E-books/audiobooks review: non-fiction

Joyful Strains

edited by Kent MacCarter and Ali Lemer

Affirm Press (e-book)

A book about immigrant lives is often interesting because it reveals not only the discoveries, good and bad, made in the new country but also the things left behind. Food factors prominently in the mini memoirs of the 27 writers who have contributed to Joyful Strains, all of whom have made Australia home. Shalini Akhil writes with relish about the ability of certain foods to take you far away and decades back to when they were first eaten. A goat curry ordered in Melbourne came with a flashback to meals consumed at her father's office in Fiji. Racism (mainland-born Ouyang Yu's and Iranian Ali Alizadeh's essays will make you flinch) and racial indifference (Meg Mundell tells of Australians' disinterest in New Zealand culture) are other themes. But, of course, there is also the positive. Hsu Ming Teo, who moved to Sydney from Malaysia, recalls being teased with "Ching-Chong Chinaman", but writes: "It all seems rather dated these days." Joyful Strains contains important inside views by "outsiders" in the Lucky Country.

The Tinkerers

by Alec Foege

Basic Books

(e-book)

Alec Foege's book is interesting but its subhead jars. "The amateurs, Diyers, and inventors who make America great" assumes the US is unique when it comes to innovation, something inventor Saul Griffith rubbishes. He cites South Africa and Australia, where he was born, as examples of countries with a similar ethos, explaining that it's a natural development in frontier nations. The US, however, "can afford to do the craziest research", says Griffith, best known for producing cheap prescription glasses. Foege says that in the past 25 years we've been able to tinker with fewer and fewer household devices, as technology grows more complex. He writes about tinkerers of yore, including Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, and those continuing to tinker, among them Dean Kamen, whose Segway human transporter, though ridiculed, may be regarded as "genius" in 10 years' time, says Griffith. Foege argues against over-emphasis on specialist skills, saying that is the enemy of tinkerers. Whether or not you agree with him, this book will spark ideas.