What Nannas are reading
Nannas love settling down with a cuppa and a good – not depressing – book. Here are some we’ve found enjoyable and informative, recently and over the years. Do you have a suggestion for our reading list? Feel free to get in touch!
NON FICTION
Sold Down the River by Scott Hamilton and Stuart Kells.
This is about water trading in the Murray Darling Basin – how it got to happen, how it got out of control, and its disastrous effect on Australian agriculture, especially family farming.
Dead in the Water by Richard Beasley
Also about the Murray Darling Basin. This one looks at the Basin Plan and the many and various ways that the Water Act has been contravened by the Plan or its misapplications.
Both books are extremely readable and at times very funny – a great technique by the authors as it keeps you reading and you end up with a bit of a handle on this complex subject.
The Biggest Estate on Earth, how Aborigines Made Australia by Bill Gammage
With details of land management strategies from around Australia, this volume rewrites the history of the continent, with huge implications for today.
Call of the Reed Warbler by Charles Massy
Using his personal farming experience as a touchstone, the author explores regenerative agriculture and the vital connection between our soil and our health and tells the real story behind industrial agriculture and the global profit-obsessed corporations driving it.
Memo for a Saner World by Bob Brown This is where I first read – “Don’t get depressed, get active,” a message I often repeat to friends. Bob’s messages are not always cheerful but there is always hope.
The Town That Said No to AGL by John Watts
This is the story of winning the campaign to save Gloucester NSW from coal seam gas. It shows how a community, with good research and strategies can beat the gas industry.
Nine Lives for Our Planet by John Watts
Personal stories of nine inspirational women who become passionate environmental activists or whistleblowers in NSW and Queensland. I have met most of them at various actions and some are Knitting Nannas.
The Tipping Point – How little things can make a big difference by Malcolm Gladwell
About when ideas, trends and social behaviour cross a threshold – a tipping point – and cause rapid change. I read this in the context of trying to change people’s attitudes to climate change.
The Big Switch by Saul Griffith
Plan to fight climate change by electrifying everything. Updating our grid and making our households and vehicles electric will create jobs and a healthier environment.
Don’t Think of an Elephant by George Lakoff
A slim but essential volume by American linguist George Lakoff, explaining some of the mistakes progressive people make when talking about things like climate. Contains many good tips to improve our messaging.
Humankind by Rutger Bergman
A fascinating history/anthropology book that rebuts the idea that humans are inherently selfish and individualistic. The implications for how we organise everything from activism to business are huge.
How Minds Change by David McRaney
A super interesting book about how to persuade people to change their minds about things – with lots of great examples from work on things like marriage equality – very relevant to climate conversations.
FICTION
The Overstory by Richard Powers
This novel will change the way you think about trees forever. Through a series of overlapping narratives, characters from environmental activists to scientists move through the forests and landscapes of America, where the trees are as much the protagonists as the humans are.
North Woods by Daniel Mason
Similar to overstory, this novel travels forward through time from the 1700s, tracing the dramas both of the human characters who inhabit a patch of American woodland, and the landscape itself.