Alligators and Crocodiles

by John and Deborah Behler

In the middle of reading The Long African Day, a passage about Nile crocodiles caught my interest. I know little about them, so I looked through my shelf and found another book specifically about these aquatic reptiles. Alligators and Crocodiles is an overview of all the crocodilian species: two kinds of alligators, six species of caiman, thirteen different crocodiles and the two gharials (an animal I never heard of before). The book is full of stunning photos- some of the large gators and crocs look very sinister and remind me that crocodiles are an ancient species that existed alongside dinosaurs. Others, especially the young caimans, strike me with the beauty of their patterned scales, and their fierce toothy grins. Although the book clearly explained the difference between alligators and crocodiles I know I still couldn't distinguish the two even if they were floating side by side!

I learned lots of interesting facts- did you know that the temperature in a crocodilian's nest determines what sex the hatchlings are? and they are dependent on heat to aid digestion- if their body temperature falls too low, the digestive enzymes don't function. I didn't know that while crocs can snap their jaws shut with great force, the muscles that open the jaws are relatively weak, and can easily be held closed with a rope or thick rubber band! or that some species dig burrows into mud banks, or that mother crocs are quite maternal, assisting their hatchlings to dig out of the nest, guarding them and sometimes carrying them about in her jaws. While I still find crocodiles and their relatives fearsome and unattractive beasts, I have to admit they are fascinating animals, successful predators well-adapted to their aquatic environment. There's a lot more interesting information on crocodiles and alligators in this book, although sometimes I felt that it was crowded out by all the stats on conservation (a trait it shares with the Pandas book, and probably the other one I have of the WorldLife Library, Killer Whales).

Rating: 3/5                    72 pages, 1998

The Old Country

by Mordicai Gerstein

Long ago, in a land simply called the Old Country, a young girl went after the fox that was stealing her family's chickens. She found herself deep in the forest, in a strangely magical place where the animals could talk. The animals demanded proof that the fox was guilty, and quickly arranged a trial where a spider was the judge, and the jury a crowd of birds. Although her grandmother had warned her never to look long into the eyes of a fox, she did- and found herself transformed into the fox's body, while the beast ran off with hers. Of course she set off at once to get her own shape back, but it's a hard task. For one thing, although she can speak to all the animals, people no longer understand her, only hear a fox's yapping. For another, her country is being ravaged by war, and her own family uprooted by the violence and suspicion. Her only hope is the assistance of a silly chicken, her pet cat who wants to be a lawyer, a bear that escaped from a circus and a shape-shifting forest sprite. Together they must navigate the horrors of war while seeking to find her family and convince the fox to trade places once again. By the end of the story, experiencing life in the fox's body has profoundly affected the girl, and she is surprised to find that choices she once thought were clear are now difficult to make. The Old Country is a wonderful meld of fairy tale and fantasy elements, a story of wartime survival and one little girl's search for herself. It's a bit grim at times, but a lively and captivating tale.

Rating: 4/5 ........ 130 pages, 2005

More opinions:
Fis-hing for Anthea
Collected Miscellany

No Room in the Ark

by Alan Moorehead

This book describes the author's various safaris to view wildlife in Africa during the 1950's. I really enjoyed reading his vivid descriptions of the weather, landscape and animals- especially incidents where he came into closer contact with the wildlife. One night a hyena snuck into his tent and ate his leather boots right from under his cot! Not so nice was reading his descriptions of the various native tribes- he only praised those that had tall, slender people, and spoke in really insulting and derogatory terms of others whose appearance did not please him, especially the pygmies. Some of the animals were also recipients of his prejudice- his party found wild dogs so distateful that they threw stones at them to drive them away. There is one chapter specifically about poaching operations- especially ivory- and another on how the Masai's needs for land to graze their cattle conflicted with wildlife. One of the most interesting sections of the books described a hike his party took into the foothills of Mount Muhavura in hopes of seeing moutain gorillas. He mentions some pioneering researchers- Carl Akeley and Jill Donisthorpe- whose names were new to me, as the fame of later scientists like George Schaller and Dian Fossey has eclipsed them. The final chapter is about his trip down the Nile, where I found a very interesting passage about which books are good to read while on vacation in Africa!

"In these circumstances one reads books in quite a different way. Not only do you make a re-appraisal of them, so that those which before seemed good now sometimes seem trivial; inevitably the actual experiences that happen to you on your journey get mixed up with the book you chance to have before you at the moment. And the results are often bizarre..."

He goes on to briefly discuss various genres and which make a good fit with the safari atmosphere. His final conclusion? "In the end Jane Austen may be the most rewarding." So all you Jane Austen fans, you must make the experiment of reading one of her novels next time you travel in Africa, and tell me if you agree with his assessment!

Rating: 3/5 ........ 227 pages, 1957

wondrous words

from the past week's reading. These new words I came across while reading The Marsh Lions:

Internecine- ".... which prevents the lions from wasting their energies in senseless internecine warfare."
Definition: fatal to both side, mutually destructible

Volplane- "At once his keen eager eyes picked out the inert shape on the ground, and he began his own stupdendous fall to earth, the wind hissing through his primary feathers as he vol-planed out of the blue."
Definition: to glide towards the earth (in a plane) with the engine cut off

Gralloch- "For long periods he would disappear altogether, patrolling the outer reaches of his territory, until the gralloched corpse of a young impala dangling from one of his larder trees announced his return."
Definition: to remove the entrails of (especially a deer)

Kopje- "The kopjes are very old."
Definition: a small hill rising up from the African plain

Ineluctable- "Her nostrils drew in a tangle of ripe odours: geese and reedbucks, buffalo dung, rotting flesh, lion, grass, wildebeest and the black ineluctable reek of the Marsh itself.
Definition: unavoidable, inescapable

Corsair- "Mysterious, elusive, enigmatic, they were the restless corsairs of the wide grass oceans."
Definition: a pirate, or a swift pirate ship

Vernal- "The sound of the grass was in the wind, and its rank vernal smell was everywhere."
Definition: occurring in the spring, or fresh and youthful

Alate- "All over the plains, their mounds and mud chimneys erupted, releasing hordes of winged alates into the waiting mouths...."
Definition: having wings, or wing-like extensions

Riparian- "There she grew up, a fierce recluse, keeping to the dense riparian forests..."
Definition: on the banks of a river

Pronk- "Some of the territorial bucks began to pronk, bouncing away in stiff-legged alarm."
Definition: to jump straight up

for more wondrous words, visit this meme's host Bermudaonion

I did want to write a book post, as I just finished No Room in the Ark. I have new words from that one, too, but not looked up yet. Either my head is too achy to think straight, or the cold medicine is making me sleepy- I'm not up to writing well, now. All the BBAW posts are putting me in a whirl. Maybe next year...

