The Road

by Cormac McCarthy

I'm sure you've all heard about The Road by now. It's a bleak post-apocalyptic story about a father and son trudging along a road through desolation, trying to reach the southern coast where they might find a warmer climate and survive the winter. Everything is burned to ash, most people and all animals are dead, stores and houses have already been looted so it's difficult to find anything to eat. And the few survivors they meet are extremely dangerous men. The only thing really keeping them going is their love for each other, their despair in seeing each other suffer, the faint glimmer of hope that on the coast they might survive. Because alone, neither one of them would last long.

I didn't really have this book on my TBR but when my neighbor having just finished it, offered to loan it to me, I figured why not see what everyone's talking about? Plus, his copy was pretty beat up and it's an author I haven't read before, so I could count it for both the New Authors and the Dogeared reading challenges. Although I read through it pretty quickly, in a matter of two days, not really wanting to put it down, somehow it left me unmoved in the end. Plenty of awful things happen in this book. It is disturbing and depressing and dismal. But I didn't cry. I don't feel devastated and horrified, although I think I ought to.

Perhaps it is the writing style: brief, clipped sentences which readily reflect the atmosphere of the book. Not to say they aren't descriptive; at the end I looked up some twenty-four words that were unfamiliar to me, and found they all had a very precise meaning. But the concise writing, while enabling me to read through the book very quickly, failed to connect me emotionally. And the few hints at what had happened prior to the book's events- what caused it all, where is the boy's mother- are scanty enough to leave you to come up with your own ideas, which I found frustrating. I just wanted to know more. To feel more. This might be one case where the film outshines the book, I just might respond more to a visual impact than I did the paucity of details in the text.

So... I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. It's a good book, I was engaged and intent to find out what happened next all the way through. But it didn't leave much of an emotional impact on me, despite all the horrors therein and the heartstring-tugging relationship between father and son.

Rating: 3/5 ........ 287 pages, 2006

More opinions at:

Trish's Reading Nook
Things Mean a Lot	It's All About Books
Passion for the Page	The World Inside My Head
Under the Dresser
Diary of An Eccentric
Book Addiction

My Friend Flicka

by Mary O'Hara

One of my favorite books of all time. I don't remember what made me first pick it up at the public library, but for years I would periodically go back and read it, over and over. Eventually I discovered there were two more books by O'Hara about the same horse ranch, and I read those too.

My Friend Flicka is a coming-of-age story about a boy on a Wyoming horse ranch. Ken is something of a daydreamer, and struggles to please his authoritarian father and find direction for his future. More than anything else he wants a horse for his own, like his big brother. His father feels he isn't ready for that responsibility, but his mother talks him into letting the boy have a horse. Ken chooses an unbroken filly which proves to be the most difficult horse to tame on the entire ranch. Even when attempts to catch and break in his filly cause accidents and crisis, Ken is stubborn and sticks to his decision: he loves this horse, and never will give it up. I will let you know that while both Ken and the horse suffer, everything comes out right in the end!

More than just a book about boy and his horse, My Friend Flicka is a vivid picture of ranching life. The decisions his parents face in managing the ranch, dealing with financial issues, taking care of their stock, nurturing their marriage and raising their two boys in a remote area are an integral part of the story. The father worries that he's made the wrong choices in running horses on his range as opposed to sheep, the mother worries about her boys riding across pastures where they might meet dangers like half-wild stallions and bulls, or mountain lions come down from the hills. Although fiction, this novel (and its sequels) are based on a ranch the author lived on, and many of the characters and events in the stories are drawn from real life. To my mind, that makes reading them all the more intense and delightful.

Rating: 5/5 ........285 pages, 1941

More opinions at:
Reading to Know
anyone else written about this book? all I find when I search are film reviews!

book giveaway!

Win a free book and two horse bookmarks!

I'm switching my giveaway days to the weekends. For the first one of 2010, here is one of my favorite novels, My Friend Flicka. I found this copy at a library sale and couldn't resist picking it up, just so I could give it away to one of you! It is a little dogeared, the cover and spine creased, but still readable, and has some nice lively line drawings inside illustrating the story (I cannot find the name of the artist). I'm including two bookmarks featuring horses in this giveaway. If you'd like to win, all you have to do is leave a comment here! winner will be picked at random next sunday.

(Bookmarks shown twice because there is an image on both sides. Click to view larger.)

Tell Me Where It Hurts

A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon
by Dr. Nick Trout

Finally, a book that I'd love to shelve alongside James Herriot. Tell Me Where It Hurts gives readers an intimate look at what goes on behind the scenes in a modern animal hospital. The author, Dr. Trout -a veterinary surgeon trained in England and practicing in the US- describes many patients and incidents in his work, all compacted into the scene of one busy day. To add to the confusion of juggling numerous appointments, phone calls and consults with owners and colleagues, he often flashes back to other events earlier in his career that relate to the present case- jumping back into the current thread near the end of a chapter with a suddenness that often threw me for a moment. I had to flip back a few pages more than once to remember which dog with what problem he was talking about. He can be a little wordy, sometimes the jokes felt forced, and I never really like it when an author tosses around brand names to illustrate someone's wealth (or lack of) (probably just because I don't recognize them so they don't ring up the intended images). But aside from all those things, this was a great read.

So many things are discussed in depth. The relationship of the vet with pet owners, both good and bad. The skill of surgery and the beauty he sees in it. The frustrations of working with animals who can't tell you what they're feeling, having to deduce so many things. The heart-rending decisions, when owners must decide if their pets' life is worth the cost of the tests it takes to find out what's wrong, and the intensive care. Although dogs and cats are the mainstay of Trout's work, he also mentions working with livestock during his training, and peering over the shoulder of an exotics specialist to observe surgery on turtle. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and the appreciation it gave me for the hard work veterinarians do.

I borrowed this book from the public library.

Rating: 4/5 ........ 286 pages, 2008

More opinions at:
FT's Books
Read Like Me
For the Pits
Live Vitale

The Mermaid's Three Wisdoms

by Jane Yolen

This story is about a young girl with a hearing impairment who resents having to wear a hearing aid and learn sign language. The she meets a silent girl on the beach who turns out to be a mermaid. The mermaid had disobeyed the merfolk laws and as punishment was banished from the sea, thrust onto land with legs. She and the girl strike up a friendship. Under the water, mermaids speak via signals with bubbles and hand gestures, so the two easily work out how to communicate in sign language. The girl comes to find beauty in the fluid motion of speaking hands, and the mermaid does a good deed for a dolphin, after which she is allowed to return to the sea. The Mermaid's Three Wisdoms is a nice little book. It reminds me somewhat of The Seal Child.

