What i’ve read, April 2011

  The Transition Handbook, Rob Hopkins-To say my spare time has been consumed by Transition would be an understatement. I fell in love with the concept about two years back when I first read it, and now i’m involved in starting a Transition Initiative i’m rather excited. You should get excited too, it’s an awesome, fun way to design your community’s descent from fossil fuel dependency and inspire relocalisation. Read more here. And here!

  Listening to Country, Ros Moriarty-Autobiographical, about the author’s involvement with her husband’s Indigenous family. Admittedly, I grew up in a (typical?) family where racism was fairly standard and it wasn’t until my early twenties that I realised that they were completely wrong. I’ve made more of an effort since them to educate myself and this is a fine book for it-it’s the only thing i’ve read that’s written on a personal level, rather than at arms-length. The loss of culture and knowledge is so incredibly tragic and irreversible-hopefully the efforts to preserve what remains are successful.

  Mind Maps for Kids, Tony Buzan-More for me, as I have so many balls in the air at the moment anything that will help keep them up is welcome. Just mind-maps, not massively exciting.

  Mama Mia, Mia Freedman-Autobiography. I read this in an evening and actually really enjoyed it-possibly because the lifestyle she lead/s is so different to mine! Funny because I remember reading a lot of the Cosmos that are mentioned in there as a teen (I had Brad Pitt naked :P) with some tearjerking parts. Which is life for everyone, really.

  Anastasia, Vladimir Megre-This series has come highly recommended to me by a few people. While i’ve liked reading the first two, i’ll reserve judgement until i’ve finished the series. It’s the first book i’ve read that suggests existence of a Creator that I haven’t thought was total bullshit, so I suppose it’s already achieved a massive victory (i’ll keep my sceptic hat firmly on though, thanks).

  The Ringing Cedars of Russia, Vladimir Megre-As above.

  Earth Garden #154-Missed this one somehow. Made me want to go travelling.

  Home Farmer V1, Earth Garden Publications-Missed this one somehow too. Made me want to start a farm in the backyard-don’t think landlord would approve. Already pushing it with more chickens than legally allowed and mini oat field.

  Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver-I adore this book, it’s the third time i’ve read it. I scored it at the op-shop so if any locals want it drop around. It’s her family’s story of their local eating for a year, from a production point of view. It’s written in a very thoughtful, humorous way and is immensely readable. Puts forward lots of very persuasive arguments for locavory, as well as dealing with many ethical issues in a totally non-confrontational way. If you need inspiration to garden, read this-it makes me want to run outside and start digging.

What i’ve read-March 2011

The Triumph of the Airheads and the Retreat from Commonsense, Shelley Gare-Very good! If you commonly see total idiocy presented as serious ideas, and taken up solemnly, while you shake your head muttering “what the fuck?” then read it. Also for if you hate the dumbing down of virtually everything-surely i’m not the only one who hates being patronised? Australian too.

Grassroots #202 & 203-All caught up now.

Booms, Busts and Bushfires-Australia 1973-present, Jackie French-Yes, I know it’s a kids book, but I know embarrassingly little about Australian history (after 14+ years of formal, state-sanctioned education), and everyone has to start somewhere. Educating my own children is excellent motivation for filling in the gaps of my own education.

Eating Animals, Jonathan Safran Foer-This sat on the shelf for weeks after the husband read it, because I was sick of reading ‘food’ books. But he kept urging me, so I started it…………and loved it. It’s really good to read a book that actually takes a point of view, instead of the normal ‘this happens, it’s horrible, but i’m still an omnivore’. Yay, someone else who feels the need to completely boycott the meat and animal products industry! I have more to write about this, don’t bring a steak sandwich to the reading ;)

The Fable of all our Lives, Peter Kocan-novel. I liked this, but it’s sort of hard to see why. It’s not technically an interesting book, but I found myself finding excuses to read it. I enjoyed the theme of the QO vs the Regime, because I certainly feel like that a lot of the time. Some rather interesting events happen which will get you thinking about our over-policed, over-paranoid society.

What i’ve read, February 2011

A good month for reading!

