinary. ❤️

#bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookrecommendations #bestbooks #fiction

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Eight books I’m so excited to read this year. Some have been recommended to me so many times, and I’ve seen so many of you reading them! 😍

I’ve already started If It Makes You Happy after @coziness_and_books review convinced me to pick it up. Reading it in autumn just feels right. @coziness_and_books also recommended The Goldfinch, which has been sitting on my bookshelf for years. 😅

And The Shadow of the Wind came home with me from a second hand bookshop trip with @agota.bokacs, who told me it’s her favourite and that I simply have to read it. So, of course, I had to buy it.

Theo of Golden is another book I’m really looking forward to reading. After seeing @timiibalogh_ and @kiss_kriszta reviews, I’m even more curious to pick it up.

I really want to make time for these books this year, even though I keep putting them off!

And then there’s American Hagwon, the new release that’s so tempting to pick up next because I’ve loved the author’s other books. 🥺❤️‍🩹

My TBR never stands a chance. 😂❤️

#bookstagrammer #bookstagrammer #tbr #booksbooksbooks #bookish

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Welcome to Day 2 of the festival! Check out these exciting events across @veritylanemarket, @nationallibraryaus, @hyattcanberra, and @dendy_canberra. And of course, we can't wait to see who will take out the ACT Book of the Year awards. Tickets available on our website.

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