Rating: 2/5 ........ 112 pages, 1978

Meme: Flapper, or Not?

From Booking Through Thursday, suggested by Prairie Progressive:

Do you read the inside flaps that describe a book before or while reading it?

I had to think about this. I'm kind of all over the place. If it's fiction and brand-new to me, I'll often read the flaps and all blurbs on the back before starting, to get an idea of what I'm in for. If it's an author I'm returning to, I usually skip it because I want to approach the book with an empty slate. Sometimes I go back and read it after I'm done, to see how the flap description matched up with what I thought of the book. Sometimes it seems way off the mark, as if whoever wrote the flap copy didn't even read the entire book!

With nonfiction, I often come up with a question somewhere in the middle of my reading that I think flap copy might answer (usually about the author) and read it then. I have a very old worn copy of Icebound Summer, with an awful-looking dust jacket that I've kept just because the flap copy is informative about the origins of the book itself, and I didn't want to loose that information.

And then there's always books of all descriptions where it never even occurs to me to read the flaps, and I just dive right in. I guess it depends on how much I want to know beforehand, and how informative the flaps might be.

What about you? do you read the flaps?

About the Sleeping Beauty

by P.L. Travers

I always like reading alternate versions of fairy tales, so once years ago I picked this one up from the public library. The little volume About the Sleeping Beauty includes a retelling of Sleeping Beauty by Travers, then an essay examining the fairy tale, and concluding with five different versions from other cultures. More interesting than variants on the fairy tale are Travers' analysis and musings over the heart of the legendary story itself, its underlying meanings and implications. But although I liked reading it at the time, none of the stories really made a strong impression upon me and now I can't recall a single one well enough to give you the details. However, if Sleeping Beauty is one of your favorite fairy tales, I would definitely look this book up!

Rating: 2/5 ........ 112 pages, 1975

Anybody Can Do Anything

by Betty MacDonald

This book was a little slow at the start, but pretty soon I found myself laughing fit to burst every few pages. It's another memoir by Betty MacDonald, who having recently left the chicken farm she wrote about in The Egg and I, comes home to Seattle. It's the Depression Era, and jobs are very hard to come by, but as a single mother with two children, Betty must find work to help support her family (she lives with her mother and sisters). She feels herself woefully inadequate and lacking in office skills but her older sister Mary has connections everywhere and being indomitably optimistic, pushes Betty into one job after another. Most of them don't last long. Everything from being a secretary (dictation, shorthand, mimeograph machines) to selling advertising, working the sales floor, tinting photographs by hand, and organizing Christmas parties for large corporations. Eventually she gets steady work in the offices of the National Recovery Administration, and from goes on to find her feet as a writer.

In the meantime, most of Anybody Can Do Anything is full of awkward interviews, scrambling to acquire or prove non-existent job skills, fending off jealous co-workers and sidestepping desperate people on the sidewalk where "every day found a better class of people selling apples on street corners." At home she and her sisters pinch pennies, make their own party dresses out of hand-me-downs, eat by candlelight when the power is cut off, and put up with each others' endless blind dates. Their cheer and solidarity in the face of hard times is heartening. When there's no money to be had they stretch the meatloaf and stew to share with sundry friends and amuse themselves by sneaking into luncheons of private clubs (such as the Northwest Association of Agate Polishers), sitting in the back row of music student recitals and laughing themselves silly over the awkward performance, or even pretending to be rich and making real estate agents drive them all over town to tour big old empty mansions, where they argue over who will get what room and where their non-existent collection of furniture should be arranged.

As I grew up in a Seattle suburb, a lot of the atmosphere, locales and details of the city were familiar to me. I loved reading about the era when public transportation was all streetcars, Pike Place was just the local three-block "public market" and the ferry dock a long drive over dark hills from downtown. While the gloom of the Depression is always present- desperation for jobs, hearing of people committing suicide, constantly dodging debt collectors- the ability of Betty and her family to keep their heads up and find amusement in everyday circumstances makes this little memoir glow.

I got this book through Paperback Swap. I read it for the Random Reading Challenge.

Rating: 3/5 ........ 256 pages, 1950

More opinions at:
Penny Farthing
anyone else?

New Dogeared Reading Challenge

This reading challenge is about appreciating the old, worn-out and beat-up books we come across. They're out there, and perhaps they're feeling neglected- hoping they don't get shuffled long enough to end up in the recycling (or worse, trash). So let's give them some love! For the Dogeared Challenge, you have to read dog-eared, torn, stained, winkled, falling-apart or otherwise in-bad-condition books.

These can be manhandled books, from public libraries, used bookstores, etc that have passed through many readers' hands already.

They can be old copies, books which have been in print for a long, long time yet still hold together (I'm thinking anything printed earlier than 1920).

They can be well-loved books that you've read so many times since childhood the pages are barely intact (I've known a few to be held together with rubber bands to keep the pages from getting lost).

They can be abused books, ones that get their pages bent, edges scuffed, laid down on their faces, coffee spilled on them, etc.

Rules:

 - You must read 10 (or more) books that fit the criteria. The older, more neglected, worn-out they are, the better! 
 - Can be crossed over with any other reading challenge.
 - Make a list to start with, or find the books as you go.
 - The genre or subject is entirely up to you.
 - Re-reads are fine, as long as it's been several years since the last time.
 - Books must already be in poor condition. Please don't beat up a book while you read it, just to count it for this challenge. Treat your worn-out books gently, and hopefully they can be read again and again. 
 - If you want to, post about the worn books you read on your blog and share photos of the actual copy you have in hand. If you don't have a blog, you can share about your experience in comments on the posts I will be making for this challenge throughout the year (watch my sidebar).
 - Challenge starts now, ends on December 15, 2010
 - To join, sign up with the Mr. Linky below, or leave a comment on this post. Link directly to the post on your blog where you announce how you will take part in the challenge.

Optional: To add to the fun, you can evaluate the wear and tear each book you read is suffering from, and there will be a little contest to accumulate "damage points" for your books. (Winner will be required to share photos showing the condition of the books they read). You can count one point for each of the following conditions your poor book has:

- dogears, folds, creased or crumpled pages
- spine/binding badly damaged, loose or cracked
- water damage, wavy pages and/or wrinkles
- covers very fanned, curled, or separating from book
- stains, soil, yellowed pages and/or lots of foxing
- writing, underlining or highlighting  (in body of text)
- heavy scuff marks, dents and/or bumped corners
- bad odor (enough that it makes you uncomfortable)
- pages torn, chewed on or missing (body text, not endpapers)
- mold or other organic substance (yeah, yucky I know)

Thus, one book can have a maximum of 10 damage points.

