The Fall of the Moai

1 Sep 2002

There was an American woman, Sarah, staying in my hospedaje (hostel). I'm not sure if she took pity on my green-ness or just liked company, but we spent the next few days touring the island together, via foot and a little Suzuki 4WD.

On the first day we walked (a long) eight hours along the remote west coast from the town of Hanga Roa to the only surf beach on the island, Anakena. The terrain was spectacular, and typical of Easter Island: a blanket of verdant grass liberally scattered with black basalt boulders - not a tree to be seen except where planted by human. Along the way was a charming homestead nestled between escarpment and ocean, where we met a mainland Chileno who spent his summers there - quite the beach shack! He explained that the polypipes we had encountered were actually for pumping fresh water out of the sea. There is little in the way of surface water, so underwater springs are critical.

On the way to Anakena

Anakena is where the first Polynesians would have arrived, and where Thor Heyerdahl completed his voyage on the Kontiki in an attempt to prove that the Easter Islanders came from South America (he was wrong). Easter Island is, of course, famous for its massive sculptures (moai) which stand on platforms (ahu) overlooking old village sites. They are said to be ancestors looking over and protecting their descendents. But when the first Europeans arrived, they had all been toppled.

Ahu Hanga Poukura

At Anakena there is a solitary standing moai, which Heyerdahl raised manually, to prove it could be done without modern technology. But to move and erect a statue uses huge amounts of timber. In Jared Diamond's book Collapse, he argues that the islanders got carried away in a frenzy of one-up-moai-ship, going so far as to cut down all the trees, which triggered an ecological collapse, soon followed by social collapse, and the moai were toppled in the resulting inter-tribal warfare. By the time Europeans arrived, only a few desperate islanders remained to scrape a poor living from the degraded landscape - easy pickings for slavers. Another hypothesis puts the blame on introduced rats, which ate the seeds and seedlings of the native trees so they couldn't regenerate. And yet another that there was no social collapse, and that it was all the European's fault.

Whatever the case, the moai are truly incredible, and the vistas are uninterrupted. At the main quarry of Rano Ruraku there is the largest moai ever made, but which never made it to an ahu. It is 20m long! The largest erected was 10m.

The quarry at Rano Raraku

 

Buried moai at Rano Raraku

My visit to Easter Island was a great success, though the prospect of not having Sarah and her Spanish was slightly worrying ... I'll finish with this pithy observation from my diary:

"At Ahu Tongariki we saw a photographer and a girl scantily dressed. They were taking photos for postcards. Funny."

View towards Ahu Tongariki

Ahu Tongariki

View from Maungu Puakatiki

Sunset and storm from Maunga Terevaka, the highest point on the island at 506m

First stop ... Easter Island!

29 Aug 2002

First stop, Easter Island! (aka Rapa Nui or Isla de Pascua) 

As the most isolated inhabited island in the world, it's not particularly easy to get to. I had a fancy round-the-world ticket which was only valid with a selection of airlines, so rather than take the direct route via Tahiti, I flew all the way to Santiago in Chile, then promptly jumped on a plane and flew a third of the way back across the Pacific Ocean. The upshot of this was that we were heading west at dusk, chasing the sun over the horizon for a glorious extended sunset.

View over Hanga Roa

On the first non-travelling day of my big adventure I walked from the main town of Hanga Roa to the ceremonial village of Orongo which is perched on the edge of one of the island's three volcanoes. One side slopes steeply down into a water-filled crater, and the other drops precipitously to the ocean. Apparently the original Polynesian inhabitants would slide (careen?) down the crater walls on banana leaves. There was also an annual competition to swim out to a group of offshore islands. The first to find a bird's egg and return would be honoured as Birdman and have his achievement immortalised in petroglyphs. This is a genuinely impressive feat, as they would have had to dive off huge cliffs into wild seas, then swim a kilometre there and back.

Ranu Kao

At Orongo I had my first experience of not being able to speak the local language. The ranger said something to me in rapid Chilean Spanish, and I was dumbstruck. I had no idea what she'd said, and with mouth agape, couldn't even begin to phrase a response. I'd spent a few months learning Spanish, at night college and with teach-yourself books and tapes, but I was desperately under-prepared for the real thing. I couldn't even bring myself to say "No hablo espanol". Luckily, another person there spied my predicament and had some English, so was able to help me out. I felt completely out of my depth, dumb, inadequate, even disabled - a salutary lesson (as my dad liked to say, repeatedly, "Training for life, son.")

Motu Kao Kao, Iti & Nui, viewed from Orongo. Petroglyphs in foreground.

Garth Goes to South America - 19 year anniversary edition!

On this day in 2002 I set off on a six month backpacking trip through South and Central America. I'm planning to post my photos and recollections from the trip, as close to the actual day/month as possible.

 

Here is me fresh-faced at 21 years old, raring to go and perhaps just a touch apprehensive. I am wearing exceedingly shiny nylon travel pants, and a white Tea Party shirt (alas from their underwhelming album Triptych - the start of their slide into mediocrity). I had spent months planning this trip, and yet I wore white! Luckily the hard-working laundresses of the Andes could get anything clean-as-new. The washing machines of the wealthier countries were no match. 

One might ask why I'm doing this, and why now. Certainly, next year would have been much more numerically pleasing. But right now, the idea of heading off on such an adventure is ludicrous, and the looming spectre of climate change makes it morally indefensible. In 2002 a big overseas trip was regarded as a rite of passage, in a world that, despite 9/11, hadn't started to unravel. A young person on the cusp of adulthood just doesn't have the same opportunities, nor the cause for optimism that we still carried back then. So there is an element of nostalgia for those glory days when we were footloose and fancy free. More personally, perhaps I'm at a stage where there is some value in facing up to who I was, and what I have lost from carrying the burden of ME/CFS.

