The Life and Love of Cats

by Lewis Blackwell

This is a gorgeous book. A must-have for any cat lover. It is full of stunning photographs- larger than life-size- celebrating feline grace and mystery. The striking images are interspersed with quotes on cats, and a number of essays by the author on different aspects of cats and their relationship with humans. Very thoughtful and insightful. Blackwell muses on why we find cats so appealing and irresistible (quoting the number of google results for cat compared to dog to assert their greater popularity), even scrutinizing the many websites where people share photos of cats (and attribute human thoughts to their behaviors). He examines how cats and people have come together historically- sometimes merely tolerated but more often inspiring such passion as to be revered or heavily persecuted. Looks into some pervasive myths regarding cats' abilities and how they probably arose, the reasons why cats have not evolved such diverse shapes like dog breeds (why was the munchkin cat not mentioned?); the mixing of domestic cats and wildcats, the affect cats have on our moods, and much more. I was surprised to read about how cats' body parts have been used in folkloric medicine in historical times. I was dismayed to read about the Paris cat massacre of 1730. I came away with a short list of more titles on cats, and inspiration to search the internet to learn more about domestic/wild crosses. But most of all I kept returning to the book just to look at the pictures. I had never seen such a closeup of a cat's tongue before, showing the barbels that make it raspy. The many images of cats in front of or outside of windows, looking through, infused with contemplation, are lovely. Overall it was just delightful.

These are some of my favorite images from the book:

This cat's eyes are my absolute favorite color:

This cat looks like one that used to hang around an apartment I lived in for a brief time in southern California. It was very friendly and purred like mad whenever I held it. I asked around; none of the neighbors admitted to owning the cat. My roommate urged me to take the cat home on the plane with me! but I couldn't think how that was possible (I was moving back to my parents' house soon):

So elegant:

So strange and curious:

Beautiful. I borrowed this book from the public library.

Rating: 5/5      216 pages, 2012

more opinions:
The Secret Writer
Texas a Cat in Austin

The Elephant Whisperer

by Lawrence Anthony

The author of this remarkable story ran a wildlife reserve in Zululand. He unexpectedly became the owner of a family of "rouge" elephants when their lives were threatened: they were such troublemakers that they were going to be killed. When first introduced to the Thula Thula reserve, the elephants did continually break out at first, trying to return to their former home (where if found they would be immediately shot). Anthony got the elephants to stay not only by building stronger electric fences, but by convincing the wild elephants (determined to trample any humans they saw) that he was not a danger to them, and to keep them calm until they accepted the new place as their home. They grew to trust him enough that he was eventually able to approach the adults closely, and they even began to seek out his company. The story relates his continual struggle to keep the animals (and people who worked or lived on the reserve) safe- dealing with poachers, neighboring tribal strife, floods and storms that broke fences, his own dogs confronting dangerous wildlife, poisonous snakes, preparing the reserve to receive guests (and then dealing with a new set of problems they brought) for the much-needed income, and so on. There are funny moments as well as sad ones- more than once evoking an involuntary verbal outburst from me as I read the pages. There were also many incredible moments, as Anthony learned how to communicate with these giant, wild animals in an effort to gain their trust and promote healing from the atrocities they had suffered at the hands of man (much of their family killed before they came to the reserve). It is definitely a book I want to read again.

When looking for more reviews about this book online, instead I found numerous articles relating how after his death in 2012, the author's home was visited by two herds of elephants. The elephants had not been to his house in three years, but travelled miles through the bush to pay a visit upon his death. They stayed for two days, then trekked back into the bush. No one knows how they were aware of his passing.

Anthony also wrote a book about rhinos, and one about his efforts helping to rescue wildlife from the Baghdad Zoo in 2003. Want to read both of those now.

Rating: 4/5       368 pages, 2009

Yatandou

by Gloria Whelan

Yatandou lives in a Mali villiage in Africa. Only eight years old, she must help her family prepare food by pounding millet grain into flour - a task that takes hours each day. She loves her pet goat, but doesn't have much time to play with him because she must work. She hears of a machine that might come to the village- a machine that can grind the millet for them. The women are saving their money to buy it. Yatandou, realizing how this can help her village and make their lives easier, sells her goat in the market to help pay for the grinding machine. It is a wonderful thing when the machine finally arrives. Not only does it relieve the women of some of their workload, but it grinds grain so much faster that they can now sell some surplus. A woman comes to the village to teach the women and girls how to write, so they can keep track of how much millet they grind with the machine, and who pays for it. Yatandou wonders at the novelty of writing: How strange it is to see that our words have a face. Her father complains that the women will become idle and cause trouble now that the machine is doing some of their work, but Yatandou's mother pacifies him with special bat stew. (I was sad to read of the bats getting eaten, especially when it made me think of this history). At the close of the story, the girl Yatandou carefully writes her name on her pounding stick, so she can one day show it to her own child and explain how the machine has changed her village, that her own future daughters and granddaughters will never have to use it.

I picked this book out at the library because I wanted to see more by illustrator Peter Sylvada. It took me a while to appreciate the pictures this time- their indistinctness makes me squint. But they really do convey a sense of shimmering heat and dusty haze, an atmosphere beaten by the blazing golden sun. I ended up reading Yatandou a few times, even though it was a bit too sophisticated a story to share with my three-year-old. It really grew on me. Not only does it show how hard life is for kids in other parts of the world, but one girl's sacrifice to help improve conditions in her village. Throughout the story are details of the culture, the landscape and the weather, mention of traditions and stories told to children, that bring the place alive. I was impressed at how precious and thoughtful Yantandou seemed- an eight-year-old child giving something up for a better life, and also thinking of the importance to teach her future children how things had changed because of that.