So here's how to participate:

Worn and Weary: Commit to read 10 or more obviously worn books. The more worn-out, the better!

Tattered and Torn: Read 10 or more very worn books, and count up damage points accordingly. Over 50 points will get you entered into the drawing for a prize.

The Most Battered Book: A separate contest will run for the one most beat-up book read this year. If you find and read a book in really awful condition, share a photo of your copy! Email your photos and a brief description to jeanenevarez (at) gmail (dot) com. I'll published the photos here on the blog as they come in, and at the end of the year we'll vote for which book has the wost condition.

Note: if you don't want to sign up for the Dogeared Reading Challenge, but just happen to come across and read a really tattered book during the year, you're still welcome to enter the Most Battered Book contest. Simply email me your photo and description.

Prizes:

Completely Dogeared Everyone who completes the reading challenge will be entered into a drawing for this prize: Your pick of any 2 books off my "swap shelf" or 2 Book Mooch points, plus a collection of 10 bookmarks I've found in used books (most featuring bookshops).

Utterly Decrepit Everyone who completes the challenge and tallies more than 50 damage points for the condition of their books, will be entered into a drawing for this prize: 10 mylar sleeves to protect your dust jackets, a manual on book care/repair, and a custom-made jacket by me to cover one of your own "naked" hardbound books.

Most Battered Book Winner chosen by popular vote, from submitted photos of beat-up books read during the challenge: $20 gift card at Powell's Books.

Last of all, pick a button and have fun! (Buttons were created from photos I took of a very dog-eared and folded book my neighbor is reading. The second one shows just how much the cover is curled!)

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New Authors Challenge

Okay, maybe I'm a bit crazy, but I saw this reading challenge and thought it looked great. So I'm signing up for yet another challenge, the New Authors Challenge 2010. Basically the idea is to read books by authors that are new to you, mostly in novels. (You can read the rules at Literary Escapism) I'm always eager to try new authors, but haven't done so much fiction reading as I used to, so maybe this will coax me to include more novels in my reading this year. I'm signing up to read 15. I don't have a list yet, but will discover them as I go.

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

by Mark Bittner

After reading a novel that featured the wild parrots in San Francisco -Elsewhere in the Land of Parrots- I was delighted to finally read a true account of these birds. The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill is the story of one man's relationship with these birds, mostly cherry-headed conures, which have established themselves in the city. Bittner was living in a studio apartment on Telegraph Hill when he first began to take an interest in the small parrots. He started feeding them at regular times, gradually getting the flock used to his presence until he could stand outside on the balcony, with birds eating from his hand and perched on his shoulders. The more he observed the birds, the more he wanted to know about them. He gave them names, sorted out some of their relationships, and rescued ones that were injured or sick, nursing them back to health in his home. He began asking around about the parrots, trying to learn more about the origins of the flock. Surprised to find that no one was studying the conures (and many people wanted them eradicated because they are non-natives), Bittner began taking detailed notes himself on their behavior, and after six years had become something of a local authority on the birds. He gave slide shows and lectures, and after the book was published, pushed to get legislation passed to protect the birds. His book is a wonderful read full of details about the parrots' distinct personalities. It's also a story of the author's own search for meaning in his life, for stability (in his early years in San Francisco he was homeless), spirituality and love.

You can read more about Mark Bittner and the parrots on his website. There's some gorgeous photos there, too.

I borrowed this book from the public library.

Rating: 3/5 ........ 288 pages, 2004

More opinions at:
Breaking the Fourth Wall
Loily's Book Tryst

A Book Dragon

by Donn Kushner

I read a review on Savidge Reads today about a book I've been wanting to read, Firmin. It reminded me of another book I read several years ago, about another small animal who loved books, this one a dragon. I saw it on a clearance table at a bookstore one day, and was curious enough to buy it.

A Book Dragon is a charming tale about a dragon called Nonesuch, who is the last of his kind. It covers some six hundred years of his life, starting out when he is a young dragon living in a medieval forest. Needing a treasure to guard, Nonesuch forsakes the usual gold and instead chooses an illuminated book. For a time he observes the monk who illustrated the volume, then accompanies the book on its journey through the centuries. He survives while his relatives die out, by his ability to change size in order to hide. He watches humans from secrecy, reflecting on their various follies, and in the end is a little dragon no larger than an insect, haunting a modern bookshop and still guarding his precious book. At one point a rat teaches him how to read, and Nonesuch can finally value his book not merely as a physical object (albeit a beautiful one) but for the words it contains. A Book Dragon is an engaging little fantasy, written for younger readers but with intriguing little details and clever explanations (like how the dragon survived into modern times by fasting, hibernating and changing shape). There is some moralizing in the tale, and Nonesuch deals out his own form of justice, to people he feels deserve it. A story sure to charm booklovers who like a little light fantasy.

Rating: 3/5 ........ 197 pages, 1987

End of 2009

I saw this meme at The Book Zombie, and have been thinking about doing end-of-the-year stats instead of looking at the numbers on my blog's birthday (middle of August). So even though I kind of did this just four months ago, I'm looking at a year's worth of reading again. The questions are a bit different, and it sounds better to say "I read so many books in 2009" than it does "I read so many books in the last year since my blog began" ha ha. (So this is probably going to be tradition here from now on, with some other kind of hoopla going on here on my blogiversary).

The actual questions here are borrowed from Savidge Reads.

How many books read in 2009?
94. Not the most I've ever done in a year, but pretty good when you consider I'm raising a toddler, tending to the demands of two cats, and trying to get back into drawing and painting again.

How many fiction and non fiction?
31 fiction and 63 non-. Wow. I was surprised by that. I knew I was reading more non-fiction lately, but not that it was twice as much as fiction. I used to read so much more fantasy, too.

Books about animals?
(I added this question, because I read so many of them!) Fiction and non-fiction featuring animals: 51. Everything else: 43.

Male/Female author ratio?
40 women authors and 52 men. And two written by a man/woman team, which I assume were spouses. Pretty even. I never even thought about this before; I don't pay much attention to whether the authors I read are male or female. I don't really have a preference, either.

Favourite book read?
It's so hard to choose, but I think I would have to say Kon-Tiki. It was just so thrilling to read, and I remember at the end feeling charged with excitement and wonder, and blabbing on and on about it to my husband. I hadn't felt that worked up about a book in a long time.

