Our Reading Challenge for 2019 is to read as many books as you can within a particular month which "fit" a particular theme. Of course, how the books you read fit the theme is all a matter of interpretation.
January's theme is “Geography and Travel”, which gives us a great excuse to wander around the planet vicariously through books. So what are some of the books we've been reading so far?
Brenda Carter read Saving
the Great Barrier Reef, edited
by Justin
Healey.
For the new
Challenge at the start of a fresh new year I decided to check out the new books
in the JCU library collection. Saving the
Great Barrier Reef is Volume 436 in the Issues in Society series.
This
series is a great way to get an overview of a current topic from an Australian
perspective. Each book in the series is a compilation of short, factual
articles, reports and opinion pieces expressing a variety of viewpoints from
different sources. The language is simple and easy to understand, so it’s
suitable for teens, EAL students and anyone without specialist knowledge of the
subject.
There’s a
lot of doom and gloom spouted by the media regarding the status and future of
the reef, but what are the facts? You will read about the effects of recent
back-to-back coral bleaching events, threats posed by over-fishing, coastal
development, agriculture, mining and the ecological impacts of climate
change. The second part of the book
examines how Australia is managing the reef and its inhabitants, and how
conservation threats are being addressed.
Is it too
late to save the Great Barrier Reef? This book will get you up to speed and
give you a solid foundation for future research. It’s an ebook so you can
access it anywhere, anytime.
Australian author, non-fiction, eBook
Nathan Miller read Welcome
to country: A traditional Aboriginal ceremony by Aunty Joy Murphy,
Illustrated by Lisa Kennedy.
A book
about travel or geography will always mention interacting with the local
community and showing respect. In Australia there are potentially 500
or more distinct Indigenous Australian countries, speaking over two
hundred languages with these having about 500 or more dialects.
Across these countries each has highly sacred spaces, productive spaces and reserves
of resources like water and animal breeding grounds. All of these have
Indigenous laws attached to them about who can be there and when they can be
there. Often a welcome to country ceremony is conducted to welcome people and
essentially give a blessing and protection from the community. Some communities
use smoke, others water, and some will rub their smell on the guest so that the
ancestors and spiritual forces know you are welcome.
This is a
lovely book about the welcome to country ceremony for Wurundjeri lands, where parts
of Victoria are located. The book like many traditional Aboriginal stories
holds extra layers, such as significant plants and their central creator spirit
Bunjil
the Eagle, whilst providing a contemporary welcome to country
greeting in Wurundjeri and English. Adults and kids can both take something out
of this title.
Australian author, non-fiction, C820.94 MUR(J)
Sharon Bryan read Vagabondage, by Beth Spencer.
This is technically a non-fiction book, even though it's a book of poetry. These poems document a year in Beth Spencer's life, when she sold her house and took to living a nomadic life in a high-top van. That's one of the least-roomy types of caravans you can get.
The poems show a woman who, in her early fifties, is still trying to work though some issues she's been variously tackling or running away from since her youth, while at the same time giving a glimpse of a life lived on the road.It's highly autobiographical, but not very informative. By the end of the book (which can be easily read in a day), you feel you know a little bit about her spirit, but nothing much about her life. I guess you could say she travelled around the country in her van, but this book is more of a journey around her heart (always skirting the centre).
I always find reading original collections of poetry fascinating. Like an album, when you encounter the poems from start to finish in the order the writer intended, it builds an overall impression in your mind that you don't get when you encounter the poems (or songs) separately.
Australian author, non-fiction, 820A SPE(B) 1B VAG
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