Time Shelter – Georgo Gosdopinov

From Goodreads: In Time Shelter, an enigmatic flâneur named Gaustine opens a ‘clinic for the past’ that offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer’s sufferers: each floor reproduces a decade in minute detail, transporting patients back in time.

As Gaustine’s assistant, the unnamed narrator is tasked with collecting the flotsam and jetsam of the past, from 1960s furniture and 1940s shirt buttons to scents and even afternoon light. But as the rooms become more convincing, an increasing number of healthy people seek out the clinic as a ‘time shelter’, hoping to escape from the horrors of our present – a development that results in an unexpected conundrum when the past begins to invade the present.

My thoughts: This book explored an interesting idea and, in the end, offered up an extreme version of the populist agendas that seek to turn the clock back to some perceived past that was better. While I enjoyed it, I felt like exploring the theme got in the way of fully realised characters and plot. 3 stars.

Ground Breaking: Soil Security and Climate Change – Philip Mulvey and Freya Mulvey

From Goodreads: Practical solutions for agricultural management, enabling the restoration of landscape, climate and community. Reaching zero emissions alone won’t stop the Earth heating up.There’s another factor at play, even bigger than rising greenhouse gas agricultural land use, and it is turning the world’s bread baskets into deserts. In south west Western Australia, the ‘Bunny Fence Experiment’, the world’s largest study of two contrasting land uses in the same vast region, showed strong evidence that clearing and cropping was the reason why rainfall over the Wheat Belt has dropped 20 per cent in the lifetime of some of us. This book tells of how what farmers do exports heat waves, dust and fire, south and south-eastward in Eastern Australia and north and north-westward in Western America.You’d be forgiven for thinking there ought to be a law against it, but our lawmakers don’t even acknowledge that under the air and the plants, there is anything but bedrock. Soil, the depleted carbon sink that still manages to feed us today, might as well be a vacuum in law, but it could be a saviour for our civilisations.Ground Breaking has solutions manage land use, sequester carbon in soil, reduce bare ground and increase bush corridors.

My thoughts: I found this book fascinating and hopeful, in that it offers the possibility of mitigating some of the local effects of climate change by changing the way we do agriculture. The remedies offered seem within our current reach with a bit of forward thinking. This is one more reason for me to continue buying my eggs from a regenerative egg farm even though they do cost more. The challenge is to get our governments to support and legislate change to agricultural practices so that we don’t leave future generations with nothing because “its all too hard.” 5 stars

The Pearl That Broke its Shell – Nadia Hashimi

From Goodreads: In Kabul, 2007, with a drug-addicted father and no brothers, Rahima and her sisters can only sporadically attend school, and can rarely leave the house. Their only hope lies in the ancient custom of bacha posh, which allows young Rahima to dress and be treated as a boy until she is of marriageable age. As a son, she can attend school, go to the market, and chaperone her older sisters.

But Rahima is not the first in her family to adopt this unusual custom. A century earlier, her great-great grandmother, Shekiba, left orphaned by an epidemic, saved herself and built a new life the same way.

Crisscrossing in time, The Pearl the Broke Its Shell interweaves the tales of these two women separated by a century who share similar destinies. But what will happen once Rahima is of marriageable age? Will Shekiba always live as a man? And if Rahima cannot adapt to life as a bride, how will she survive?

My Thoughts: We all know that women are treated abominably in Afghanistan, but this story was really sad. I guess the thing that really stuck with me was how cruel the women with a little bit more power could be. If women would stick together, life would be better overall. Rahima was a gorgeous character and displayed real strength to hold onto some hope in spite of all the awful things in her life. (4 stars)

Rainbow Spirit Theology: Towards an Australian Aboriginal Theology – by the Rainbow Spirit Elders

From Goodreads: Written by a group of aboriginal Christian leaders, this text integrates Australia’s aboriginal heritage with the traditions of Christianity.

My Thoughts: I’ve been trying to pepper my reading with works by Aboriginal writers because I think that their culture is rich with wisdom, and there is a lot of important thinking being done in this area. Although, disappointingly, the referendum on the Voice to Parliament was rejected last year, I can still do my part in listening to Aboriginal voices and taking on board their thoughts and contributions around how to live well in our country. This book provides a very thoughtful perspective on the intersection of Aboriginal cultural myths and traditions and Christianity. (4 stars)

Although the book was written b before the failed referendum, the things below are still true and I still hold out hope that the Australian people will be reconciled:

“We believe, however, not only that Christ suffers with the land and our people, but that Christ can overcome the evils which enslave this land. The Christ who suffers is also the Christ who redeems and frees the land. Christ, who is the power of the Creator Spirit in human form, comes to free both our people and the land so that both can begin to live as the Creator Spirit intended.” p68

“Christ, who has broken down this wall, is among us now to break down the dividing wall which separates Aboriginal Australians from other Australians in this country. Through Christ we can be one. Through the suffering of Christ we can be reconciled. And that process of healing has begun. Christ is calling us, inviting us to be a part of that healing, that reconciliation.” p. 70.

Iron Flame – Rebecca Yarros

From Goodreads: Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.

Now the real training begins, and Violet’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders’ capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves.

Although Violet’s body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits—and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.

But a determination to survive won’t be enough this year.

Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.

My thoughts: this is not great literature. It is just an immensely enjoyable story with good pacing, interesting enough characters and dragons. The sex scenes were a bit much, but I scanned through them quickly to continue with the story. This was my junk food for the month and I wolfed it down. (4 stars)