9/19/09 Edit to add: here are the ones from No Room in the Ark:

Grenadilla- "...we entered hot groves of semi-tropical fruits, oranges and grenadillas, pineapples and bananas."
Definition: fruit of the passionflower vine

Cafard- "But it was not enough to beguile loneliness, to keep the cafard at bay."
Definition: this is a French word, and I think it means depression or apathy

Propinquity- "This propinquity was altogether too much for one of our drivers who had not before this ventured far outside Nairobi."
Definition: close in time, place or relationship (in this case, close to a lion)

Intransigence- "And the issue was still further confused by the fact that the Masai, perhaps because of their very toughness and intransigence, are rather admired by white men in Africa..."
Definition: stubbornly refusing to compromise

bookmarks giveaway

win a free African genet bookmark!
Time for a giveaway!

I made these two bookmarks featuring the African genet. They're drawn with pen and ink and painted in watercolors. Edged with cream-colored ribbon and signed on the back (yours truly).

So this week there will be two winners! One for each. If you'd like a genet bookmark, just leave a comment here to enter the giveaway. Open until tuesday 9/21, to anyone anywhere. (Make sure there's an easy way for me to contact you, in case you win!)

Happy reading.

A Thousand Acres

by Jane Smiley

This was my first book for the Random Reading challenge. A few days ago I made a list of all the titles in my TBR stack, and plugged it into random.org. The number that came up was 40- A Thousand Acres. I found it at a library sale once, picked it up because I enjoyed Moo. I was expecting A Thousand Acres to be different, but not that it would be boring. Without the wry humor that permeated Moo, there was not much to keep me interested in this book. The setting is a thousand-acre farm in Iowa, a farm carefully built up from swamp to success by generations of the Cook family. When the patriarch of the family retires, he suddenly leaves the farm to his three daughters, dividing up the land. Caroline, a lawyer in the city, doesn't want it. Rose is bitter and outspoken, Ginny (the narrator) more compliant but harboring her own hurt feelings. They all have issues with their father and his rigid schedule, coldness towards his family, scorn of outsiders. Another key figure is Jess, a draft-dodger who returns to the community after fourteen years' absence. He brings new ideas about how to do things. That contrast interested me- the new methods versus traditional, or the smaller farm that did just enough to get by and be content, compared to all the other farmers who competed to have the biggest, and most profitable farm. But I didn't care about any of the characters, so I was unable to follow them through the story, to find what disaster and tragedy was looming. I put it aside at about 120 pages.

It might have been my mood that spoiled the book, though. Just when my foot is almost better, I caught an icky headcold and now my head is all stuffy. Not very good for certain kinds of reading. So I might hold onto this one, to try again later.

Abandoned               405 pages, 1991

More opinions:
Literary Lounge
Panorama of the Mountains

Sunwaifs

by Sydney van Scyoc

This is a really bizarre sci-fi novel. It's set on a strange world where interplanetary colonists struggled to overcome local plant life. Wild creeping grass strangled their crops, proliferate moss spores struck the people and livestock with a form of intoxication that drove them into madness. Then a sunstorm affected pregnant women with its rays, and thousands of the resulting newborns died of birth defects. The six that survived had some strange mutations- one had healing powers, one could see the future, one could commune with birds, another with the plants, etc. They were shunned by the community, and grew up wild and solitary, tended by a few nurses. At the point where I left off (about fifty pages in), they had started sneaking out of their cottage to run wild through the fields and forest, to spy on the "pilgrims" and frolic under the influence of the moss dust. I like the way Scyoc writes, and I picked up this book because Daughters of the Sunstone intrigued me and I wanted to read more by her. But Sunwaifs was just getting a little too crazy for me, and I didn't want to continue.

Abandoned                       214 pages, 1981

The Marsh Lions

The Story of an African Pride
by Brian Jackman

This book wasn't what I expected, but I still enjoyed reading it. I thought it was going to be all about one lion pride, and I thought it was going to be about a particular lion pride I'd seen in a tv documentary, that had adapted to hunting buffalo in the water when their marsh flooded during the rainy season. I don't think they are, but I found a website about a BBC documentary that filmed lions in this same area, apparently some years after the events chronicled in the book. In the book, Scar was a young lion in his prime, whereas on the Big Cat Diaries, he is an older lion recently pushed out of the territory by the new males coming in.

The Marsh Lions is more than just a book about lions. It's about the whole panorama of African wildlife living around the Musiara Marsh, on the borders of Kenya and Tanzania. It's the product of five years that Jonathan Scott spent photographing animals in the Masai Mara, keeping detailed notes about their behavior and interactions. He later collaborated with Jackman to have the book written and published. Not only does it tell the story of shifting dynamics among four different lion prides, but that of many other animals as well. Rhino, hippos, elephants, mongoose, zebra and many others are mentioned in the pages. One chapter follows a young wildebeest calf on its first migration journey, another tells of the vain efforts of a cheetah to raise cubs, loosing one litter after another. Yet another part of the book unfolds the story of the last pack of wild dogs to roam through the area, their numbers dwindling down until there's so few left it looks like they might not recover. With descriptive language and accurate details, the reader follows along on a midnight hunt with a hyena clan, circles the skies with the buzzards and vultures, hides in the brush with the reclusive leopard. Unlike most books I've read about African wildlife, this one doesn't have much to say about conservation or how wildlife is affected by humans. Instead, it's simply a broad picture of the animals' lives, accompanied by lots of photographs illustrating the events described.

