"The Overstory" by Richard Powers

 "The Overstory" by Richard Powers

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2019, recommended to me by my friend Hannah. 

Found/bought a copy at the Orchard Bookshop / Formerly the Adelaide Pop-up Bookshop.

Started reading: 16th October 2020

Finished: 28th December 2020

My score: 8/10

 

 

"The Professor and the Madman" by Simon Winchester

"The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary" by Simon Winchester.

Also published as "The Surgeon of Crowthorne: A Tale of Murder, Madness and the Love of Words" outside of the US, and so it took me a while to track it down after it was recommended to me, and then took me a while to realise it was actually the same book that someone else had recommended to me by the other name! 

My score: 6.5/10 Really fascinating story and loved hearing how the dictionary came to be made, seems like an impressively large and wonderful example of "citizen science" or linguistic scholarship. There was a fair bit of repetition in the telling, and took a while to really get to the making of the dictionary, as a lot of the book dwelled on the mental state of the Surgeon (William Minor), his sexual fantasies and paranoid delusions and speculations on the causes of these. I was often unsure if this was 'non fiction' or 'historical fiction' as so much of the book seemed to be speculation based on historical notes and focusing on the peculiarities of the Surgeon, rather than the making of the dictionary and his contributions to it. The most interesting part of the story for me was the role William Minor played contributing to finding definitions and quotes for the development of the Oxford English Dictionary while being a long-term inmate of a mental asylum, and the relationship between James Murray who edited/compiled/orchestrated the OED. 

I have also heard good reviews about a recent historical fiction book called "A Dictionary of Lost Words" by Pip Williams, which looks at the making of the Oxford English Dictionary from a more feminist perspective, and I am very keen to read that.

Genre: Non fiction? Historical fiction? 

"Ghost Species" by James Bradley

Started reading as part of the Aussie Author Challenge 2020, although, let's face it, it's about ancient DNA and de-extinction so of course it is right up my alley and even without a reading 'challenge' to motivate me I would read this book. I have been impatiently waiting for it to come out for a few months since I saw Lucy Treloar tweet about reading a pre-release copy of it!

Compared to "Fauna" which is another novel that came out recently on a very similar topic, I much preferred "Ghost Species". The science was believable (as a molecular biologist with a PhD in ancient DNA), I liked a lot of the story, but felt a bit dissatisfied with the ending I guess. Sorry my review is not more detailed, the COVID pandemic was taking up a bit of my headspace.

Started reading: 9th May 2020
Finished: May 2020
My score: 7.5/10
Aussie author stats: Male author, Contemporary Fiction, Speculative Fiction.

"Minotaur" by Peter Goldsworthy

I find Peter Goldsworthy a really clever and interesting writer, yet my enjoyment of his books is very hit and miss. For instance, I really loved "Honk if you are Jesus" that I read about 15 years ago, and also found "Wish" to be a fascinating and unique story. But some of his other books I really didn't connect with at all, for example "Three Dog Night" and "Everything I knew".

In Minotaur there were lots of clever and interesting elements that I enjoyed, especially in the first half of the book when the concepts were introduced, for instance the main character, Detective Sergeant Richard Zadrow, is blind due to an injury sustained in the police force, and so throughout the book are interesting insights into not only the way technology can be used to help navigate the world (Siri is almost a character in her own right in this story), but also how critical sight is even in our language to describe everyday things e.g. reading expressions, face-value, reading my intentions, reading his mind etc.

I also really enjoy reading a book that is set in a place that I have lived in, where you can clearly picture the locations in your mind as the story unfolds. This book was set in Adelaide, where I have lived for about the last 15 years, and I really enjoyed how the descriptions of Zadrow tapping along the city streets could conjure up not just visual pictures but sometimes even the familiar smells and sounds, and give wider context to scenes as I have walked those same streets myself many times.  

However, as with other Goldsworthy characters, I did not particularly like the main character and did not warm to him as the book progressed, in fact I grew less tolerant and more frustrated with his selfish, destructive and sometimes ludicrous thoughts and actions. E.g. there is a scene where the drunk blind ex-cop is driving his car being directed by another drunken passenger, he smashes into a parked car, they keep driving, they get pulled over and breath-tested by another cop who doesn't seem to notice the driver is blind and lets them continue driving down the street...the passenger passes out, then the blind man manages to continue to drive the car all the way home without further incident...the scene is described in a way that makes this sound like a great prank, but I have zero respect for people who think it's ok to drink drive and the idea that someone blind and drunk could drive seems quite over the top.

There is also another almost random section in the book where the author has his normally intelligent walking encyclopedic character, Willopedia, ranting and scoffing at a documentary on the effects of climate change on the low lying pacific reefs and islands. This really surprised me, partially as it seemed to come out of no where and not be relevant to the story, but also because Goldsworthy is a medical doctor, and even the Australian Medical Association and the World Health Organization recognise the significant challenges we face due to global warming.

