High Browse Online

WHO’S READING WHAT . reader’s recommendations

The Weather Makers : How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth

by Tim Flannery
New York : Atlantic Monthly Press, c2005.
Call No.: English 363.73874 FLA (Click here for item availability)

In The Weather Makers, Australian biologist Tim Flannery details the history and future impact of climate change.  Climate is a complex, dynamic subject, and it is no mean feat translating complicated concepts such as thermal inertia and global climate modelling into clear language for the layman. (So influential was this book and Flannery’s writings on climate change that Flannery was named Australian of the Year in 2007.) Flannery may be an evolutionary biologist by training, and it shows in his careful explanations of millions of years of climatic changes and his loving descriptions of species threatened by climate change, but he also does a spectacular job of explaining how climate has shaped not just ecosystems but also modern civilisation.

Flannery walks the reader through the various aspects of the climate change discussion, starting with climate history and impact to understanding the science and the political, social, and economic dimensions of the debate, making the Weather Makers not just an interdisciplinary tour de force, but also a useful primer for those new to the subject. Flannery himself came to the global warming topic almost from a sceptical bent, and the opening narrative describes a man who as a good scientist came to see the science as being irrefutable, before finally making the impassioned case that action needs to be taken on climate change now.

And so it is that the Weather Makers cuts through the thicket of climate scepticism, explaining how the scientific evidence is almost certainly that climate change is manmade, and that climate change is likely to affect at least the 70% of the world that will be alive in 2050, and even people living today, and that ‘uncertainty’ has never been a cause for inaction. Yes, Flannery notes, the earth has seen dramatic changes in climate in eras and periods in the past, caused by natural events.  But what is unprecedented is that “some time this century the day will arrive when the human influence on the climate will overwhelm all natural factors”.

This is “popular science” – a term sometimes seen as derisive – at its best. Flannery walks through his argument without ever talking down to readers, understanding the strong institutional and political forces that prefer the status quo, but compellingly arguing that adopting certain solutions to lower greenhouse gases now would be preferable to a world so overwhelmed by climate-related security problems that the only solution might be the tyrannic control of a “carbon dictatorship”. As a pragmatist, he recognises that nuclear power might be appropriate means of lowering the world’s carbon production in certain contexts. He also appeals for personal action, providing some good (if sometimes Australia-specific) suggestions for what you and I as individuals can do.

Reviewed by Daryl Sng

(Editor’s Note – Daryl, who works for MEWR (www.mewr.gov.sg), contributes the review in his personal capacity. He blogs at http://www.dsng.net )

Have you read these books? Do you have something else to recommend?
Post your comments, or send a longer book review to HBeditor@nlb.gov.sg

HB Squad Alert . gossip + snippets

The shortlist of Best of the Bookers award has been announced and it pits six past winners of the Booker Prize to determine which novel is the best winning one since the prize began in 1969. It is a one-off celebratory award to mark the 40th anniversary of the Booker Prize.

The books in the shortlist were chosen by a team that comprises biographer Victoria Glendinning, broadcaster Mariella Frostrup, and John Mullan, professor of English at the University of London. However, the best book will be decided by a public vote that started yesterday on The Man Booker Prize website with the winner to be announced on 10 July 2008.

The shortlist of books are as follows:

• Pat Barker’s The Ghost Road (1995) (Call No.: English BAR)
• Peter Carey’s Oscar and Lucinda (1988) (Call No.: English CAR)
• JM Coetzee’s Disgrace (1999) (Call No.: English COE)
• JG Farrell’s The Siege of Krishnapur (1973) (Call No.: English FAR or here)
• Nadine Gordimer’s The Conservationist (1974) (Call No.: English GOR)
• Salman Rushdie’s Midnight Children (1981) (Call No.: English RUS or here)

Have you read these books? Do you have something else to recommend?
Post your comments, or send a longer book review to HBeditor@nlb.gov.sg

HAPPENIN’ . programmes + events

Enjoy things retro? For May discussion, we are doing a historical fiction of Singapore in the 1950s and 1960s. The author Dr Julian Davison, a keen biographer, wrote this collection of stories of that period having lived through it. The book was an instant bestseller when it was published in 2001.

For more details:
Date/Time: Friday 4.00pm, 30 May 2008
Venue: The Activity Room, Bukit Batok Community Library
Facilitator: Ms Chen Wee
Title of the book: “One for the road: satu empat jalan” by Dr Julian Davison
Call No.: SING 959.57 DAV

What the book is about: In this collection of biographical stories of Singapore in the 1950s and 1960s, Julian writes with the keen observation of a literary historian of the bygone days when the kampong spirit was prevalent then. References to long forgotten buildings, places and anecdotes come alive in this book.