Least favourite?
Emma. Sorry to say. There were a lot of other books that disappointed me, or got dull and I had to force myself to finish. But they were all within my normal reading interests, whereas Emma was not only a very dull book, but one of a genre I don't usually read, so it was more difficult to make myself read the whole thing.

Any that you simply couldn’t finish and why?
16. Once or twice a month I usually encounter a book I just can't get through. Usually just because they're boring me- or I'm much more interested in another topic at the time. For more details, you can always read the posts about each abandoned book.

Oldest book read?
No question that it's Emma. First pubished in 1816. Next-oldest was The Egg and I, published in 1945.

Newest?
I read nine books published in 2008. (Only half of those were sent to me by the publisher). Had to look at the actual month they were printed in to find the very newest, and I think that would be Chalice, which came out in November.

Longest and shortest book titles?
Assuming I can include the subtitle (some of those get really long!) the longest would be Compost This Book! The Art of Composting for your Yard, your Community, and the Planet. Three tied for short ones: Sand, Frogs, and Fluke.

Longest and shortest books?
The whopping door-stopper was Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, at 782 pages. The next contender was Daughters of the Sunstone, 697 pages. And Wolf Totem, 527 pages. Then a few four-hundred pagers, the rest in the normal range (two or three hundred pages). Shortest book was Poop, 61 pages.

How many books from the library?
3. Very, very few. I know I've been trying to plow through all the piles and piles of books that make their way into my house, but I really do want to support my local library more. I'm working on that this year.

Any translated books?
4. They were Wolf Totem, My Beaver Colony, The Little Prince and Kon-Tiki. The one that definitely felt the most foreign was Wolf Totem. (By which I mean that the sentence structure and use of foreign words made me feel like I was reading a work written in another language. Sometimes I like that).

Most read author of the year, and how many books by that author?

I think it was Clare Bell. I read 3 of her books.

Which countries did you go to through the page in your year of reading?

Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Mongolia, Sweden, England, Scotland, Argentina, Ecuador, Israel, Egypt, Chile, Kenya and several other countries in Africa. If I could count the imaginary places from fantasy and sci-fi novels, this list would be longer!

Which book wouldn’t you have read without someone’s specific recommendation?

I don't know if this really counts as a recommendation, as I can't recall her actually telling me I should read it, but I know I picked up Their Eyes Were Watching God because I've always seen it on my sister's shelf, and I think it's one of her favorites.

Which author was new to you in 2009 that you now want to read the entire works of?

A few. Betty Macdonald, Edward Abbey, Susanna Clarke, Thor Heyerdahl, Thalassa Cruso.

Any re-reads?

5. They were Red Fox, The Cats of Lamu, Daughters of the Sunstone, The Little Prince and Ratha and Thistle-Chaser. All but one are books I read as a child and loved (but didn't necessarily love the second time around) and they were fun to re-visit. The Cats of Lamu I had read once back in college when I found it in the library; read it again after finally acquiring my own copy.

Did you read any books you have always been meaning to read?
Yes. I'd had The Other End of the Leash on my TBR for ages, and when I finally read it I could see why it was always hard to find at the library! A very good book.

The Nature of Horses

by Stephen Budiansky

A very interesting book about horse evolution and behavior. It has a scientific bent, but is well-written and easy to read.  As well as delving into the origins of many things horses do and how they act, it also debunks a lot of myths about horses, looking closely at reasons behind them. I wasn't familiar with a lot of these misconceptions, having never owned a horse or been part of the horsey world, but I liked reading about them nonetheless. Some of the more interesting parts were in the beginning, where The Nature of Horses discusses how horses might have first been domesticated by man. In the latter section the book focuses on how present-day horse breeding practices (particularly closed stud books) are affecting the animal, and what this might do to domestic horse breeds in the future. Overall a book any horse owner (or one just interested in the animals, like myself) is sure to enjoy.

Rating: 3/5 ........ 290 pages, 1997

More opinions at:
Dana's Doodles
Women and Horses 
the stay at home bookworm

blog award

While I was semi-absent from the blogging world during holidays, Carol's Notebook so kindly gave the DogEar Diary this award. The rules of the Beautiful Blogger award are to pass it on to seven other bloggers, and tell seven things about yourself.

I'd like to hand this one on to:

A Life in Books- I really like the look of this blog, the header image especially. Always features the most interesting books, too.

Nan's Corner of the Web- Nan's Corner is a blog I've discovered recently. I think I first started reading it because I stumbled across a post on an animal book (and she has the most lovely, fun chocolate lab you've ever met, frequently featured), then kept coming back for all the great, honestly written book reviews.

A Striped Armchair- one of the blogs I've been reading since I first discovered book blogs. Eva is on a challenge kick right now, so many I never heard of! Go on over and see if you want to join any of them!

Paperback Reader- The background of worn book spines on this blog is just awesome. I wish I had it on mine. I go there just to look at it, seriously (I'm all about the visuals, sometimes). Nice to read about all the books and things too, of course!

Bloody Hell, It's a Book Barrage!- Chartroose's blog has gone silent lately, which makes me very sad- I always loved reading her blog. I do hope she's well and returns someday soon! In the meantime, there's still lots of cool posts to read about books and things over there.

Read All Day is another blog new to me- and it has a very unique, bold look. I really enjoy Nina's writing, and have added quite a few books to my TBR because of her.

The Book Zombie- is so classy-looking. And the reviews are fun. I'm not really into vampire books, myself (yet- maybe I just haven't discovered the right ones) but there's a wide variety of books Joanne reads and writes about, so I keep coming back for more.

And seven things about me? Hm:

My favorite time of year is autumn. I love the colors of the fall leaves, and the crisp, cool air. I've come to love it even more now that I live in an area that has humid summers- the coolness of autumn is a blessed relief!

When we got our first cat, I wanted a beautiful cat (shame on me). Our first cat was very handsome- but high-strung and aggressive. Our second cat we picked because he was laid-back and easygoing- but sometimes he's so cooly removed and aloof. Our third cat we picked because she purred the most- and she's the most friendly, playful, happy-to-sit-in-your-lap cat! I think I'm getting better at appreciating cat personalities. 

I'm afraid of mold. On food. It gives me the willies. Especially the insides of old Halloween pumpkins- that's just horrifying. (Have I mentioned this before?)

I like composting. There's just something about making stuff you'd throw away into something that can feed my garden. When I find the real dirt at the bottom of the pile I'm thrilled. I don't know anyone else who gets happy over a pile of rotting vegetation and kitchen scraps.