Some background to my trip: My third year at uni in 2001 had been hard work, and I was ready for a break before tackling another two years. I hadn't taken a gap year after college - I was only 17 and there is no way I was mature enough to venture out into the actual world. Over summer I had a fantastic internship with CSIRO doing a cool project with Greg Castle on haptic virtual reality. They then sent me for a few months to Perth, where I got paid a real salary, so could save heaps of money and do lots of planning for my trip.

I was the only one of my brothers to go on an extended backpacking trip. But my Mum had been on a big round-the-world trip via Africa back in the late-60s, and her dad had a huge adventurous streak which he satisfied by dragging out his war service in the Melanesian islands and with his aboriginal tracker mate in the wilds of the NT. Perhaps it's a Boxall thing.

I settled on South America for a few reasons: Europe and North America weren't adventurous enough; South-East Asia was too stereotypical (I tried a bit too hard to differentiate myself ...); Africa seemed intimidating and didn't allow the kind of independent travel I was after; and the Middle East and Central Asia was a no-go so soon after 9/11. Also, I'd only have to learn one language for a whole continent (I didn't got to Brazil). But most of all, when I was a kid I read all the Willard Price books, starting with Amazon Adventure! 

This series followed Hal & Roger as they traipsed around the globe catching wild animals for their father's zoo on Long Island. Luckily I didn't absorb too much of the wealthy colonial white privilege, but I developed a huge love for nature and wilderness. I had to go to the Amazon.

So stay tuned to find out where I went and what I got up to!

---

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Book reviews 2020

Another year, another 76 books!

That number is consistent with the past few years, where a CFS relapse has given me much more time for reading. 70% fiction, 30% non-fiction.

My average rating was 3.5 stars, pretty much the same as last year. My use of GoodReads to select books has continued to give me a better quality reading experience.

I've maintained my 50-50 gender split in authorship, though I wasn't all that intentional about it.

I slipped backwards slightly on diversity, reading 70% cis/straight/white authors compared to 66% last year. Again, I wasn't as intentional about it so I probably need to work at it for longer to make it habitual. Interestingly I rated books by diverse authors higher at 3.7 stars vs 3.4 for non-diverse authors.

That's enough data nerdery! Here are all the books I read, sorted by rating.

But first, some notables:

* Best Sci Fi book I've ever read: The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin

* Most Extraordinary & Improbable Natural Book: The Peregrine by JA Baker

* Biggest Let Down of the Year: The Mirror & The Light by Hilary Mantel

* Most Wanky Literature: A Season on Earth by Gerard Murnine

 

5 stars (2 books, 2.6%)
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine,Gail Honeyman,"A life, damaged by the worst of humanity, unfurls under the gentle loving insistence of its best. Momentarily discomforting but deeply reaffirming."
The Dispossessed,Ursula Le Guin,"A communitarian utopia succumbing to the rot of power-hunger. Contrasted with a capitalist regime clamping down on the rage of inequality. A fully realised vision, prescient & nuanced."

4.5 stars (7, 9%)
A Gentleman In Moscow,Amor Towles,"Grasping a full life in a gilded cage. Maintaining impeccable manners & generosity despite the obliterating conformity of authoritarianism. Utterly charming & disarming."
The Peregrine,JA Baker,"A stunning account of a winter spent watching peregrine falcons. Repetitive but evocatively lyrical with a building rapport between author, reader & bird that set my dreams soaring."
How We Disappeared,Jing-Jing Lee,"A slow burn towards a looming horror, the depravity inflicted on comfort women in Singapore in WW2. Nearly worse is the social exclusion and avoidance that followed. Heart-scraping."
Becoming,Michelle Obama,"Extraordinary journey of coloured working-class girl to First Lady. Perfectly captures the challenges of being a black career woman & mother, subsumed by her husband's success, and the craziness of White House life. So good I'm a tad suspicious."
The Eighth Life (For Brilka),Nino Haratischvili,"An epic tragedy of six generations of Georgians, broken under Soviet rule. Hopes smashed, emotions confused, control lost, but the barest tendril of hope & possibility remains."
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,Sherman Alexie,"Growing up as a 'reservation Indian', but incurring the wrath of the community for daring to try to escape the black hole of entrenched disadvantage. A deeply affecting tragicomedy."
The World-Ending Fire,Wendell Berry,"Eloquent & passionate essays on the worth of agrarianism and localism. Decades before its time."

