Helen: Here’s the Story: A Memoir of family, war, peace and politics by Mary McAleese Published in 2021
Mary McAleese is an Irish activist lawyer, academic, author and former politician who served as the 8th President of Ireland from 1997-2011.
She succeeded Mary Robinson making her the second female President of Ireland and the first woman in the world to succeed another woman as President.
In this memoir she traces her astonishing rise from growing up in the streets of Dublin through the times of the ‘Troubles” to a professorship in Dublin while still in her twenties. Her presidency was dedicated to peace building and healing relationships between England and Ireland. The Queen’s visit in May 2011 was a very moving moment. She writes of her encounters with Prime Ministers, popes and royalty with the same easy candour and intimacy with which she describes her childhood.
But the Presidency was not the pinnacle for her. As soon as her 2nd term was finished, she resigned and moved to Rome for further study within her Catholic faith. This had been so important through all her life. She studied Canon Law to help further end abuse against children in Catholicism all over the world. She had never shied away from these difficult subjects.
A truly amazing woman with so much energy and goodness.
Rosemary: Killing for Country : A Family Story by David Marr
David Marr was shocked to find out that uncles of his were part of the Native Police Force in Maryborough who slaughtered many aborigines in the 1800s.
The book is an uncomfortable read bringing up many other topics such as intergenerational trauma, colonization and Government sanctioned slaughter.
The research was mainly drawn from journals and newspapers.
It’s a factual book, a book of truth telling not a book of fancy or fiction.
Joan: A Village in the Third Reich: How ordinary lives were transformed by the rise of fascism by Julia Boyd and Angelika Patec Published in 2022
Oberstdoft is a beautiful village of about 4000 people, in the Bavaria Alps. Most were Catholics who farmed, made cheese and took visitors on hiking and mountaineering experiences.
In 1933 Adolf Hitler was sworn in as German Chancellor and gradually Nazi heavies took over positions in the village.The Resistance started from villagers who still wanted to welcome wealthy Jewish tourists.
Eventually the French tanks rolled in in 1945 with the Americans soon following.
The book gives an understanding of how and why Germans embraced the Nazi philosophy and why it eventually fell apart.
An easy and informative read about life under the Nazi reign and its effects on a small Bavarian mountain village.
Margaret: remember by Lisa Genova
The book is about how we make memories, tricks we use, why we forget and what is normal forgetting.
A lot of what is in the book seems to be common sense. Science tells us that to maintain a good brain we should live a healthy lifestyle, get good rest etc.
But brain processing time does slow down as we get older!
Margaret thought that the author was a better fiction writer and that the book was a bit too long. But she is repeating things in a different context.
Jo: Relicopter Rescue by Ken Wishaw
Co-founder of CareFlight and specialist doctor, Ken Wishaw tells of the hair-raising rescues and medical retrieval missions performed by the helicopter crews, and also of the personal turmoil he faced when he had to decide whether to put his career or his family first.
Jo thought it was an amazing story with fantastic pictures in the book.
Val: Would That be Funny? Growing up with John Clarke by Lorin Clarke
The book is written by John Clarke’s eldest daughter and is a medley of letters, scripts and stories about his childhood.
He grew up in New Zealand but left school under a cloud not helped by having a father who always ran him down.
John eventually became known in both Australia and New Zealand as a performer, an actor, a writer, a satirist and a commentator. “Fred Dagg” and the “Clarke and Dawe” were always amusing and made him a much-loved personality.
His death in 2017, while walking in the Grampians, devasted his many fans.
It was while dealing with this, that his daughter found the letters etc which in turn led to the book.
Val enjoyed it, laughed out loud, while some parts were sad and moving while others just amusing.
Theresa M : We Are the Stars: A misfit’s story of love, connection and the glorious power of letting go by Gina Chick
Theresa described this an incredible story, like nothing else she had ever read.
Gina was/is certainly not your normal woman or housewife. She had quite a sad childhood, never really fitting in and trying to find friends. She was a voracious reader and spent as much time as possible in the outdoors.
Among the many other things that she has done in her life was to enter, and win, the first series of ‘Alone Australia’.
The book is beautifully written, and she is happy in her own company. What is life but a series of stories? She has the most amazing stories to tell.
Pat: The Way We Are by Hugh McKay
Hugh McKay is a well respected and well known social researcher who looks at many issues that we are facing in modern society. These include loss of community, loss of communication and face to face interaction and obsession with self.
By quoting interesting facts he asks many questions.
In the last 100 years our households have been gradually shrinking even though our population has increased.
Church attendance has declined at a steady rate for the last 50 years. However Hinduism and Islam are on the increase.
Top 20% of Australian households own more than 60% of Australia’s wealth while the bottom 20% own 4% of Australia’s wealth leaving the middle class owning the remaining 36%.
Prue: You Can Change the World: The kids guide to a better planet by Lucy Bell
The book is aimed at older children or younger teens and is written in easy, uncomplicated and encouraging language.
The problems of the world eg plastics and environmental waste seem to be too huge for one person to solve. But we can fix them, if we each do our part – one step at a time.
This book gives practical ideas which children can take up and get involved.
It quotes case studies in Australia and from overseas.
She was very impressed with the book.
Pamela: Mystique, Magic and Medicine. The Healing Art of Ancient Times by J H Leavesley
Published by ABC in 1984
One of Pamela’s own books and now not readily available, it gives many examples of how modern medicine has ignored, disbelieved or overlooked cures known to many older civilizations.
Examples are:
Aboriginals have used the warm nest of the green ant on the forehead for headaches.
A cough medicine made from plants in Senegal is more effective and cheaper than codeine.
A plant from Madras reduces malignant tumours by 70%.