To spice up the discussion, please bring along an item or two from the era of 1950s and 1960s. You can share what this artifact means to you. Do let me know of the items you are bringing and we can have a table display on them. Potluck still continues and voluntary.

If you are interested in participating, please email Soon Huat at Soon_Huat_KWEH@nlb.gov.sg.

Contributed by Kweh Soon Huat, Adult and Young People’s Services

Have you participated in this event?
Post your comments, or email to HBeditor@nlb.gov.sg

MUSINGS . library@esplanade

Bashu, the Little Stranger (Bashu, Gharibeye Koochak)
Directed by: Bahram Beizai
Starring: Susan Taslimi, Parviz Pourhosseini, Adnan Afravian
Year: 1990
Call No.: Other 791.4372 BAS
Location: Film Village, library@esplanade

It is the Iran-Iraq War. Bombs from an Iraqi air raid rain down on a small village in Khuzestan, Southern Iran. Hiding in the fields away from the carnage, ten-year-old Bashu sees his family killed, his home destroyed. Driven by the instinct to flee, he steals into the back of a passing truck. When he emerges, he finds himself far away in the North, where his charcoal skin and his unintelligible dialect mark him out as different and therefore, a “bugbear” of imperceptible threats. Only Naii, the independent mother of two who first finds him, is willing to brush aside all apparent differences and treat him as a human being.

What bonds us as human beings? This is the quintessential question that Beizai’s unassuming film seeks to explore. Is it language, that which was invented to facilitate communication among common men? Bashu casts doubt on this idea, for in the film, the fallacy of language is fully articulated in its futility in the face of cultural diversity. Speaking in his native dialect, Bashu cannot make himself understood. Neither does he understand what everyone else is saying.

Indeed, for much of the film, language is shown to be a potent weapon of discord and violence. Gathering at Naii’s house, the villagers, finding cultural superiority in numbers, make snide remarks about Bashu and chide Naii for taking in the “soot-blackened lamb” of unknown origins who will probably be nothing more than a troublesome “pest” to everyone. Amongst the disapproving glares and harsh tones, an overwhelmed Bashu suffers through the ordeal passively. He may not know the words, but he feels their malicious intent. A concerned Naii notices Bashu’s distress and furiously chases everyone out. But the damage is done. Immediately after, Bashu falls severely ill.

Here then, we realise the essence of relationships is underscored in the feelings we convey to one another, consciously or otherwise. Whether through language, sounds or silence, the means of conveyance matter little. It is what lies beneath that counts. See how this bears out between Bashu, Naii and Naii’s husband in the extraordinary ending to the film. While Bashu is away in the fields, Naii and her husband have a heated argument over the boy. Matters of shame aside, Naii’s husband has lost his right arm working at the warfront and his disability means they cannot afford to keep Bashu.

At this point, Bashu turns up. Man and boy meet for the first time. Upon learning his identity, Bashu offers a handshake, unaware of the man’s handicap. Naii’s husband can only hold the empty right sleeve of his coat forlornly, unable to reciprocate. Instantly, Bashu understands, for he has suffered great losses in the war, too. Breaking down in tears, he hugs Naii’s husband in commiseration.

As “father” and “son” bond over their unspoken losses, Naii’s nose suddenly pricks in earnest — she has scented a boar raiding their harvest fields. She adopts a feral growl. On cue, man and boy start gnarling in perfect unison. Without warning, the family — for they are one now — dashes to the crops in a cacophony of barks and snarls to scare the intruder away. As the scene fades and credits roll amidst the wild racket, we know Bashu has found home again. And from the sound of things, it’s as if he’s never been away.

At its core, Bashu is a film about the intricacies of human relationships and the ways we relate to one another. Take pleasure in its aural vivacity and visual splendour, but most of all, delight in the wonderful heart of this precious little film.

Find out more about library@esplanade’s collection at their blog!

Reviewed by Goh Peck Keong
Librarian for Adult and Young People’s Services

The shortlists for James Tait Black Memorial prizes for non-fiction and biography have been announced yesterday.

The James Tait Black Memorial prizes were founded in 1919 by the widow of Edinburgh publisher James Tait Black. The book award is also quite unique as it is the only one that is judged by scholars and graduate students of literature. The literature graduate students assist in compiling the shortlists by writing reports on the books submitted. The prize advisory committees will then decide on the awards. The awards are hosted by the literature department of the Edinburgh University.