4 stars (19, 25%)
Girl, Woman, Other,Bernardine Evaristo,"A tapestry of numerous women with myriad backgrounds & personalities, linked by being black in the UK. Rich & lively people and relationships. Efficient & energetic prose."
Salt,Bruce Pasco,"A collection of his best writing. Beautiful prose, striking stories and ground-breaking history."
Ocean,Bruce Pascoe,"The dispossession of the Bass Strait indigenous people, from the depravity of the sealers to the vain hopes of regained ownership. Gently & sympathetically told for a heavy subject."
The Thorn Birds,Colleen McCullough,"Classic epic centred on a station in far west NSW and the fortunes & failures of its family. Brings together vast landscapes, history & culture, fraught relationships & impossible love."
The Wooleen Way,David Pollock,"A visionary pastoralist attempts to regenerate his desperately degraded rangelands station. Impassioned commitment against social & economic forces and despite abysmal failures of governance. Why aren't land resources managed like fisheries?"
Who We Are And How We Got Here,David Reich,"A fascinating exploration of what our DNA reveals about the waves of human migration through history, and the unexpected & complex relationships between disparate populations."
Room,Emma Donoghue,"A boy, kept captive with his mother, begins life in an 11x11ft room. Touchingly captures his limitations, bewilderment & adaptability, in contrast to his mother's loss, guilt & trauma. A testament to the enduring power of love."
A Face Like Glass,Frances Hardinge,"Intrigue & action in a subterranean city where artisanal foods are magical and facial expressions don't come naturally but are learnt. A fine tale in a fantastic creation."
Bruny,Heather Rose,"Geopolitical intrigue centred on, of all places, Bruny Island. A bit of a stretch, and hardly subtle, but to good effect. Already aged but the longer trends may hold. A defence of place and the good life."
The Bear and the Nightingale,Katherine Arden,"The pagan tales of Russia brought to life, with Christianity powerless in a contest of primeval forces."
The Trespassers,Meg Mundell,"Corporate manipulation & migrant fearmongering in a pandemic-induced dystopian future."
Tess of the Road,Rachel Hartman,"A young woman discovers herself while on the road, free of patriarchy and religion. Slightly steampunk, but with dragons. Excellent on identity and sexuality."
From What Is To What If,Rob Hopkins,"A powerful call to bring imagination back into our lives, so that we can create the futures we so desperately need."
The Dead I Know,Scot Gardner,"Touching story of a messed-up kid unravelling into chaos but finding salvation in, of all places, a funeral parlour."
Blasphemy,Sherman Alexie,"More excellent insights into modern life as a Native American. The last story floored me - bittersweet and heart-rending."
The Yield,Tara June Winch,"Reclaiming culture in the face of historic trauma and rapacious greed."
An American Marriage,Tayari Jones,"The fallout of a racially-prejudiced miscarriage of justice. Powerful immersion in the messiness of love and duty."
The New Nature,Tim Low,"Explores the fascinating, unexpected & complex ways species have adapted to humanity's disruption. There is no 'pure state of nature', and rarely simple good or bad outcomes. Wish I'd read this 20 years ago."
The Hand, the Eye & the Heart,Zoe Marriott,"War, politics & love in a China-like kingdom with a trans protagonist. Courage, confusion, betrayal."

3.5 stars (20, 26%)
The Invention of Nature,Andrea Wulf,"The incredible but now neglected Alexander von Humboldt who pioneered the holistic, interconnected understanding of nature and science. Important history but not gripping."
Ancillary Sword,Ann Leckie,"Ship AI stuck in a single human body fights for justice through brilliance, an inclination to bend convention & force of will. Like a serious Murderbot but with extreme social awareness."
Blood Song,Anthony Ryan,"Fairly standard fantasy fare (child destined to be hero, nation-state politicking & war, dark arts), but quite nicely done with little wasted time and predictablility."
The Bands of Mourning,Brandon Sanderson,"Solid fantasy with good characters, entertaining action & decent humour. Perhaps some Mistborn historical revisionism?"
Sea People,Christina Thompson,"Very readable history of Polynesia, gradually revealed through the eyes of (mostly European) explorers and researchers. Highlights the tension between rational and traditional knowledges, but doesn't quite capture the wonder."
Fall of Hyperion,Dan Simmons,"Humankind, sprawled across the galaxy, is allied with super-AIs gone independent and now faces a mysterious existential threat. Intriguing with great big ideas, but suffers from vague unsatisfactory conclusion despite some uncharacteristic exposition."
The Cost of Living,Deborah Levy,"Keen-eyed portrayal of starting life anew after divorce, as a middle-aged woman surrounded by patriarchy. Includes electric bike joy."
The Golem And The Jinni,Helene Wecker,"A sensitive magical realist portrayal of discovering a new self & community amongst the upheaval of immigrating to New York in the late 19th century."
Kintu,Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi,"A clan finds solace and belonging by connecting with its past. Reveals the full range of Ugandan history, society and its conflicting beliefs."
Sharp Ends,Joe Abercrombie,"A cohesive set of stories that fill out the edges of First Law canon. The usual blood & guts with a distinct lack of glory."
Slaughterhouse 5,Kurt Vonnegut,"Life with the trauma of witnessing the Dresden fire-bombing. Somewhat trippy, expressing madness & disconnection well."
Rogue Protocol,Martha Wells,"Murderbot can't help but fight the good fight, despite infuriating humans and naive pet bots."
Black Is The New White,Nakkiah Lui,"The tensions and contradictions of identity, race & class. Sharp and funny. Would be a treat on stage."
Norse Mythology,Neil Gaiman,"Odin, Thor, Loki et al brought to life with gentle charm and the occasional irreverence. Makes me yearn for the days of oral storytelling."
Ubik,Philip K Dick,"What just happened? Psychic powers, quasi-death states, time reversion and a user pays future. Without let up. Quite a trip!"
"Arab, Australian, Other",Randa Abdel-Fattah (ed),"Excellent autobiographical accounts of living with an Arab background in Australia. Well written and revealing."
Flames,Robbie Arnott,"A melange of magical characters in an animist Tasmania. Creative & intriguing but doesn't quite come together."
The Old Ways,Robert Macfarlane,"To walk is to step through history. Beautiful and evocative when relating his own experiences, but the literary essays are a touch tiresome."
The Brethren,Robert Merle,"Life as self-made nobles during the Reformation upheavals of the 16th century. Rampant inequality and precarity. An obsession with heaving bosoms!"
Australia Day,Stan Grant,"Gentle musings (with the odd cry of rage & sorrow) on what Australia is, and the need to heal past wounds. Calls for a new liberalism that recognises the rights of the group as well as the individual."