I love houseplants, but don't have many right now. I used to have some philodendrons, until I read they were poisonous to pets (my kitten likes to chew on plants). Then I had a venus flytrap- very cool- but it got forgotten one weekend when we were away and dried out. The only live plant in my house right now is a tiny geranium bonsai I'm trying to slowly coax into shape.

For some reason, Christmas music gets on my nerves. I like to listen to George Winston's December album- where the carols and tunes are melded into piano music- and especially I like to play it at other times of year when it confuses people. Used to drive my college roommates nuts! They hated hearing Christmas music in the middle of summer.

Right now I'm thinking of my favorite food combinations with chocolate. Strawberries dipped in chocolate. Chocolate chips mixed with raisins and peanuts. Chocolate and cheese wedges. Chicken cooked in chocolate sauce- mole! What are yours?

Challenge complete!

Yesterday I read my last book for the What An Animal Challenge. The goal was to read six books featuring animals before Feb 2010 but I kind of outdid myself and read thirteen. That's because I realized the first list I made was too easy for me (I read animal books all the time, in case you haven't noticed) and I swapped it out before starting, to include books I was less likely to pick up on my own initiative. I ended up reading half of that first list anyway, just because I really wanted to!

So, here's the books I finished of the "coffee-table" set (the real challenge for me):

Frogs by David Badger
Alligators and Crocodiles by John Behler
The Cats of Lamu by Jack Couffer
The Long African Day by Norman Meyers
The Marsh Lions by Brian Jackman
Killer Whales by Sara Heimlich

And the others I read just for fun:

Running After Antelope by Scott Carrier
The Animal Wife by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
A Dog's Life by Ann Martin
The Dolphin Doctor by Sam Ridgway
Pigeons by Andrew Blechman
The Old Country by Mordicai Gerstein
Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong

That was fun! I'm eager to sign up for this reading challenge again when the third time comes around- and I think I'll make myself read books about animals I've never encounter between pages before. That should be interesting.

Killer Whales

by Sara Heimlich and James Boran

A short but really interesting book on orcas, or killer whales. Discusses their worldwide distribution, physical development, social life, communication, hunting skills, and fate in captivity. All in brief, but at the same time quite informative. Having never read anything about these marine mammals before (aside from a few National Geographic articles, perhaps) there was a lot to interest me. Did you know that there are two distinct groups of orcas that live in the Puget Sound area, some "resident" animals that have a fixed territory, others "transient" who travel through. The former hunt mainly fish, the latter mostly other oceanic mammals, like seals. Their differences have become so marked that scientists believe they are evolving into separate killer whale species. Some other intriguing facts I learned were that orcas have a similar life span to humans- females can live up to eighty years- and the young remain with their mothers for most of their life. They take a long time to mature, and adults actively teach younger whales specialized hunting skills. Their social organization is akin to that of apes or elephants in its complexity. Long vilified for their carnivorous nature, orcas have proven in captivity to be curious, playful, easily trained animals- learning faster and performing more reliably than their popular relatives the dolphins. (Not to say that there haven't been injuries and deaths caused by frustrated, aggressive whales- the book says they get easily stressed by living in confinement). Killer Whales was a tantalizing introduction for me; now I want to read more in depth about these fascinating animals and their three-dimensional aquatic world.

Rating: 3/5 ........  72 pages, 2001

The Book Thief

by Markus Zusak

It's hard for me to find what to say about  The Book Thief. So many others have already read and shouted about it. I saw reviews all over the place, but it was Trish and BookGal who really made me want to read this one. I'm glad I did. I really enjoyed it, but there were also some things that kind of annoyed me.

The Book Thief is about a young girl named Liesel in Nazi Germany. Living with foster parents in a poor neighborhood. She brings with her a stolen book, picked up off the ground from the cemetery where her brother was recently buried. She doesn't know how to read yet, but her new foster father patiently teaches her, and Liesel slowly finds a new world opening to her as words begin to speak from the pages. As the outside world crumbles around her- hatred, chaos, all the horrors of war- Liesel finds comfort in reading. And since there is no money to buy books, she steals them. A neighborhood boy who is her friend goes with her on forays to steal books, then her foster father teachers her to read them. At first she treasures the words for herself, later sharing them with others: the Jewish man hiding in their basement, the panic-stricken neighbors huddled together in a bomb shelter, the woman next door devastated by loss of her son. It's an amazing story about the power of words, and of friendship. Not without sorrow and pain. A rich and complex story about ordinary people suffering through wartime, about far more than just a girl who loves books, but I don't want to say much and give something away. The author will do enough of that for you.

I loved the way Zusak drew his characters, the ways his words crafted sentences, concise and yet strikingly descriptive. I was sometimes annoyed by the narrator. Who in this story is Death himself. There are frequent interjections by Death giving his overall opinion (in bold type, like a news headline) and he often announces what's going to happen later in the story. I was okay with this up to a point, but then fifty pages from the end of the book, Death bluntly reveals who is going to die. It deflated the emotional power of the book for me, and the ending fell a little flat. I much rather would have come upon that knowledge suddenly, through the events leading up to it, or with more subtle foreshadowing. Such a powerful story, but that part really disappointed me. Another small thing to note is that the story is told from the inside (so to speak) without much explanation of events in WWII or the Holocaust, so for readers unfamiliar with that history some things might be unclear. Check out some of the other reviews, listed below. A lot of them go into far more detail than I.

Rating: 3/5 ......... 552 pages, 2005

A few of the many other opinions:
The Zen Leaf
The Reading Life
Musings of a Bookish Kitty

Challenges for 2010

I'm joining the Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge, hosted at J. Kay's Book Blog. At first I wanted to sign up at the "Just My Size" level and commit to reading 50 library books for the year, but then I calculated in my head and realized I might not be able to finish. That's four library books a month, and I've already got myself into the TBR Challenge, which is mostly books off my own shelves. As I average only one or two books a week at best, I'm going for the "Mini" level, which is to check out and read 25 books. I think I can do that. I have so many heaps of unread books in my house I haven't been going to the public library much at all lately, and that makes me feel guilty (why, I don't know) so this challenge will help me remedy that!

On another note, I still have one book to read for the What An Animal challenge and ten for the Random Reading challenge. I'm still plugging away at The Book Thief, which is only taking me a long time because it's been vacation time and there haven't been many quiet moments for reading (but lots of movies and jigsaw puzzles and cookie making and playing in the snow and little road trips and fancy cooking - I made pho last night- and overall general laziness!) Back into reading soon enough.

Happy New Year, everyone!!