There is also one scene later toward the end of the book that is very violent and seems to go on and on, I kept turning the page and thinking "oh come on how much longer does this have to go on for? Just someone die already or have the police or ambulance rock up and have done with it!" By this stage I almost didn't care whether the main character or his nemesis would be the one to die I was so over them both.

Clever, unique story, well-written, but unlikable characters and themes meant overall it was not my kind of book.

Started reading on my kindle: 13th March 2020
Finished: 14th March 2020
My score: 6/10
Aussie Author Stats: Male author, contemporary fiction, police thriller

"Clade" by James Bradley

About a week ago I saw Lucy Treloar tweet about another book by James Bradley called "Ghost Species" that sounded right up my alley. Unfortunately when I looked it up to purchase it I discovered it appears she must have read a pre-release copy as it's not due to be published for a couple of months. Then I was at my local bookshop buying a book for a birthday present for a friend and stumbled across another book by the same author and thought I'd give it a go in the meantime. Plus I loved the cover art, and it mentioned bees so I thought if it's a good book my parents might enjoy it too as they keep bees.

I was really impressed by the scientific details and predictions brought to life in this story coupled with the way the author manages to capture human reactions to our changing world. It seems scarily prescient of the direction the world is travelling in, particularly if you read things like the 2019 IPCC Climate Report or follow respected independent climate organisations like Australia's Climate Council. While the catastrophic 'natural' events unfolding in this book at times may seem a little unreal and over the top, mostly they are along the lines of what is predicted by even moderate/conservative climate scientists and environmentalists today. What really brought the reality home was how many of these almost over the top scenarios are also normalised by the characters reactions to them, the way they acknowledge it's too late to fix things now the warnings were ignored and that these crazy extreme disasters really are "the new normal". When one of the characters is at a tropical rave party with futuristic glasses "overlays" that allow the user to see "dragons swoop and turn, their paths criss-crossed by birds and other magical creatures" it made my soul cry.

The book is broken down into different chapters, each one told from a different characters point of view. The characters are all mostly connected to each other in some way, but it's not always evident immediately what the connection is. Characters voices are children, teenagers, adults, grandparents. All dealing with the chaos and trying to live their lives with different levels of experience and perspective. It's a great way of telling the story from different points of view.

Probably the most unexpectedly eerie part of the book for me was when I reached the chapter  narrated by a Sydney-based teenager, Li Lijuan, which is written in diary format. Her Mum has gone to China to look after Li's sick aunt and while her Mum is over in China a sudden and apparently  isolated outbreak of a novel respiratory disease arises. There are reports of a cover up by authorities, then external contact with people in China is shut down. Suddenly cases of the disease - Acute Viral Respiratory Syndrome (AVRS) - are popping up in other countries, everyone is glued to ther social media following maps and counters showing the spread... then "October 26. It's here. Two cases in Melbourne, three in Sydney"...it becomes apparent that transmission is possible in the days before symptoms develop... people start trying to isolate themselves, scientists are working on a cure but that could be months or years away...there's speculation about if the disease crossed the species barrier in China or was engineered by pharma as people start to panic and invent conspiracy theories. Looting and hoarding is going on. Watching this chapter unfold in Li's diaries is so similar to how the current Coronavirus COVID19 situation is unfolding it was quite eerie but also mesmerising. Just one example of how this author is great at reading not only the science but also human behaviour and weaving the two into a very believable story. 

This author was new to me...but I will definitely be reading more of his books and am eagerly awaiting the upcoming "Ghost Species". 

Started reading: 8th March 2020
Finished: 10th March 2020
My score: 8/10
Aussie author challenge stats: Male author, new author to me, speculative fiction, contemporary fiction, climate change.

"Australia Day" by Stan Grant

I'll include a short review here once I finish reading it.

Started reading: 7th July 2019
Finished:
My score:
Aussie Author Challenge Stats: Male author, Indigenous Australian author, non-fiction genre

"The Rosie Result" by Graeme Simsion

After the depressing nature of the previous book that I read (Wimmera - by Mark Brandi), I decided I needed to find a lighter, more enjoyable read for my next book. So I chose to download "The Rosie Result" onto my kindle to read next as I loved the first book in this series - The Rosie Project.

"The Rosie Result" did not disappoint, it was a great end to the trilogy. It is both insightful and sensitive but also at times witty. It was easy to read and the characters by now are well-loved. As a scientist myself I find so many of the situations and experience and characters familiar and can readily relate to the stories in the Rosie trilogy.