3 stars (20, 26%)
The Unbearable Lightness of Scones,Alexander McCall Smith,"More humorous and perceptive tales of the ever-so-slightly mad folk of Edinburgh."
Growing Up Aboriginal In Australia,Anita Heiss (ed),"Brief autobiographies of (dis)connection, difference & strength. Mostly pedestrian, occasional striking gems."
The Glass Room,Ann Cleeves,"Solid murder mystery centred on a crime writing workshop - very meta."
Grandma Gatewood's Walk,Ben Montgomery,"The first woman to walk the 2000-mile Appalachian Trail in one go, at the age of 68! Then she did it twice more. An impressively tough old bird with a long impact, but a pedestrian telling."
10 Minutes 38 Seconds In This Strange World,Elif Shafak,"Diverse & colourful characters (odd-bod outcasts in Istanbul) but biographical style leaves them feeling distant."
Sabriel,Garth Nix,"Necromancy, magic bells and an immortal cat. Reasonable young adult fantasy with some intriguing hints at a bigger picture."
The Mirror & The Light,Hillary Mantel,"Cromwell finally puts a foot wrong with the fickle king. Interesting contrast of early modernist thought with brutality of absolute monarchy. Too long, too slow, excessive reminiscing. Infuriating use of 'he'."
Ashling,Isobelle Carmody,"A decent continuation of the series, but a bit clumsy - characters didn't seem to see what what obvious to me."
Plays from Black Australia,Jack Davis et al,"Four plays from the early days of Aboriginal playwrights. Plots & concepts now seem overly simple, but rich in culture & vernacular."
Novacene,James Lovelock,"We are on the cusp of a new era dominated by electronic life. It will maintain Gaia's integrity, but I wonder if it will decide that humans are an unacceptable threat. Short book, doesn't say much, or rigorously."
2312,Kim Stanley Robinson,"A convincing and textured future where humans have colonised the solar system. Sparse plot, opaque characters."
The Nightingale,Kristin Hannah,"Cliched (and inaccurate?) WW2 tale of suffering, courage and reconciliation from a valuable female perspective."
Little Town on the Prairie,Laura Ingalls Wilder,"Growing up faster than expected. Nothing like a spelling competition to brighten a pioneer's winter! Some unfortunate blackface."
Anne of Avonlea,LM Montgomery,"Wholesome 16 year olds teaching and being civic minded. Still charming but not much character or plot development."
Hamnet,Maggie O'Farrell,"The trauma of losing a child young in 16th century England. Loosely based on Shakespeare's family, but gains little for it. A hint of pagan magic."
Testaments,Margaret Atwood,"Matter of fact, though morbidly engaging. Doesn't add much to the horror of Gilead."
The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes,Neil Gaiman,"My first graphic novel. Dark & disturbed, not cogent. Interested to see where it leads."
Akata Witch,Nnedi Okorafor,"A Harry Potter-derivative but with Nigerian juju. The plot was basic and the characters didn't grab me but the magic was creative & fun."
How Powerful We Are,Sally Rugg,"A sparky insider's account of the campaign for marriage equality. I hoped it would explore theories of change making but it mostly dwelt in the details."
Snuff,Terry Pratchett,"The usual distinctive characters out to keep the Discworld spinning true (the streetwise butler is particularly pleasing). Enjoyable but not overly funny. Perhaps heavy-handed with anti-discrimimation message."


2.5 stars (5, 7%)
To Say Nothing Of The Dog,Connie Willis,"A detective-Wodehouse-time travel mash which isn't quite charming or clever enough."
A Wrinkle In Time,Madeleine L'Engle,"A simple story with good ideas that need fleshing out. Main character is annoyingly whiny."
Finding Chika,Mitch Albom,"Deeply conflicting. A loving ode to a spirited adopted child who died from an incurable brain tumour. But smacks of colonialism, privilege, and a harmful failure of acceptance."
Red Seas Under Red Skies,Scott Lynch,"Vault heist turns piratical adventure. Characters lack spark."
Energy Transitions,Vaclav Smil,"A cautionary history of the slowness and unpredictability of energy system transformation. Unnecessarily data heavy. Thankfully, for now looks overly pessimistic."

2 stars (3, 4%)
Lady Chatterly's Lover,DH Lawrence,"A lot of waffle about the ruin of industrialisation and man's loss of spirit, but ultimately it praises tenderness and physical connection. Some odd phrases to describe sex & passion (bowels, womb, loins, flank)."
A Season On Earth,Gerald Murnane,"Copius detail of a teenage boy's flights of fancy, as he misguidedly strives for the perfect inner life, but at the cost of a real one. Inane."
Who's Minding the Farm?,Patrice Newell,"A brain dump of reflections and opinions on family farming and land care. Nothing new here."

Book reviews 2019

It's time for the annual nerdery that is my book review round-up!

This year I read 80 books, an all-time record!

The average rating was 3.5 stars, a notable increase from recent years.  I think this is because of my new book selection method: I use the book ratings on Good Reads to choose books from my To Read list.  So now I am targeting better books, rather than a scattershot approach.












A few years ago I tried to increase the proportion of female authors I read, and this year I finally achieved gender parity.

I also continued to try to read authors from a wider diversity of backgrounds.  I managed to get the proportion of cis/straight/white authors down to 66%.



My full list of reviews is below.  Any suggestions for reading goals for the year?  One idea has been autobiographies from a range of different disciplines.  