Rating: 3/5                      224 pages, 1982

"National Velvet"

by Enid Bagnold

This is a story set in a small English village in the 1920's. Its protagonist is a teenage girl named Velvet, the local butcher's daughter. Although her father does well, she has lots of siblings, so there isn't enough money to indulge in her dreams- owning a horse. But when a horse considered a local nuisance- a black and white piebald with one blue eye who is constantly jumping fences and running about the streets- gets puts up for a raffle, Velvet wins. In another stroke of unexpected luck, an elderly gentleman becomes aware of her love for horses, and leaves her five ponies in his will. Now Velvet is the sudden owner of six horses. She and her sisters ride the ponies in small local gymkhanas, with various success. Then, inspired by a comment of her father's assistant who is an ex-jockey, Velvet gets the idea to train and enter the piebald in the most difficult and competitive equestrian event in the country- the Grand National steeplechase. There are several problems to overcome: her horse is wild and untrained, she's too young to enter the race, and at the time only men were allowed to participate, as it was considered too dangerous for female riders. Velvet is determined, though, and won't let any of these things stop her from pursuing her dream.

National Velvet is one of those books I almost missed falling in love with. It sat on my shelf for five or six years, and twice I tried reading it, giving up within the first twenty pages, finding it dull. But I think it just takes the right mindset and appreciation, for the third time I picked it up I fell in love with the story. It's not just about a girl who loves horses, it's also a story about growing up, about living in a large family, about life in a small coastal English village. Velvet's family is full of interesting characters and family dynamics. The sisters squabbling, keeping secrets, banding together against outsiders (or their parents). The obstinate little brother who makes the funniest remarks, so like any toddler with his fits of tears and fury. The solemn authority of their mother- who once won a medal for swimming the English channel but obscures her former glory in bustling housework. The at-first mysterious figure of Mi, the butcher's assistant, who doesn't speak of his past until the sudden influx of horses into the butcher's field can't help revealing his interest and knowledge of them. And besides her involvement with horses, Velvet has other trials- she's prone to fits of nerves and anxiety, she has to wear a gold bar wedged between her teeth to correct something (I had braces for six years, how I could relate!).

This is a wonderful book, and I wish I could find more reviews to point you to. Most of the ones I came across online were of various film adaptations, which changed the story somewhat- making Velvet an orphan, making the piebald her only horse, or a beautiful well-bred horse instead of the awkward unruly creature he was (potential hidden in an unlikely form!)

Rating: 4/5 ........ 288 pages, 1935

More opinions at:
Puss Reboots
The Brick Post
anyone else?

The Cats of Lamu

The Feral Cats of an Exotic African Island
by Jack Couffer

The Cats of Lamu is a beautiful book. Its author was vacationing on a small island off the coast of Kenya when he became interested in the local feral cats. He thought they looked like cats depicted in ancient Egyptian art, and was more intrigued when he learned that these cats had been on the island for hundreds of years without intermingling with other breeds. This book is the result of several years he spent living on Lamu island, studying and photographing the cats.

I first picked this book up in a San Francisco library because it has such gorgeous photos. The story is fascinating as well. Couffer describes how he first fell in love with Lamu, the island culture and his interactions with the natives (most who viewed him as slightly a crazy but harmless foreigner). There are some interesting and amusing stories that have nothing to do with the cats- like that of a local meuzzin who would sing the evening prayers next door to their garden, always studiously ignoring them as politeness required. Couffer and his wife wished to make contact with this man and let him know how they appreciated his beautiful voice, despite the fact that they were not Muslim, did not speak his language, and local etiquette frowned upon even making eye contact. They found a way to do so, and it made me smile. Another story tells about an elderly European woman who had come to the island to enjoy the tropical climate during her retirement. Being a cat lover, she was quite friendly with Couffer. One day by chance the locals came to think she could predict the future, and labeled her a witch. She enjoyed playing up this new status, until a neighboring hotel owner, getting rid of nuisance animals, was rumored to have drowned one of her favorite cats. Then she took her role as village witch seriously and made some threats, with a suprising outcome.

Most of the book however, is about the Lamu cats. Couffer watched the cats as often as he could, followed them around and took notes on their behavior. He came to recognize dozens of individuals, mapped out their territories and speculated on their family relationships. He found that most of the cats lived in groups like lion prides, associating together and sharing food resources- especially the ones that lived on the beach and ate the offal from the fishermen's daily catch. Whenever he had a question, he sought the answer. Local chickens roamed freely about the village- why did the cats not eat the baby chicks? Dogs did not live on the island- how would a Lamu cat react to meeting one? Why did the cats eagerly take advantage of some foods- the twice-yearly flight of termites- and ignore others- the hundreds of fiddler crabs on the beaches? How effective were the cats at rat control? The local people did not view the cats as pets, for the most part ignoring them- but was there more to their relationship than that? One of the more interesting chapters describes several well-meaning animal welfare groups that stepped in to vaccinate and sterilize the cats in order to improve their condition, and how that affected not only the cat population, but the sanitation of the town as well. (He was able to keep them from treating cats in his core study group to compare effects on treated populations and one left entirely alone). Couffer examines all these things (and more) with equal curiosity and insight, describing his findings in a casual, eloquent manner. It's a delight to read his book, and linger over the beautiful photographs.

Rating: 4/5                  156 pages, 1998

some photos of Lamu cats at:
Feline Meanderings

wondrous words

from Oryx and Crake:

Vermiform- "He'd used the vermiform appendix as the base on which to construct the necessary organ..."
Definition: shaped like a worm, long and thin

Inchoate- "... events had marked him, he'd had his own scars, his dark emotions. Ignorant, perhaps. Unformed, inchoate."
Definition: in an early stage, not yet fully developed

Troglodyte- "He was feeling more and more like a troglodyte."
Definition: a primitive person who lives in a cave

Plangent- "Maybe they'd pick it up now, in time for a heartfelt, plangent, and action-filled finale."
Definition: expressing sadness, or: loud and resounding

Homogenized- "Just in time, fear has homogenized his bowels."
Definition: to make uniform in consistency, especially through a fluid (ew)

Snaffle- "He fills up an empty beer bottle with boiled water, then snaffles a standard-issue micro-fibre laundry bag from the bedroom..."
Definition: to seize quickly and easily

and from The Cats of Lamu:

Raconteur- "A great raconteur, Kay was full of fun and always ready for a put-on or a joke, which the locals loved- when they understood the sometimes alien punch line."
Definition: a person skilled at telling stories

Find more new words at this meme's host: Bermudaonion.

winner!

There were so many entrants this time, I didn't do my usual paper-bound cut, fold and toss in a hat, but wrote a list and used the random number generator. And the winner of the panda bookmarks is

number 5-
Anna from
Diary of an Eccentric

Congrats, Anna! Send me your address and I'll mail you two pandas!