DogEar Challenge Winner

Only three people finished my reading challenge, and only one left a link on the wrap-up post. I entered the other names into random.org anyhow, but guess what, Jenny was number three, and that's the one that came up. So Jenny wins the prize! Email me for more details.

2010 TBR Challenge

I'm signing up for the 2010 TBR Reading Challenge, hosted by Miz B. The rules are as follows:

* the challenge is to read 12 TBR books in 12 months — you can read those all in one month if you want, or one a month, or however you wanna do it.
* you should have a list posted somewhere for others to see
* you CANNOT change your list after January 1st, of the current year!!!
* you can create an Alternates list of MAXIMUM 12 books, if you want, in order to have options to choose from (you can read these in place of books on your original list).
* audiobooks and e-books ARE allowed
* re-reads are NOT allowed, as they aren’t TRUE “TBRs”
* you CAN overlap with other challenges

Here is my official list of books to read:

Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey
Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Theodore Roszack
The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario
No One Thinks of Greenland by John Griesemer
Endurance by Alfred Lansing
The Moon by Whalelight by Diane Ackerman
The Lost Years of Merlin by T.A. Barron
Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner
An American Childhood by Annie Dillard
Walden by Henry David Thoreau

And here is my "alternates" list:

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
The Last of Her Kind by Sigrid Nunez
Split Estate- Charlotte Bacon
Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper by Harriet Chessman
The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
Rules for Old Men Waiting by Peter Pouncey
Shattering Glass by Gail Giles 
The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle

I only have ten of these books on my shelf, so this challenge will get me to use the public library a little more, too!

Love, War and Circuses

by Erioc Scigliano

I could not get through this book. I tried, and some parts at the beginning were really interesting, but it just became too jumbled with a multitudinous miscellany of elephant lore, often referring to incidents I knew little about without much explanation, before jumping on to the next point. It just was hard to follow. I need something a little more focused. Not to say that Love, War and Circuses doesn't have a focus. It's all about elephants- their evolution, their mammoth ancestors, their role in history: used in warfare, exploited for logging, venerated in religion, trained to perform in circuses, pining away in zoos, etc etc. Elephants in art, myth and legend. Anything you could imagine wanting to know about how elephants have shown up in human culture. More about elephants in Asia than the African ones I'm more familiar with. Maybe that's part of the reason my interest began to slide; the chapter about elephants in India and Thailand mentions so many stories featuring them in folklore and religious canon that my eyes began to glaze over and my head to swim. But if you are besotted with elephants, this would be a perfect book for you!

Abandoned ........ 358 pages, 2002

a note

The closer it gets to Christmas, the more spotty my posting here will be. Not only am I spending more time with family than reading or blogging, but we just got the biggest snowfall I've seen in years, and somehow it's more thrilling to sit and look out the window at all the beautiful whiteness, glittering with tiny ice specks, than in front of a computer screen that glares my eyes. So for the next few weeks I'll be reading rather sporadically, posting when I finish a book and occasionally otherwise. Wishing everyone the best of the holidays!

(Here's my daughter standing under a wreath I made from branches trimmed off our Christmas tree, and up to her knees in the snow.)

Raccoons

by Samuel Zeveloff

I didn't finish this one. I picked it up at a library sale some weeks ago. It has all kinds of data about raccoons and their closest relatives, the coatis, kinkajous and olingos. Everything from their evolutionary origins and current distribution to their habits and diet, threats from humans and management issues. It's a very informative book, well-organized and clearly written, but just not very interesting to me right now. A bit dull. If I wanted to write a report on raccoons, this would be fantastic, but as I'm reading for enjoyment as well as to satisfy curiosity, I feel differently. Even in my nonfiction reading, I like something with a bit more flair, rather than just dry statements of facts. Moving on!

Abandoned ......... 200 pages, 2002

The Culture Clash

by Jean Donaldson

This book is about dog behavior and training. It tries to look at dog training from the animal's point of view, and posits that dogs are highly anthropomorphized and should be treated as simple-minded self-obsessed creatures that respond best to operant conditioning. That's it in a nutshell. It goes into a lot of detail about how most people train their dogs wrong, then how to do it with positive reinforcement techniques. I agree that sometimes people see too much of human traits in their pets and this might get in the way of understanding your dog's behavior and training it, but on the other hand I'm not sure I agree with all of Donaldson's ideas, and I certainly didn't like her tone. She is very disparaging and insulting to other dog owners and trainers who use different methods (and, ultimately, to the reader- assuming you got this book because you want to train a dog). So some parts of the book sound like whiny name-calling, whereas in other parts the language gets so technical it's dry and difficult. Overall, I'd say The Culture Clash is a good resource to round out your knowledge of dogs and various training methods, but not to follow it as the only way to do things. That said, although I grew up with a dog and worked in a boarding kennel for some time, I never trained my own dog. So take what I say here with a grain of salt, as well.

Rating: 2/5                  223 pages, 1996

Frogs

by David Badger

I don't think I ever read a book about frogs before this one. I found it at a library sale and was attracted by the stunning photographs by John Netherton. Frogs is, of course, all about frogs and toads. It's full of interesting facts and observations, including quotes referencing frogs and toads in literary works - Shakespeare, Aristophanes, Beatrix Potter, Kenneth Grahame, Emily Dickinson and many others. Not all the species are represented (there being over five thousand known!) but many of the more common, beautiful and curious ones are featured here. I learned lots of stuff about frogs and toads- that they were the first land animals with vocal chords, that they have teeth, that some remain in the tadpole stage for two years before metamorphosizing into an adult! There is a marsupial frog that carries its eggs in a brood pouch, a breed of frog where the male carries the eggs until they hatch (like a seahorse!) and another that carries its eggs inside its vocal sac. Some don't hop or leap but only walk. There's even a flying frog that can glide short distances on the outstretched membranes between its long toes. I did not know before that frogs not only absorb water through their skins, but also oxygen, and besides the poison-dart frogs that exude strong toxins from their skins, there are some frogs that can withstand having sixty percent of their body fluids freeze during hibernation because they produce antifreeze components. Another amazing fact is that some frogs can change their skin color, like a chameleon. Those little slimy frogs sure are incredible creatures. I have to say the most bizarre one featured in this book is by far the surinam toad. And the descriptions of their various calls- from the stereotypical ribbit (which only one frog species actually utters, according to this book) to sounding like the mewing of a cat, bleating of a lamb, bellowing of an ox, singing of a bird, etc- had me on youtube listening to different frog voices. Well, if you've any interest in frog and toads, this is definitely a book to pick up. The pictures are awesome.

