Help! Each book I read keeps getting made into a movie!!

So, I have actually been fitting in a bit of reading lately.


A disturbing trend is emerging - I read a book... come across it by chance or because someone gives it to me or lends it to me. Then it gets made into a movie, or I find out that a movie has already been made. For example:


- The Time Traveller's Wife (Audrey Niffeneger) - an entertaining read. At first I thought it was going to be a bit of a Benjamin Button story, but it is better. Movie release imminent, but I'm not really interested in seeing this - don't think it will add to my reading experience.


- A Most Wanted Man (John le Carre) - spy thrillers ain't what they used to be. Just isn't the same now the main character isn't slipping under the Berlin Wall to conduct their espionage. Not a movie - but I'm sure it will be soon.


- The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold) - An interesting book, on how a family and community copes with time after a girl is murdered. Being made into a book by Peter Jackson, who will make sure the looking down from heaven bits aren't all harmonicas and angel wings. Would be interested in seeing this film.

- Let the right one in (John Ajvide Lindqvist) - Vampires in the 'burbs of '80's Stockholm. Apparenty this is already a film, but I never heard of it when it came out. May rent this one out. Not sure how they handled the gruesome bits, and if they did them graphically, I'm not sure I want to see it!!


And lined up next...

- The Road (Cormac McCarthy)


And... on the TV the other night - Slaughterhouse 5 (I'm still yet to get my hands on a copy of this to read, but want to...) and Farenheit 451.

Getting Graphic

I find it very hard to get much reading done, but have managed to read a few graphic novels lately:

"Maus", by Art Spiegelman

Tells the story of the author's father and mother, who were Jewish and survived WW2 in Poland. The Jews are depicted as mice, Nazis as cats, Poles were pigs - seems a little bit Animal Farm from what I'm writing, but that's where the similarities end. They story is probably just as it came from the Author's Father's mouth, but the drawings of humanoids with animal heads make it just bearable to read, given the horrors that went on at the time. Brilliant. There are actually 2 books, but the book I read was actually 2 volumes in one.


Moomin - the complete Tove Jannson Comic strip


Tove Jannson - author of the Moomintroll children's books - released comics in strips in the 50's, and these were compiled into 3-4 volumes. We've been lent the first one. I never read them as kids, but am enjoying them. They are different to the books, apparently, which are a lot more whimsical - I'm saving them to read aloud to my son when he's old enough. But the comics have funny stories about the Moomins, who are somewhat naive creatures living a quiet, plain life in Finland. I can't imagine anything like this being written today - they have a nice innocence about them.

Housing works bookstore

Enjoyed this book store, a beacon of cosiness, but along with the slick art books and great lofty wooden shelf decor was a great slightly real feel thanks to volunteer run cafe with affordable snacks and drinks, second hand books, and knowing that it's all for a good cause. B Sharp and I picked up several good reads here, and enjoyed the rest from sight seeing.

New old books

Thanks to Richard for giving me these gorgeous, well thumbed, pieces of art. I haven't begun reading them yet but love them anyway as little bits of ephemera which have lasted the distance (I know some people say paperbacks shouldn't be kept, but I really like that they manage to keep going despite their frailty, and wear their age proudly not like some haughty preserved hard cover) and also as a gesture of friendliness from a local while I was away from home in Montreal recently and looking for local bookshops. He couldn't recommend anything in particular so passed on some books instead. How cool is that?

Lovely little bookies

The two books I want to share today were birthday presents from BSharp, all the way from old Amsterdam. The first one, Tight Fit (edition one) is a full colour saddle stitched A5 zine, with fine production values, and even finer pictures. Put together by Sarah Lippett (www.crayonlegs.com) and featuring the work of 9 other contributors, this little book is a brief, stylish, lighthearted, visually confident and silly exploration of the beard (well facial hair, but mostly beards). My favourite part is the section on 'literal facial hair'- with pictures of a man with actual mutton chops perched on either cheek, bicycle handlebars as mustouche.. you get the idea. The colour is fun and this with the slick and 'now' illustration style makes it very readable and easy to engage with in a way that B&W, 'made on the work copier' publications often don't manage (though I know old skool zinesters would think me missing the point of the genre for saying so).

The next little book is It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks, a slightly smaller than DL sized art book with no words, each page featuring a colourful monster face. The images look like they've been done with water colours and maybe gouche and are deliciously contorted and full of character. I like the detil in the faces andthe way that they look a little awkward and unslick. The detail and use of colour in each image is really quite beautiful. Sourced to www.billdunlap.com

Fast books: would you like a glass of wine with that?

