Month: February 2019

Google It! A history of Google

Linda J

Can you remember a time without Google? Older readers will remember when research could only be done using books and/or accessing a library. Times before you could easily find out the answer to a puzzling trivia question or idea, by tapping it into your smartphone or tablet… Times when information wasn’t so instantaneously* available (though now I can check the spelling of that word*). It really wasn’t that long ago – but it did involve quite an extensive process to get where we are now in the Information Age.

Thanks to the determination and efforts of Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Stanford University students, we now have a multinational technology company which has changed the way many of us now research – for both facts and fun.

Google It has the subtitles ‘A history of Google’ and ‘How two students’ mission to organize the internet changed the world’. And in its 230 pages, you will find details of:

How Larry and Sergey first met (and how didn’t really get on at first)

What they ultimately had in common

The initial project which started it all

The primitive beginnings of Google

What it took to get things going

And the transformations of the Google juggernaut over the years.

The book is written in an easy-going language, with inserts here and there to explain ideas and details (like footnotes and callout illustrations). Some of these inserts are interesting, but can also be a little distracting. However, the Google story is easily absorbed.

There are reminders of how we used to do things, and how we do things now:

Imagine this: you get into a car for a road trip . You’ve got your playlist, your bestie, some snacks and a book on how to get there. Yes, a book of maps. Printed. Paper. Maps. (From Google It, p. 148)

Now- Google Maps

Regardless of what you think of the Google machine, a great theme flowing through this book is how ideas and sacrifice overcame the necessary failures for its gradual development and success. The importance of these elements show that, for Larry Page and Servey Brin, academic qualifications were less critical than their own intellectual drive and determination. An interesting concept. A story worth reading.

Warning, Google It does present the positive glossy side of Google and its evolution. While I was pleased to see its beginnings were actually rooted in making “the credibility of a web page just as citiation validated research” (p.19), we still need to evaluate Google results, and also have to consider some of the negative impacts of Google.

What do you think? Read it and see.

(My copy was available from BMCC library A Kindle version is also available from Amazon.)

Present and past entwined – Catching Teller Crow

Linda J

Catching Teller Crow is an intriguing mystery, told in two voices through poetry and story.

Sixteen-year-old Beth begins the tale, introducing her death and the need to look out for her father since the accident. He is the only one who can see her (she is a ghost), and she hopes to be able to help him move on with his life. She is also there to help him work through mysterious happenings in their home town, in an effort to get him back to police work.

In crime story tradition, events and clues are revealed gradually, and both Beth and her father have differing interpretations of what they mean.

Some clues are provided by strange revelations from Isobel Catching, who is the second voice in the novel. Her voice differs from Beth’s. Using poetic form creates a wariness in her character and at times implies a reluctance to help solve the mystery.#

Authors, Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina, have created an enthralling, though somewhat disturbing novel, which reflects some of Australia’s past attitudes and actions. The main characters (Beth, Catching and Crow) are Aboriginal, and have each suffered due to that. However, themes of love and family, along with their spiritual beliefs are also strong in the story. When they finally bond together, they become strong together.

A ghost story as well as a psychological thriller, Catching Teller Crow seamlessly weaves together the poetic and everyday life – Justine Larbalestier

Catching Teller Crow goes straight to the heart of Australia’s darkest history – Margo Lanagan

Sister and brother, Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina speak briefly here about the writing process, and their own personal need to tell their story – “We wanted the strength of those (past Aboriginal) generations to flow through the pages like a river.”

Catching Teller Crow is more than just a crime story. It reaches into the past, hoping to make an impact on the future. It will make you think – what really happened? who is to blame? and finally, who has suffered as a consequence?

Can Beth ultimately be able to let go?

How many similar episodes like this actually happened? 

# This poetic form wasn’t as obvious in the audio version of this book, though the different character voices were well defined by the narrator, Miranda Tapsell. A great option!

Don’t Stop – playlists of life

Linda J

Planning events these days will involve a playlist – that is, the significant songs that can be used during the event. Special songs for the wedding couple, meaningful songs for a birthday celebration, reminiscent songs for anniversaries. The Spotify generation can relate to this – and plan their playlist.

