Book Swaps Sydney

The Four Agreements Book Club Discussion

Join us as we explore The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. Meet in person for an evening of reflection, conversation and connection in a warm, intentionally held space. Specific location TBC. • Explore the book's content • Gain fresh insights from the collective wisdom of the group • Connect through meaningful conversation Whether you've finished the book or are just getting started, you're warmly welcome. Come with curiosity, an open mind and a willingness to connect.

Books and Bevvies

Welcome to **Books & Bevvies** — a casual book swap and drinks social in the Sydney CBD. This is not a book club with homework. It’s a simple, low-key way to meet people, chat about what you’ve been reading, and walk out with something new. **HOW IT WORKS** Bring a book you’re happy to part with. Pop it on the swap table when you arrive. Mingle, chat, and swap recommendations. When the swap opens, take a book that catches your eye. Stay for a drink and a conversation after. **WHAT TO BRING** One book, any genre and any reading level. **GOOD TO KNOW** The venue relies on accurate numbers for staffing, so if you can’t make it, please change your RSVP to “not going”. Repeated no-shows may result in removal from the group. The venue is kindly not enforcing a minimum spend, but please support them by buying a drink, soft drink, or some lunch during the swap if you can. There is no mandatory entry fee, but voluntary contributions are **very much** appreciated. The group costs around **$65 a month to keep running**, so if you enjoy the swap and are in a position to chip in, even $5 or $10 makes a real difference. I’ll have a jar near the sign-in list on the day. Please feel free to contribute at any stage through the swap. **WHERE WE’LL BE** We’ll be in the Market Street Garden Bar, with a table full of books and bevvies.

Western Classics Book Club social

A social for those who come along to the Western Classics Book Club. There is no set book to discuss. People are encouraged to bring their literary heads along for uplifting discussion and witty repartee. Also, do bring along a book to swap! Although meeting at the usual place (The Shakespeare Hotel, 200 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills) we will be meeting in one of the smaller rooms on the same floor. Look for the sign! Contact dalemills@cantab.net for more info.

September Book Club: The Hundred Years' War on Palestine

Welcome to Meet the Moment Book Club, where we read books that meet the moment and make sense of it all together. Please see our [group page](https://www.meetup.com/meet-the-moment-book-club/) for a list of upcoming books. After examining the economic system, we now understand how economic growth fuels many of the crises in our world today, including historical and ongoing colonialism. This leads us to one of the most salient examples of our time: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I've long known I needed to understand more about Palestine, and how the horrors there are interlocked with the current crises we face. Civil rights leaders have long spoken of collective liberation, that "none of us are free until we are all free." But what does that really mean? Of all the issues today, why must we care about this one that is so far away? Recently I came across this interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUyIjQLh9J0), then read his book *The Message*, and feel like I am on my way to the very beginnings of understanding. *The Hundred Years' War on Palestine*, long recommended to me, feels like the natural next step in my learning journey. If you'd like to join me on this quest to understand more about Palestine, please join me in reading -- the author, Rashid Khalidi, is not only a renowned historian and Columbia professor, but his family's history is interwoven with Palestine's -- his great-great-great uncle was the mayor of Jerusalem in the 1800s and was the first Palestinian leader on record to write to the Zionist founder Theodor Herzl when the Zionist movement was still nascent. Khalidi weaves his own and his family's history into this history of the conflict in this acclaimed international bestseller. \*\*\* "A landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history." https://www.amazon.com.au/HUNDRED-YEARS-WAR-PALESTINE-Colonialism/dp/1627798552# "Rigorous and lucid . . . Rashid Khalidi, the intellectual heir to Edward Said, has written one of the great books on the Israeli-Palestinian question." --Financial Times "Rashid Khalidi makes clear that the Zionists could not have created modern day Israel without abundant help from Britain and the United States. A must read for the growing number of people who are interested in understanding the real roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." --John J. Mearsheimer, coauthor of The Israel Lobby \*\*\* We will be meeting at The Erko Hotel, at the big square raised table next to the bar. We will start and end on time. There's no fee, but please purchase your own food/drinks from the venue. \*\*\* If you have trouble getting the book, message me. On reading a book: I encourage people to read books over just interviews or summaries, because nothing beats the slow digesting of the beauty and nuances in a book. Especially for the books in this book club that challenge our worldviews and help us see the world as it truly is, these books need to be really grappled with, to be fully engaged with, to receive the full benefits. For reference, I use book clubs to motivate me to finish the books I want to read, so the date of the book club becomes a deadline to finish the book by. I calculate the number of pages in a book and the number of days I can realistically read, and work out how many pages on average I need to read each day. That's how I've finished many books. Invariably, they're worth reading to the end. Of course, life happens and we're all busy. If you really can't finish a book or can only watch videos this time, that's okay. Come by with an attitude of listening, open to being inspired, and take in what others have to say; perhaps you'll want to read/finish the book afterwards. Just know that books are like most things in life: what you put in is what you get out of it. A podcast or ChatGPT can give you the high-level points, sure, perhaps to BS your way to a decent grade in class; but we're not in school anymore, and we read these books because they better our lives and help us see more clearly. But they can only do so if we read them, because reading is what makes all the new concepts come to life enough to maybe change yours. For the full magic, you just gotta read. Alright, thanks for reading my ode to reading. \*\*\* If the RSVP list is full, please join the waiting list as there will likely be fluctuations closer to the date. If you RSVP'ed and can't make it, please edit your RSVP so that others can attend. No-shows will be noted and barred from the book club. Look forward to seeing you there!