I just found this exciting article about a new machine that prints books while you wait. Ok, look there should be a law that they can only ever use recycled paper. But - how cool it that? I just imagined a whole new world for the bookshop. Maybe the big chains will keep a front section display with all the lastest chick-lit, Ian Rankin, South American magic realism pastiche and Irish poverty porn novels. But in the back will be a couple of these beasties, with nice LED-touch screen displays, where you can surf through millions of books and - voila! your own copy. It would be an awesome way to get hold of journal articles, proper peer-reviewed research, and academic work, too. Gawd, a potential antidote to the endless circular arguments on the internet which relay he said/ she said nonsense without any real research or fact finding. Oh frabjous day. Imagine if you were studying in the outback and you had one of these babies and an internet connection in town? Imagine if you can get them into kids community centres in remote areas, for printing picture books or exercise books? What about in Kabul, Bagdhad, Nairobi? I guess the database must come from laborious digitisation of old issues.. this has been going on for some time now, I think the NSW state library is fairly heavily involved. A truly wonderful thing.

Attention span of a goldfi...

Not getting through any books at the moment, which is sad. I want to read something but can't decide.

Have the following three in rotation:

"It's A Boy: Women writers on raising sons" by AJ Buchanan (Ed).
This is a collection of short prose by a variety of types of women (from all girl families, with difficult fathers, women who had suffered from difficulties conceiving etc), with all sorts of pre-conceptions about what having a son would be like (from those who were *sure* they were going to have a girl, those who had father issues...), about a wide variety of boys (those who are afraid of the dark, those who love purple velvet until they get teased about it at school, those who get led astray by the neighbourhood bullies, those who start playing shoot-em-up games despite their parents being pacifists). Interesting book to read in fits and starts.

"Blubberland" by Elizabeth Farrelly
Not sure if I will finish this one. Basically about overconsumption. This is a topic I've thought about deeply for a few years, and don't feel I really need to read about. (Got the book as a freeby at a conference last year. Anyone want it?)

"Up the Duff", by Kaz Cooke
Pregnancy refresher course. Still pretty funny second time around.

Also reading:
"Cosmos" magazine - which is great, and I got a subscription for xmas. Highly recommended. I plan to leave all my old copies in my obstetrician's waiting room, so we don't all have to read pregnancy, house decoration, or golfing magazines (surely other people like science mags too?)

G is for Gumshoe – Sue Grafton

My mum introduced me to Sue Grafton, and it’s been great, because we’ve read them at the same time and been able to swap, give them to each other as gifts, and talk about them. For those who don’t know, she (Grafton, not my mum) has written a series titled in ascending order through the alphabet. ‘A is for Alibi’, ‘B is for Burglar’ etc.

Kinsey Milhone is the main character in this series. I love her as a protagonist because she’s a little bit standoffish, a bit world weary, and a bit reluctant to get close to people. Her relationships are short lasting, and unpredictable, she tends to hook up romantically with people who are ultimately unavailable. She is dogged and takes risks more out of stubbornness than courage. She is also very happy in her tiny apartment space, local neighborhood, and there is much routine and familiarity in the same old characters and same old places in each book.

“I opened my trunk and checked my spare, which was looking a bit soggy in itself. I wrestled it out and bounced it on the pavement. Not wonderful, but I decided it would get me as near as the nearest service station, which I remembered seeing a few miles down the road. This is why I jog and bust my hump lifting weights, so I can cope with life’s little inconveniences. At least I wasn’t wearing heels and panty hose and I didn’t have glossy fingernails to wreck in the process.”


“On the far side of the road was a café with a blinking neon that said EAT AND GET GAS. Just what I needed.”

This was a great Kinsey mystery, with an out of town trip to a dustbowl trailer park land, interweaving of two stories - one from now and one from decades before, a threat on her life and the first encounter of the hot and heavy kind with Dietz. Does this all sound like Mills and Boon with guns? It's not, really, it's, you know, nuanced, and funny and standoffish and cool. Really.

It’s a mystery

So I think I have confessed before to my love of the trashy crime fiction. Love it. I love it because elements of the form are so predictable. I love it because I can read one in a day or two, especially if that day involves long baths, being sick on the couch, or flying places and spending time in airports. The main characters are so beat up around the edges. The stories are so earthed in physical realities like meals eaten, whiskey drunk, rooms surveyed, draws rifled through, bruises healing, trashy motels slept in, car chases had. Detail, these are stories heady with nouns. My earliest detective fiction loves were Nancy Drew, and Miss Marple. I wanted to be both of them. Sneaking around with a hunch and a trail of clues. As I got older I read more Agatha Christie, had a brief dalliance with Mary Higgens Clark (what can I say, I was a teenager, my taste hormones were unpredictable), discovered Raymond Chandler in my twenties (and stuck with him exclusively), and have in the past few years had serial monogamous reading relationships with Sue Grafton, Ian Rankin, Janet Evanovich (a blind date / casual fling that ended up a long term relationship), Kerry Greenwood, Andrea Camilleri, Lisa Scottalina and even Alexander McCall Smith (though he is a bit squeaky clean and pompous, kind of like having an affair with a well spoken Oxford tutored beige wearing history teacher, no offense).