5 stars (3)
The Hate Race,Maxine Beneba Clarke,The grind of growing up under the  repression of casual racism in Australia. Agonising & damning. Now I understand.,
Educated,Tara Westover,"The wrenching cataclysm when a God-fearing and -trusting, paranoid, patriarchal… ",https://t.co/97kfM4q1JZ
Boy Swallows Universe,Trent Dalton,Growing up with drug crime in the Qld suburbs of the 80s. Great characters & execution. Rough & aspiring with a touch of magical realism.,

4.5 stars (5)
The Weight of Ink,@RachelSKadish,"Deeply absorbing, fascinating & intricate. Connects us to the human… ",https://t.co/fPfrDCOUFw
Retrosuburbia,David Holmgren,"The definitive, inspirational text on permaculture-based resilience in t… ",https://t.co/cbMTRKvlxA
The Overstory,Richard Powers,"An elegy to the wild earth, and to a humanity losing its way. Oh my aching heart.",
Sister Heart,Sally Morgan,A few words that heart-achingly capture the tragedy of the Stolen Generatio… ,https://t.co/l5SzH06IUm
The Clock of the Long Now,Stewart Brand,"What would it mean to think in a 10,000 year timeframe? Much to ponder. Slowly...",

4 stars (20)
Shadows of Self,@BrandSanderson,Another satisfying romp through a quasi-industrial but magical world. G… ,https://t.co/lPVSYbZPVt
Flight Behaviour,Barbara Kingsolver,"Self-realisation unleashed through natural wonder, in the face of small town narrow-mindedness and shadowed by the destruction of the living world.",
No Friend But The Mountain,Behrouz Boochani,Horrifying and surreal view from inside our shameful offsho… ,https://t.co/eaBhWaehui
Skyward,Brandon Sanderson,"An old trope but sharply done. Absorbing, well-paced and fun teen sci-fi.",
Rusted Off,Gabrielle Chan,"A close inspection of the politics of country Australia, with a foot on each side of the deepening city-rural divide. Necessary reading.",
The Rosie Result,Graeme Simsion,"An entertaining, clever and reaffirming story of trying to fit in - or not - to a neurotypical world.",
Human Acts,Han Kang,"The lived experience of Korea's past brutal repression. Spare, cutting, chilling.",
Machines Like Me,Ian McEwan,An alternative history where Turing lived and AI thrived. Can we create a human-like robot if we don't understand our own mind?,
The House of the Spirits,Isabel Allendale,Quirkily charming history of a mad & magical family. Slammed back to earth by harrowing experience under dictatorship.,
Fools Crow,James Welch,"Life as a Native American, just as the wave of colonisation crashes. Illuminates a tragically lost world.",
Stoner,John Williams,"A sympathetic and moving portrayal of a plain life told with cool clarity. One of many failures, some modest success, and moments of sweet passion, strength and integrity.",
The Remains of the Day,Kazuo Ishiguro,"'In bantering lies the key to human warmth.' A painfully awkward,… ",https://t.co/GTNTJxkOqL
Exodus,Leon Uris,"The extraordinary rebirth of Israel. Excessively biased: heroic Jews, timid Brits, ignorant Arabs.",
Circe,Madeline Miller,A seamless reworking of Greek myths where the gods are vacuous & vain and the mortals vibrant & deeply alive.,
Growing Up African In Australia,Maxine Clarke (ed),An unsettling collection revealing the lives and prejudice experienced by being black in Aus.,
The Heart,Maylis de Kerangal,"An absorbing and evocative flow of sensation, emotion and life; a heart is given a new home.",
Neverwhere,Neil Gaiman,"The thrill of an adventurous life. Colourful characters, wild imagination. Like an urban fantasy version of Hitchhiker's Guide.",
Fahrenheit 451,Ray Bradbury,An homage to the wisdom in remembering. A warning against superficial livin… ,https://t.co/MK0o2oaujq
Mistress of the Empire,Raymond Feist & Janny Wurts,"Unending intrigue and an excess of good luck, topped… ",https://t.co/OSTd2A2kVM
One Hundred Years Of Dirt,Rick Morton,A searing insight into the trauma of poverty and the resulting systemic disadvantage. A much needed reminder of my own privilege. Very relevant politically.,


3.5 stars (26)
Beneath the Mountain,Alison Alexander,Fairly pedestrian but fascinating for a South Hobart local. Som… ,https://t.co/TsLj3N8QSr
Telling Tales,Ann Cleeves,Convincing crime novel in small-town England with rich characters. Vera is quite something.,
Bel Canto,Ann Patchett,"Love and opera flourish in the midst of a hostage crisis. Touching, but ends… ",https://t.co/KJRmv4zP1C
Hunting & Gathering,Anna Gavalda,Odd-bod housemates create family and find love & meaning despite differences. Distinctive & charming.,
All The Light We Cannot See,Anthony Doerr,The endurance of love and family despite total war and its perversities.,
Mistborn: Secret History,Brandon Sanderson,Worthwhile revival of a good character. Helpfully illuminates behind the scenes of the Cosmere.,
Half of a Yellow Sun,Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche,An eye-opening excursion into the society and history of post-c… ,https://t.co/SZMetiEK3p
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August,Claire North,"A novel, mind-bending take on time travel. Well done but don't think too hard about it.",
Doomsday Book,Connie Willis,"Two pandemics, in 2056 and 1348, linked by time travel gone awry. The fut… ",https://t.co/yWBFK9P50s
The Bone Clocks,David Mitchell,A slightly fantastical trip from past to (dystopian) future. Told by a variety of well-portrayed characters (some real bastards).,
The Lions of Al-Rassan,Guy Gavriel Kay,"A solid fantasy set in an imagined historical Iberia, rent by religious fanatacism. Touching conflict between love for friends and country.",
The Museum of Modern Love,Heather Rose,"What is art, life, love? An exploration around the work of Marina Abramovic. Ineffable.",
Forgotten War,Henry Reynolds,Nearly as many Aboriginals and settlers died in our frontier wars as in WW2. And they were strategically far more important. And yet we forget.,
Foundation,Isaac Asimov,"A perfectly timed read for me, bringing together ideas around data-driven historical modelling & (very) long-term thinking. A touch implausible, excessively male, and no chance for character development.",
The Pearl,John Steinbeck,"A parable of wealth, power and greed, buried by an avalanche of loss.",
From Secret Ballot To Democracy Sausage,Judith Brett, A proud history of how Australia developed one of the best electoral systems in the world. Packed full of fascinating facts.,
The Green Mill Murder,Kerry Greenwood,"My first Phryne novel. Quite a lot of fun, slightly ridiculous.",
On The Way Home,Laura Ingalls Wilder,Diary of migration through the Midwest in the 1890s. Straightforward but revealing insight into settler life back in the day.,
Anne of Green Gables,LM Montgomery,"A charming & irrepressible zest for life. Wholesome, with a touch of cheek.",
All Systems Red,Martha Wells,"Amusing attitude (for a killer robot) and convincing world, but lacking in depth and context.",
Carrying the World,Maxine Beneba Clarke,In lyrical defiance of prejudice. I need more practice at poetry.,
La Belle Sauvage,Philip Pullman,"A worthy return to Lyra's world, where the fantastic pushes, then floods, into the everyday.",
Fever Dream,Samanta Schweblin,"An insidious poison, a strange telling, a gentle horror.",
Where Song Began,Tim Low,Australia's huge and distinctive contribution to the bird world. A bit all-o… ,https://t.co/nMk0OKq5N2
The White Girl,Tony Birch,"The incomprehensible disdain of the Aborigines Protection Act and its enforcers. Another era (for me), but one of unmatched love & courage.",
The Great Leveler,Walter Scheidel,Violent shocks are needed to reduce inequality substantially. Could… ,https://t.co/D5f0A5U1Bt

