I was a regular reviewer for the Townsville Bulletin (TB) from 2004 – 2011. I have also reviewed for Waves, the newsletter of the Reef HQ Aquarium Volunteers Association (2010-14), Viewpoint for Young Adults, LiNQ and other publications.
I have been writing reviews especially for Green Path (GP) since 2012. Many of my other reviews which are relevant to Green Path have been posted there, too, regardless of their history. Others again, new and old, have been published on this site’s blog (W&I). The links in the list below will take you straight to them, wherever they are.
They vary, because I think that’s a good thing. The longest of them are over 1000 words but some are only 100 words or so (the shortest of all are not listed here but can be found on SF Bookshelf, a blog-within-a-blog). Some of them deliberately flout the conventional rules of reviewing (impersonal, impartial, etc), too, where I thought that made them more useful to readers.
John James: Votan, Not for All the Gold in Ireland and Men Went to Cattraeth (W&I Aug 2024)
John Gardner: Grendel (W&I Aug 2024)
Richard Powers: The Overstory (GP April 2024)
Gaiman, Stross and Aaronovitch: Magical London – Neverwhere, Laundry Files and Rivers (W&I Mar 2024)
Jackie French: The Wilderness Garden: Beyond Organic Gardening (GP Feb 2024)
Tim Marshall: Bug: the Ultimate Gardener’s Guide to Organic Pest Control (GP Feb 2024)
William Gibson: The Peripheral and its sequel Agency (GP Jan 2024)
James Nestor: Breath, the new science of a lost art (W&I Jan 2024)
John Elliott: mogoer munya – man from the clouds (GP Nov 2023)
Thich Nhat Hanh: Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet (W&I July 2023)
Eileen Harrison and Carolyn Landon: Black Swan – a Koorie Woman’s Life (W&I May 2023)
Jonathan Balcombe: Super Fly (GP April 2023)
Margaret Somerville and Tony Perkins: Singing the Coast (W&I Jan 2023)
Alan Garner: Treacle Walker (W&I Jan 2023)
Carlo Rovelli: There are places in the world… (W&I Jan 2023)
Lloyd Neilsen: Birds of the Wet Tropics and Difficult Small Birds (GP Jan 2023)
Cory Doctorow: Radicalized – four novellas (GP December 2022)
Ruthanna Emrys: A Half-built Garden (GP November 2022)
Milorad Pavic: The Dictionary of the Khazars (W&I October 2022)
Sarah Tolmie: All the Horses of Iceland (W&I October 2022)
Michael Chabon: Gentlemen of the Road (TB 2007, W&I October 2022)
Charles Stross: Rule 34 (TB 2011, W&I October 2022)
Betsy Jackes: Plants of the Burra Range (GP August 2022)
Steve Morton: Australian Deserts: Ecology and Landscapes (GP August 2022)
Jeff Vandermeer: Hummingbird Salamander (GP March 2022)
Nicola Griffith: Slow River (GP March 2022)
Lafferty and Divya (eds): Escape Pod (GP March 2022)
Meg Lowman: The Arbornaut (GP January 2022)
Paolo Bacigalupi: The Windup Girl (GP December 2021)
Kim Stanley Robinson: The Ministry for the Future (GP October 2021)
Alexandra David-Neel Magic and Mystery in Tibet (W&I August 2021)
Jonica Newby: Beyond Climate Grief (GP June 2021)
Steven Kotler: Last Tango in Cyberspace (GP May 2021)
Colly Campbell: The Capricorn Sky (GP January 2021)
Rebecca Prince-Ruiz: Plastic Free (GP Nov 2020)
Terry Pratchett: Introducing Discworld with reviews of two books in the series (W&I October 2020)
Jennifer Mills: Dyschronia (GP January 2020)
2010 – 2019
Kunzig and Broecker: Fixing Climate (GP April 2019)
Lindley McKay: A Guide to Wildlife and protected areas of the Top End (GP May 2018)
Carolyn Little: Bergstrom’s Orange (GP March 2018)
David Attenborough: Adventures of a Young Naturalist – the Zoo Quest Expeditions (GP Dec 2017)
Charlie Veron: A Life Underwater (GP Nov 2017)
Norman Spinrad: The People’s Police (GP Sept 2017 with micro-reviews of other SF)