Rating: 3/5        32 pages, 2007

more opinions:
Muddy Puddle Musings
Your Friendly Librarian

Spirit Horses

by Tony Stromberg

A large art book full of gorgeous photographs. They all depict horses, most appear to be wild horses. Depicting the animals' beauty, strength, family bonds and most of all, the glory of their speed. In fact I was a bit surprised how many pictures in the book had a blurred effect. There were some so blurry I couldn't tell what the picture showed me- flowing horse hair? But the ones with close detail focus are really exquisite to look at. Many are black and white or with limited color; my favorites are the images in sepia tones. Especially the few (like the cover image) that show a blonde horse, the pale hair seeming to float as they move across the page. You really feel the strength and beauty of the animals in these pictures. There's an introduction where the artist explains why he chose to photograph horses and what he hopes his art will communicate to others. Our need to feel a connection to nature and what the horses can teach us. There are quotes about horses and nature throughout the pages. My favorite quotes from the book:

Different forms of life in different aspects of existence make up the teeming denizens of this earth of ours... and all beings primarily seek peace, comfort and security. Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to a man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not to die, so do other creatures. - the Dalai Lama

Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things man himself will not find peace. - Albert Schweitzer

This is a book you will want to look through again and again. Just sit and look at it. I borrowed it from the library. Some of the photographs here.

Rating: 4/5      160 pages, 2005

more opinions:
My Horse Daily

Sky Dancer

by Jack Bushnell

Jenny is thrilled when she sees a hawk on her father's farm. It perches in the same tree on the edge of a snow-covered field, and every day she goes out to see it. But then she hears men in town talking, her neighbors who have lost chickens to a hawk. Even though it's against the law, they feel justified in hunting the hawk down, to protect their livestock. Jenny starts to worry: will the hawk attack her father's chickens? will one of her neighbors shoot it? She feels an affinity with the wild bird, thinks that it comes to the farm just to visit her. Celebrating nature and the closeness of a fierce wild thing, this book also takes a serious look at the reality of what happens when a predator visits a farm. Spoiler: this particular hawk doesn't die, but a different one is shot. The illustrations by Jan Ormerod are lovely watercolor paintings, overlaying expressive line ink drawings.

Rating: 4/5       32 pages, 1996

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Welcome, Brown Bird

by Mary Lyn Ray

I got this book at the library because I wanted to find more picture books with illustrations I love looking at. So I searched for some of the illustrators I've really admired in past books. This one has lovely oil paintings by Peter Sylvada, whose work I first saw in Gleam and Glow. (I thought I had written about that one, but can't find it anywhere on my blog! Must remedy that...)

The book is about a bird, a brown nondescript bird with a lovely flutelike song. On a farm a boy waits for late spring, when he always hears the song of the thrush. When his father wants to clear some land for a corn field, the boy begs him to leave the trees standing, because that is where the thrush lives. His father agrees. In fall the bird flies away and the boy waits all winter to hear it again. Meanwhile, in another part of the world a different boy waits for summer to end, waits for the rainy season when he will hear the thrush's song. His father also wants to clear trees off the land, and this boy too begs to leave them alone- for that is where the bird lives, the bird with a voice like a clay flute. This father too, agrees, and the boy listens all winter until the thrush disappears in springtime. Neither boy knows where the thrush goes when it leaves them, but they are tied together.

In the afterward the author gives some information about migratory birds, particularly the thrush, and how they are threatened by habitat loss. It's an important message beautifully communicated. I love looking at the pictures- the rich texture, the broad paintbrush strokes that suggest just enough form to let your mind fill in the rest.

Rating: 4/5      32 pages, 2004

more opinions:
Nurture PDX

The Curious Garden

by Peter Brown

One day a little boy is exploring his dreary, gray city when he finds access to an abandoned elevated railway. There are a few weeds and wildflowers growing up there. The boy starts to water and prune them, and the plants begin to thrive and spread. Eventually they grow across the entire railway. When winter comes the boy can't visit his garden anymore, but he does research- reading gardening books! In spring he starts tending to the plants again. They spread further into the city, and other people become inspired to garden as well. Before long there are rooftop and hellstrip gardens all over the place; topiary animals, treehouses and twining ivy climbing up walls. The illustrations are really lovely. The endpapers show before and after: at the front of the book you see a spread of the gray cityscape, at the back it's all green rooftops. If you look close in that final picture, you can find the little spot on the elevated where it all began. The afterward says this story is based on an abandoned elevated in Manhattan that became a garden space. Awesome. It all reminds me very much of Extra Yarn- the spread of color and liveliness through a dreary town. There's a good message here, too, about learning and leading by example. This boy didn't know anything about gardening when he found the plants, but he tried things and eventually succeeded. And others followed suit. Like Seedfolks, too.

I found this book at the public library.

Rating: 4/5        36 pages, 2009

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Booktalking
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Help Readers Love Reading

The Cats of Tanglewood Forest

by Charles de Lint

Lillian loves exploring the forested hills behind her Aunt's farm. But one day she gets bitten by a poisonous snake deep in the woods, and is about to die. The cats who gather there save her with a bit of magic that transforms her into a cat. I thought the story would take off with Lillian-the-kitten discovering how to live like a cat and having all kinds of feline adventures. Not so! She only wants to become a girl again. With the help of a fox (driven by curiosity about her unique circumstance) she finds a possum witch who can transform her back into a girl, but at a steep price. Undaunted, Lillian goes ahead. But when she realizes the consequences of her choice, she has to make things right again. This takes her on a quest to find some ominous-sounding bear people who might be able to help, and in the end she gets assistance from a tree spirit and the Father of Cats himself (a black panther) as well. I really enjoyed a lot of aspects of this story. It has a definite fairy-tale flair, with the girl having to go out on a journey to resolve her problem, work in servitude, solve riddles, befriend animals and the like. My curiosity kept me reading but I also really enjoyed her character- Lillian is a very determined and spunky girl (she reminded me of Ronia). I also liked the strong message the story had of facing consequences and living up to promises. And of course the animal characters were great. This is the first de Lint story I've really enjoyed, I'm glad I finally found one to my liking. Maybe The Squirrel Wife got me into the mood to read younger, magical fiction again.