Started reading: 7th April 2019
Finished: 18th April 2019
My score: 8/10
Aussie Author Challenge stats: male author, drama with humour genre

"Wimmera" by Mark Brandi

Initially when I started reading this book I was really excited as it reminded me a little of "Jasper Jones" but unfortunately as I read on it didn't live up to the high standard of Craig Silvi's novel. Both focus on teenage boys living in small Australian towns, navigating the experience of growing up, seeing things through a child's eyes then slowly becoming more aware of the darker side of adulthood and that not everything is as it may appear. While (mostly) not explicit, the dark side of this novel was sickening and disturbing, and I found the multiple failures of both the parents and the police/judicial system to protect the innocent kids in this book was depressing. 

Started reading: 31st March 2019
Finished: 3rd April 2019
My score: 4/10
Aussie Author Challenge stats: Male author, new to me author, fiction, crime-fiction.

"Taboo" by Kim Scott

Started reading: 27/01/2019

Finished: 11/02/2019

My score: 8/10

Two of the books that I read that had the most impact on me in the last year or so were "Dark Emu, Black Seeds" a non-fiction book by Bruce Pascoe about the evidence and history of the oldest human agriculture on earth by Australia's First People, and the novel "Terra Nullius" by Claire G Coleman. Both are by Indigenous Australian authors, and both blew my mind in different ways, and started to help make me aware of how ignorant and unaware I was/am about so many aspects of the amazing culture and people who have been on this land for so many thousands of years and how horrific colonisation was and is in their experience, and how little we understand and appreciate it. So this year I am deliberatly seeking out more books by Indigenous Australian authors to help continue learning more from them. I have quite a few lined up to read, but if you have read any that you think I should add to my list, please let me know! :-)

Kim Scott is from Western Australia and is of the Noongar people. "Taboo" was a Miles Franklin award finalist in 2018, and has also won a number of other awards e.g. NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2018 and the Queensland Literary Awards 2018. He has written previous books which have also won major awards, such as ""That Deadman Dance" which won the Miles Franklin award in 2011. "Taboo" is the first book by Kim Scott that I have read, and "That Deadman Dance" is also in my "to read soon" pile.

"Taboo" is written in 3 parts. I must admit I struggled to put much of Part I into context until I started reading Part II, as Part I and Part III are the present time, and Part II gives you some of the past/background that leads up to the events that occur in Part I and III.  

The story is set in the present day from what I can tell, and the setting is people from "that Wirlomin mob" coming back to their land in WA which has been taboo for many years after brutal massacres of their people by the colonisers. They are returning for the opening of a "Peace Park", a Reconciliation memorial. Many of the group have been in prison and/or are dealing with addictions and other issues as part of the flow on effects of colonisation. There is also such compassion and resilience and passion too, and the characters really do come to life out of the page. The book deals with issues of being disconnected from their people and country, loss of language and knowledge that stretched back thousands of years. The book also makes you recognise the sometimes unconscious and sometimes deliberate biases with which we look at the world and judge people, and how one-sided history books can be. Despite these serious issues, and some very dark unpleasant sexual exploitation parts to the book, the story is written in the most beautiful way, almost like poetry or painting with words that bring scenes and people to life, and also there is humour and wit at times. 

  

Some of the Aboriginal characters in the book speak in their local language, and are trying to teach other characters the words so that their language and culture and stories live on. But the words are not written, which although it disappointed me a little at first as I am really interested to learn the local Indigenous words for places and animals, I think it was a deliberate choice by the author to not include the words in the local language and actually made me think about how many Australian languages have been lost or are only spoken by a few remaining people who survived the colonisation period and were able to stay connected to their people and country. So much culture and language lost, before you even contemplate the human life cost of the brutal massacres. It also made me reflect on how Indigenous Australian languages were spoken languages, not traditionally written down as texts, at least from the little I know (which is very little) and so perhaps there isn't one set way to write each word.   

Anyway, this was a complex book for me, very thought-provoking - while I was reading it, and also now after I have finished the book I am still reflecting on it and digesting it in my mind. It has some dark disturbing aspects, but it also has some positive light throughout it, and some humour and is beautifully written. I think it will stay with me for some time, which is a sign of a really good book.

If you would like to hear the author, Kim Scott, reading from the first few pages of this book, you can listen to this episode of ABC National's AWAYE program. Kim brings his writing to life, it sounds like poetry it is so evocative in places.

If you want a more detailed review with more of the story line then you may be interested in this review from the Sydney Morning Herald. 

Aussie author challenge stats: new to me author, male author, Australian Indigenous Author.

"The Narrow Road to the Deep North" by Richard Flanagan

Started reading as part of the Aussie Author Challenge 2018. I am really struggling to get into this book and after about 60 pages have put it down to read some other books. Not sure if I will come back to this book at some later stage during the year or not, as several other friends have told me they also gave up on this book part way through so that doesn't give me much incentive to persevere.

Aussie Author Challenge stats:
Male Author, New to me author, Genre: historical fiction
Started reading: 11th February 2018
- Put on hold.