Journal Entry 1 by tqd from Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Saturday, March 13, 2010

This one was read for one of my bookgroups. It revolves around an ex-couple, Sandy and Rich, once environmental activists, now stuck in middle-aged ruts; and their teenaged daughter, Sophie, who has been raised by her ineffectual mother, and who has some serious issues of her own.

Sophie is now 15 years old, and her father wants to be in her life again, after walking out when she was just a baby, and erratic contact ever since. So he organises for them to do the Cradle Mountain bushwalk in Tasmania, a gruelling seven day trek, but one full of beauty and wilderness, if also rather too full of other bushwalkers.

And you just know it's all going to go horribly wrong.

The characters were scarily believeable in this book. If I could have reached into this book and slapped Rich for being such a pretentious try-hard, I would have, he irritated me so much. I obviously don't deal very well with arrogant hypocritical prats in books. And probably in real life as well. Ahem.

I had more sympathy for Sandy, even though she was rather a drip. I felt for her willingness to try and save the planet, even though she was crippled with indecision and was at times more interested in the trappings of environmental awareness than in the actual tiring, exhausting, nitty-gritty detail of environmental awareness in modern times. I think I saw a bit of me in her at times.

While this was a good read overall, and I did zip through it quickly and fairly happily, the perpetually irritating nature of the main characters meant that this wasn't the most entertaining read I've had for a while. 

Journal Entry 2 by tqd at Crown Hotel, Elizabeth St in Sydney CBD, New South Wales Australia on Monday, April 12, 2010

Released 1 yr ago (4/13/2010 UTC) at Crown Hotel, Elizabeth St in Sydney CBD, New South Wales Australia

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Dropping off at meetup (bookdrinks!).

Happy hunting/reading! 

Journal Entry 3 by Pixette from Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Picked up as an orphan at the sydney meetup. It doesn't seem like my sort of thing but its a well respected volume. I'll lead it on the bookshelf at lilliblack next I go.