The shortlists are as follows:

Fiction shortlist
Our Horses in Egypt by Rosalind Belben (Call No.: English BEL)
The Devil’s Footprints by John Burnside
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Call No.: English HAM)
A Far Country by Daniel Mason (Call No.: English MAS)
Salvage by Gee Williams

Biography shortlist
Hand Me My Travelin’ Shoes: In Search of Blind Willie McTell by Michael Gray (Call No.: English 782.421643092 GRA-[ART])
God’s Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain by Rosemary Hill (Call No.: English 720.92 HIL)
Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee (Call No.: English 813.52 LEE)
Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore
John Stuart Mill: Victorian Firebrand by Richard Reeves

The prizes will be awarded in August at a ceremony at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Last year’s winners were Cormac McCarthy for The Road (Call No.: English MAC) and Byron Rogers for The Man Who Went into the West: The Life of RS Thomas. Some other past winners include DH Lawrence, LM Forster, Graham Greene, Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, and Zadie Smith.

HB Squad Alert . gossip + snippets

One of my favourite podcasts is The Bat Segundo Show. Basically Mr Segundo interviews writers – he doesn’t take himself or the writers too seriously which makes it really fun to read.

The most recent interview is with Mark Sarvas (who blogs at The Elegant Variation) – and they discuss… ahem… a pre-erection. (I’m not kidding). Here’s an excerpt from the podcast.

Correspondent: Anna is actually a palindrome. Is that intentional?

Sarvas: No. And the thing that really troubled me with Anna was that I was, I think, a year and a half into writing this book when John Banville’s novel, The Sea, came out. And in The Sea, the main character Max is mourning the death of his wife Anna. And I thought, “Oh my God. Everybody’s going to think that this is my Banville homage.” And this was really not. I was looking for a simple and an elegant name. And Anna floated into my mind. That was a more instinctive choice than anything else.

Correspondent: And yet there’s inarguably an elegant variation in this. I have to ask you about “a dancing St. Elmo’s fire of the groin.”

Sarvas: Okay, you…

Correspondent: This was really — all you had to say was that it was an erection.

Sarvas: Well, see, you mentioned that. You sent me a text message, and…

Correspondent: I asked five people about this and they said, “What the f**k?” (laughs)

Sarvas: But, and look. First of all, this is a book of nearly 300 pages. Not every single metaphor’s going to sail. There will be those that don’t.

Correspondent: Well, it’s definitely memorable. That’s for sure.

Sarvas: But to my mind, I was not describing an erection. I didn’t intend to. And the fact that you thought that that was what I meant argues that I didn’t do my job well. Because what I was really hoping to describe. And this is perhaps not the stuff of a normal Segundo podcast and I hope my wife isn’t listening to this….

Correspondent: (laughs)

Sarvas: …is that weird sort of tingling, pre-erotic moment that announces the onset of an erection. Where you’re beginning to feel that surge, that electricity in that way. But you haven’t actually flown the flag up the pole yet. And that’s what I meant. If I wanted to say erection or boner or some other, I would have said that.

Correspondent: But the fact that it’s ambiguous is very interesting. Because then it leaves — I mean, this could be discussed endlessly in book clubs across the country.

Sarvas: And I think it’s actually better that way.

Correspondent: It’s the phrase that definitely I can’t get out of my mind and makes me look at you in a sort of cockeyed way.

And interestingly, Mr Segundo also had a chat with Stephen Chow about his film, CJ7.

Contributed by Lim Lee Ping
Librarian
Adult and Young People’s Services

HAPPENIN’ . programs + events

Heartlands Bookclub will be discussing Death in Midsummer & Other Stories by Yukio Mishima.

Date: 4.00pm, Friday, 25 April 2008
Place: Activity Room, Bukit Batok Community Library
Facilitator: Mr Paul Fitzpatrick
Call no.: MIS

About the book

‘Death in Midsummer’ is a collection of nine short stories and one play. The back fo the book reads, that these ten short texts “represent Mishima’s extraordinary ability to depict, with deftness and penetration, a variety in human beings in moments of significance’, which in brilliantly sums up the essence of this book, as I have understood it. The text on the back cover picks up however, and adds that “Mishima’s characters are often young, sophisticated Japanese who turn out to be not so liberated from their past as they had thought”.

Description taken from here.

If you are keen to attend this book discussion, please drop me a mail at Soon_Huat_KWEH@nlb.gov.sg as there will be finger food catered.

Contributed by Kweh Soon Huat
Librarian
Adult and Young People’s Services
Public Library Services

HB Squad Alert . gossip + snippets

The Pulitzer Prizes were announced on Monday.

The winners were:
• Fiction: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Riverhead Books)
Available at NLB. Call No.: DIA

• Drama: August: Osage County by Tracy Letts (Theatre Communications Group)

• History: What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 by Daniel Walker Howe (Oxford University Press)

• Biography: Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father by John Matteson (Norton)

• Poetry: Time and Materials by Robert Hass (Ecco) and Failure by Philip Schultz (Harcourt)
Time and Materials available at NLB libraries. Call No.:811.54 HAS

• General Nonfiction: The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945 by Saul Friedlander (HarperCollins)
Available at NLB libraries. Call No.: 940.5318 FRI

Please check our online catalogue for item availability and location.