3 stars (17)
Hidden Depths,Ann Cleeves,A murder mystery that doesn't quite live up to its name.,
Elantris,Brandon Sanderson,"A low-action fantasy. Decent characters and ideas but lacks depth. Also, some clunky plot leaps.",
The Universe Speaks in Numbers,Graham Farmelo,The fundamental laws of physics appear to be inherently mathematical. I'd hoped for more insight into the underlying concepts.,
A Change of Climate,Hilary Mantel,"Well-written and readable, but lacks impact given the hefty issues it tackles.",
Luna: Moon Rising,Ian McDonald,Great setting but a confusion of superficial characters.,
Facts and Fears,James Clapper,"Begins as boring bureaucratic biography, but warms up to provide some ins… ",https://t.co/YKhf6aggy8
The Dry,Jane Harper,Murder mystery in small drought-afflicted country town. Engaging but ends too neatly.,
Among Others,Jo Walton,Has potential but basically nothing happens. Perhaps for nostalgic scifi-obsessed baby boomers.,
Murder in Montparnasse,Kerry Greenwood,Phryne as feisty and formidable as ever. Some pleasing flashbacks to wartime Paris to round her out.,
Death at Victoria Dock,Kerry Greenwood,"Another Phryne. Some good action, but not much mystery.",
Hear Our Defeats,Laurent Gaude,"Disparate but well-entwined stories of battles lost and won. All are defeated, even in victory.",
Artificial Condition,Martha Wells,"More fun times with Murderbot, whose old habits die hard, but now with an equally idiosyncratic super-AI sidekick.",
Democracy in Chains,Nancy MacLean,"The alarming push by radical libertarians to undermine majoritarian democracy, giving primacy to property rights and wilfully disregarding the distorting power of wealth. Perhaps questionable scholarship.",
Crimson,Niviaq Korneliussen,Queer life in alcohol-fuelled traumatised Greenland. Little insight into p… ,https://t.co/jBxYdnGIxj
Landmarks,Robert Macfarlane,Variously engaging essays on authors and their beloved landscapes. Interspersed with glossaries of apt & charming words capturing the subtleties of place.,
The Priory of the Orange Tree,Samantha Shannon,"A good attempt at inclusive fantasy. Long, with so-so characters, and occasionally too neat.",
The Shepherd's Hut,Tim Winton,"Not a lot happens. Vernacular doesn't quite ring true, but sense of place is strong."

2.5 stars (7)
Pereira Maintains,Antonio Tabucchi,"Over-the-hill journalist finds new, subversive, lease on life in a… ",https://t.co/VfSpmOol8F
The Winterlings,Christina Sanchez-Andrade,"A hint of magical realism, a hint of mystery, quirky but nothing cogent.",
The White Book,Han Kang,"White things. Death, loss & what could have been. Poetic, beautiful, gentle.  But purposeless.",
Waiting for the Barbarians,JM Coetzee,"A polemic against empire and colonialism, but transmitted through an aggravating vague haze.",
Murder and Mendelssohn,Kerry Greenwood,"Lacking in mystery and self-indulgent, going so far as to rip-off the BBC's Sherlock.",
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree,Shokoofeh Azar,"Magical realism on steroids, Persian style. Pe… ",https://t.co/sOx2EGbjP6
An Ancient Peace,Tanya Huff,A fairly run-of-the-mill sci-fi adventure. Attempt at humour and banter didn't work for me.,

2 stars (2)
Last Evenings on Earth,Roberto Bolaño,"Evocative, languid, but going nowhere.",
The Rich Greenie,Stuart Barry,Some good ideas on making your banks accountable but couched in awful ins… ,https://t.co/U8tqWQMsIN

On aphids

Awmack & Leather, Host Plant Quality and Fecundity in Herbivorous Insects, 2002.
* sap-suckers prefer high amino acid levels in phloem
* herbivores in general don't like high carbohydrate and lipid levels, because it dilutes their target nutrients. Although aphids were *more* successful under high CO2 conditions, so it might not be that simple.
* Plants produce defense compounds which can put off some insects (including aphids). This is more true of generalist feeders, whereas species-specific feeders don't seem to mind so much.

So at a guess, your plants might have *too much* nitrogen, which is why they look great but are suffering from aphids. And/or they are lacking some micronutrients which means they can't produce sufficient defense compounds. If your greenhouse is well-sealed, then elevated CO2 might favour aphids as well.