Mysteries I’ve read so far this year (errm, to the detriment of all those other books on the to read list - oops):
G is for Gumshoe – Sue Grafton
High Five – Janet Evanovich
Hot Six – Janet Evanovich
Seven Up – Janet Evanovich
Hard Eight – Janet Evanovich
To the Nines – Janet Evanovich
Ten Big Ones – Janet Evanovich
Eleven on top – Janet Evanovich
the Right Attitude to Rain - Alexander McCall Smith
Moment of Truth – Lisa Scottaline
Dirty Blonde – Lisa Scottaline
Legal Tender – Lisa Scottaline

Quietly Sure like the Keeper of Great Secret – Jo Dery

This book was a present from Miss Snapdragon and Tall Boy Tamegoshi, when they visited San Francsico over the summer. They found it at a store called Little Otsu a ‘small press shop’. On the site they say about this book “Things start off with the dispersal of some vicious seeds and wind their way through six stories of new discoveries, things gained and lost, new partnerships, and lessons learned.” It is mostly pictures and speech bubble text. The book, and much of their stock, sits in the realm of that very modern, awkward, flat and whimsical graphics style. The book itself was mostly intriguing and felt just outside the realm of understanding for me, which can be lovely. Little Otsu has the kind of website and products that make me want to turn into points of light and creep in between the leaves of web page and snuggle up for a strange, stylish, otherworldy nap.

Do you fake it?

(Reading, that is). Apparently, if you do, you'd be in good company. Recent Guilty Secrets survey (Apparently carried out by the UK organisation 'Spread the Word' as part of the lead up to National Book Day) reveals that 65% of respondents have lied about reading a book. (Erm, just to clarify, not lied about ever having read a book - that would be extra scary - I mean lied about having read a particular book).

And what are we pretending to read? Well, poor George would be turning in his 'doesn't anyone in this world understand irony' grave, because it's, dada, yes, 1984. Apparently 42% of people have lied about reading that one. Not that his dystopic view of dumbed down centrally controlled simpletons with a loose hold on truth has come true or anything (she says sweetly without any hint of malice).

Shortly followed by
2. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (31%)
3. Ulysses by James Joyce (25%)
4. The Bible (24%)
5. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (16%)
6. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (15%)
7. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie (14%)
8. In Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust (9%)
9. Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama (6%)
10. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (6%)

I can happily admit to not having read 2, having read 3 chapters of 3, random quotes from 4, nothing of 5-9, and actually not being able to remember if I've read #10 (Bsharp can you jog my memory - was that uni reading?). I did read 1984, but jeez it was a long time ago and I think I had to for school.

And if you do sometimes fake it, what really turns you on?
The Guardian reporting on the same survey says that when asked to name the writers they really enjoyed, 61% of people ticked JK Rowling and 32% John Grisham. I guess my guilty pleasure mystery novels (Chandler, Rankin, Grafton, Evanovich, McCall Smith and others)are on par with Rowling and Grisham. I really enjoy them for the 4 minutes it takes to read them, but does that mean I enjoy them the most out of everything I read? Or are books like lovers, and sometimes the ones that take longer to get there and are more unusual, surprising and multifaceted, awkward, challenging even, end up being the ones that change you, that linger on your mind?

kids books

I was sad to read last week that Kilmeny Niland had died. As a kid, I had quite a few books illustrated by her and her twin sister Deborah*, most memorably Tell me a Tale, Haunts and Taunts, and Pancakes and Painted Eggs. These books were quite thick and full of a variety of stories, factual articles about traditions around the world, songs and poems, all with imaginative illustrations.

Some kids books stay in your mind all your life. Here are some of my favourite books from childhood that I still have (click to embiggen the pictures).





1,2,3: this was actually my brother’s book, but I always loved and still love the graphic design by Brian Wildsmith. The simplicity and the rich colours are beautiful.





Alison and the Bear: obviously I liked this one because it was about me! Or if not me, another little girl called Alison, who, despite everyone saying she can’t do it, goes out and captures a bear, using only peanut butter sandwiches. It has wonderful simple crayon-y illustrations that are very effective despite being mostly back and white. I only recently noticed that on the back, it notes that “This is a non-sexist children’s book, published by the Women's Movement Children's Literature Co-Operative”. Strange to think there was a time when an effort had to be made (though maybe with princess culture reasserting itself, it’s time for another round).







The Cock with the Golden Comb: this was one of four books that I had which were published in the USSR. They were about A4 sized and printed on cheap paper with no covers, and the back page was all in Russian. I have no idea how we got them. The writing was a bit stilted and had the quality of being a literal rather than literary translation. But as you can see, the illustrations were fantastic. The Cock with the Golden Comb one is a retelling of a singing rooster that is able to produce cakes and bread from a magical hand mill, and thereby brings good fortune and plenty to eat to a young brother and sister, and saves them from the wicked tsar.



Another of these Soviet books was Life with Granny Kandiki : traditional stories from the far north of Russia, about talking bears, ravens that rescued babies, and why arctic hares have black tips on their ears, amongst other things.




My favourite of the Soviet books was The Brave Ant. Unfortunately I’ve lost this one, it had the grooviest illustrations of them all (think lots of green and tan and lime-yellow, and big loopy-psychedelic pictures of stylised ants). It was also the most propaganda-esque – it was all about the virtues of collectivism and how the ants working together managed to save the ant colony from being washed away by a flood. The ants called each other Comrade.