Stevie has a playlist her father left her – to deal with different days and different times – even though he wasn’t expecting to leave her life quite so soon. Her mother certainly didn’t expect that either – and Stevie has also ‘lost’ her too since she is severely depressed and unable to cope with daily life in any form – including caring for Stevie.

In another world, Hafiz was sent from his family – forced to flee as a refugee from Syria – and to leave his parents behind. Facing life without his parents (in a strange new country, in a new school), Hafiz finds some solace in Stevie’s isolation from others, when he first sits at his allocated desk, beside her, in homeroom.

Each has their own struggles, which slowly surface as they slowly expose different parts of their life to one another. And together, they find support.

Curham’s novel Don’t Stop Thinking about Tomorrow’ blossoms from the Fleetwood Mac song – as Stevie and Hafiz deal with the usual teen issues, along with their fragmented family lives. It is told alternatively by Stevie and Hafiz, giving two sides to the story. How these unlikely friends, cautious about sharing with others, ultimately work together (without romantic involvement) is what keeps you reading, and provides lots of food for thought.

What are your takeaways from this book?

Though it is set in England, would it easily transfer to an Australian setting? 

Indie awards – 2019

Linda J

Each year, Australian Independent Booksellers (aka your local bookshop) select what they consider to be the best new books. With quite a few categories, this also includes a section for Children and Young Adult. Here is the shortlist for these sections:

1. Children’s Category

2. Young Adult Category

You can help guide their choices by entering the competition to win all 24 nominated books at www.indies.com.au/shortlistcomp before March 17. Imagine that! Better check out your library (school or local) to get your hands on these titles.

Will it be another win for Jessica Townsend (author of Nevermoor)? Which of the YA books do you prefer? Winners are announced on March 18.

You can view other nominated titles, like ‘Boy Swallows the Universe’ (perhaps a popular choice?) at the Indies website. Have a look at the titles you missed from last year – or have they already caught your eye? (like 2018 NF winner ‘Saga Land’).

Sagas and history – Iceland

Linda J

‘Saga Land’ was not what I was expecting – but then, the collaboration between broadcaster, Richard Fidler, and Kari Gislason, a writer and academic born in Iceland starts with multiple but different needs to investigate Icelandic history. So really, you could expect something unexpected.

Kári was born Iceland – the product of an affair, hidden by his father. In the spirit of his mother, he has travelled beyond Iceland to Australia (with her) but also discovered an impulsion to study Icelandic literature at university, rather than the law studies he first engaged in. 

‘Saga Land’ moves between the observations of journalist, Vidler, recollections of Gislason and the Icelandic sagas they wish to share.   

There are many different themes which flow through ‘Saga Land’ – providing an insight to the culture of Iceland. Honour, conflict, violence and family heritage are strong elements of the tales.

“Each character is responding to a situation in which violence seems necessary and ceaseless. And somehow, the saga… prompts us to see the strangeness of the characters’ behaviour in the light of their desires, their complexity as human beings.”

The different perspectives of Kari, a native of Iceland, and Vidler, an Australian journalist, provide an interesting balance. Kari’s investigations, as a returned Icelander, reveal a personal insight as he revisits his childhood home – though being half-Icelandic and in search of is heritage. Vidler provides journalistic structure, while being genuinely interested in Kari’s Icelandic heritage and, personally engaged.

What a great and inspiring learning experience for all (readers included). So it doesn’t really matter what I was first expecting when I picked up this book – it has given me a view of history, family heritage and culture perspectives I would have missed, had I not opened this book.

N.B. Another tale readers might enjoy is by Hannah Kent, Burial Rites – also set in Iceland, investigating the last women to be executed for murder in Iceland (an amazing literary debut for a young Australian author). Previously reviewed.

There is also a podcast you can visit, where Richard Vidler and Kari Gislason discuss the journey to create Saga Land if you want to hear from the authors.

Does Saga Land make you want to investigate your family heritage/culture?

Note – loved this as an audiobook/physical book combination. Especially when read by the co-authors, with authentic pronunciations of Icelandic names. (A bit like ‘reading’ Burial Rites by Hanna Kent)

Everything I never told you

Linda J

Should parents’ dreams be lived through the lives of their children? 