(I have seen this in brassicas. Once I started soil testing and balanced my soil, my aphid problems disappeared. Then I ran out of organic fertiliser pellets so substituted in blood and bone, and got an aphid infestation. I figure the highly soluble nitrogen from the B&B over-dosed by plants on N, making them more attractive to aphids.)
 
Powell et al, HOST PLANT SELECTION BY APHIDS: Behavioral, Evolutionary, and Applied Perspectives, 2006
* aphids use a whole range of methods to choose which plants to feed on
* during flight they are attracted to yellow wavelengths, rather than green, so are more likely to be drawn to leaves which are young, sick or senescing
* they are also attracted/repelled based on odours, but that seems to have more to do with finding the right species, rather than the health of the plant (though there are so many compounds they can sense it might be much more complex than that).
* once they get on the plant they "taste it" to get a feel for what the nutrient levels are like and the presence of defense compounds.

These reviews are getting old, though, so perhaps there is more up-to-date knowledge out there.

Books 2018

It's time for the annual book review round-up!

This year I read 71 books (second highest after 2017), with an average rating of 3.35 (same as 2017), continuing the trend towards lower scores as time goes on.

My gender split wasn't as good this year, at 37% female vs 63% male (last year was 48% female).  So I dropped the ball a bit on that one, though it is still an improvement over time.

However, my focus this year was on reading authors from a greater diversity of backgrounds.  This year 70% of authors were white/anglo/western, compared to 80-90% in previous years.

5 stars
None again this year. 

4.5 stars (6)
Black Swan Green,David Mitchell,"Life as a 12 year old boy in '82 England. So messy & agonising, glor… ",https://t.co/1DTp7dqzdW
The Good People,Hannah Kent,Captures the pervasive superstition & grinding desperation of a poor & i… ,https://t.co/1cK1fo77LR
The Patterning Instinct,Jeremy Lent,Reveals the cultural & cognitive biases we've built up over '000s… ,https://t.co/DaTQE8KdhZ
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories,Ken Liu,"A splendid collection exploring historical wrongs, futu… ",https://t.co/2zujWRb7rh
How To Change Your Mind,Michael Pollan,"Upends decades of bias against psychedelics, which may actuall… ",https://t.co/CIrMGD3fNX
No Is Not Enough,Naomi Klein,Trump is the end-product of a disastrous economic & political system. Pa… ,https://t.co/SqvPN5EEIX

4 stars (14)
The Lacuna,Barbara Kingsolver,"Very slow to start, but builds a great head of steam encompassing Frida K… ",https://t.co/ODPMRT4lNh
Winter's Bone,Daniel Woodrell,"A cold and stark, yet hopeful, portayal of hillbilly life in the drug-hol… ",https://t.co/NMnlw2IqeZ
Girt,David Hunt,"Australian history made ... funny? And it works. Packed full of character, puns, and f… ",https://t.co/PbO02GEBBC
The Bush,Don Watson,"A sprawling tour of the settlement of Australia, and the dire consequences for natu… ",https://t.co/vpgDQKK4ka
How Did We Get Into This Mess?,George Monbiot,"A selection of his finest articles, exploring the madness… ",https://t.co/SVMronWbis
Lincoln in the Bardo,George Saunders,"Letting go through death. Quirky, original and quite a lot of fun. Completely unexpected.",
The People of the Book,Geraldine Brooks,"A fascinating journey through the history of European Jews, usi… ",https://t.co/yAkfZjP6aP
H is for Hawk,Helen Macdonald,Gets inside the wonderful and predatory mind of the goshawk. Hawking: not… ,https://t.co/RLsO5rMslZ
Assassin's Fate,Robin Hobb,"Fitz, the Fool, Wolf Father, Bee! A fitting finale (?) for some of fantasy's… ",https://t.co/SUrozKg1Kw
Utopia for Realists,Rutger Bregman,A convincing & enthusiastic call to dream big and be idealistic. A basic… ,https://t.co/R6NPbfR24A
In Other Lands,Sarah Rees Brennan,Makes up for poor writing with great characters and relationships. Tu… ,https://t.co/QETC1VRYNN
Planet of Exile,Ursula Le Guin,An intriguing world where each season last 15 years and a long-establis… ,https://t.co/S1XXBZizan
Rocannon's World,Ursula Le Guin,"A masterful melding of fantasy & sci-fi, highlighting the forces coloni… ",https://t.co/LY4iwQhmW9
Homo Deus,Yuval Noah Harari,Fascinating and confronting on the illusion of individuality and the spect… ,https://t.co/YIeG0TZKm5