What An Animal II

After some thinking I've decided to change what I'm reading for the What An Animal I challenge. Mostly because all the books I listed before are ones I'd reach for anyways; I'm going to read them whether they're on my challenge list or not. And I want to stretch myself a bit. So I'm making a new list, to encourage myself to read more of the "coffee-table books" that have sat on my shelves unread, browsed so far only for their beautiful photos. They are: 

The Cats of Lamu by Jack Couffer 

The Long African Day by Norman Meyers 

The Majesty of the Horse by Dean Server 

The Wolf Almanac by Robert H. Busch 

Penguins of the World by Wayne Lynch 

Encyclopedia of the Cat by Bruce Fogle 

Marsh Lions by Brian Jackman 

Killer Whales by Sara Heimlich 

Frogs by David Badger 

Alligators and Crocodiles by John Behler 

Tigers in the Snow by Peter Matthiessen 

I'm going to try and read one a month, into February.

Oryx and Crake

by Margaret Atwood

There is something about Margaret Atwood's books that both fascinates and repels me. I found The Handmaid's Tale to be chilling, in a remote way. Cat's Eye was terribly dismal and depressing to me. And Oryx and Crake gave me the creeps- but at the same time I simply could not put it down. It is a horrifying vision of the future- a future in which humankind has altered the face of the world beyond belief. The effects of global warming are only a sidenote here; popultation growth beyond control causing a huge rift between the wealthy and poor, spawning violence and crime alongside ruthless pursuit of scientific answers to all problems. Genetic engineering and other kinds of tinkering has created things like pigs that grow human organs, fake boulders that water your lawn, babies with chosen characteristics. And society's utter moral degredation. It all eventually falls into chaos, until a man who calls himself Snowman is the only real human being left, alongside a group of genetically altered people who are impervious to many ills- sunburn, disease, hunger (they eat grass). Jealousy, hate, love? humor? There's not a lot left to make them human, so many things in their brains have been rewired by the scientist Crake. Who was once Snowman's childhood friend.

The main character in this story is Snowman and his younger self, Jimmy. The plot follows him through his daily struggle to survive in the present altered and (to him) harsh new environment, full of dangerous wildlife and killing heat. He starts off on a journey back to the ruins of civilization for supplies, on the way reminiscing on his childhood and all the events that led up to the final disaster- how he watched the world change and the part he played in key events.

And now a word about what frustrated me; skip this paragraph if you want to avoid spoilers. I found some things in this book really disturbing. Namely, the blatant s-x everywhere, and how the boys would watch violence (executions, suicides, killing of animals etc) for entertainment. I suppose this was to show how far society had gone, but it was pretty sickening. And I really didn't understand why Jimmy was so drawn to Oryx. For a character with such an important role, there wasn't much told about her, and she hardly felt real to me. Perhaps she was meant to remain a mystery. Then the ending of the book drove me crazy, because I got excited just as Snowman did, and hoped in those final pages to see a confrontation or discovery of some kind, and I got- nothing. For the first time I wanted to throw a book across the room! But then I found out that her upcoming book Year of The Flood, is a sequel to this one, so maybe my questions will be answered. I'm going to wait a while before I read it, though. I can't take this kind of heavy stuff one book after another.

Rating: 4/5 ........ 376 pages, 2003

More opinions:
Shelf Love
Book Maven's Blog

Enchantress from the Stars

by Sylvia Louise Engdahl

In the mood for more fantasy after finishing Daughters of the Sunstone, I simply picked up the next fantasy book off my TBR, and I was surprised to find it had a few similar themes, albeit presented in an entirely different way. Enchantress from the Stars is set in the future, when humankind has populated many different planets. Each world is in a different stage of development, some civilizations far more advanced than others. The most highly evolved peoples form the Federation, and are sworn to keep their presence secret from more primitive worlds, for fear of influencing their development in unforseen ways.

On the small green planet of Andrecia, some unenlightened space colonists have invaded, intending to wipe out the native inhabitants in order to use the planet's resources. At the same time, the Federation sends down a team of intergalactic anthropologists, who decide to intervene and save the native population- but they must do so without revealing their identity to either the natives or the colonists. What ensues is a fantastic story, as members of each group come into contact with ways of thinking and knowledge far different from their own. It is told in alternating viewpoints of the three main characters. Georyn, a native villager, is on a quest to slay the dragon that is ravaging his countryside (clearing land for the colony). Jarel, a doctor among the colonists, struggles with his conscience as he comes to realize the natives are people with real potential, not just primitives devoid of feelings as his companions think. And Elana, a teenager who snuck onto the rescue team, finds herself involved far more than she'd expected, as she must play the role of a magical enchantress to guide Georyn against a peril he cannot hope to face alone. What I really enjoyed was that each viewpoint is written in a different style- Georyn's formal and stylized like a fairytale, Elana's in the voice of a questioning teenager, Jarel straightforward in his growing outrage. It's a story about perspectives and new awareness. There's adventure, magic, philosophy, and even a love story. I wish I'd come across this book when I was younger, it would have blown me away.

Rating: 3/5                   288 pages, 1970

More opinions at:
Rebecca's Recommended Reads
Anthony Pacheco: Hack Writer

Every Pregnant Woman's Guide to Preventing Premature Birth

by Barbara Luke

Here's something you probably didn't know about me: I was born several months premature. When expecting my own child, I wasn't at risk for having a premature birth myself. But while browsing the library shelves for books about pregnancy, the title caught my eye and I was curious. Every Pregnant Woman's Guide to Preventing Premature Birth is based on studies done in France, where they have actually been able to lower the nation's rate of premature births per year. The main message is simply to take it easy while you're pregnant- don't push the vacuum cleaner, ride a jolting train, spend long hours on your feet, lift heavy objects, etc. Also info on how to recognize signs of premature labor and when to call the doctor. The section about maternity leave was kind of boring and felt longer than necessary, but overall this looks like a very useful book if you want to avoid the chances of being put on prolonged bed rest or having a premature baby.