Ignorance by Milan Kundera

Our next book club will be on the late great Milan Kundera’s (1929-2023) ‘Ignorance’ (2000). Kundera was an exiled Czech writer who lived in France from 1975 until his death. He also wrote his later works in French and thought they should be considered French literature. Kundera’s work often considers similar themes, such as exile, identity, and transgressing different borders. Ignorance was his second-last novel and considered his last serious one. It deals with the suffering of emigration and myths of nostalgia through the tale of two Czech emigrants returning to their homeland, drawing heavily from the myth of Odysseys. We will be meeting at Shakespeare Hotel on 26 September at 2pm :)

The Curious Mum: Baby-Friendly Books & Ideas Circle (Book via Humanitix)

Have you ever wished there was a space where you could reconnect with the part of yourself that existed before motherhood? I created The Curious Mum after searching for a community where I could discuss books, explore new ideas and connect with like-minded mums—all while bringing my baby along. When I couldn’t find it, I decided to create it. This is a relaxed, baby-friendly gathering for mums with babies and young toddlers (approximately 0–3 years) who enjoy meaningful conversation and lifelong learning. 📖 Our September book: An Immense World by Ed Yong No pressure to finish the book—come along even if you’ve only read a chapter or listened to part of the audiobook. Expect thoughtful conversation, curious minds, and a welcoming space where babies are part of the experience. 🎟️ Places are limited, so registration is essential. Please register via Humanitix using the link in this event. https://events.humanitix.com/the-curious-mum-a-baby-friendly-books-and-ideas-circle-p6bfmsmh

Monkey King - Wu Cheng'en (c. 16th century) trans. Julia Lovell

The third in our **Journey to the East** reading series exploring texts from the Middle East, India, China and Japan. *Join the Really Old Books Whatsapp to see the full schedule - the Meetup site only allows me to advertise one event at a time. Message me to get the WhatsApp link as we've been getting too much spam recently.* \-\-\- In 16th century Europe, a grumpy German man was about to begin an incredibly long and tedious argument with the Pope. Henry VIII was living in domestic bliss. The Spanish and the Portuguese had inexplicably decided they owned half of the world. Everything's pretty hectic. In China, among other things, a novel was written: Journey to the West, which dared to ask 'what if a pig and a monkey were friends? And fought crime?' I don't think I could make this book sound crazier than it really is if I tried. Monkey King is a must-read for fantasy nerds, Jackie Chan fans and book lovers of any merit. We'll be reading a 300 page abridgement of the much longer Journey to the West, specifically Julia Lovell's translation. Earlier English abridgements exist such as the one by Arthur Waley, but I'd like us to stick to the same text so we can cover the same material, and perhaps discuss a little more what it means to 'modernise' something 500 years old. This will be our most 'accessible' book yet (of course, I think all the books we do are accessible in a humanist sense). No prior knowledge is required and you don't even need to know where China is on the map. (East of India, hence the title.) Be ready for a rollicking, wacky kung fu adventure where you just might learn a little along the way.

Gayby Baby (2015)

September's documentary film is: Gayby Baby (2015) Gayby Baby is a 2015 Australian documentary film directed by Maya Newell that follows four children, Gus, Ebony, Matt and Graham, raised by queer parents and explores the ways in which growing up as a "gayby" has affected them. PG CC Run time: 1h 25m *You need to be a library member to attend this event, if you haven't joined yet, we value your membership and would love you to join. Discover everything the library has to offer including free e-books, audiobooks, e-magazines, movie streaming and so much more. Access our e-library 24/7. Join our library [here](https://library.waverley.nsw.gov.au/libero/WebOpac.cls?VERSION=2&ACTION=SIGNUPAGREE&RSN=&DATA=DWL&TOKEN=75KA1hXWhx6590&Z=1&NewBreadCrumb=1)*

Queer Reads

Reading list for 2026: * Feb: Queer Heroes of Myth and Legend by Dan Jones * Mar: Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin * Apr: Invisible Boys by Holden Sheppard * May: In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado * Jun: Just by Looking at Him by Ryan O'Connell * Jul: Pageboy by Elliot Page * Aug: Milk Fed by Melissa Broder * Sep: Jack Charles: Born-again Blakfella by Jack Charles * Oct: We Are Never Meeting In Real Life by Samantha Irby * Nov: Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar * Dec: Carol by Patricia Highsmith

Book discussion: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Published in 1963, *The Bell Jar* is Sylvia Plath’s haunting and deeply personal novel of psychological unravelling. It follows Esther Greenwood, a gifted young woman whose promising future begins to fracture under the weight of expectation, identity, and an increasing sense of dislocation. As Esther moves between ambition and paralysis, the novel traces her descent into mental illness with unsettling clarity. Social roles, gender norms, and the pressure to conform begin to feel suffocating, raising questions about autonomy and what it means to live authentically. Intimate and unflinching, *The Bell Jar* explores the fragile boundaries between selfhood and collapse, asking how one might reclaim a sense of meaning and agency in a world that feels both oppressive and indifferent.

Favourite YA Novels - Spring Drinks & Chat

Book Club - 'Black Bag' by Luke Kennard and 'Whistler' by Anne Patchett