Robert Whyte and Greg Anderson: A Field Guide to Spiders of Australia (GP June 2017)
Michael Braby: The Complete Field Guide to Butterflies of Australia (GP February 2017)
Stanley Breeden, illus. William T. Cooper: Visions of a Rainforest – a year in Australia’s tropical rainforest (GP February 2017)
Wendy Cooper, illus. William T. Cooper: Australian Rainforest Fruits – a field guide (GP February 2017)
John Beasley: Plants of Tropical North Queensland – the compact guide (GP February 2017)
Attila Kapitany: Australian pigface and pigweed: tasty native food plants (GP February 2017)
Maria Hitchcock: A Celebration of Wattle, Australia’s National Emblem (GP February 2017)
Ursula Le Guin: Always Coming Home (GP December 2016)
Aldous Huxley: Island (GP November 2016)
Derrick Stone: Walks, Tracks and Trails of Queensland’s Tropics (GP July 2016)
Paolo Bacigalupi: The Water Knife (GP March 2016)
Jostein Gaarder: The World According to Anna (GP December 2015)
Germaine Greer: White Beech – the Rainforest Years (GP February 2015)
William Catton: Overshoot and Bottleneck (GP June 2014)
Greg Czechura et al: The Great Barrier Reef – a Queensland Museum Discovery Guide (GP November 2013; Waves Feb 2014)
Yvonne Cunningham: Tropical Food Gardening (GP September 2013)
JEN Veron: A Reef in Time (GP June 2013; Waves August 2013)
Glen Chilton: The Last Place You’d Look for a Wallaby (GP March 2013; Waves April 2013)
Anna Rose: Madlands (GP July 2012; Waves Sept 2012)
Gavin Schmidt and Joshua Wolfe: Climate Change – Picturing the Science (2009) (GP May 2012; Waves June 2012)
Drury: The Shaman’s Quest (GP Feb 2012)
Oreskes: Merchants of Doubt (GP Feb 2012)
Dawkins: The Magic of Reality (GP Jan 2012)
Morgenstern: The Night Circus (TB 2011, GP 2020)
Smith: Dick Smith’s Population Crisis (TB 2011; GP September 2011)
McRae: Tribal Science (TB 2011; GP June 2011)
Woodford: The Great Barrier Reef (TB 2011; GP July 2011)
Juliet Schor: Plenitude (TB June 2010, W&I 2021)
Rothwell: Journeys to the Interior (TB, March 2010; GP January 2017)
Before 2010
A. C. Grayling: Liberty in the Age of Terror (TB 2009; GP September 2014)
Kelly: Spiders – learning to love them (TB 2009; GP Sept 2011)
Dawkins: The Greatest Show on Earth (TB, December 2009; GP July 2019)
Braungart & McDonough: Cradle to Cradle (TB, April 2009; GP 2016)
Gleitzman: Grace (TB September 2009; W&I 2020)
[Penguin]: Composting (TB, March 2009; GP 2016)
Oliver James: The Selfish Capitalist (TB 2008; GP November 2016)
Gaiman: Coraline (graphic novel) (TB October 2008; W&I 2020)
Buckman: Tasmania’s Wilderness Battles (TB, August 2008; GP July 2019)
Miller: Landscape of Farewell (TB, January 2008; LiNQ Vol 35, 2008; GP May 2017)
Granta: The New Nature Writing (TB 2008; GP November 2016)
Heller: Whale Warriors (TB 2008; GP Jan 2012)
Williams: Future Perfect (TB, October 2007; GP 2020)
Crocombe: A Lighter Footprint (TB, October 2007; GP 2020)
Winterson: The Stone Gods (TB 2007; GP May 2016)
Kriwaczek: An Incomplete History of the Art of Funerary Violin (TB May 2007; W&I 2022)
Lovelock: The Revenge of Gaia (TB 2007; GP 2020)
Pataki: Against Religion (TB 2007, Australian Rationalist 2008, W&I 2021)
Norton: 365 Ways to Change the World (TB, Oct 2006; GP 2020)
Sara Gruen: Water for Elephants (TB Dec 2006, W&I 2020)
Venero Armanno: Candle Life (TB July 2006, W&I 2020)
Mick Jackson: Ten Sorry Tales (TB 2006, W&I 2020)
Browne: Rendezvous at Kamakura Inn (TB March 2006; W&I 2020)
Lane: God – the interview (2005; W&I 2021)
Mosley: Little Scarlet (TB Sept 2005; W&I 2020)
McDonald: River of Gods (TB July 2005; W&I 2020)
Rankin: Fleshmarket Close (TB November 2004; W&I 2020)
Wynhausen: Dirt Cheap (2004) (GP Sept 2020)