The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan-Fantastically interesting. An evolutionary view of plants from the perspective of four plants, who have managed to manipulate us into planting more of them than ever would have existed in the wild. So who’s in charge-them or us?

Are We Listening to Our Children, Paolo Crepet-Overall, yet another book that rails against society for creating crap children, but fails to suggest removing them from the crap parts of society (ie chucking out the TV, homeschooling etc) as an easy solution. I’m not waiting around for school/advertising/food reform.

The 100-Mile Diet, Alisa Smith & JB MacKinnon-Easy on the brain cells and entertaining-if you want an introduction to food issues this is a good one to read. It won’t have you drowning in science-speak or completely freaked out, but it covers most of the main issues. The husband immediately wanted to try it, but I said no way. Our current vegetarian/wholefood/organic/Australian/no GM/frugal diet is limiting enough without adding MORE criteria. We can cut the remaining food miles with the extra garden space we’ve just added.

Wholefood for Children, Jude Blereau-I don’t think I can return this cookbook to the library. This is full of recipes that illustrate my ideal way of eating (minus the meat). I’m definitely going to search out and most likely buy one of her adult cookbooks. Yes, I read everything non-recipe, and most of the recipes too.

The Last Word, Jenny Chantry and Mike McKay-The sort of book that makes me realise I may as well be from another planet-compared to these baby-boomer retirees anyway.

Grass Roots 200 & 201-Love this mag.

Creative Homeschooling, Alan Whitehead-Not one i’d recommend to the beginning homeschooler, and way too much blather. It’s really hard to get to the substance of it, and it’s not particularly my style. However, I do like his approach to handling meddling authorities-basically obfuscation, pretending compliance and moving house if all else fails.

Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser-Can’t believe it took me so long to track this down and read it! It’s not an easy read but it’s very in-depth. More of the same food stuff really, with more coverage, especially of meatpacking conditions and disease. And I found out Elders is owned by ConAgra. I seem to find out we’re more American every day-why does no-one in control care? Oh, that’s right-a goldfish attention span combined with $$$$$.

New Internationalist #430-The kind of magazine I wish I understood everything in, and will once the kids are older.

What i’ve read-January 2011

  Ah, a busy month, this one. With Christmas and Frosty’s birthday just behind me, Oods’ birthday looming, four orders to complete and the MIL here for a fortnight reading time was at a premium.

Hungry Planet, Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio. An absolute must-read, this is about the fifth time i’ve borrowed it out. Putting the German family’s photo next to the Sudanese refugees in Chad is the perfect example of how politics, not lack of food, leads to hunger. Definitely something that will put you in your place on a petulant day.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig (DNF)-Didn’t have enough brain for this one-some tantalising ideas to ponder, but not enough brain space left to give them credit. I gave up about halfway through, but will definitely try again in a couple of years.

Someone Else’s Child, Sue Phillips-Story of surrogate pregnancy from the surrogate’s view. Rather simplistic, but interesting nonetheless.

Texas, Sarah Hay-Novel, an easy read but with more substance than the ghastly chick-lit.

Enlightenment for Beginners, Anne Cushman-Novel, somewhat disappointing but I think that’s only because i’ve seen it recommended in a few places so expected more. Worth a read though.

How to go Carbon Neutral, Mark Brassington-A good one of it’s kind-it’s a lot more no-nonsense and much less wishy-washy than most books of eco-tips.

What i’ve read-August

I thought it may be useful for me to keep track of what I read. I read a lot, and mostly non-fiction. Already, after only six weeks, I can track my interests waxing and waning through my list of books.

Here’s August-gardening seemed to be the dominant theme, appropriate for a month of setting up gardens in a new house.

Child of our Time-Dr Tessa Livingstone

A Year of Slow Food-David and Gerda Foster

Growing without Digging-Esther Deans

Earth Garden Backyard Farmer #4

Is it just me or is Everything Shit? V2-Lowe and McArthur

Absurdistan-Eric Campbell

Easy Aquaponics-Earth Garden

The Crafty Minx-Kelly Doust

Sewing Green-Betz White

If you want to ask me about any, feel free! I love a chat about a good (or not so good) book.