Before she married, Marilyn had dreams of becoming a doctor, but then children came along. Her dreams were different from her mother’s, but as a mother, she has great plans for her daughter, Lydia – to make up for what she didn’t achieve herself.

Unfortunately, this dream will not be fulfilled. At the age of 16, Lydia is dead.

The story opens with Lydia’s drowning in the lake near her home. As it unfolds, the intense passion Marilyn has for her daughter to achieve is revealed. The reasons for this drive are clearly tied to her own need to achieve which has been thwarted by marriage.

There are other frustrations in ‘Everything I Never Told You’, in a family which is loving but unable to communicate all they feel. In a small town which is slowly adjusting to multiculturalism, the Lees are a novelty. As a Chinese-American family, they struggle to blend in – a concept James, the father, had battled (though being American-born), and something Marilyn’s mother had warned them of when they first married.

As much as Marilyn dotes on Lydia, there is little attention given to her siblings, Nath and Hannah. Locked out of her attention, both Nath and Hannah fail to speak up about things their parents should really know – about themselves and things they observe about the family. And then it is too late.

Some may find the intensity of Marilyn’s efforts to drive Lydia’s future extreme. Similarly, the treatment of the family within the community and their lack of integration may seem harsh, but set in between the late 1950s and 1970s it is a reflection of life experiences for those with cultural differences.

‘Everything I Never Told You’ also shows how, even in a loving family, there can be differing perspectives on what happens day-to-day. Without good communication, things can go unsaid and misunderstandings arise. There are many examples of what-ifs and story-turns that occur because someone fails to say what they really think or know. Clearly, Lydia’s inability to voice her feelings has fatal consequences.

Some may be frustrated with the way the characters behave in ‘Everything I Never Told You’, but Celeste Ng’s debut novel (which took 8 years and 4 drafts to complete) is both moving and clever. It portrays an unimaginable family drama – the death of a child – and weaves past and present to explain how it came about. It leaves the question at the end – who is really responsible?

Following this best selling debut novel, Ng has written a second one, ‘Little Fires Everywhere’. She talked to Goodreads interviewer Janet Potter about teen drama, race, Twitter, and the fear of writing about a place you love. Read the interview here on  GoodReads.

Here, Celeste introduces ‘Everything I Never Told You’:

Are there times when you don’t speak up for fear of saying the wrong thing?

How might Lydia’s life have worked out better?

N.B. this is adult fiction but accessible for mature readers.

Slipping back in time – Inheritance

Linda J

How much does your past impact your present? Being able to timeslip would certainly provide a bit of information about your heritage, wouldn’t it?

In Carol Wilkinson’s latest book, Inheritance, Nic discovers her inheritance includes the ability to ‘time slip’, which first comes about when she is left at her mother’s childhood home. Left in the care of her crotchety old grandfather – since her father travels a lot for work, and her mother died in childbirth, she has lots of time to explore the remote family property.

Family secrets intrigue Nic, and as she explores – the house, the local community and the attitudes of the locals, conflict, confrontation, and secrets arise. Left very much to her own devices, she finds much more than she expected – slipping back to times of old in the rural district.

‘Inheritance’ has the usual ponderings of whether the past can be changed if you act proactively in the past. As she time slips, Nic meets her mother and other native residents of her rural community who add to her understanding of her family’s standing in the local community. But what is the real purpose of her visits to the past?

The conflicts of European and the native peoples of Australia during western settlement play a key part in the history of the Mitchell family, which Nic discovers during her timeslips. She discovers the shocking truth of her ancestors’ participation in a massacre. In the present, she teams up at school with Thor, another teen trying to understand his own ancestral legacy.

This is a well-considered story dealing with our Australian heritage from alternate points of view – settler vs aboriginal, Nic vs her ancestors, Nic vs Thor, grandfather vs granddaughter. It presents some interesting what-ifs and asks us to consider Australia’s brutal settlement history, and how we should begin to make amends.

Would you like to timeslip to find out about your family’s past? What would you change if you could?

For other books by Carol Wilkinson see: http://carolewilkinson.com.au/books/