Friday 2 November 2007

The (weekly) times they are a changin'

For our Eco Book Group meeting this month we decided to each buy the four issues of The Weekly Times published in October and see what was written about the natural world. When we all turned up with coloured plastic flags pointing to many highlighted paragraphs we realised that The Weekly Times and its readers actually have a lot to say.

The lively discussion ranged over the subjects of weeds, feral animals, water resources, native grasses, conservation of remnant vegetation, climate change, Landcare, Trust for Nature, alpine grazing, Red Gum forests, fishing and drought. We didn’t always agree with what was written but on whole we thought much of it was positive and informative.

In the last year we’ve read Maathai (tree planting), Flannery (weather), Pearce (water) and Pyne (fire). Next time we’d like to move away from the reference section of the bookshelf and into the realms of fiction. Any suggestions?

2 comments:

Ann ODyne said...

I hope I have not misunderstood your query ... there are ecology themed crime novels which do not insult one's intelligence:

Carl Hiaasen - black humour;
and John D McDonald - older style but OK.

both set in Florida.
the people who harm the environment always meet a grisly end.

Boobook said...

Thanks Ann - this is just what I wanted. Someone else suggested Jim Lynch's The Highest Tide, and Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer.