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What Members Thought
This peculiar, unique book really appealed to me, and when I finished, I considered starting it all over again.
It's a physically short book (I don't know how many words), but the mix of short anecdotes, little stories and botanical information that pop up unexpectedly actually don't interrupt the flow of the main story, they add depth.
I'm never going to remember all the interesting bits - I WILL have to read it again someday.
Disclaimer: I have lived among the eucalypts of NSW for most of my a ...more
It's a physically short book (I don't know how many words), but the mix of short anecdotes, little stories and botanical information that pop up unexpectedly actually don't interrupt the flow of the main story, they add depth.
I'm never going to remember all the interesting bits - I WILL have to read it again someday.
Disclaimer: I have lived among the eucalypts of NSW for most of my a ...more
This is a magnificent piece of literature. It is dreamy, poetic and deceptively simple, but beautifully written. The story is fairy-tale like - Holland, wanting to find a husband for his only daughter, Ellen, sets a challenge that anyone who can correctly name the 500+ eucalyptus trees on his property will get her hand. Suitors try and fail until one, Roy Cave, arrives and appears to be the man who can do the job. But in the meantime, Ellen is falling in love with a mysterious stranger, whose na
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A strange book. The main story was mildly interesting but could have been told in a lot fewer words, interspersed as it was with random facts about eucalyptus trees and other subjects, when the author went off on a seemingly unrelated tangent (leaving me thinking "wtf?"). It's basically a bunch of stories within a story, which wasn't particularly gripping to start with. The ending was disappointing.
It did, however, make want to get out books on eucalyptus trees and find out how they differ in ap ...more
It did, however, make want to get out books on eucalyptus trees and find out how they differ in ap ...more
Such a difficult read. And what was it all about-in the end?
An ingenious story-telling in using eucalyptus and its hundreds different species. I really dislike the part where she got 'sick' as I never liked it as trope. On the other hand, there is a very fairy-tale feeling throughout the whole thing including the cured-by-story bit at the end. She really is like a princess in a tower but she's just a story-telling tool. Nevertheless, I can't help wishing for a more proactive girl.
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Mar 04, 2009
Todd
marked it as waiting-on-my-shelf
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
australian-lit
Jun 18, 2010
Anouilh M Buckley
is currently reading it
Aug 11, 2011
Sally
marked it as to-read
Feb 05, 2012
Russell
marked it as to-read
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
australians,
text-classics
Aug 17, 2012
Anne Hamilton
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
australia-nz
Feb 10, 2013
Terri
added it
Oct 15, 2014
Kara
marked it as to-read