I read this one for the What An Animal Challenge.

Rating: 3/5                 142 pages, 1995

winners!

The winners of my latest bookmark giveaway (names drawn on Random.org) are

Nymeth and Esperanza!

You've both been winners before (no rules against it!), so unless your address has changed, no need to email me. I'll just drop them in the mail! Please come again next tuesday, for another giveaway event.

Breed to Come

by Andre Norton

I had this book on my TBR because it was mentioned on Clare Bell's blog and sparked my interest. So when I found it at a thrift store, of course I snatched it up. Breed to Come is a futuristic tale about a planet once inhabited by humans, who fled hundreds of years ago in the face of a terrible contagion. After humans abandoned the planet, the domestic animals they left behind- cats, dogs, rats and pigs- evolved into sentient beings with separate societies (the cat and dog tribes usually enemies but united in hatred of the rats). They remember the humans as a horror from the legendary past, calling them Demons. The story is told through the eyes of one of the cat-people, who at his coming of age leaves home on an adventure to the long-abandoned human buildings, where it is rumored that some of his kind have begun unearthing secret knowledge the Demons held. Among the mysteries and wonders the feline companions find there, where they battle with the rats for access to knowledge databases and technology, is the suggestion of a universal threat- that someday soon the Demons might return...

This was a fun read. I did wish the characters were developed a bit more, and the ending felt kind of rushed, but it's a very imaginative sci-fi story with some vividly feline characters. Done with the book, I read up a bit more about it. I had always assumed when I heard the name that Norton was a man, but I was wrong. She wrote scads of books- many featuring cats or cat-like creatures. I'll definitely be on the lookout for more of her books!

Rating: 3/5 ........ 285 pages, 1972

More opinions at:
Olman's Fifty
anyone else?

Almost Adam

by Petru Popescu

Almost Adam is a story about some anthropologists who discover an existing tribe of protohumans in a remote part of Kenya. Thrilled with their find and excited at having possibly found a "living missing link", they start to study the small tribe but things turn disastrous when civil war breaks out in the area. One of the anthropolgists, Ken, suddenly finds himself abandoned in the wild. His only means of survival is to assimilate into the protohuman tribe. One of them, a young boy, eventually accepts him and slowly they develop a close father-son relationship. There's lots of adventure, a love story, a bit of a mystery. I didn't much care for the focus on how sexuality “evolved” among primitive man, or the political violence and corruption in Africa (that was sometimes distracting and confusing). But the basic story was interesting, and the comradeship between the boy and Ken reminded me of another book I really love, An Imaginary Life.

I read this book several years ago, borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 3/5 ........ 544 pages, 1996

Anyone else written a blog post about this book?
let me know and I'll add your link here

DogEar Reading Challenge Wrapup

This is the last post for my DogEar Reading challenge. I finished it yesterday. The five books I read were:

The Snowflake
The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle
Growing Your Own Vegetables
Search for the Golden Moon Bear
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

If you've completed the challenge, use the Mr. Linky below to link to your wrap-up post (you have to click through to view the mister linky- it doesn't show up in the reader I don't know why). At the end of the month I'll draw a name and one lucky participant will win the prize (your choice of any three books from my swap shelf- 228 titles- some of my handmade bookmarks, or BookMooch points). I know several of you have already completed the challenge and written up your final posts; please leave your link here again so your name is sure to be included in the drawing.



I'm trying to decide if I want to host a reading challenge again next year. I liked doing it, but didn't get many participants. I feel like a different (more focused) theme would be more interesting, and perhaps I had poor timing in when it started- everyone was already involved in so many other reading challenges! Any feedback on this is appreciated- what can I do better next time? is it advisable to host the challenge on its own site? should I let it run all year instead of six months? or are there just so many other reading challenges already out there that it's kind of pointless adding mine to the mix...?

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

by Susanna Clarke

This book was an amazing read. And it felt immensely satisfying to finish it, because recently all the extra-long books I've picked up have dragged on me and been abandoned. Not this one! Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell kept me intrigued and reading day after day, almost reluctant to finish the last chapters because I didn't want it to end!

It's set in an alternative version of 19th century England- a period in which the art of magic has languished for decades and become quite a disreputable occupation. Mr. Norrell, a quiet, scholarly, reclusive gentleman, determines that he alone can restore English magic to its former glory. He tries influencing government and high society with his opinions on magical issues, while at the same time squelching other magicians' aspirations and monopolizing the resources of magical books. Then along comes Jonathan Strange, a daring adventuresome man quite unlike Norrell, who seems to have a natural talent for magic and makes himself Norrell's pupil, later becoming more of a colleague and finally his worst rival. When one of them raises a woman from the dead, a malevolent fairy fixes his attention on them, and it quickly becomes apparent how little these esteemed men actually know about magic; they are only scratching the surface of things far more dangerous and mysterious than they can imagine. I loved how the fairy world was depicted, as existing side-by-side with England, accessible through mirrors and pools, shifting just under the surface of things, like a second skin. The plot is complex, introducing scores of characters and numerous little stories (many in the form of footnotes) that add flavor and flair to the main narrative. I found all these just as interesting as the main events, and lapped up all the rich details. This book feels as much a historical fiction novel (of a time period and style I don't usually read about, so maybe it's opening another door for me there) as it does an epic fantasy. I read about it on so many other blogs before coming across my own copy at a thrift store (fifty cents!) that I don't really know who to give credit for first sparking my interest in reading it. It's one of those listed below; if anyone else has read it and wants to pitch in their voice, I'll be glad to add your link- just let me know.

Rating: 4/5 ........ 782 pages, 2004

More opinions at:
A Reader's Journal
Shelf Love
Across the Page
Educating Petunia
The Literary Word
This Delicious Solitude
Jenny's Books

The Midwife's Tale

an Oral History from Handywoman to Professional Midwife
by Nicky Leap and Billie Hunter

When I borrowed this book from the library to read (several years ago) I thought it was going to be a narrative about a midwife's experiences, something like Babycatcher by Peggy Vincent, or a nonfiction version of Bohjalian's Midwives. It's not. The Midwife's Tale is a look at the practice of midwifery in England before the National Health Service was established in the early 1940's. It is drawn mostly from oral histories and interviews with women who were midwives, or women who recall being tended by midwives during that time. It's not only a book about how midwives practiced and how women experienced childbirth in an earlier era, but how women (and society in general) viewed related issues like contraception, abortion, intercourse, motherhood and work outside the home. Also how midwifery contrasted to early doctors' more scientific methods and hospitalization of women, and how midwives were edged out of their profession by men. Overall a very interesting read, if a bit dry in parts.