Rating: 3/5                        239 pages, 1995

wondrous words

A day late, with this meme. Well, here are the rest of the new words I found, in Search for the Golden Moon Bear:

Ordnance- "Unexploded ordnance still infects the countryside."
Definition: weapons and other military supplies

Epiphyte- "The trees along the Mekong have epiphytes- ferns, orchids, and sometimes even cactic perch harmlessly on the branches..."
Definition: a plant that grows on another plant for support but does not take nutrients from it

Echelon- "No wonder he was still awaiting approval from the upper echelons of the Forest Department to proceed with his reintroduction plans..."
Definition: a level of power or responsibility

and from Daughters of the Sunstone:

Rapproachement- "She had made a final rapprochment with herself while she slept."
Definition: the re-establishment of friendly relations

Renege- "Finally, Reyna guessed, she had grown so oppressed by the daily terror of waking and realizing that her challenge still lay ahead that she had simply gone, impulsively, without preparation or ceremony, before she could renege."
Definition: to renounce, disown; to fail to carry out a promise or commitment

Abrogate- "Aberra had gone, abrogating every tradition of a palace daughter's leave-taking."
Definition: to abolish, do away with, cancel; especially by invested authority

Diffidently- "The hall monitor approached and spoke diffidently, his wizened face concerned."
Definition: timidly, reserved

Impinge- "Every sensory clue impinged upon her, demanding its brief moment of attention."
Definition: to trespass, encroach upon

for more wondrous words, visit Bermudaonion's Weblog

Bears

Majestic Creatures of the Wild
edited by Ian Stirling

I've been thinking about bears lately. Not only because I've read a few books about different species in the past week, but because they've also been featured in some of the fiction I read. In Reindeer Moon, the primitive people would sometimes find where a bear had denned for the winter, and dig it out for meat. In Daughters of the Sunstone, some of the people on an imaginary planet passed the winter in an induced sleep, to avoid starvation when resources were scarce, as bears do.

In Bears: Majestic Creatures of the Wild, I learned about how bears hibernate, and all kinds of other fascinating things. This is one of those heavy coffe-table type books full of beautiful photos I've had for a long time, enthralled by the pictures, but a bit intimidated by its size for reading. It was actually pretty easy to get through, most of it well-written and interesting. The book has several main sections, written by a variety of scientists. It discusses the evolutionary history of bears (answering a few of my questions about pandas), their biology and behavior. Each of the eight bear species has its own chapter, then there is a part about bears and people, everything from ancient bear myths and fables, to how bears have figured in art, to how bears have been affected by people hunting them, putting them in zoos and circuses, and finally, conservation efforts. This part dated the book somewhat, as it stated that the polar bear is the least threatened of all the bear species. Whereas whenever I think of global warming, the first thing that comes to mind is all those polar bears now facing starvation because the ice caps are melting. The only part of the book I found disappointing were the chapters on bears in mythology, culture and art. The information wasn't presented as well, some parts felt choppy, others not unclear. And this was the part I was most curious about! However, if you want an all-around book about bears, this is an excellent choice with many wonderful illustrations.

This book came to me as a library discard, with no cover. So the image shown here is one I put together from my scrap file.

Rating: 3/5 ....... 240 pages, 1993

Aug/Sept Reviews, DogEar Reading Challenge

Okay, I'm trying this again. If you're participating in the DogEar Reading Challenge (signup post here) this is the place to leave links to reviews for books you read in August and September (because the Mr. Linky I put up in Aug didn't work- sorry!) Make sure the link goes to your actual review post, and not the main page of your blog. List your name and the book's title. You can also mention the category you read it for in parenthsis. Like this: Name- Title (subject). If you don't have a blog, feel free to tell us a little bit about the books you read in the comments.

(If you're viewing this in a reader, you'll need to click through to see the mr. linky)

bookmarks giveaway!

win a free pair of panda bear bookmarks!
This week's giveaway (due to some great suggestions) is of panda bears! Aren't they cute? These are double-sided bookmarks, laminated, each about 2 x 7.5". Click on the photo to see it larger. If you'd like a chance to win this pair of pandas, just leave a comment here! The lucky name will be plucked from a hat next tuesday, 9/8.

Daughters of the Sunstone

by Sydney van Scyoc

I have found it is not hard to read a 600-page-plus book at all, if it's one you're interested in! This was my last attempt to complete the 9 for '09 Challenge, and I finally did it. I'm finding it difficult to know what to say about Daughters of the Sunstone, though. The entire time I was reading I kept wanting to discuss with someone, and tell my husband about it. But the little I told intrigued him so much, he made me quit saying anything, for fear I would give it away. Because now he wants to read it himself! And I don't want to write spoilers here, either, but it may be difficult to say anything without saying too much! So I'll try to be discreet, but you've been forewarned.

Well, here goes. Daughters of the Sunstone is actually three volumes in one: Darkchild, Bluesong and Starsilk. It is set eons in the future, when humankind has left Earth to populate other planets, scattered far and wide. Such a long time has elapsed that humans have evolved differently on the new plantes, to adapt to new environments. Brakrath was a planet not really suitable for settlement. Humans only landed there by accident, stranded for what they thought would be a brief while, that stretched out into centuries. In the meantime, they found a way to survive the harsh environment and built a culture around a few women invested with tremendous power- the very power of the sun. A power drawn to warm the valleys and extend the growing season but also very dangerous to wield. Khira is born into this culture as a palace daughter, and due to strictures of tradition, finds herself all alone in the palace for the long winter.

One morning she wakens to find someone in the empty palace with her- a strange boy, devoid of emotion or personality, lonely, empty and lost. She befriends him and teaches him everything, unaware that he is really a tool sent from an alien race, a child whose mind has been programmed to gather information in order to exploit her planet's resources. Although she sees Darkchild only as her friend, others see something more sinister in him and recognize the threat. While Kira struggles to know what she must do- protect her friend, or her people? flee from or embrace her duties? the boy Darkchild wrestles with the duplicity he comes to recognize in himself. Can he be more than just a pawn, working out the hostile intent of an alien race? can he assert his own will and be whole?

The second novel, Bluesong, is the story of the next generation. Due to new contact with offplanet humankind, some children are born with entirely new characteristics. They don't fit in the rigid structure of Brakrath society. There is no place for them in tradition. Danior and Kira are born in different valleys, yet they are both desperately searching for a sense of belonging, and share a common destiny. When their paths cross, they find themselves traveling to strange unknown places on Brakrath, into harsh lands where savage tribes war constantly. Kira finds that against her will, her very presence in the desert stirs up greater violence, yet she may be the only one who can bring peace, if she can learn to control the power of the sunstone in a way no one has done before. And Danior must find the answers to his own quest, to return to his home valley with tales of wonders greater than anyone has ever heard, with answers to questions no one had thought to ask...