The Triumph of Jessie and Laura: this was given to my mum for her 10th birthday. It’s one of many in the genre of ‘plucky orphan girl dreams of being ballerina, suffers many setbacks, fate intervenes and makes her A Star!” That genre seems to have completely died – maybe ballet’s not such a popular vehicle for stardom in the age of Australia Idol? Or perhaps orphans aren’t as cool as they used to be? From memory, Jessie was the dancer and Laura wanted to be a writer. Laura also had consumption so spent a lot of time lying about coughing and bravely sacrificing her writerly earnings for ballet shoes instead of spending them on medicine. There was also some sort of wicked uncle and a kindly old anonymous gentleman who married Laura at the end. In fact, this is why the Non-Sexist Children's book was invented.

What were your favourite books as a kid?

*Australian literary trivia #7692: Deborah and Kilmeny Niland are the daughters of writers Ruth Park (The Harp in the South) and D’Arcy Niland (The Shiralee).

New book - Expressway

Those of you who are interested in analyzing or critiquing fossil-fuel-
based economies and ecologies may be interested in Sina Queyras's
brand new book EXPRESSWAY. This is a book I heard about on a Canadian list about literature and the environment.

I don't know Sina Queyra's work but it seems like she is a well regarded Canadian postmodern poet who consistently engages with interesting eco-social issues.

And... this book has a trailer! Maybe heaps of books do these days but to be honest I'd never seen one before now. Gotta love the music too - aaah acca dacca.

I think this is her blog.

(NB has mildly disturbing images - maybe steer clear if you've been involved in a horrific auto-accident)

Well booklub has been progressing while I've been online elsewhere! Thought it might be a good time to do a summary of recent winter reading. Going on Miss J's theme, of the 'accidental book club' the first three are examples, of books that have just floated to me from saying to people (or them saying to me) can you lend me a book? Whatever you can spare, I'm going to cross the ocean so you might not get it back. You don't get really treasured reads that way, but you get sort of zeitgeist, recent stuff and just randoms too. In this way, we have a kind of informal book club among some greenpeace women. Basically a habit we're getting of circulating whatever books we buy amongst three or four chicks, as all of us are somewhat temporary residents in Europe. Then we sometimes talk about them in the pub.

The Reader (now a film with Kate Winslett in an oscar winning role) -Bernard Schillink. (from Cindy) This is a very quick read, quite engaging, and moves from a kind of risque love story from the first-person perspective of a young German school boy, to something else entirely. I think I'd still like to see the film, and my guess is they might tell the narrative in a different order, using flashback, which would be interesting. I found it very poignant and touching towards the end. It contains a sequence where two people have a connection only through letters for a period of time, which was particularly bitter-sweet for me, having experienced that somewhat.

Elizabeth Costello by JM Coetzee. (from the Christian)
Coetzee is very big in Australia I think, and has won a Nobel for literature. This book is more like a collection of long-ish essays, but put into the mouth of this fictional writer, Costello. I think JM is a man, and I generally like it when writers create a character of the opposite gender. In this book, the protagonist has won prestigious awards, and has an international following. In parts it left me a bit cold and thinking "what?, why has this narrative swerved off onto a long and somewhat scholarly discussion of vegetarianism, and what happened to the son who was just there a minute ago?". It's like Coetzee's using this book more as a clever thought-exercise than to convey a real story, and it is stretched a bit thin in some parts. Also, I didn't understand every reference so I got the feeling you just had to be more well read in the classics to really feel satisfied on all levels its operating. Jade, you might enjoy the exploration of ideas about animals and humans and their place in the world, as stand-along pieces - perhaps in extract!

White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (also from Cindy)
Won the Man booker prize last year. Indian writers who show us western culture against and eastern sensibility have been pretty popular (at least on my bookshelf!) for a few years. Zadie Smith's White teeth is one of my favourites and I've also enjoyed Buddha of Suburbia, Hari Kunzru's Transmission, God of Small things, and more. Actually I'm constantly trying to pick books that aren't actually about a middle class, 20th century, white woman or man in US/ UK or Australia. Can be tough at times. This one hasn't left such a lasting impression for me as those ones that come straight to mind. It's pretty bleak, about a guy raised in rural India and his quest to do better for himself, I think he ends up in Mumbai. Most of it is about the lead up to life-changing situation, I would say you could sum it up as an experience of total corruption, that then sets him on the path to being "successful." There's plenty to think about while you're reading, what is success really, what is it like to feel locked into a pre-determined life of obligations and duty. The main character suffers a whole lot of humiliations and defeats in the first part. He holds himself apart from others around himself, always wanting to be above them, incorruptible in a way. There's plenty of sly humour, and it pushes a couple of boundaries, like all good tales. But it's a fairly straightforward book - not sure if I'd put it in the big super-star awards category. But then I don't have to read and pick from the whole shortlist either!