Because of jealousy and ignorance much information and knowledge has been lost.
Kris: The Complete Book of Heroic Australian Women by Susanna De Vries
The book was published in 2010 and included the stories of 21 extraordinary women.
One, Joice NanKivell Loch was born in 1887 in North Queensland where she had a privileged childhood on a sugar plantation owned by her grandfather. Her family went bankrupt when the Queensland government prohibited the importation of Kanakas to work on the sugar plantation.
She later married an English writer and travelled to London with him. They went to the refugee camps in Eastern Poland where the Quakers were ministering to 1000’s of displaced Polish peasants. They had gone there to report on the situation, but both worked tirelessly to help these people. They continued their humanitarian work in Greece, Rumania and Hafia (then British Palestine) for many, many years.
Kris was fascinated by the life and the bravery of a woman most people would never have heard of.
Judy De L: Somebody Told Me by Danny Wallace
One man’s unexpected journey down the rabbit hole of lies, trolls and conspiracies.
Rise by Ingrid Poulson
In 2003, Ingrid’s estranged husband killed their two young children and her father.
This tragedy occurred at Wilberforce in the Hawkesbury.
Early in her bereavement, she knew she could choose to start with survival and build from there .
The book is in 4 sections:
Resilience
Identity
Support
Everyday resilience
She now has her own company and runs workshops on building resilience and living positively to a diverse audience from emergency workers, schools and hospitality staff. With her second husband she now has 2 children.
Judy J : You don’t have to have a dream - advice for the incrementally ambitious by Tim Minchin
Tim Minchin is probably better known as a comedian and musician but has several times delivered speeches to a university honouring him with a doctorate degree. Undoubtably his best known one was in 2013 to the University of Western Australia. He didn’t know it was being taped and was later viewed online, more than a couple of million times. The context of his speech was life lessons for these graduating students, and these are expanded upon in this book told with plenty of Minchin humour and wisdom.
Some examples are:
You don’t have to have a dream, be micro ambitious.
Don’t seek happiness – we didn’t evolve to be constantly happy
Be hard on your opinions – everyone has them
Be a teacher – if not a teacher, share your ideas. Rejoice in what you learn.
Define yourself by what you love – be pro stuff not just anti stuff.
Respect people with less power than you.
Don’t rush – you don’t need to know what you are going to do with the rest of your life.
Rosemary: The Boy who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Brian Mealer
William Kamkwamba (born 1987) grew up in Masitala Village, Malawi and lived in poverty on the farm where his family grew maize and tobacco.
When drought devastated the village, William spent all his time in the school library reading about how things worked. He eventually was able to build a functioning windmill out of junkyard scraps and became the local hero who harnessed the wind.
He moved on to bigger and better projects including a solar powered water pump that supplied drinking water in the village for the first time.
In 2008 he founded a non-profit organization named “Moving Windmills Project” to support not only his local community but all communities in Malawi and drought proof them.
His extraordinary life has recently been made into a Netflix movie.
Ed: Broke by Sam Drummond
Sam suffered from many adversities in his life. His parents had separated when he was very young and his diagnosis with a form of dwarfism led to many operations. Surgeons kept breaking and resetting his legs in attempts to keep him walking.
His disability combined with the poverty his family lived with provided many challenges.
But with each set back he didn’t give up hope, and combined with the support of his mother, teachers and friends he made his way in life.
He is now a lawyer and disability advocate specialising in human rights.
Bev: Fearless by Jelena Dokic
This is the follow-up to her first book ‘Unbreakable’ and highlights the difficulties she faced after retiring from tennis. She had problems with her legs because of the beatings from her father and also filling her time after tennis. She had turned to eating and soon was very overweight.
She was hammered by the media and especially social media because of her appearance, and this happened at the time of the breakup of a long-term relationship. Suicide attempts followed.
Jelena finally accepted the need for professional help which she says she has found to be important to her recovery. Her councillor is like the parent she never had. The support of a small group of friends is also vital to her.
She is now enjoying a new career in motivational speaking, something she didn’t think she could do, but this is also helping in her recovery.
She has reconciled with her mother to a certain extent, realising that she was also being abused by her husband.
Judy A: The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathon Haidt
Around 2010 studies started to show an alarming increase in the rates of adolescent mental illness, namely anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide affecting boys but more significantly girls.
Jonathon Haidt is a social psychologist who studies social trends. He describes two trends – a move away from play based childhood and a move towards a phone based childhood. Overprotection in the real world and underprotection in the virtual world are the main reasons why children born after 1995 became the anxious generation.
The iPhone was released in 2007 and between 2010 and 2015 the social lives of teens moved largely onto smartphones with continuous access to social media, online video games and other internet based activities.
The introduction of the first iPhone with front facing cameras made it far easier to take photos and videos of oneself. This merged with social media platforms and meant that everyone was now comparing themselves with everyone else.
He argues that this rewiring of childhood is the single largest reason for the tidal wave of adolescent mental illness that began in 2010.
There is a lot more covered in this book all of which is heavily researched and gives a lot of food for thought regarding our future generations.
Lyn: Bush Nurses by Annette Brailey
The author is a trained nurse who worked mainly in the bush or on rural stations.
The book is divided into sections beginning with stories about birthing in the outback. Although often inexperienced, the local nurse was the only one available to handle the situation.
Lyn’s favourite section told stories of the author working with the aboriginal communities. The women were so inclusive and wanted to take her out gathering food and teaching her about cooking . She respected their knowledge and often used it.
The women also wanted to teach the men about the berries and other bush remedies. They needed to learn it from them.
A very heart warming and enlightening book.
Judy
Next month ~ Favourite book of the year.