The final story, Starsilk, finds Danior's sister Reyna confronted with new information that will change forever how her culture operates. Driven by desperation to fulfill her role in society and yet avoid the grim outcome she now knows is inevitable, she sets off on a quest further than any palace daughter has ever gone- to a distant planet. With a companion and a guide, she seeks to find a man who has been lost for a hundred years, yet whose voice still speaks across the stars. If against all odds he still lives, Reyna intends to find him. What she and her companions encounter is a land with sentient creatures bound together in a way stranger than anyone could have imagined.

And now I've got to stop myself before I say to much. Really, I've only scratched the surface here. These stories are complex, with very real characters who inhabit an entirely unique universe thought-out in every detail. They grapple with enormous dilemmas, facing emotional turmoil, trying to make sense of their lives and the new changes happening to their once-isolated planet. Each of the stories has wide-reaching implications, yet they're told from a very personal perspective that makes them so engaging. It's a fascinating trilogy, with unexpected complications at every turn. I was full of anticipation to the very last page. Now I'm eager to find any other books by Sydney van Scyoc- she's a fantastic writer and I'd love to visit whatever other strange worlds she's created.

Rating: 4/5 ........ 697 pages, 1984

More opinions at:
Jenny's Books
anyone else?

9 for '09 Complete!

I've finished my third reading challenge, the 9 for '09 Challenge! For this challenge I read nine books of various categories. I had to find a few replacements for ones that didn't work for me, so the ones I ended up reading were:

My Beaver Colony by Lars Wilsson
Letters from a Nut by Ted Nancy
Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl
The Sheepdog by Tim Longton
Chalice by Robin McKinley
Emma by Jane Austen
Sand by Will James
The Grail War by Richard Monaco
Daughters of the Sunstone by Sydney van Scyoc

Pandas

by Heather Angel

After reading about the golden moon bear, I wanted to know more about bears, so I searched through my book pile and found this brief, informative volume on pandas. Written by a wildlife photographer, Pandas gives an overview of the species accompanied by many gorgeous photographs. The book tells about panda habitat, diet, behavior and mostly, why they are so endangered. Its main focus is conservation, and to that end, there seem to be more descriptions of the unique habitat than of the pandas themselves. This book states that according to the conformation of their skulls, pandas are part of the raccoon family. Yet in the book on moon bears I read that DNA studies have shown pandas to be bears. The smaller red panda is still a puzzle- is it part of the bear family, raccoon family, or one all its own? I was surprised to learn that pandas have canine characteristics- including their teeth and digestive system- and yet their main food source is a plant, bamboo. They can't digest it entirely, so they have to practically eat all day in order to get enough nourishment. And bamboo has a peculiarity that once every seventy, hundred years or so, a variety will all bloom at once, set seed, and die. It used to be that when the bamboo died off, pandas simply migrated to another area. Now with developments cutting the forest into smaller sections, the pandas have nowhere to go to find new bamboo. The other food sources they turn to aren't sufficient, and they slowly starve. These are only a few of the facts I learned about pandas from this book. I'm really curious to know how a canine animal evolved to be so dependent upon a plant species, yet unable to utilize it efficiently. I suppose science hasn't figured that out yet.

Rating: 3/5                          72 pages, 1998

Search for the Golden Moon Bear

Science and Adventure in Pursuit of a New Species
by Sy Montgomery

This interesting book is about a writer and a scientist's quest to unravel the puzzle of a golden bear in Southeast Asia. Was this unfamiliar bear a new species, or merely a color variation of the Asian black bear, otherwise known as the moon bear? The author and her companion Dr. Gary Galbreath traveled through Cambodia, Laos and Thailand in search of bears and local people who could share information about them. There they found that the bears were seriously endangered by habitat loss and poaching, and heard stories of yet another possibly unknown bear species in remote mountains. From things simple as asking a Hmong refugee living next next door what he knew of bears, to the technicalities of extracting DNA from bear hair, the story encompasses every aspect of their search for answers. It ranges from feeling like a travelouge, to describing bear behavior, to explaining the scientific methods of their study. It's about bear genetics, evolutionary history, and distribution; about the presence of the bear in local folklore and, sadly, diet and medicine. The bears are not the only animal to get mention here. There is the mysterious Khting vor, known only by its twisted horns. There are dogs rescued off the streets where they would face abuse, or end up in someone's stew pot. There are elephants suffering from injuries sustained by stepping on land mines. There is a plethora of wildlife whose names are strange to me, and I had to look them up: kouprey, binturong, hog badger, markhor, etc. Search for the Golden Moon Bear is a book with many facets. While the bear is a dominant thread, there is also so much about the history and culture of various Southeast Asian countries that sometimes I felt lost. And so much of it made me feel upset, not only for the plight of moon bears, but also for the ravages of war and commerce on those countries.

Rating: 3/5                             324 pages, 2002

More opinions:
What We Are Reading
anyone else?

blog award

Gentle Reader, who writes Shelf Life, has given my blog the Literary Blogger Award. This award is for blogs that make you feel comfy and warm inside (doesn't that picture look so cozy? I wish I had a window seat to read in!) I'd like to pass the Literary Blogger Award on to

Trish, Caribousmom, Bookfool, Maggie and Petunia.

A few more awards came to me lately, the second time around:
Jules and Jenny and Nan all gave me the Zombie Chicken Award, and Jessica The Curious Reader gave me the Lemonade Award. I'm sorry I'm a little late recognizing them. I just wanted to say thank you all!