Current: The Eternal Frontier - Tim Flannery (from the discount shop in Amsterdam)
Reading books like this is a bit 'back to my roots' of straight ecology - hundreds of pages of at times almost boring descriptions of waves of animal and plant evolution across the American continent. Tim has a kind of scientific sub-text though.. the growing weight of evidence that arrival of humans can dramatically alter a continent's fauna and environment, through intense hunting. Weirdly this is quite a controversial proposition amongst some circles, and that may be holding us back from actually recognising that we've (cough) -fucked the climate-! Anyway, this one is more a 'straight' monograph so far, on the creation of the plants, animals and people who inhabited America, up to Columbus's arrival in 1492. But throughout all his writing he wants to add the idea that humans can radically alter their environment, they are not just products of it - not so strange really, but somehow anathema to some branches of technology and science. Loving the geeky stuff about paleo-megafauna, also just getting into the section on evolution of cultures too.

Me talk pretty one day - David Sedaris (from the discount shop in Sydney)
Had high hopes for this one, got it second hand, saved it up for the plane ride home. I found his book "Dress your children in corduroy and denim" hilarious and just so 'out there' as he shared the more ridiculous sides of his own up-bringing. This book was written before that one, and was more self-conscious, less laugh-out-loud funny. Still worth a go while travelling, but I wouldn't bother buying if I were you.

Trick or Treatment?

Written by a respected science journalist Simon Singh, and Britain's first professor of complementary medicine, Edzard Ernst, Trick or Treatment: Alternative Medicine on Trial claims to be "the definitive book on alternative medicine... honest, hard-hitting and impartial." I had high hopes.

The book has six chapters, the first of which has a discussion of the scientific method, clinical trials, and evidence-based medicine. This is important to set up the arguments of the next four chapters, each of which looks at the evidence for the efficacy of four branches of alternative medicine: acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropratice, and herbal medicine. Each of these chapters discusses the history of each therapy, how it is administered, and any clinical studies or other evidence of its effectiveness in treating certain conditions. Acupuncture and homeopathy get scathing reviews as being little more than placebos. Chiropractice scores on a few illnesses/conditions, and herbal medicine gets a conditional pass.

The final chapter tries to answer the question does it matter if alternative medicine is effective or ineffective, and then lists the "top ten culprits in the promotion of unproven and disproven medicine": celebrities, medical researchers, universities, alternative gurus, the media (twice), doctors, alternative medicine societies, government and regulators, and the World Health Organisation. There is also a substantial appendix with a short evaluation for each of a long list of alternative therapies (some of which I'd never heard of, which is quite an achievement for someone who lived in Glebe for seven years).

Three of the four therapies chosen for in-depth analysis, according to the authors, have little evidence to show that they are effective (compared to some for which there is more substantial evidence and are only given a short analysis in the appendix). The authors claim they have chosen the four therapies listed above because these are the most widespread - this is probably true in Britain, where homeopathy has been part of the establishment for hundreds of years and is available on the NHS, but probably not true in other countries where the book has been published.

The authors make some good points in the book about the lack of evidence for some alternative medical practice, beyond the placebo; and they also expose how many practitioners have been shown to be unethical in not operating on principles of informed consent, and in failing to keep records of how their patients have been treated, why, and any subsequent ill-effects. Another point they make very strongly is that alternative medicine is a financial rip-off. Again, this is probably more true in the UK, where conventional medicine is free, perhaps not so much in Australia or the US where alternative medicine can be a comparable price or covered by insurance.

I was a bit disappointed by this book. I found the language somewhat sensationalist and biased (in contradiction of its claim to being impartial and honest). The book is preaching to the choir to some extent, and is unlikely to win across any alternative medicine 'believers' to the authors' side. If they want to do that, they need to tone down the rhetoric.

To me, the more interesting question which the book scarcely touched, is not "what" alternative medicine is, but "why". We've never been healthier or lived longer, we've never had a more educated population, yet we are still yearning, it seems, for miracle cures and magic. Maybe that's a question for another book, best answered by a different set of authors.

Trick or Treatment: Alternative Medicine on Trial
Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst
Bantam Press

Cross posted at reading|reading|reading

Event: book launch and discussion

Sarah is a friend of a friend of mine and her work is thoughtful and contemporary. Recommend this event, the launch of her new book.

- - -

Sarah Maddison
Black Politics: Inside the complexity of Aboriginal Political Culture
Published by: Allen & Unwin
In conversation with Tom Calma

Thursday, March 12, 2009 / 6.30 for 7pm
Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe
Cost: $10/$7 conc. gleeclub welcome

Drawing on extensive interviews with activists and politicians, Black
Politics explains the dynamics of Aboriginal politics. It reveals the
challenges and tensions that have shaped community, regional and
national relations over the past 25 years.

Why do Aboriginal communities struggle so hard to be heard in
mainstream politics? How do remote and urban communities respond to
frequent dramatic shifts in federal and state Aboriginal policies?

Since the early 1990s Aboriginal Australia has experienced profound
political changes with very real and lasting implications, from the
Mabo land rights case in 1992, to the abolition of the Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) in 2005, to more recent
attempts to reduce the autonomy of remote communities. Sarah Maddison
identifies the tensions that lie at the heart of all Aboriginal
politics, arguing that until Australian governments come to grips with
this complexity they will continue to make bad policy with disastrous
consequences for Aboriginal people.

