Current reading

Whenever I go out, I always carry the "single girl's best friend" with me - a book! (or, of course, a magazine: Classic Rock, Record Collector, Railway Digest, New Scientist, Scientific American...)

Recently, these have been:

Wifework - Susan Maushart

What a subversive book! Subtitled "what marriage really means for women", this book spells it all out. There is nothing here, I don't think, that any of us doesn't know unconciously. However, to see it in in print is remarkably confronting.

Australia's Bid for the Atomic Bomb - Wayne Reynolds

This one is all about how close Australia came to actually having her own bomb. The Snowy Mountains Hydro-electricity scheme was originally intended for quite a different purpose. Fascinating stuff.

Overloaded - Imelda Whelehan

This one is subtitled "Popular Culture and the Future of Feminism", and refreshingly written from a British perspective.


February, 2003

Ready, Steady, Go!
Swinging London and the Invention of Cool - Shawn Levy

This is a collection of essays on those people who were icons in London in the sixties... and very effectively tells the story of a magical era.


March, 2003

Wild Science : Reading Feminism, Medicine and the Media (Writing Corporealities)
- Janine Marchessault (Editor), Kim Sawchuuk (Editor)

There's some really nice stuff in here. Excellent work like this makes me wonder - why do so few people ask the right questions? Why are so few people sceptical of what they hear and see?

The Private Life of the Brain - Susan Greenfield


April, 2003

The Sixties - Cultural Revolution in Britain, France, Italy, and the United States, c.1958-c.1974 - Arthur Marwick

I love that subtitle! This is a massively thick book which I am very much looking forward to reading. This was the era that changed the world, love it or hate it.

July, 2003

Understanding the Psychology of Internet Behaviour - Virtual Worlds, Real Lives
- Adam N. Joinson

October, 2003

Entwined Lives - Twins and what they tell us about human behavior
- Nancy L. Segal, Ph.D.

There's some fascinating stuff in here. And picking it up had absolutely nothing to do with me hanging out with a pair of identical twins in September... well, maybe a little :-)

There has been a long hiatus in updating this page, and I have to admit that I've been doing a lot less reading than usual, but it's been for a good cause: my first holiday for six years, in September 2003, which I spent in the UK, and then a second trip, in April 2004. After those trips, I have gone from being generally ignorant of London and its transport system, to being pretty damn good at finding my way around! I am therefore currently reading up about it all...

June, 2004

The Moving Metropolis
A History of London's Transport since 1800
Edited by Sheila Taylor

The Story Of London's Underground
John R. Day

July, 2004

A quick snapshot: what I was carrying in my bag last Saturday-
Classic Rock magazine, apc (Australian Personal Computer) and Rail (the British railway magazine). That about sums it up, really!

And this week, a couple of new finds:

Different For Girls
How Culture Creates Women
- Joan Smith

The Nurture Assuption
Why Children Turn Out The Way They Do
- Judith Rich Harris