I'm passing the Zombie Chicken Award on to
Lisamm- Books on the Brain
Bybee- Naked Without Books
Leah- The Octogon
Cath- Read Warbler

and the Lemonade Award to
Amanda- A Patchwork of Books
Suey- It's All About Books
Eva- A Striped Armchair
Heather- Book Addiction

wondrous words

These words I came across when reading The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle:

Obstreperous- "He was such an enormous man there was no knowing what he might do if he got really obstreperous."
Definition: noisy, aggressively defiant and difficult to control

Embrocation- "... the Doctor took a large bottle of embrocation and began rubbing the sprain."
Definition: an ointment or lotion

Enteric- "They would go back to their old unsanitary ways: bad water, uncooked fish, no drainage, enteric fever, and the rest."
Definition: of the intestines

These words are from The Snowflake:

Nanoscale- "Yet self-assembly is hard to fathom because it usually involves either nanoscale objects, like the molecules in a crystal, or tremendously complex objects, like living things."
Definition: on a scale of nanometers, which is one billionth of a meter

Morphogenesis- "A flower is a biological example of morphogenesis, the spontaneous creation of form- nature using chemistry and self-assembly to generate complexity."
Definition: formation of the structure of an organism, or a part thereof

And from the books I'm currently reading, Search for the Golden Moon Bear:

Igneous- "In a great igneous spine, they run for more than six hundred miles from the northeastern corner of Cambodia up along the border of Vietnam and Laos."
Definition: formed by molten rock cooling

Lyse- "The chemicals would lyse, or burst the cells, and cause them to release their DNA."
Definition: to cause the disintegration of cells, by a chemical substance, antibody or enzyme

Montane- "If Africa is a good analogy, montane rain forest spread down, but the lowland forest became savanna in what is now the Congo Basin."
Definition: of a mountain area

and Daughters of the Sunstone:

Compunction- "I was busy," he said lamely, wondering how he had turned her away twice with no compunction.
Definition: uneasiness caused by guilt; feeling of regret

Inimical- "He should have known before he encountered the arrogant Bullens, should have known before he challenged the Arnimi force curtain, that the Arnimi would be inimical to him."
Definition: harmful, injurious; hostile or unfriendly

Insipid- "Tastes and scents grew insipid, colors dull, textures bland."
Definition: lacking in flavor, tasteless

Venality- "Or did the women who governed them see that their venality was directed entirely outward?"
Definition: susceptible to bribery, corruption; using a position of trust for dishonest gain

Compendium- "She was the oldest mare of her herd and she carried the knowledge of their kind in the very tissues of her body, carried it like a compendium of redmane wisdom."
Definition: a summary of a larger work

Ostentatious- "It was a crude weapon, but she worked on it ostentatiously, hefting it, testing its balance."
Definition: showy, pretentious. That doesn't quite seem to fit here. Does anyone know another definition?

Extemporize- "It means our fathers were the same man once," Danior said, extemporizing. "Though they are no longer, of course."
Definition: to do something without preparation or practice

That's a lot of new words! To see more, visit the host of this meme, Bermudaonion.

Rabbit-Proof Fence

by Doris Pilkington

I saw the film based on this book a few years ago, and it moved me so much I wanted to read the original story. Rabbit-Proof Fence is about three aboriginal girls in 1930's Australia who were taken from their mother and put in a camp where they were forced to learn English customs, beaten for speaking their own language, and taught to work as domestic servants. This was enforced by the government at the time because the children were of mixed race; their father was white. The girls, two sisters and a cousin, eventually escaped the misery of the camp and followed the rabbit-proof fence across the Australian outback to find their way home. Their journey was arduous and long. They walked most of the way, through desert conditions. They had to face heat, thirst, hunger and fatigue, and avoid professional trackers who were sent after them. They had no supplies or provisions, but survived on their own foraging skills and handouts from sympathetic people (both white and native) encountered on their journey. They traveled in total over 1,000 miles and sadly, even after reaching their home in Jigalong, were not safe from the government's attention.

While I find this story amazing, and my heart ached for the girls, for once the movie outshines the book. Even though the film was overly dramatic and a few aspects of the story were altered, it was far more engaging and moving than the book. The book was written by the daughter of one of the girls who made the trek, and she first heard about the incident through oral storytellers. She gathered information and documents verifying the story from a few other sources, and wrote it down as she would have told it to another person, some sixty years after the events had taken place. The result is a rather dry, sometimes scattered account with frequent awkward passages and stiff syntax. It is just not very engaging to read. It still strikes me as an important book; I did not know about how aboriginal people were treated in Australia before I read it, but it can be hard to appreciate. I would recommend seeing the film first, and then reading the book after if you want the more factual account.

Rating: 2/5 ........ 160 pages, 1996

More opinions:
World Lit
Eric's IAH Blog

winner

The winner of the puffin bookmark is...

Sandy Nawrot, of You've GOTTA Read This!

Congrats, Sandy. I'll be sending you a puffin tomorrow. The next bookmark giveaway will be up the following tuesday, so if you didn't win one yet, do come again!

Black and Blue Magic

by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

I must have first read this book some fifteen years ago, and the story has still stuck with me. It's about a lonely boy who gets a magic potion that makes him grow wings. Each night he sneaks out of the house to go flying- at first just learning how to do so safely, then exploring, and finally seeking ways to help strangers- when he's often mistaken for an angel. Of course it's not all fun and games- foggy nights are wet and cold, it's hard to find something suitable to wear while flying, and he's constantly worried about being found out. Black and Blue Magic is a really good story, one I want to read yet again someday.

Rating: 3/5                   196 pages, 1967

The Snowflake

Winter's Secret Beauty
by Kennth Libbrecht

Stunningly beautiful, The Snowflake: Winter's Secret Beauty is a book all about snowflakes, or snow crystals- particularly how they are formed, and why there is such an enormous variety of pattern combinations that no two identical snowflakes have ever been observed (although two very close ones are pictured on pp. 28-29). There's even a bit of history: the first recorded observations of snowflakes were made by Descartes in 1637, the earliest snowflake photographs in 1885 by Wilson Bentley. A lot of this book is physics, and even though the information is presented clearly, I had to read some passages several times over. I learned so many fascinating things: what makes the halo around the moon, how scientists can make clouds produce rainfall, and what can suspend an ice crystal long enough to grow a snowflake in a laboratory- a rabbit's hair! The nucleus of a snowflake is actually a dust particle, and they are formed by the growth of ice crystals, very similar to how mineral crystals grow. The formation of snowflakes is affected very precisely by humidity and temperature- so a snowfall will often have all of a similar kind of snowflake, and when conditions change, the shape of the flakes changes, too. Although most of the photographs in this book are of beautiful, intricate and neatly symmetrical snowflakes, the great majority of snow crystals are actually irregular, small or deformed. It was really interesting to read about the methods photographer Patricia Rasmussen used to capture the images, too. You can see some of the gorgeous snow crystal photographs and read more about Libbrecht's work here. And the most wonderful thing? the author is a scientist who studies snowflakes not for any practical reason, but simply to understand their beauty, as aptly described in these two quotes included in the book:

The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful. - Jules Henri Poincare

What is the pattern, or the meaning, or the why? It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little about it. For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it. - Richard P. Feynman

Rating: 4/5 ........ 112 pages, 2003

More opinions at:
Educating Petunia
Blogging for a Good Book
anyone else?