Based on original interviews with influential Aboriginal leaders
including Mick Dodson, Tom Calma, Alison Anderson, Jackie Huggins,
Warren Mundine and Larissa Behrendt, Black Politics seeks to
understand why Aboriginal communities find it so difficult to be
heard, get support, and organise internally. It also offers some
suggestions for the future, based on the collective wisdom of
political players at all levels of Aboriginal politics.

'Sarah Maddison has brought together a formidable range of Indigenous
voices and sources and placed their narratives within an analysis to
show the depth and complexity of Indigenous cultural and political
expression.' - From the foreword by Pat Dodson

Sarah Maddison is Senior Associate Dean in the Faculty of Arts and
Social Sciences at the University of NSW. She is coeditor of Silencing
Dissent and coauthor of Activist Wisdom.

Mr Tom Calma is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
Commissioner and Race Discrimination Commissioner

Mr Calma is an Aboriginal elder from the Kungarakan tribal group and a
member of the Iwaidja tribal group whose traditional lands are south
west of Darwin and on the Coburg Peninsula in Northern Territory,
respectively. He has been involved in Indigenous affairs at a local,
community, state, national and international level and worked in the
public sector for over 35 years.

Mr Calma has broad experience in public administration, particularly
in Indigenous education programs and in developing employment and
training programs for Indigenous people from both a national policy
and program perspective.

Creative Capitalism – A Conversation with Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and other Economic Leaders
Edited by Michael Kinsley

Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2008, Bill Gates urged business leaders to find new ways to help the world’s most disadvantaged by implementing what he called ‘creative capitalism’. In this book around forty contributors – primarily academics and business journalists – offer various points of view on what exactly creative capitalism might mean and how it might (or might not) work.

Described by editor Michael Kinsley as a “literary experiment”, Creative Capitalism is the product of an online discussion forum (creativecapitalism.typepad.com). Readers need not be discouraged by Kinsley’s introductory remarks about online prose’s dubious reputation for quality. Given the high calibre of the contributors, it is no surprise that the writing is of an excellent standard.

In fact, the blog-to-book experiment works well in more ways than one. Wide-ranging insights are presented in clear, concise contributions averaging just a few pages each. At times there is a lack of cohesion as contributors digress into areas of philosophical and legal principle of special interest. Far more effective are the moments of direct back-and-forth discussion between participants where ideas are developed or refuted in apparent real time.

Readers interested in the issue of corporate social responsibility will find an excellent range of views here but may also be frustrated by the amount of time spent trying to nail down what Gates’s anointed term, ‘creative capitalism’, actually means. Economics commentator Clive Crook highlights the nebulous character of the discussion when he says, “The most frustrating thing about the debate Bill Gates has started is that the term ‘creative capitalism’ is so vague.”

Creative Capitalism’s strength lies in its analysis of the underlying principles and theoretical consequences of corporate social responsibility. To complement this theoretical aspect, more needs to be heard from business people about their real-life successes and failures in the field.

Books of the interior

On Mystic Medusa's blog, there has recently been quite a funny conversation about whether or not one should hide one's more sexually explicit and or self help and or slightly wacko sounding books in the interests of getting a shag. All inspired by MM's experience of reading a profile on a dating site that said something lie “if you are a woman sitting alone in a house with three cats and a pile of self-development books move right along, I am not for you.”

I find the whole thing amusing for several reasons - firstly, I assumed every heterosexual non-wiccan non-RSPCA volunteering non-alternative therapy trained man probably thought something along those lines. I assumed that saying you were reading books on chakra cleansing was the dating equivalent of saying that you live with your elderly parents and sleep in a single bed with fairy print bed linen with your china doll collection, prefer wear elastic waisted skirts pulled up high and like to cut out kitten pictures from women's magazines (no offense to anyone who does those things). Ie slightly batty and very very unsexy. But what would I know. (Note - I do read books on chakra cleansing so I'm not actually passing judgement).

Secondly I think it's funny that there must be heaps of people out there censoring their book collections and trying to figure out what is 'public viewing' material and what gets snuck away in the bedside table. And who says what is embarrassing enough to be hidden away anyway?

On the topic of steamy books - I once had someone comment on the raunchier tomes on my bookshelves at the end of the night as a clunky kind of 'how 'bout it love?', which I thought was disingenuous.

Books as foreplay?
Books as signals of sexual preference and proclivities?
Books as social repellent?
Books as beacons of incompatibility for the internet dater?

Reading Trees

I'm on a list about literature and the environment, and someone recently put out a call for recommendations of texts (books and film) about trees. The following list is compiled from people's responses, and includes photographic works, poetry, prose fiction and essay.

Anderson, William (1990). Green Man : The Archetype of our Oneness with the Earth.

Burroughs, John “Maple Sugar Days” Chap 9 and “Flowering Plants” Chap 10 in John Burroughs’ America.

