What I’m Reading Gareth St John Thomas
Imani Perry’s South To America was a rich and rewarding read. Perry shows the American south as it was and is and how that has shaped the United States. This helped me understand the enduring importance and urgent need to fathom the damage caused by slavery, the horrors of the ‘‘reconstruction years’’ and enduring racial bigotry, its ubiquitous handmaiden.
Closer to home Dr Annelies Kamp and team’s new Wellbeing: Global Policies and Perspectives shares insights from Aotearoa and beyond, to explore the impact of New Zealand’s globally leading wellbeing approach to public policy. It takes a whole of life and planet approach to the question of what ‘‘wellbeing’’ means, not least in the context of a global pandemic.
Unfinished at my bedside is Ed Yong’s An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us. Yong uses a light, enthusiastic and educated touch to show what a small part of the world’s sounds, sights and smells we can even comprehend let alone sense. The facts are astonishing, for example birds of prey have two zones for each eye, cod grunt while seals trill and dolphins listen to this with their jaws.
Just finished is Nathan James Thomas’ Travel Your Way, which guides you beyond the travel narratives and language barriers to see what’s really going on where you travel. Nathan encourages you
to speak (judiciously) with strangers and really think about where you spend your dollars. There is good advice for travellers and expats who wish to integrate themselves into the fabric of where they are staying.
This week’s dip in and out book is Alan Taylor’s The Country Diaries, which show a year in the British countryside with a daily entry selected from a diverse group of diarists including Beatrix Potter and Alan Bennett. There is a lot of good nature and charm in this book and miniature glimpses of history such as poet Siegfried Sassoon playing Morris dances on the piano before returning to the trenches of World War I.