The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle

by Hugh Lofting

I always thought I would rather like this book, because it's all about a man who can talk to animals! What could be better? Sadly, I was a little disappointed. The beginning was good. In a charming style rather reminiscent of My Father's Dragon, the story tells how a village boy, Tommy Stubbins, becomes apprentice to the great naturalist and doctor, and sets off with him on a voyage to discover new animals and find the doctor's missing colleague, an Indian named Long Arrow.

Dr. Dolittle travels around without a care in the world, because he can speak animal languages and wherever he is, creatures come to his aid. Shipwreck? no problem- the dolphins push him to shore. Overwhelming battle odds? no problem- call in thousands of black parrots! But I was a bit disturbed how the jolly animal-loving man used this to impose his own views on other people. It started out midly enough- translating for a dog so he could stand witness in a murder trial, stopping bullfights in a small town in Spain, follow a beetle guide to rescue some men trapped in a rockslide. But then at the end of their journey the doctor, Tommy and the animal crew arrive on a floating island where the native inhabitants are so ignorant Dolittle has to teach them everything- starting with how to make fire! then building cities, sewer systems, introducing them to medicine, teaching them to use metal, etc etc. It just got to be a bit too much. Polynesia the parrot had it right when she criticized him: "How do you suppose babies got along before you came, for Heaven's sake?" I wanted to like The Voyage of Dr. Dolittle, but the conceit of those ending chapters just spoiled it for me. This is a sequel. The Story of Dr. Dolittle is the first book and then there's a whole slew of others, but I don't think I'll read any more. I think my copy is an edited one, too; I read on wiki that some racist terms for natives and offensive illustrations had been removed.

Rating: 2/5                         276 pages, 1922

More opinions:
The Newberry Project
Adventures in Reading
SMS Book Reviews
A Species of Storytellers
Karen Edits

good and not so...

I have some fantastic news and some more glum news.

My blog got nominated for two categories in Book Blog Appreciation Week awards- Best Special Interest (I'm guessing for all the animal books!) and Best Non-Fiction Blog!! I couldn't believe it. I'm so excited to be a part of this, and thank you thank you to whoever nominated me!

The glum news is I busted my toe. (In a really stupid way: I accidentally kicked a brick that edges the garden). You would not believe how much a broken pinkie toe hurts. It's really silly, but half my usual tasks of the day I simply can't do, and the other half is all more awkward and takes twice as long. So by the time I can lie down and put my foot up I'm too tired to do much more than read a few pages and doze off. I have two reviews needing to be written, and feel like I've been rather neglecting the commenting I usually do on other blogs. It might be a bit quiet here for a while, but I'm still around and will catch up when I can.

wondrous words

I'm doing my wondrous words a day late. They all came from West with the Night, a book full of unfamiliar words, many (not listed here) which I could not find meanings for and only guessed at.

Muram- "I peer ahead along the narrow muram runway."
Definition: a type of heavy, red clay soil used to pave roads

Posho- "... the cedar forest that bounded our posho mill and paddocks."
Definition: a staple food in Africa made from ground maize and water

Syce- "... she could be handled even by the syces."
Definition: a groom or stableman (word origins in India)

Manyatta- "I could only wonder if he had been hurt and taken into a manyatta by some of the Masai Murani..."
Definition: a Masai community made up of several huts enclosed by a fence

Magneto- "Woody and I were preparing to take off for Nairobi and a doctor- and a new magneto, if one could be had."
Definition: a device that produces alternating current for distribution to the spark plugs, used in the ignition systems of some internal-combustion engines

Kiboko- "... Bwana Elkington, who is saying a great many words I do not know and is carrying a long kiboko which he holds in his hand and is meant for beating the large lion."
Definition: a heavy leather whip

Profligate- "He was profligate with money- his own and what he could borrow; but he spent nothing on himself and was scrupulously honest."
Definition: recklessly wasteful

Reimpie- "It began with the stirring of Buller alseep, as always, at the foot of my reimpie bed in the mud and daub hut we shared together..."
Definition: having a seat (or in this case a platform) of woven rawhide thongs

Donga- "The lion that stood in the donga was not intimidated by Arab Maina's stare."
Definition: a dry gully

Lucerne- "She nibbles at a single leaf of lucerne, too small to be tasted, then shambles on sluggish feet across the box."
Definition: alfalfa (in Britian and Australia)

Enure- "It is an ancient lamp.... It is crumpled and slatternly, enured to failure, as if no man with hope in his fingers had ever trimmed its wick."
Definition: inure; to habituate oneself to something unpleasant

Nonage- "... he will walk behind me now, when once, in the simplicity of our nonage, we walked together."
Definition: a period of immaturity

Strabismus- "Please report to the examiners within three months and, if you have not contracted strabismus, or a melancholy point of view in regard to this Board, we will be happy to renew your permit."
Definition: a condition where the eyes are not aligned with each other

Sansevieria- "Land on sansevieria and your plane is skewered like a duck pinned for taxidermy- land in it and walk away."
Definition: a type of shrubby, succulent perennial plant native to the Old World

Nostrum- ".... each beckoning with such enthusiasm that I concluded the gin, rather than the quinine, was the nostrum immediately required."
Definition: "patented" medicine with secret ingredients (usually a quack remedy)

Snickersnee- "The only difference is that the steer has neither the ability nor the chance to outwit the gentleman who wields the slaughterhouse snickersnee..."
Definition: a large knife (slang, of Dutch origin)

Virescent- "I think we were simply depressed beyond words with the business of hanging for so long a time under such a flat blue sky and above such a flat virescent swamp."
Definition: becoming green

Lachrymose- "They are silent, limp or lachrymose, and in their midst sits Blix the Unsinkable- a monument of miserable sobriety, bleak as a lonely rock jutting from a lonely sea."
Definition: being tearful, or causing one to weep

Bermudaonion hosts this meme