Calvino, Italo (1957). Le Baron Perché. (The Baron in The Trees) (Il Barone Rampante)

Dean, Barbara (1992). “Hunting a Christmas Tree”. In “Orion” reprinted in Finding
Home.

Ehrenfeld, David (1997). “The Gingko and the Stump” & “Death of the Plastic Palm” (1998), in “Orion” and also collected in (2002). Swimming Lessons : Keeping Afloat in the Age of Technology.

Fowles, John & Frank Horvat (1979) The Tree.

Geisel, Theodor Seuss (1971). The Lorax

Giono, Jean (circa 1953). L’homme qui plantait des arbres. (The Man Who Planted Trees). Also in a 1987 NFB animated film by Frédéric Back.

Harrison, Robert (1992). Forêts : Essai sur l’imaginaire occidental.

Leopold, Aldo (1949). “Good Oak”, in A Sand County Almanac.

Livingston, John (1986). “Some Reflections on Integrated Wildlife and Forest Management”, The Trumpeter, 3(3)

Nolley, Lance & Berman, Ted (1958). Paul Bunyan. Disney short animated film.

Pyle, Robert Michael (1993). The Thunder Tree.

Rogers, Patiann (1999). “Places within Places” in The Dream of the Marsh Wren.

Sanders, Scott Russell (1993). “Earth’s Body” in Staying Put : Making a Home in a Restless World.

Sanders, Scott Russell (2000). “Heartwood” and “Wood Work” in The Force of Moving
Spirit.

Savard, Rémi (2004). La forêt vive: Récits fondateurs du peuple innu.

Stone, Christopher (1972). Should Trees Have Standing : Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects.

Terpstra, John (1990) Naked Trees.

Yahgulanass, Michael Nicoll (). The Flight of the Hummingbird.

Book swaps with strangers

Just a quick little reflection on the quirky and cute phenomenon of casual bookswaps in public places.

I'd actually kind of forgotten, but the suburb I'm staying in at the moment house sitting has a train station waiting room in which there is a humble little pile of best sellers that people pick up and read and drop back / replenish with their speedily thumbed adventuresome light Christmas reading.

And at a cafe a few towns away there is another very humble couple of shelves on an unassuming bookshelf that says - feel free to take and read or leave books here. What I extra extra love is the complete weird mix of titles in this one - from self help books to drab little house and garden related non fiction to airport novels to hard cover classics. I also extra extra love that the store of books remains constant - that at least in this part of the world, in these shelves, people give as much as they take. Which makes me muse that maybe this is actually the case on average everywhere but we just forget the half full bit sometimes, and we also forget that people are generous and community minded and don't always need strict rules of give and take for things to work well.

And yes - I have taken and read two this week - a story of a woman's family upheaval and reformation (sweet, a bit too true life tales for my taste but bearable) and a sassy funny chick lit 'detective novel' (of sorts - actually she's a lawyer but the template and characters are the same style). So yes, it's not adding much in the way of fibre and nutrients for my reading diet - but sometimes junk food is called for. And no I haven't actually made a deposit yet, because I'm housesitting and don't have old novels with me - but thought I'd return each of the books to the other book swap location, at least to keep things circulating freshly.

Anyone got one of these near where they live?

Fear of Flying – Erica Jong

Vintage 2004, First Published 1973

I read this, about a year ago, and really quite enjoyed it. I know it’s old, it’s probably on feminism 101 reading lists, but I liked the tone- Isadora the main character is smart and reflective and wry and horny and wondering. She makes mistakes, she has phobias, and she has a patchy history in love, but I liked her heaps. Nice to read a female lead who is neither simpering nor brittle nor simple nor ‘sweet’ nor completely 2 dimensional. Isadora is a proper gutsy likeable flawed story hero. Even though I’m too lazy to write a review right now, I thought these quotes were interesting. AQsthe main character is a writer (poet) quite a bit of the book relates to this. The first quote is a character in the book speaking to Isadora Wing, the last two quotes are Isadora herself.

The writer being accused as using lovers as material:“You go through life looking for a teacher and then when you find him, you become so dependant on him that you grow to hate him. Or else you wait for him to show his weaknesses and then you despise him for being human. You sit there the whole time keeping tabs, making mental notes, imagining people as books or case histories – I know that game. You tell yourself you’re collecting material. You tell yourself you’re studying human nature. Art above life at all times. Another version of that puritanical bullshit. Only you have a new twist to it. You think you’re a hedonist because you take off and run around with me. But it’s the bloody old work ethic all the same because you’re only thinking you’ll write about me. So it’s actually work, c’est-ce pas? You can fuck me and call it poetry. Pretty clever. You deceive yourself beautifully that way.”

The voracious and open minded reader:“I had always worshipped authors. I used to kiss their pictures on the back of books when I finished reading. I regarded anything printed as a holy relic and authors as creatures of superhuman knowledge and wit. Pearl Buck, Tolstoy, or Carolyn Keene, the author of Nancy Drew. I made none of the snotty divisions you learn to make later. I could happily go from Great Expectations or the Secret Garden to Mad Magazine.”

