Book Club with Laila Hakansson Ware, Vision by Halcyon
Laila is a retired criminal law barrister, ESL teacher, health regulation board director, avocado grower and cheese maker, who lived for 42 years on Tamborine Mountain. She has been a member of a book club for 20 years, and enjoys the in-depth conversations that flow from a group experience of journeying through a book together. Since moving to Vision four years ago, Laila has enjoyed the friendships that are afforded by getting involved in a small community.
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
By Lisa See – Published by Simon and Schuster, 2017, RRP $24.99
“A fiction based on the rise and fall of the recent futures market in Pu Ehr tea from 1000-year-old trees.”
The story unfolds through themes of mother/daughter relationships, the cultural norms of the rural Akha minority group in Southern China, where the birth of twins brings bad luck to the village and requires the death of one twin, and “China’s one child policy”. The setting is exotic, the themes are current and the writing is poetic. I suggest you buy some Pu Ehr tea at your local Asian grocery shop, and enjoy a cuppa while you read this book.
The Wonder Down Under
Norwegian authors Nina Brocman and Ellen Stökken Dahl Published by Hodder & Stoughton 2017RRP $20
“This is a serious, but funny exposé of the female genitalia. The aim of the authors, who are both sexual health educators and medical doctors, is to dispel myths around female sexual health.”
The Wonder Down Under is a comprehensive guide to a miraculous and complex part of the body that is still a mystery to many of us. It is written with humour, and scientific aplomb, whether discussing the clitoris, contraception or cervical cancer. This book is both funny and frank and is filled with astonishing, and little-known information, delivered with both medical knowledge and genuine empathy. Did you know that female and male sex organs are merely variations on the same basic structure? Or why there is no such thing as a virginity test? Read it and find out more.
Sapiens: a brief history of Humankind
By Yuval Noah Harari Published by Harper RRP $20 soft cover:$15 Amazon.com
“This is not the book for those who prefer a fictional read like crime, sci-fi, or romance, or a nonfictional book, like history or autobiographical. I recommend it to anyone who is searching for a thought provoking book that will give you dinner table talk for years to dine out on”
This book will satisfy those who have just learned that their DNA makeup is 2% Scandinavian, 1.5% Ashkenazi Jew and 96.5% Central European, but want to understand so much more about themselves as a species, and who like to be surprised and informed by an author. Yuval Harari will take you on a nine hour, 443 page journey through the history of humankind from the evolution of archaic human species in the Stone Age, up to the twentyfirst century, focusing on Homo Sapiens. His theories may even shock you. He postulates that Homo sapiens rule the world because it is the only animal that can believe in things that exist purely in its own imagination, such as gods, states, money and human rights. He explains that money is the most pluralistic system of mutual trust ever devised and that even though we are far more powerful than our ancient ancestors, we aren’t much happier.
