This week, for our Reading Challenge, we bring you a book about real plants and two novels with animals in the title. That's the joy of a challenge to read as many books as you can that are connected to the theme "Animals and Plants" in any way, shape or form. We also bring you not one but TWO guest reviews!
Sharon wanted to read a book that could do double duties for the Reading Challenge and NAIDOC week, and found a new favourite topic. Sarah Kistle is with us on placement and found a book she's been wanting to read for ages. We told her she could read it as long as she reviewed it (we're mean like that). Our favourite Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Anthropology, Dr Theresa Petray, sent us a guest review of a book with a bird on it.
What are you reading?
Sharon Bryan read Aboriginal People and Their Plants, by Philip A. Clarke.
I've discovered my new favourite thing: ethnobotany. It's what happens when anthropology and botany have a baby - the study of how societies and cultures are shaped by the plants in their world (and vice versa).In this fascinating book, anthropologist and biologist Philip Clarke takes us on a journey (of sorts) around mainland Australia and Tasmania to look at the way Australian Aboriginal People used, cultivated and interacted with the plants in their environment. This isn't a linear journey, moving from one place to another, but rather an exploration of the way different cultures across the country lived with plants. The chapters are organised according to four themes: "Plants and the Cultural Landscape", "Cultural Impact on Plants", "Aboriginal Plant Uses" and "People, Plants and Change".
In these chapters we discover how the Australian Aboriginal Nations lived seasonally with the plants, how they used them for food, medicine and tools, how they propagated them and managed them so that the plants would continue to be available in the future, and how they incorporated the plants and landscape into their religious and cultural lives. One interesting thing I learned (among many) was that some cultures would use plant names for personal names (like Rose in English cultures), but when the person died they would rename the plant so they could still talk about it without saying the name of the deceased person. This would have given dictionary compilers a run for their money.
This is a very interesting book and I'm glad I found it thanks to a fortuitous combination of this month's Reading Challenge Theme and NAIDOC week. I read the eBook version, but the pictures (and there are many - including historic pictures of First Nations people from as far back as the late 1800s) are sharper in the print book.
Non-Fiction, book by an Australian author I haven't read before, eBook, 581.630899915 CLA
Sarah Kistle read Two Wolves, by Tristan Bancks.
This mystery and suspense story revolves around big brother Ben and little sister Olive, who one day after school are mysteriously told by their parents to stop everything, get in the car and ask no questions. Several days later, still in their school uniforms, hiding out in a bush shack, Ben, a budding detective, begins to compile evidence to figure out what the hell his parents are running from! The author manages to maintain a high level of suspense until the very last page, so much so I fell into the bad habit of skipping words and skimming to end of paragraphs to find out what happens next.
The more I read, the more I was reminded of stories by other great children’s authors Gary Paulsen and Jack Heath, both personal favourites. So I nearly fell over when Ben discovers an old copy of My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. Like Ben, I have so many fond memories of this story. I have to give the author credit for his ability to promote the joys of reading whilst giving this classic a plug – “ … he did not like wading through millions of words alone. But this book played on the cinema screen in his mind, like when he imagined his films.”
The predominant theme of Two Wolves is the battle between accepting a path placed before us by our family and having the courage and ability to choose our own path. As a parent to a boy of the same age as Ben, I was quite confronted by the way in which Ben’s father speaks to him throughout the novel, and felt proud of Ben when he so bravely stands up to his father. In the end, Ben discovers that by challenging his father’s poor life choices, he was able to protect and give value to the lives of his little sister, mum and Nan … a fabulous outcome.
Fiction, Australian author I haven't read before, 820.94 BANC
Theresa Petray read Boy Swallows Universe, by Trent Dalton.
It’s weird in a good way, though - a bit wacky, a bit magical realism, but also a bit autobiographical. The plot centres around 12 year old Eli Bell and his attempt to navigate the world and become a ‘good man’ despite his social conditions. These include: his mentor and babysitter being a notorious criminal; his mother’s addiction to heroin; his step-father dealing heroin; his older brother who doesn’t speak (even though he can); and eventually, living with his father who is alcoholic and riddled with anxiety. In this coming-of-age novel, the plot includes action, domestic drama, a bit of magic, a well-developed sense of Brisbane’s low SES suburbs in the 1980s, and more action.
My only complaint about the book is the way women and non-white people are written - mostly as caricatures, with little depth or agency within the story. But if you’re after a cracking page-turner, a bit of nostalgia, and a surprisingly feel-good story (despite all the violence and drugs!), Boy Swallows Universe lives up to the hype (and that blue wren is really important, as the cover and the first line suggest!).
Fiction, Australian author, new-to-me author, check your local library for holdings
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