3.5 stars (18)
The Morality Of Gentlemen,Amanda Lohrey,"Engaging insight into the inner working of unions, back when… ",https://t.co/tMDvwBuY6F
Oathbringer,Brandon Sanderson,Phew. Not so much epic as long. Some good twists to the good vs evil trope.,
The Call of the Reed Warbler,Charles Massey,"Not much new in the stories of regenerative agriculture,… ",https://t.co/Qvpa6ak61j
Looking for Jake & Other Stories,China Mieville,"His usual surreal, unsettling creations. Sentient st… ",https://t.co/OR1iyUyqNU
The Grace Of Kings,Ken Liu,Silkpunk fantasy with fun pre-steam tech. Some decent characters despite t… ,https://t.co/dgjr1UV7j3
The Wall of Storms,Ken Liu,"A world where strategy, learning & clever engineering win out over brute s… ",https://t.co/cVOAC4Uc9A
On The Banks Of Plum Creek,Laura Ingalls Wilder,Locusts! Fire! Blizzards! Mother Nature throws every… ,https://t.co/BEnwgAzsPu
Steam Pigs,Melissa Lucashenko,Coming of age through the muck and violence of being Indigenous in Quee… ,https://t.co/3nW8HEVObh
We Need New Names,NoViolet Bulawayo,"From the colour & chaos of a Zimbabwean slum, to the self-indulge… ",https://t.co/gHoYNCUyke
Other Minds,Peter Godfrey-Smith,"A pedestrian look at the evolution of intelligence, but with wonderfu… ",https://t.co/JI2bF9szro
All The King's Men,Robert Penn Warren,A lot more to this than I grasped. Wanders off in extravagent description.,
Don't Take Your Love To Town,Ruby Langford Ginibi,"An illuminating Indigenous biography, from grinding… ",https://t.co/GAjNc9OxUO
Down Among The Sticks And Bones,Seanan McGuire,"A wonderfully imaginative, contemporary fairytale. Ends abruptly.",
The Map That Changed The World,Simon Winchester,Evocative and enthusiastic portrayal of the trials a… ,https://t.co/qhxdmHdZBi
Whole Earth Discipline,Stewart Brand,A challenge to anti-science environmentalists. Mostly convincing… ,https://t.co/mTNjWXjGB6
The Complete Orsinia,Ursula Le Guin,"A tale of family, friends and revolution in a fictional but fam… ",https://t.co/i5eptztM81
City of Illusions,Ursula Le Guin,A journey to discover the truth in an era of paranoia. Less convincing than the others.,
The High Mountains of Portugal,Yann Martel,"Comically odd, mysterious and touching. Three entwined spiritual journeys (maybe?).",

3 stars (24)
And Then There Were None,Agatha Christie,"My first! A bit over the top, but a decent bite-sized piece of light entertainment.",
Love Over Scotland,Alexander McCall Smith,Same old. A bit like a well-worn TV series.,
Espresso Tales,Alexander McCall Smith,Light and humourous. A good switched-off holiday read.,
The World According to Bertie,Alexander McCall Smith,"Perceptive, charming & amusing.",
Transactions,Ali Alizadeh,Cynical and unnecessarily explicit.,
Terra Nullius,Claire Coleman,The tragedy of colonialism. Heavy-handed.,
The Underground Railway,Colson Whitehead,"Opened my eyes to disturbing extraordinariness of slavery, bey… ",https://t.co/SXpOPIOeHP
The Rapture of the Nerds,Cory Doctorow & Charles Stross,A quasi-dystopian comedy where humans have most… ,https://t.co/uIvZzjh6ry
True Girt,David Hunt,Lacks the hilarity and colourfulness of the prequel. Uses sarcasm to good effect r… ,https://t.co/zecEl3G6QX
Number9Dream,David Mitchell,"Momentarily horrifying, occassionally confusing, mostly harmless.",
A Million Wild Acres,Eric Rolls,"A labour of love. Traces, in excessive detail, the history of the Pilli… ",https://t.co/OfsK9CtiWR
IQ,Joe Ide,Sherlock goes LA gangsta style. Pulls it off but feels a little cheap.,
The Pedant In The Kitchen,Julian Barnes,Insufficiently pedantic (is that a heaped or rounded teaspoon??… ,https://t.co/XacR6ubm4T
Wild Cat Falling,Mudrooroo,The first novel by an Indigenous author. Dripping with cynicism and self-destructiveness.,
Skin In The Game,Nassim Nicholas Taleb,Scattered and incohesive. Dripping in arrogance. A useful persp… ,https://t.co/VKei9mXLeE
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms,NK Jemisin,Caught up in an intrigue of the gods. Creative and satisfying.,
Lyra's Oxford,Philip Pullman,Pleasant enough. Rather short.,
The Land Before Avocado,Richard Glover,"Mildly amusing, but nothing too surprising - we've come a long way in 50 years.",
The Willful Princess & the Piebald Prince,Robin Hobb,"A nice little tale of love, power and treachery.",
Enlightenment Now,Stephen Pinker,Charts humanity's extraordinary progress thanks to the application of… ,https://t.co/G4ujdkySEw
Europe: A Natural History,Tim Flannery,"A bit repetitive, but has its moments. More engaging once humans come on the scene.",
The Bluest Eye,Toni Morrison,"The poverty, violence and self-hatred of African-American life. Couldn't q… ",https://t.co/j4mdi442SB
Tales from Earthsea,Ursula Le Guin,A pleasing fleshing out of her classic magical world.,
In Xanadu,William Dalrymple,A jaunt following Marco Polo. A bit heavy on architecture. Attitude shows it's age.,

2.5 stars (4)
The Three Body Problem,Cixin Liu,"Some cool physics and an interesting context (revolutionary China),… ",https://t.co/wZdb9nYWCQ
Monkey Grip,Helen Garner,"The delusion of free love, the disappointing clash of ideals and reality. Ov… ",https://t.co/xCS4wTEcp7
That Deadman Dance,Kim Scott,The (not so) friendly frontier. Jumbled and aimless.,
The Barefoot Investor,Scott Pape,"Rather simplistic, but usefully so for the financially clueless. Aw… ",https://t.co/8bq3OvQdGQ

2 stars (5)
The Crow Trap,Ann Cleeves,"Hardly 'thrilling'. A bit boring, to be honest...",
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness,Arundhati Roy,"Chaotic, confusing, directionless. A depressingly cynical picture of India.",
Solar,Ian McEwan,"Some decent prose, but a slothful, misogynistic, self-absorbed physicist does not make… ",https://t.co/fEfpyjmQu0
The Gold Coast,Kim Stanley Robinson,"Shows its age, set in a (now near) future full of Soviets and nuke… ",https://t.co/OA0MWxklqK
Whipbird,Robert Drewe,"Aussie family reunion goes bad. A decent snapshot of Australian life, but nothing of substance.",