A lot of the setting and even the magical elements, made me think this story was set in the Appalachain hills, or backwoods of Florida. Of course it's purely made up- but the presence of the panther, something in the way people talked, the myth of the spiders- it all made me curious how much de Lint had invented himself, and how much he had drawn on existing mythologies.

Apparently this book is expanded from a shorter version the author wrote earlier, called A Circle of Cats. The illustrations by Charles Vess are lovely- so full of green!

Rating: 3/5        285 pages, 2013

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Bookfoolery

The Bookseller of Kabul

by Åsne Seierstad

I thought I would love this book, but it was different than I expected. From the introduction, I thought it would be the story of how the journalist fit into an Afghan family's life, her observations of their family dynamics and conflicts with them (at one point she says "I have rarely quarreled as much as I did there. Nor have I had the urge to hit anyone as much as I did there.") But the journalist has no presence in the story at all. She describes everything in the third person, a flowing narrative style. I really wonder what was left out- she states that nothing was written here that the family did not want her to share. And some of the things shared made me cringe; in the end I did not like the bookseller himself at all, even though the premise is what made me pick up the book. I could not abide some of his actions and decisions.

It is all about a bookseller in Kabul and his family. How he loves knowledge and books, saves them through the turbulent, oppressive times living under control of the Communists and then later the Taliban era. He watched his books being torn apart, burned or confiscated, was imprisoned for selling illegal materials, rescued and hid books in attics all over the city. It was awful to read about how public libraries were pillaged and destroyed, yet this man hoarded the books he was able to find and planned one day to return some ten thousand books to the library, when it was rebuilt and safe to do so. He also supported education, travelling into Pakistan to print textbooks himself.  But this is where I started to dislike things. Not surprisingly, he had no regard for copyrights and would simply take a textbook to a printer, have it copied and reproduced by the hundreds so he could resell to university students. (Reading about the printing process was fascinating). He also made a lot of income off of postcards- selecting photographs and taking them to printers for similar reproduction, then selling them in his shop and to smaller vendors in his town. But later in the book a poor man who cannot feed his starving family, steals bundles of postcards, presumably to sell to the vendors himself at a cheaper price. Our man was brutal in retaliation, incensed that someone would ruin his livelihood. I was appalled at how he treated the poor man and his family.

But yet I couldn't help admiring his love for books, his tireless work in creating a business that not only supported his own family but various male relatives, able to send younger boys to school. Much of the book is not about Sultan himself and the bookshop, but about life in Afghanistan as the people struggle to recover (or just survive) after years of war and strict religious rule. It was another one of those really eye-opening books for me. Each section tells about a different member of Sultan's family, what their life is like, their viewpoint on things. It was night and day for some of them. His son bitterly resents being forced to work in a bookstall. His younger wife is cossetted and pampered, barely lifts a finger to do anything, while his youngest sister works like a slave in the home, doing all the labor of cleaning and cooking. It was a stark picture of how the lives of women are controlled- unable to leave the house without an escort, not really able to choose who they marry, difficult to get an education- some of the women in the story tried to, with dismal results. The bickering, family drama and gossip among relatives and neighbors threatened to tear them all apart.

One thing I did not expect to find was a picture emerging of how men find life in Afghanistan restrictive, as well. At least among this family. Autocratic rule of fathers over sons, mothers arranging their marriages, boys finding no opportunities, getting stuck in a life path they do not want, feeling restricted by religious dictates. Not nearly as controlled as the womens' lives, but still there were a lot of unhappy men feeling constricted and frustrated by their circumstances in this story.

I was surprised at two things mentioned, which I had never heard of. One was of boys crushing a dried scorpion, mixing the resulting powder with tobacco and smoking it to get high. The other was of men betting on fighting quails. I've heard of people pitting roosters, betta fish and even rhincerous beetles against each other, but quail? those diminutive little birds? Apparently they will peck each other to death! Google informs me both of these are relatively common in Afghanistan.

This is one of those very few books that I am not sure if I will keep or not. The picture of all the different layers of life in this one family in Kabul is very interesting reading, but I am not sure I would say it is particularly enjoyable. Valuable, yes. Fun to read, not really. The book stuff- not nearly enough of that. And yet, I learned so much. I am undecided. So I will shelve it for now, and see how it goes if I ever read it again.

Rating: 3/5     288 pages, 2002

more opinions:
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more TBR

Most of the new-to-me titles this time have come from other books I've read, or films I've seen, or from browsing around online.

The Book of Weeds by Ken Thompson
The Bees by Laline Paull- Kyusi Reader and Opinions of a Wolf
My Accidental Jihad by Krista Bremer- Caroline Bookbinder
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
Evergreen by Rebecca Rasmussen- The Lost Entwife
Desert Flower by Waris Dirie- watched the film

Do We Need Pandas? by Ken Thompson
The Rent Collector by Cameron Wright from It's All About Books and Bookfool
No Nettles Required by Ken Thompson
In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson- Love, Laughter, Touch of Insanity
Jabberwocky by Daniel Coleman- It's All About Books
An Ear to the Ground by Ken Thompson
Bevis, the Story of a Boy by Richard Jeffries
Wood-Magic: A Fable by Richard Jeffries
The Path Through the Trees by Christopher Milne
The Hollow on the Hill by Christopher Milne
The Martyrdom of Man by William Winwood Reade

Infidel

by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

This is a stunning memoir. Ayaan Hirsi Ali describes her early childhood in Somali. Displaced from her home at an early age because of her father's activism, she grew up in various countries: Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Kenya. With each move she describes the differences in culture, the prejudices she ran into, the struggles thrown into school with a new, unfamiliar language. I was surprised at how the children were raised, at the level of domestic violence and instability in her home, at the brutal description of female circumcision- although I had a general idea of that (recently watched the film Desert Flower- wasn't expecting that to be about genital mutilation, but it was, very upsetting- now the book is on my reading list).There was a lot in this book that shook me up. I learned so much about other cultures different from mine. A lot of the early portion of the book is about her upbringing, her family's dynamics, her curiosity about sexuality (she read a lot of Western books), her observations of women being oppressed, her exploration into different aspects of Islam and the beginning of her questioning.

