Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living by Carrie Tiffany

Many moons ago I worked in the same industry as Carrie and in fact she was a special guest at my book group when she published her first (and thoroughly charming) novel. But when Harry decides to teach Michael about the opposite sex, perilous boundaries are crossed.”īefore I go any further, I’ll add a disclaimer to this review. Betty is pleased that her son, Michael, wants to spend time with the gentle farmer next door. Ardent, hard-working Betty has escaped to the country with her two fatherless children. As Harry watches the birds, his next door neighbour has her own set of binoculars trained on him. Harry observes the kookaburras through a year of feast, famine, birth, death, war, romance and song. “On the outskirts of an Australian country town in the 1950s, a lonely farmer trains his binoculars on a family of kookaburras that roost in a tree near his house. Mateship with Birds is Carrie Tiffany’s second novel and, like her first, Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living, it is set in rural Australia. Leave a comment ‘Mateship with Birds’ by Carrie Tiffany Without question, my favourite book on the list is To Kill a Mockingbird– a story I will never tire of. I also like their recognition of ‘influence and popularity sometimes don’t go together’. I like the fact that the editors have gone to some effort to qualify their choices. We’ve tried to reflect this in our list.” Influence and popularity sometimes don’t go together.

The Grateful Dead and Frank Zappa never sold as many records as some of the “one-hit wonders,” but their music has transformed the industry. We also tried to keep a balance between books that everyone buys and hardly anyone reads versus books that, though not widely bought and read, are deeply transformative.

All the books on this list have been enormously influential…. Not all the books on this list are “great.” The criterion for inclusion was not greatness but INFLUENCE. The editors of the list were careful with their selections and tried to “…provide a window into the culture of the last 50 years…. I have only read eight of these books cover-to-cover – a few others I have read parts of (some under a degree of sufferance at uni!).

Interestingly, the list includes a mix of self-help and pop-psychology titles, a diet book as well as fiction that reflects significant cultural trends. Another interesting book list, this one from Super Scholar listing the ’50 Most Influential Books of the Last 50 (or so) Years’.

Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living by Carrie Tiffany