Read more from the NYT here. (May need login)

You may also want to check out the Top 10 Fiction books of 2007 from Time Magazine of which The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was No. 1.

Contributed by Lim Lee Ping
Librarian
Public Library Services

(Bernard shares with us his lament for the passing of the science fiction luminary. -Ed)

An Odyssey through Space with Arthur C. Clarke by Bernard Leong.

The last of the three giants in science fiction genre, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, CBE (along with Issac Asimov and Robert Heinlein) passed away in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 19 March 2008. He was 90 years old, prominent as a British science fiction author.  

My first encounter with Clarke’s work began from “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968), partly due to a movie of the same title produced by the late Stanley Kubrick. Unknown to all, the book was a compilation of various short stories written by the author, most notably “The Sentinel” (1948) written for a BBC competition but was finally published in the magazine 10 Story Fantasy in 1951 under the title “Sentinel of Eternity”. The premise of the story is based on the discovery of an ancient artifact on Earth’s Moon which was left behind by ancient aliens. In the end, the first person narrator of the story came to the final hypothesis that the artifact was left on the moon as a “warning beacon” for the  evolution of possible intelligent and spacefaring life that might develop on Earth. The object ceases to transmit upon the human race approached the maturity of becoming a space race. That part is integrated into the book.

All in all “2001: A Space Odyssey” touches on a few interesting themes. The first is the evolution of the human civilization. The beginning of the book started with primitive men starring on the moon and found their purpose and subsequently with Bowman, the lead character of the story, becoming a star Child, an immortal entity that can live and travel in space. The second is the double edged sword of technology: the promise and the abuse. In the book, the breakdown of the HAL 9000 computer in the need for self-preservation demonstrated is a metaphor on how Man can create technology that might end up destroying them in the process.

Those themes of the story are further propagated in subsequent novels “2010: Odyssey Two” (1982), “2061: Odyssey Three” (1987) and “3001: The Final Odyssey” (1997).“Rendezvous with Rama” is the other work of Clarke that cannot escape any mention here for the tribute. It was the novel that won him three major science-fiction awards for best novel: Nebula Award (1973), Hugo Award (1974) and Jupiter Award (1974). The premise of the book settles on a group of explorers trying to find out the mysteries behind an alien starship that passes through Earth’s solar system that was originally mistaken as an asteroid and named after a Hindu deity named Rama. This is one of the first science fiction work to explore how humans might encounter an alien civilization in the future.

Although Clarke will be fondly remember as a great science fiction writer, Clarke has  made one important scientific contribution in his life. The idea of using geostationary satellites as telecommunications relay came about from a paper “Extra-Terrestrial Relays — Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?”, published in Wireless World in October 1945. Today, the geostationary orbit is now known as the Clarke orbit in his honour.Lastly, Clarke has also collaborated with contemporary prominent science fiction writers. The trilogy entitled “A Time Odyssey” with three books: “Time’s Eye” (2003), “Sun Storm” (2005) and “Firstborn” (2007) with Stephen Baxter is worth a read.

If you are looking for something to read, you might like to pop by the library and check out the works of this late great science fiction writer who has inspired me and many others to imagine about how the human race will evolve in the future and possible encounters with other alien civilizations.

- Contributed by Bernard Leong

Have you read this book? Do you have something else to recommend?
Post your comments, or send a longer book review to HBeditor@nlb.gov.sg

Dear Readers,

as we come to the tail-end of March, here are some book blogs to keep those reading juices flowing.

Big Bad Book Blog – We don’t usually think of books as big and mean, but this certainly is a blog with an independent attitude. Run by the team that runs the Greenleaf Book Group, a US book publisher dedicated to supporting independent authors and small presses, this blog aims to ”educate and entertain the writing and publishing community with useful insights and fun commentaries”. I really like the baby photos in the About Us section.

Zim’s blog – the second is by Zim, who describes himself as “(c)heerily living in Singapore”. His is a ”blog about my life, good food, fun games, anime, and interesting things you can see on the net”. All the good stuff, then. His reading list tilts towards non-fiction, with interesting choices on economics and management. More info about his book choices can be found here. And it’s always nice to know that High Browse has helped book lovers in their reading choices.

Contributed by Nur Hakim Low, Librarian, Adult and Young People’s Services

What do you think? Know of any interesting book-related news? Want to join the Hb Squad?Email us at HBeditor@nlb.gov.sg