She left Kenya to avoid an arranged marriage, moved to Holland and managed to get asylum as a refugee. With a fabricated story and a changed name. She admitted many times to having lied to get into the country, and talks about the problems that caused her later on. As a new immigrant she worked hard to learn about Dutch culture, to learn the language, to study and find jobs- starting with factory work and eventually as a translator. Even when discouraged by others, she insisted on taking classes and exams until she got into a renowned University and pursued a political science degree. She really wanted to know why Holland was so clean, peaceful and well-run when her home country was in turmoil and full of violence. (Just as I was surprised to read how children were raised in Somalia, she was astonished to see how differently they were treated in Holland). She was fascinated by how government functions, became a research assistant for a political party and then was voted into the Parliament herself, after only having lived in the country for a decade. I was impressed.

Working as a translator with Somalis who found themselves in all kinds of unpleasant and dire circumstances, she had learned how prevalent violence towards women was among the immigrant community. When she became involved in politics she was very outspoken against Islamic practices and for the rights of women. Also about how children were educated, how the Islamic community isolated itself and more. Her remarks were often inflammatory and very controversial, and her direct criticism of the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad caused an uproar. A filmmaker collaborated with her on a short film to make a statement about the mistreatment of Muslim women, using quotes from the Quran.  It caused the death of the filmmaker and she had to go into hiding. There was a scandal about her status as a Dutch citizen and she left the country to live in the United States.

It is an awesome book. I was worried the politics and litany of names would make for difficult reading but in fact I found it pretty compelling all the way through. I was fascinated to read about another culture, another way of thinking, and particularly to see her intellectual awakening as she began to question her own religion and upbringing, eventually arriving at atheism. I greatly admire her ethics and drive to help others, even if her delivery method and statements often seemed deliberately offensive. She obviously admired and loved Holland, but when I read a few of her statements about Dutch culture and history to my boyfriend he flinched and said she was being inflammatory again. I got the impression that she sometimes generalized a lot, a mild example being when she described the other girls in her university classes, lumping them into three groups based on dress and behavior. But who among us does not generalize to some degree, comparing what we encounter to what we already know?

Rating: 4/5     353 pages, 2007

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The Enchanted Places

by Christopher Milne

If you grew up loving Winnie the Pooh like I did (not the Disney character but the real Pooh books) then you're bound to find this book delightful and intriguing. It's written by Christopher Milne, the boy who inspired the stories by A.A. Milne. Except, as he points out, they didn't really all happen to him. Some were purely invented by the writer, others were stories from his father's childhood. It interested me to see which poems and stories he took particular pains to explain were not the way things happened. If you haven't read the originals some references will be obscure, but for me they were quite familiar as those literary works are among the few that don't pall with time; I can read and enjoy them just as much today as twenty-five years ago.

But it's not only about the Pooh stories and how they did or didn't exist in Christopher's actual playtime. A lot of the book describes what his life was like growing up, being free to play and explore in the woodlands, ruled by and devoted to his Nanny, growing into a close and respectful relationship with his father as he was older. I am glad that this went both ways; his father trusted Christopher the boy implicitly, which gave me alarm when I started to read about his acquisition of -and experimentation with- a pistol at the age of nine- thankfully that ended well and not in some tragedy. He also mentions some regrets when he got older at the attention fame brought him as a young child, including how other boys in boarding school teased him. I admit I got quite bored with the descriptions of all the rooms in the house and how things were laid out or who arranged different household matters- his mother, his father or someone else altogether. Maybe those things are interesting because the lifestyle was so different back then, but I wanted to read more about the people and their doings, about the outdoor adventures and of course, the background of the stories.

It saddens me that Christopher apparently did not think much of himself as a writer; I like his voice on the page. In fact, the tone reminded me of his father's (hopefully he wouldn't mind the comparison). So I am glad to discover there are two other books of memoirs following this one: The Path Through the Trees and The Hollow on the Hill. I would love to read them, but they're out of print, so it will be serendipitous if I do find them. Luckily I came across this one at a secondhand sale and picked it up, not yet knowing what I held.

Rating: 4/5        169 pages, 1974

more opinions:
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The Captive Reader
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Complete & Unabridged

Nim

by Herbert S. Terrace

In the 1970's, scientist Herbert Terrace attempted to teach a chimpanzee called Nim to communicate via sign language. It's been years since I read the book, and I can't find a library copy to refresh my memory, but this is what I can recall.

Nim the chimp was at first raised in a human household, to see if he could assimilate language like a child. But if I recall correctly, his later years were spent mostly at a research facility, being taught and tested. He learned to use over 100 words in sign language. It's fascinating to read about Nim, the methods and details of the research project, the chimpanzee's behavior. Overall the burning question addressed in the book was: did the chimp know what he was saying? or was he just cleverly mimicking the hand gestures, following subconscious human cues? In this regard Terrace seems to be really critical of the project, scrutinizing his own scientific methods and finding fault with Nim's performance. Nim wasn't the only chimpanzee being taught language at the time; if I remember rightly quite a bit of the book included the author's criticism of other language experiments among his colleagues. But then again, I read several books about similar efforts around the same time frame, so I could be getting them confused in my memory.

You can read more about Nim here. There are a few more books written about Nim from other viewpoints, including one which details the end of his life and discusses abuse which occurred at the facility. I wasn't aware of this aspect of Nim's story before, just discovered it while poking around online today, and it made me very sad to think of.

I cannot find a single other review of this book online. If anyone out there has read it and can correct my memory, or give more insight, please comment!

Rating: 3/5      322 pages, 1987

The Squirrel Wife

by Philippa Pearce

Once there were two brothers who herded pigs for a living. The elder was unkind to his younger brother Jack and made him do all the work. One day after a storm Jack heard sounds in the nearby forest and investigated. He found a green man - one of the magical, feared forest people- trapped under a fallen tree and rescued him. In return for his kind deed, Jack was given a gold ring and told to put it over the forearm of an infant squirrel in the forest during springtime, then come away. Jack did as he was told and later in the autumn, he found a woman in the forest who had brown hair, wild eyes and a golden bracelet on her arm. She was the squirrel he had chosen, grown now into his promised wife.

So Jack left his brother's house (with half the pigs) and moved to the other side of the forest, where he lived happily for a while with his squirrel wife. She showed him the secrets of the forest, from which they both benefitted (I enjoyed this bit of nature lore). But then Jack's older brother, jealous and angry (at loosing the pigs, and probably his brother's forced labor as well) found them and incited local villagers against Jack and his forest wife. They feared her strangeness, and willing to believe the lies told, imprisoned Jack. His wife, with the help of her green people, turns back into a squirrel to rescue Jack, but then he must make a choice. Will he have his wife, or the squirrel on his shoulder? For the green people say "fairy gifts cannot be given twice". I really like how the story ended. I keep thinking about it.

The illustrations by Wayne Anderson have a gentle, antique quality to them and remind me something of Tomie dePaola. My favorite page is the one that shows Jack exploring the forest in springtime, discovering many different nests and creatures living in trees before he finds a squirrel's nest, delightfully growing with leafy tendrils.

Rating: 4/5        32 pages, 1971

The Herring Gull's World

Niko Tinbergen

This is one of those scientific books written by a naturalist that I remember loving vividly, although I haven't been able to find a copy to read again. It's about a study done on coastal seagulls. Similar to other books of its type, it describes how the scientists approached the animals, using care to get close enough to observe and photograph the wild birds without frightening them away or altering their behavior. Details what they learned about how the gulls live: finding food, courtship, raising their chicks and so on. I remember an experiment where they fashioned a fake bird's head with a red dot on the bill, and presented it to newly-hatched chicks to see if they would instinctively beg for food by pecking the spot- or something like that. Not sure why that incident stood out to me. Like the best of animal behavior studies, the book is written in a conversational narrative fashion. It details not only the animals' behavior in both anecdotal and scientific fashion (those two might sound conflicting, but I remember they dovetailed nicely here), but also muses on the nature of the animal mind, the naturalists' methods and their own experiences while conducting the study. I do want to find this book again, and add it to my permanent shelf. It is strongly paired with A Beast the Color of Winter in my mind; probably because I read them during the same period in my life and they are of similar quality (although the animal subjects could not be more different!).

There's an entire article about the red-spot aspect of the study here. I guess there's a reason that part of the book stood out to me! Also an interesting tidbit here from a current worker in the field who reflects on Tinbergen's words.

Rating: 4/5    255 pages, 1953

The Wildest Brother

by Cornelia Funke

Ben is one wild little boy. All day long he pretends to be a wolf or a monster. He battles dragons, goblins, foxes and other ferocious beasts. Engaging his sister in these exuberant adventures (sometimes a giggling willing participant, other times protesting!) he's brave and strong and fearless- at least until darkness falls. When nighttime brings strange noises in the house, suddenly Ben needs his big sister to feel safe. I know a crazy little boy like this, and it's nice to remember there's a tender side under all the wild activity.

Rating: 3/5     24 pages, 2004

more opinions:
Jessica's Children's Literature
anyone else?

The Zookeeper's Wife

by Diane Ackerman

This is the story of a zoo in wartime. Warsaw, Poland was bombarded by German attacks, occupied by the enemy, involved in devastating battle with the Uprising, and finally subdued under Soviet rule. Through it all Jan Zabinski and his wife Antonina remained in the zoo grounds, although at times they were forced to abandoned the villa that was their home they always managed to come back to it, trying to save what they could. In the early months of the war many buildings were destroyed by bombs, animals released (intentionally and by accident- this part of the story reminded me of Pride of Baghdad). Dangerous animals were purposefully shot because of fear they would escape, more were removed to zoos in other cities far from the war. The zoo grounds were ripped apart by soldiers as different orders came down from the occupying enemy: turned into a pig farm, established with garden plots to feed civilians and soldiers, stocked with raccoon dogs as a fur farm.

Before long, it seems there weren't many animals left and mention goes to how people in the city survived the war, the many underground activities, the horrors of the ghetto, incredible stress and risk people suffered from, and most of all- how the zoo director and his wife saved some three hundred people, hiding them in the villa and outlying buildings of the zoo. I admit I wished for a bit more about the animals, but the detailed picture the book painted of civilian life and all the efforts Jews and other threatened people went through to avoid attracting attention (and thus death) was compelling reading. I learned quite a lot of detail I wasn't aware of before. Ackerman is a good writer who knows how to tell a story, and seems to have done very thorough research. It all makes me wish I could read Antonina's original diaries and memoirs, or her husband Jan's books about the animals, but I don't know if any have even been translated. I was full of admiration for everything this couple did to help other people, most of them complete strangers.

One thing that stood out to me was the frequent mention of a sculptor, Magdalena Gross, who visited the zoo to use the animals as subjects for her art. The author often remarked how famous she was, how meticulous with details to accurately capture the poise of the animals. I really wanted to view some of her work but had trouble finding it online- I did come across a site that shows many animal statues from the Warsaw Zoo grounds, but I'm not sure if those are hers. Does anyone know?

I recently saw the film version of The Book Thief (excellent!) which vividly depicted wartime Germany for me, so it was interesting to read a completely different viewpoint of the same historical timeframe.

Rating: 3/5        368 pages, 2007

more opinions:
Odds & Hens
JulzReads
Rosemary and Reading Glasses
Book Journey

Living2Read

Sally Jean, the Bicycle Queen

by Carl Best

A girl and her bike. Sally Jean starts out riding behind her mom, then gets a tricycle, and finally her very own real bike. She learns to ride solo (no training wheels) and do some tricks. She loves her bike so much she gives it a name. As she gets bigger, her parents show her how to adjust the seat and handlebars. But eventually Sally Jean outgrows the bike, and her parents can't afford to buy a new one for a while. What will Sally Jean do? Other kids offer her rides, but as the Bicycle Queen, she needs her own bike. She tries to earn money, but it's not enough. Her final solution really tickled me: Sally Jean finds some used parts and makes her own bike. Then she kindly hands her old bike down to another kid who's outgrown his tricycle. Great story, even though I don't really care for the illustrations (very loose, sketchy style).

Rating: 3/5        32 pages, 2006

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Enjoy and Embrace Learning
Read These Please!

long-term goals

I have, for many years now, been slowly working through several goals in relation to my reading. The foremost of course are to read all the books that I own, read most of the books on my written TBR list, and to write about all the books I can remember having read. This last I've been slowly making progress on- I have a few compiled lists from the years before I began blogging, and whenever I write a past reads posts, it catches up some on that.

But I've been thinking lately about yet another goal.

I would like to take one year, and only read books off my permanent shelf. I wonder if I could make it through them all- it would be about seven hundred books, far beyond the usual amount I read in a year- but then, they would all be re-reads, so maybe I'd go through them faster. I think much of it would be enjoyable, delightful in fact, as I've kept these books because I loved them. But I'm also afraid at meeting some serious disappointments- many I have not read in a decade or more, they might not stand up to a re-read. Especially those I haven't read since my childhood, or teen years.

So... am I crazy? I'm wondering if I'll ever do this at all. But definitely feel the need to meet one of my other goals first. Getting through all the books on the TBR shelves, at the very least.

Miss Bridie Chose a Shovel

by Leslie Connor

Miss Bridie's story begins as she steps off a ship into a new land, carrying a shovel. She doesn't bring with her a chiming clock or pretty porcelain figure into the new world, but a useful, utilitarian object. And throughout her life, the shovel serves her well. She uses it to plant gardens, dig fence posts, clear snow for ice skating. The shovel digs wheels out of the mud and puts fuel into her kitchen stove. When a fire levels her barn, she finds the shovel blade and makes a new handle, continuing on. I did not expect to find this quiet, unassuming story so moving, but suppressed a tear when she used to shovel to bury her beloved husband, and plant a tree on his grave. The book closes with the shovel still in use, clearing snow for her grandchildren to skate now. Illustrated with a lovely woodcut style.

Rating: 4/5     30 pages, 2004

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A 3 Acre Farm

the booknosher

Where Do Camels Belong?

by Ken Thompson

This is one of those books that kind of hurt my brain to read, but I appreciate because it revealed so much to me. It's about invasive species. It addresses such topics as: what makes some species invasive (successful) in new environments and others not? are introduced species actually harmful? what should we do about them- or are they better left alone? Most of the answers that Thompson arrived at actually surprised me. It seems that the furor about invasive species is either based on very little science, or none at all. Turns out it is quite natural for species to move around the planet and end up in different places than the originated in- if you go back not that far in time, anywhere on earth would be unrecognizable to us. So what gives humans the right to decide that a certain collection of plants and animals in one place is the ideal one, to be protected at all costs? In most cases, invasive species are not to blame for the decline of "natives"; looked at more closely it is often the fault of human changes to environments, or other factors altogether. And the cost of attempts to remove or eradicate alien species (almost always unsuccessful in the end) usually outweighs by far the cost of original "damage". While it still disturbs and alarms me to see news of a certain species disappearing, especially when it is the victim of human alterations to the Earth, I feel like I should in some degree accept that this is just the way of things. The world changes. Some things will die, others will arise. Yes, we are making this happen faster than before- but it would still happen regardless... I still like the idea of having a garden comprised of all native plants, but Thompson has overturned my thinking: I will no longer feel so guilty about planting Dutch flowers in my garden.

Rating: 4/5      262 pages, 2014

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chemfreegarden
Now Appearing

Owen and Mzee

the Language of Friendship
by Isabella and Craig Hatkoff with Dr. Paula Kahumbu

In 2004, a young hippo was found in trouble after a tsunami struck Southeast Asia with widespread aftermath. The hippo was rescued and taken to a wildlife park in Kenya. To everyone's surprise, the hippo named Owen befriended a 130-year-old male tortoise, Mzee. The animals became inseparable, with Owen following the Mzee around and copying what the tortoise ate. The two became protective of each other. Even more remarkable, they seemed to develop some basic communication, using sounds that tortoises and hippos normally don't make. But eventually the park managers faced a difficult decision: would Owen and Mzee need to be separated? Owen was adopting habits and a diet not usual for hippos, and when he grew larger could probably injure Mzee. He needed to learn that he was a hippo. The book closes with change looming at hand: with another young hippo elsewhere needing a companion, plans were in the works to move Owen.

I wish I could give this book a higher rating, it certainly is an incredible story. But for some reason it all falls a bit short with me. The writing style is aimed at younger readers and rather simple. (I am sure having three authors doesn't help, I'm always a bit standoffish to books with more than one author for some reason). The part about their interspecies communication, which I was most intrigued by, was actually very brief. There is not much meat here; I am actually wondering what this book includes that the first one didn't. I am sure there will be a third installment, but I'd really rather wait until someone writes a book ten years down the road that tells the entire story in more detail. The part I actually liked most was reading in the end about how Dr. Haller (who established the wildlife park the two animals lived in) works to rehabilitate old abandoned limestone quarries, restoring the forest at those sites so wildlife can live there again. I'd like to read more about that.

The story of Owen and Mzee has definitely caught the attention of many. There are already three books illustrated with photographs by Isabella and her father, plus two picture books by different authors.

Rating: 3/5      36 pages, 2007

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Esther's Roost
Bottom Shelf Books

Extra Yarn

by Mac Barnett

While I was away, my mother took the children to the library several times, as evidenced by piles of unfamiliar picture books in my apartment. I've been enjoying reading them with my three-year-old. My favorite has to be Extra Yarn. The sparse, expressive illustrations by Jon Klassen are delightful, and the story even more so.

It starts like this: a girl named Annabel who lives in a cold, gray town, finds a box filled with colorful yarn. She knits a sweater for herself and her dog. Then for her friends, her classmates, teacher, eventually all the pets and people in town (even a guy who doesn't want a sweater- he wears shorts in the snow- gets something: she makes him a hat). Every time she finishes knitting, there is still yarn left in the box. So she knits sweaters for things that don't usually need them- trees, houses, etc. The town becomes very colorful! Now Annabel becomes famous, people come to see the knitting and the marvelous box and a rich duke who loves clothes wants to buy it. Annabel won't sell, for any ridiculous price. He steals the box of yarn, but of course it all turns out well in the end. I love the way the pictures tell the story, and the final message. Lovely.

Rating: 4/5        40 pages, 2012

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lookiobooks
slatebreakers
Story Seekers
LibLaura5
Children's Book Almanac

TBR from Africa

I've been away; just updated my blog with the books read on plane flights and in occasional quiet moments during the trip. Had an unexpected stop in an airport bookstore, stopover in Johannesburg. I don't usually expect much of interest in airport bookstores, but when I hesitated outside my boyfriend pointed out a copy of The Elephant Whisperer on the display table. There was an entire section on nature inside; it didn't take long for a stack to pile up in my arms. I only brought home two: Where Do Camels Belong? by Ken Thompson and Nest: The Art of Birds by Janine Burke. But I stole a few moments in front of the shelf to scribble down on the back of a receipt all the others I wanted to read, so I can perhaps find them later (at the library, hopefully).

Fifty Plants That Changed the Course of History by Bill Laws
The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony
The Last Rhinos by Lawrence Anthony
Whatever You Do, Don't Run by Peter Allison

The Lion and the Lamb by Mike Hardwich
The Rhino and the Rat by Mike Hardwich
A Hippo Love Story by Karen Paolillo
Bush Vet by Clay Wilson
Back to the Bush by James Hendry

Lobo, Rag and Vixen

by Ernest Thompson Seton

I thought this book was awfully familiar when I started reading it on my kindle on the plane; it wasn't until halfway through that I realized I had read it before in a different collection. It contains four stories selected from Wild Animals I Have Known. So it was an unexpected re-read; and I think I actually enjoyed it more the second time around.

The first story is about the wolf leader of a pack that preys on cattle, and all the ranchers' attempts to shoot or poison him. The wolf is finally brought down when they manage to kill a female from the pack and Lobo comes looking for his dead mate. The second story is about the lives of a grouse family, how the mother raises her young and the adventures of one grouse cock when it grows up. I was piqued by an apparent error: the story recounts how one by one young partridges are lost, only a few of the original twelve survive into adulthood. But after telling how the first three are lost, the number of chicks is suddenly seven. I kept thinking- wait, did I miss something? what happened to the other two? O well. A similar survival story is presented in Rags, about a young rabbit and how its mother teaches survival skills, the many ways to evade enemies. The final story is about a fox family, how the parents raise the young foxes until the male fox is shot for killing chickens. Then the den is discovered and most of the cubs killed; the last cub is chained in the farmyard where the mother brings it food and tries in vain to free it. The final, sad scene shows the mother fox killing her cub when she cannot release it from the chain- better it die than live a prisoner.

Reading the kindle edition I missed out on the illustrations, but found a sampling online. Here is one from each of the stories: the wolf Lobo and his mate Blanca, the baby grouse all in a row learning to drink, the rabbit Rags with its mother, the fox (delighted in watching a dog trying to unravel its trail I think).

Rating: 3/5    pages, 1899

Monarch, the Big Bear of Tallac

by Ernest Thompson Seton

A hunter kills a sow grizzly bear and captures her two cubs. Passing fellow buys them and takes them to a ranch where they live in dull captivity, tormented from time to time by dogs urged to fight. For a show when the bear is larger he is put to fight against a bull but breaks loose and runs off. Learns to survive in the wild by preying upon sheep. One shepherd sees the bear's shadow thrown large in the firelight and is convinced it is a monstrous beast, a giant of all bears. His tall tales and the bear's predation on flocks bring various men to track him down, those efforts are all related. Finally the bear is hunted down by the very man who once kept him as a cub. The man doesn't recognize the bear, but something vaguely familiar in the man's scent causes the bear to turn away from the moment of conflict and do no harm. By now stories of the bear have spread far and wind, inciting interest and furor; through it all the bear just wants to be left alone. Men come out hunting him again and finally after many attempts they trap him. Caged in heavy iron, the book closes on a dull, hopeless scene of his misery. Better he had never encountered men at all, was my final impression.

It seems this bear actually existed (although Seton probably made up the events of his early life) and lived his final days caged in Golden Gate Park; this blog post has some drawings by Seton and a photo of the bear. I found more photos and information about the bear on this site as well. I read this book on my kindle.

Rating: 3/5      214 pages, 1904

Elizabeth and her German Garden

by Elizabeth von Arnim

I had always wanted to read more von Arnim since loving her Enchanted April, and held off for a while after being disappointed with her dog memoirs. Similarly, I did not find Her German Garden quite as good as Enchanted April, but it was still very enjoyable. It was just not quite what I expected.