Rating: 3/5                      215 pages, 1993

anyone written a blog review about this book? let me know and I'll post a link here

bookmarks giveaway!

This week's giveaway is a pair of stylized bookmarks featuring a small African wild cat, the serval. The image came out of my sketchbook. The bookmarks are painted in watercolor, signed on the back, edged with pink ribbon and laminated.

There will be two winners, each to get a bookmark! To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment here. Be sure there's an easy way for me to find your email, to notify you if you win. Names will be drawn at random next tuesday, Dec 14th.

The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

by Selma Lagerlof

Somehow this title got onto a book list of mine years back, and I finally had to request an interlibrary loan in order to read it. I'm glad I did. The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, by a Swedish author, is a fun adventure about a naughty boy named Nils who delights in teasing and tormenting animals on the farm. One day he goes too far, and in punishment is shrunk to the size of an elf (tomte). The animals are eager for revenge now that Nils is small, but he escapes by jumping onto the farm goose as it takes off after a flock of wild geese. The wild geese aren't too happy to have a domestic goose in their midst, nor is the goose happy at first to have Nils aboard. As the goose must prove itself to its wild cousins, so too must Nils demonstrate that he can have a change of heart. On his journey with the geese, traversing many parts of Sweeden, Nils learns about the natural world and the lives of the animals. He comes to see that he has badly mistreated them, and hopes that by proving he can be kind to animals, his misdeeds will be forgiven and he can be restored to his natural size. There's more to this book than just Nils' adventures, though. There are vivid descriptions of all different parts of the country, and local folktales included as stories Nils hears from people and animals he encounters along the way. There's even an environmental theme, as the use of the land and its resources are addressed as well. The is the only book I've ever read (as far as I know) that includes lore from Sweeden, and it's a lovely introduction to the country's natural beauty and lively folktales. There's also a sequel called The Further Adventures of Nils, but I've never come across it yet.

Rating: 3/5                        219 pages, 1906

More opinions at:
Things Mean A Lot
A Fort Made of Books
anyone else?

Paddle to the Amazon

by Don Starkell

When I was growing up, my family did lots of camping and we went on many canoe trips down river stretches, some quiet and peaceful with glimpses of wildlife, others challenging and exciting with rushing whitewater. There were a number of books on canoeing (both instructional and inspiring) that sat on the family bookshelves, and this is one that got read enough times it began to fall apart. It's just that fantastic.

Paddle to the Amazon is about a father and son team that traveled from Winnipeg, Canada down the Mississippi river and through ocean waters to the mouth of the Amazon river in Brazil, by the power of their own arms in a canoe. On the long journey -over 12,000 miles- they suffered from sunburn, salt sores, illness and sometimes even faced starvation. They traversed numerous foreign countries- sometimes welcomed and assisted by friendly strangers, other times facing thievery or arrest by hostile natives (often exacerbated by the language barrier). Then there's the dangers of weather, not to mention wild animals. In particular I still recall vivid scenes with crocodiles, huge snakes and fearsome insects, even though it's been years since I read the book! It's amazing what hardships the Starkells went through to complete their journey, especially in the face of setbacks when they forgot (or lost) crucial supplies and gear. It's one of those stories that makes you catch your breath, amazed at the frequent scrapes with danger, astonished at what some people will put themselves through, and cheering when they finally reach their goal. A great adventure story.

Rating: 4/5                  320 pages, 1987

More opinions at:
Hooser's Blook
Helen Foster James
anyone else?

Buck, Wild

by Glenn Balch

This is one of those books I read over and over again from the elementary school library when I was a kid. I even remember to this day which shelf it was kept on. It's the story of a wild mustang, beginning at his birth and following various adventures as he scrapes out a life with his wild band in the scub county of Idaho around the Snake River. The little horse looses his mother early, but gets partly adopted by another mare with a young foal, and grows up strong and free. He has to learn his place among the wild horses- which mares are friendly, how much he can pester the stallion, how far he can wander, etc. The dynamics change as he grows older until as a yearling he is ousted by the stallion and must make his way alone with a few other young bachelors. He dodges coyotes and cowhands, lives alongside antelope and wild burros. Eventually a rancher notices the wild horse, now a young stallion, and determines to catch him in order to use for stud to improve his own stockhorses. Shut up in a corral, for the first time in his life the wild horse knows what it is to be free of danger and well-fed. But our equine hero will never submit to man's hand, he has a strong will and burning desire to be free... Buck, Wild is a wonderful story for any young horse lover. The author has written a number of books about horses, but this is the only one I've read so far. I mean to remedy that someday.

Rating: 4/5 ........ 136 pages, 1976

Raven Seek Thy Brother

by Gavin Maxwell

This is the third book in Maxwell's series that began with Ring of Bright Water. Like the second, The Rocks Remain, it focuses more on the author's personal trials than on the otters. Maxwell explains in an opening chapter that when he wrote The Rocks Remain he could not share all details of what was happening at Camusfearna, but now in Raven Seek Thy Brother all is divulged, to make clear why his idyll was spoiled and eventually abandoned. He states early in the book that after a failed relationship his ex cursed the rowan tree on his land and following that misfortunes one after another came upon Camusfearna. The reader learns about various accidents, management problems and financial straits, as well as the author's debilitating health problems. There is a curious chapter about local tales of supernatural events, including a poltergeist that appears to haunt Maxwell's own house for a time. Another chapter describes his travels to Iceland in order to learn about eider duck colonies, in the interest of establishing his own to gather the down for profit. I enjoyed reading about when he took his two deerhounds (older and inexperienced compared to the other dogs) coursing for hares on the moors with a local club. The book ends, sadly, with the disintegration of Camusfearna and his efforts to ensure a safe future for the otters. My assumption at the end of The Rocks Remain that he had let go free otters which were not native was mistaken; here it was made clear to me that only the Scottish otters were released into the wild (and some years later one returned to him after it had been injured, in a remarkable reunion); the foreign species he tried to place in zoos when he could no longer keep them. The chapters about the otters are the highlight of this book, but as the best one comes at the very end it felt kind of belated. The narrative is sometimes a muddle (I could not make sense of the section describing how he was incriminated by the Italian law after publishing God Protect Me From My Friends) but I still really enjoy the quality and style of Maxwell's writing.

Rating: 3/5                      233 pages, 1968

winner

The winner of my latest book giveaway is sharon54220! Sharon, send me your address and I'll mail your book and accompanying bookmark out soon. Visit again next week for a new giveaway!