For our last Reading Challenge reviews for November's theme of "Oceans and Rivers", we take things a little bit off-piste. Brenda reviews a book that takes in the whole concept of water on our planet, while Sharon reviews a book that just uses the word "fluid" at some point.
What have you been reading?
Kind of both fiction and non-fiction, c306.76 G
What have you been reading?
We assume that access to water is a basic human right and
that it will always be there with a turn of a tap. But will it? As clean water
becomes scarce, what if it was bought and traded as a commodity, monopolised by
the wealthy minority? Maude Barlow continues her exploration of this theme in
the third of her books on the need for water protection.
Barlow continues to reveal the powerful players who threaten
to control the water market, but also focuses on solutions that will create a
“water-secure and water-just world”.
Discussion of positive government policies that benefit all people and
the planet provide hope for future generations, particularly those from
marginalised communities, refugees and drought-affected communities.
Water is clearly not ‘someone else’s problem’. The effects
of climate change show that effective and ethical water management is something
we should all be concerned about. In 2010, the United
Nations recognised that water and sanitation is a basic human right. The sixth
Sustainable Development Goal continues to raise awareness of the need for
water availability and sustainable management.
Blue Future is not
an easy read but it is definitely a book worth reading.
Non-Fiction, Author I
haven’t read before, 333.9116 BAR
Sharon Bryan read A Quick and Easy Guide to Queer & Trans Identities, by Mady G
and J.R. Zuckerberg.
First, let’s get the
terrible pun out of the way: I’m including this book in the themes of “Oceans
and Rivers” because “gender is fluid.” Also, at some point someone is sitting
next to what might be a river. Right, now that that’s done, let’s look at the
book.
If you can imagine one
of those old school “why is my body changing” sex-ed style books that try to
tell you what to expect as you go through puberty and have questions about sex
you don’t feel comfortable asking the adults in your life, you’re half way to imagining what this book
is like. To get the rest of the way there, imagine a cross between a college
zine from the 80s and an acid trip.
This book has that
same “trying to teach you something without sounding like a lecture” feel of
the sex-ed books, which attempt to straddle the tones of “just the facts
without judgement” and “hey, kids, aren’t we having fun!” It’s kind of similar,
in this regard, to the Kaz Cooke book I reviewed a few weeks ago – only it
makes way less sense.
The book sets up a
story of sorts in the first chapter (involving a “cool” snail offering to
explain what the “colourful humans” are talking about to other snails), which
it then mostly ignores. Oh, the snail is talking about things, but the humans remain largely unexplained. It also has a story-within-a-story scattered
throughout the chapters that is illustrated by a different person and has no discernible plot, and only the barest connection with the rest of the book. The
narrative structure is there just enough to throw you off balance, but not
enough to provide anything resembling an actual narrative structure.
And the “cool” snail
is wearing a baseball cap backwards. Why is our “cool guide” to things we can’t
talk to our parents about always wearing a baseball cap backwards? But I
digress.
It also has to be said
that, if you were looking for a book that explained what the different Queer
and Trans identities were and what all that terminology meant, this isn’t quite
the book you need – which seems strange, given the title of the book. If you
came here hoping to find out what “pansexual” means, you’d probably find more
detail in a dictionary. If, on the other hand,
you were wondering about what concepts like gender identity and gender
dysphoria were all about, or you wanted some advice about relationships or coming out, then this book will give you a bit of a trippy
insight.
To be honest I don’t
know if I’d recommend this book or not. I couldn’t really work out what
audience it was for, or what it was trying to do - even though they actually say what audience it's for and what they're trying to do... It was just a bit too loose and "content light". Maybe it’s for you, and does
exactly what you need it to do. You’ll have to go on a trip with some snails to
find out.
Kind of both fiction and non-fiction, c306.76 G
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