It starts out well enough, her lovely words about the beauties of the garden and musing on why no one else seems to appreciate it so much. Others pity her for being left alone in the very place she loves -they just don't understand. How she thrives on solitude and books and dearly loves her plants, would rather not even have visitors. She loves lilacs (so do I) and once filled the house with armloads of the flowers, so that the household staff were convinced she must be planning a party or at the very least expecting some guests. They were put out to find nothing of the sort! I enjoy all this very much. There is an oddly amusing passage where she sneaks into her cousins' garden to see what they have done with it since she was last there- it is apparent she doesn't like these cousins much, and is afraid of being found there, while reminiscing about gardens from her childhood. And of course there are all her efforts to compose a beautiful landscape with the plants, full of learning errors- although she doesn't actually get her hands dirty, merely directing the staff where to put plants she has selected.

There's another longer section about an English girl who comes to visit, a houseguest somehow forced upon Elizabeth; it becomes an extended stay lasting several weeks, even though no one in the household seems to like this girl much. She purports to be studying German culture in order to write a book, but her inquiries are either ignorant or insulting by degrees. Amusing all that, but not much about the garden. There there's some odd attitudes towards her own children expressed, and about women- her own gender! which reminded me that I was reading a book from a very different time. It was oddly disconcerting and uncomfortable for me, as I admired von Arnim so much before. I guess I don't know her very well at all. She also refers to her husband as The Man of Wrath- I was never sure whether this was in jest, or if they really had a bad relationship.

So- I liked most of it, but other parts confused me some, even though I did enjoy them for other reasons. I learned this was her first published work; maybe that's why it feels a bit disjointed to me, the writing voice always lovely regardless. I'm determined to read it again in the future, and see if a bit of perspective will improve my reading experience.

I read this one on my kindle.

Rating: 3/5      207 pages, 1899

more opinions:
So Many Books
The Captive Reader
The Book Snob
Small World Reads

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

by William Kamkwamba

A remarkable story about a boy from Malawi, a poor village in rurual Africa, who built a windmill out of junkyard scrap- producing enough power to put lights and a radio in his family's home. But it starts out telling the story of his circumstance, which really opened my eyes. The daily struggle of poor farmers tied to the land, suffering incredibly when rain and crops failed them. He lived through famine and disease, his family surviving but left with no money for school. Burning with desire to learn, to know how things worked, Willima devoured books from the small local library, and experimented with things, taking apart and repairing radios. When he learned that windmills could generate power, he was fired with the idea to make one, to bring electricity and irrigation to his family and their village. At first his efforts were ridiculed; then people realized what he had done and the community came to stare in amazement at his achievement. They lined up to charge cell phones at his rigged outlets and draw water from his new well, pumped with wind power. He got the attention of journalists, became funded, travelled to New York (having never left his village at all before!), attended and participated in TED talks, gained his education, and returned home to continue building and inspiring people.

I was amazed at William's ingenuity, how he not only built the windmill, but wired it to his house, made wall switches and a circuit breaker from scrap materials, and tried many other inventions- some of course didn't work. But he didn't give up trying. Also opened my eyes to see how primitively the people live in many parts of the world, very hand-to-mouth, belief in things like witches and magic still strong- when things went badly in his village, some people actually blamed the windmill for causing it! As far as the writing goes, it is not particularly polished, but the substance of the story was what made this book great for me. I've seen other readers complain that it took too long to get to the windmill part- the first half of the book being about William's life and his family's struggles; but the context that gave for his achievement made the story all that more powerful.

I picked up this book from a free stack at the public library. I finished reading it on the airplane, then swapped with a friend I met on my trip, for a book that sounds most intriguing: The Golden Spruce.

Rating: 4/5        290 pages, 2009

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Bermudaonion's Weblog
SMS Nonfiction Book Reviews

Bedtime for Frances

by Russell Hoban

Like many kids, Frances the badger doesn't want to go to bed. She finds endless reasons to delay- needs a song, needs a drink, needs a special doll or toy to hold. Then of course keeps getting out of bed when she hears strange noises, and her parents patiently deal with all these interruptions to their evening. When even later in the night Frances wakes her sleeping father he finally looses his patience and reminds her that everyone in the family has a job to do- he has to go to work in the morning, she has to go to sleep now, and if she doesn't, she'll get in trouble. This time Frances finally stays in bed, finds a way to distract herself with little songs, and succumbs to sleep. Darling as always.

Rating: 4/5     48 pages, 1960

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Saved by the Nap

A Baby Sister for Frances

by Russell Hoban

Frances understandably feels confused when her parents bring home her new baby sister. She is frustrated that the household doesn't run as smoothly as it used to, and of course feels left out when the baby gets more attention. She decides to run away- announcing this to her family- and after packing a bag retires to a cozy spot under the dining room table (not too far away from the kitchen, in case she runs out of cookies!) There of course she can overhear her parents talking in the living room where they discuss Frances' good qualities, how important big sisters are, how much they miss her, that it's just not a family without Frances around. So she runs home to a hug and agrees how nice it is to be the big sister. Very cute story, including the little songs that Frances makes up about her situation.

Rating: 4/5    48 pages, 1964

The Lady's Not for Burning

by Christopher Fry

I read this one because it was mentioned by a character in Tam Lin and sparked my curiosity. I don't often read plays, it's quite a different format for me. This one was both fun and thoughtful. It's set during the witch-trial era of New England. The two main characters are a disillusioned ex-solider who wants to die - he claims to have killed two men and thus deserves to be hanged, but no one believes him. At the same time, there is a woman named Jennet accused of being a witch; the crimes stated against her are ridiculous but the townsfolk insist she is guilty. So the story is mostly a lot of talk and it all takes place in one room but in spite of that is quite interesting. The background characters never really change their stance of believing that Jennet is a witch and basically ignoring Thomas' desire for assistance to meet death. But through the conversations that occur the soldier realizes that he really does want to live and moreover he is now in love with Jennet, so together they flee the town. I liked the irony of the play, even though I had to read it rather slowly as the old-fashioned phrasing sometimes took me a moment to figure out. It's one I want to read again someday, or better yet, see performed in the theater.

Rating: 3/5     95 pages, 1948

more opinions:
Reading the End
anyone else?