Books as refuge:“Growing up in my chaotic household, I quickly learnt that a book carefully arranged in front of your face was a bulletproof shield, an asbestos wall, a cloak of invisibility. I learned to take refuge behind books, to become, as my mother and father called me, “the absent-minded professor.” They screamed at me, but I couldn’t hear. I was reading. I was writing. I was safe.”

Eco-spair, Eco-ire and Eco-rony

Ali has written a great review of the graphic novel As the World Burns, a book which I thoroughly enjoyed, even as it made me despair a bit as I read it. It’s really nice to be in a space where we are exploring ecoearnestness, post-incremental light bulb change and also ecovangelism, in a book that is available in big chain book stores. I agree with you Ali that they did a great job of having a go at almost everyone, but in a way that highlights the ridiculous in our behaviour and personal motivations, rather than just for cheap gags.

I guess the premise of the book is pretty clear – what the fuck are we doing toadying up to big business and mediocre government officials with strong vested interest in the status quo, what are we doing thinking that the tiny household gestures are making deep, significant cultural change from crass/mass consumerism – and why on earth do we think it is nearly enough or nearly fast enough? It portrays the voice of animals, and the tress, and climate – very ‘Council of all Beings’ style for those familiar with some of the Deep Ecology group processes – and to my mind a conspicuously absent viewpoint in all our collective posturings about environmental ‘issues’. I loved having animals as characters in this book. I love the dynamic between the idealistic and earnest dark haired character who tries hard to engage with popular rhetoric about the ‘household actions’ and do her bit; and her friend, the more radical, ‘throw down the system coz it’s intrinsically skewed towards environmental disaster’, but patient, friend. The rabbits from outer space come to suck down on the earth’s resources was a nice device to add a touch of useful exaggeration, sci fi style cultural realism once removed. The graphics were good – clear and engaging – cute even at times. Actually quite touching even in the panels without text. Despite being bleak in parts like any good satire it remains hopeful, utopian dreamy even. This would be a great book club book (for all you folk in face to face book clubs), or great coffee table/ lend to a bunch of friends book. Recommended.

As the World Burns

As the World Burns is a wickedly funny satire on environmental policy and environmental activism, served up as a graphic novel. Three story-lines are interwoven with vignettes skewering hippies, activist groups, the media and Al Gore, culminating in a great bloody battle to save the world. Two little girls debate whether personal action is useful or a distraction from fighting institutional environmental vandalism. A one-eyed 'terrorist' rabbit saves his friends from an animal testing lab, and blows it up. And aliens that shit gold invade the planet and proceed to eat it, aided by the President of the United States.

Some of my favourite moments from this book were:

• the little girl rocking back and forth and chanting "oh God, we will go quietly to our doom if only you allow us to believe that changing our lightbulbs will save us"
• a hippy who refuses to join the battle to save the world, because "that would be violent" and instead stays home to plant his peace garden
• the same hippy trying to convince a fox to become a vegan
• a TV panel debate about terrorist rabbits, which is a perfect mirror for every TV panel debate you've ever seen about terrorism, except the word 'rabbit' is substituted for 'terrorist'
• an activist group wildly celebrating the number of celebrities who have signed their petition while aliens devour the world around them

I really liked the way the story had a go at everyone, not just one group. Ultimately, I think the book asks you to consider why you do what you do. Do you take personal action to save the world or to save your conscience? Are you fighting the right battles? Should institutions be part of the solution or are they only part of the problem?

Anyone who's ever run an awareness campaign, worked in policy, slung a banner over a bridge, had an interest in politics and society, or thrown a copy of G Magazine across the room will find something to laugh at, and think about, in this book. Even environmental sceptics should enjoy having their prejudices confirmed with a touch of humour. I'd be interested in opinions from seagreen, fergus and amberino?

As the World Burns
Derrick Jensen (author) and Stephanie McMillan (Illustrator)
Seven Stories Press
I got my copy at Kinokuniya

Crossposted at reading|reading|reading

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - by Mary Ann Shaffer - while on holidays. It's a quick read - those with a bit of time could knock it off in half a day. I arrived at my inlaws with nothing to read (oh no!), but luckily, my mother-in-law the school librarian had this book on hand - she had to review it to see how appropriate it was for her school library.

I loved this book. It made me giggle, and it made me cry. It transported me to a different time and place I hadn't thought of (post-war England, and War time in the Channel Islands. I seem to be a sucker for WW2 stuff - fiction or non-fiction, Pacific or Europe. Don't know why - not the most uplifting of topics, I know.

Basically, it's about a writer who has a war time column in a London paper, who has had these published as a book, and is now struggling to find a topic for her second book. By chance, she is written to by someone on Guernsey, who has come across a second-hand book that has her address written inside the cover, and given Guernsey has no book shops, the gentleman asks her to find a book about the author of this book, as he is interested in finding out more.

This kicks off a correspondence between him and her, and soon a community of people on Guernsey, who had formed a literary society during German occupation. There are also letters back and forth between her, her editor and her best friend.

Highly recommended.