Thursday, December 13, 2012

Abundance by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler

It took me ages to read this book because I wanted to remember all the detail, which of course I haven’t. It is too chock a block full! Abundance is a great antidote to the pessimism that grips my world. Its subtitle is ‘The future is better than you think’. His chief premise is that if you fix basic needs like water and food and health, then you fix problems like overpopulation and scarcity. And this can all be done through technology and technophilanthropists. The book begins with a fascinating discussion of perspective, which challenges our default position of negativity. I loved this part because it told me to wake up and get a grip. There follows a lot of fascinating detail about the problems facing the world and the technological solutions that are available and becoming available to resolve them, cheaply, simply, quickly. I loved the philosophical bent of this book too – it’s almost like a self help book on the power of positive thinking but with good reason: it’s the young and brave who solve the problems because they have unfailing belief in themselves and their ability to do it. I bought this book for several friends at Christmas. Enough said.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

All That I Am by Anna Funder

Wow. I loved Stasiland and I loved this book too. I love the way Funder gets underneath a story and although it is based on truth manages to make it mysterious and compelling reading. This is the story of a cohort of largely Jewish playwrights, journalists and political activists who were exiled to Britain and France before the war and worked against Hitler’s regime from there. It is told by Ruth, who was a member of the upper class Jewish elite and Toller, a writer and activist. Central to both their lives is Dora, their cousin and lover respectively, a star around which the story revolves. It is obvious from the moment you open the book that Dora is dead, but what takes a while to unfold is that the story is told in two different time frames: during the thirties leading up to the second world war, and the present, when Ruth lives in Australia. What was really moving about this book is the enduring presence of Dora in Ruth’s life, some seventy years into the future.

The Monkeys Mask by Dorothy Porter

An astonishing book really, a thriller starring a gritty, vulnerable, tough lesbian detective, and written in compelling verse. It reminded me of the old Beowulf type epic tales, originally told and retold in ancient halls and finally written down.