Once Upon a Flock

Life with My Soulful Chickens
by Lauren Scheuer

I've been wanting to have backyard chickens, but my city rules don't allow. Next best thing is reading about others who keep them! This author needed something extra going on in her yard after her kids were grown and out of the house; she acquired three hens to add life to her garden. Her story tells all about the learning moments, the amusing incidents, the surprises in keeping chickens. From tiny little fluffy things to gangly adolescents to egg-laying mamas. Well, one wanted to be a mama. She deliberately didn't have a rooster, so when one of her hens turned broody, adopted a few chicks for it to raise. And saw a whole new world of behavior open up, how the hen communicated with and taught the chick, protected it, tended to it constantly. I thought it would mostly be a cute story- the illustrations sure are (and oddly superimposed over real photos used as backgrounds) but in actuality it's a touching story as well. Keeping three hens content turned out to be quite a balancing act- her frequent need to build new shelters, extra coops and cages to keep one hen from bullying another, or to give a sick hen safe place to hang around outside, reminded me of the shuffling I've sometimes had to do in order to keep my various fish species well. Her efforts to make her terrier dog understand the chickens were not prey finally worked out when the dog became their protector. She also saw acts of compassion between the hens- as well as inexplicable viciousness. She worked through their various illnesses, had to deal with a rooster when one of her adopted chicks turned out to be male (her solution to the rooster's crowing was absolutely brilliant) and swamped her neighbors with eggs. It's mostly delightful.

I still want chickens someday, ha. I think I'd appreciate them most for the insect control.

Borrowed from the public library

Rating: 3/5             243 pages, 2013

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Lesa's Book Critiques

Once Upon an Eskimo Time

by Edna Wilder

The author of this book is from Bluff, Alaska. Her mother, locally known as Grandma Tucker (Eskimo name of Nedercook), was a native born in the 1850's in a small village community called Rocky Point, on the Bering Sea. Nedercook grew up in the village following the "old ways". She did not see a white person until she was an adult. They lived a subsistence lifestyle hunting, fishing and gathering berries, making all their clothing and necessities. In this book, the author relates a year of her mother's childhood, as it was told to her. It is a quiet story full of everyday home life, close observations of nature, gratitude for the land that supported them and family members who were close. Its tone reminds me a lot of A Child of the Northeast and of course it is also reminiscent of Julie of the Wolves (which was one of my first exposures to Inuit lifestyle). But each small native community so far north, had its own individual community and this story carefully details them: from codes of conduct and taboos children must follow, to festival dances, songs and superstitions. Many stories that were passed down verbally through generations are here in written form. Some of them puzzled me, they were so foreign and had no explanation. Others sounded delightful. I especially liked the tale of the woman who was carried away by an eagle husband. Most of the book is just about home life, but there are exciting moments too- such as when Nedercook was lowered over a cliff to gather bird eggs and nearly got stuck on a small ledge. She seemed quite young to be killing animals for food, but survival of the village depended on what all members could provide, so I guess it was normal for kids to be out hunting in that setting. The introduction states that this book is the first of a "long awaited saga on the life of Grandma Tucker" so I looked to see if other volumes followed: yes, The Eskimo Girl and the Englishman is a sequel which I'd now like to read some day.

Rating: 3/5               183 pages, 1987

Alone Across the Arctic

One Woman's Epic Journey by Dog Team
by Pam Flowers and Ann Dixon

Pam Flowers fell in love with the remote, beautifully empty wilderness of the Arctic. She wanted to follow the footsteps of explorer Knud Rasmussen- traveling from Barrow, Alaska to Repulse Bay in Canada- crossing the entire width of the Arctic alone with her team of eight sled dogs. Lots of planning and preparation- training the dogs and herself in endurance, stashing caches of food, shipping supplies ahead to communities she knew she would pass through. Often she stored her items in a school and in return would speak to the students about her trip, about going through whatever it takes to make dreams become reality.

She accomplished her goal, but several times in the journey feared for her life. The cold she and the dogs could deal with, it was the relentless wind during one part of the year, and the early warmth of thaw at other times, that seriously threatened them. They faced whiteouts and early breakup, nearly drowning in attempting to cross a bay when the ice started rotting beneath them. It sounded terrifying. Twice she lost a dog, later her valuable lead dog became ill. They had a frighteningly close encounter with a polar bear, and several times encountered caribou or other wildlife that excited the dogs, causing trouble. Most times passing through native villages she was met with generous hospitality and helping hands, but a few times her visits were unwelcome. Kind of amusing was the time an Eskimo dog followed her out of one village, and wouldn't turn back. Later she found out this dog was famous for miles around, had a habit of tagging along behind whatever team came through.

Her story is told in a very straightforward fashion, drawn from brief journal entries I can only imagine she was often too exhausted or cold to write much at the end of a long day's travel. Still the vastness of the land and the stark beauty of it that inspired her is palpable. A woman who thrived on solitude, she speaks very fondly of the bond with her dogs. The story of her adventure is further detailed by side texts that describe various facts and history- everything from her daily routine to the effects of wind chill factor, how she planned for storms, what was behind certain abandoned structures she passed on her journey, methods she used compared to the Inuit and other natives, and so on. A very interesting and inspiring account.

Rating: 3/5              120 pages, 2001

Stickeen

by John Muir

This stunning novella is about a walk John Muir took on a glacier, accompanied by a small spitz type "lap dog" named Stickeen. Muir was on an exploratory expedition and had been advised not to bring the little dog along, as it was considered by others a "worthless" animal. The tough little dog certainly kept to himself, wandering in the woods and catching up to their boat at the very last minute. He was nothing special to Muir until the day they explored the glacier.

I have long admired Muir's conservation efforts in helping establish our national parks, but I had no idea he was such an intrepid, adventuresome and daring man. He deliberately walked out onto this glacier in the middle of a raging storm, just for the thrill! went on through wind and driving snow with only the dog as companion, no ropes or special shoes or any other tool than a hatchet it seems. Jumping crevices and nearly getting lost. In the end to make it back to camp, he had to cross a narrow bridge of ice over a deep crevasse and the dog was barely able to follow. It was in the moment of seeing the dog's terror at crossing the bridge, and its delirious joy at making the hazardous crossing safely, that Muir realized that Stickeen had more emotion and intelligence in his little furry head than he ever let on. (At the time animals were considered automatons of instinct by most scientists, so this revelation into the dog's emotional state felt groundbreaking to Muir). The dog was ever after devoted to him. Sadly, it was stolen from their company shortly after the expedition and he never heard of it again.

I was shocked to read of the dangers Muir faced on the glacier just for the thrill of it. I am astonished they got out of there alive. The writing is wonderfully descriptive, the personality and deportment of the bold little dog vividly drawn. It's an amazing piece of writing that anyone who enjoys outdoor adventures or who loves dogs might enjoy. The afterward of the particular copy I read has a timeline highlighting key events in Muir's life, which opened my eyes to what an incredible individual he was.

Borrowed from my sister.

Rating: 4/5              73 pages, 1916

A High Wind in Jamaica

by Richard Hughes

- there are some spoilers in this review -

I found this story curious, amusing and baffling at the same time. It's about five English kids who have been raised in Jamaica at the end of colonialism. Their parents' estates collapse when a hurricane basically levels the island, and the kids are shipped off to England for safety. The ship doesn't get far when it is set upon by pirates, and the children get transferred to the pirate ship. The adults on the orignal boat think them killed, the pirates make off with their loot and then don't know what to do with the kids. They try to offload them on another island, and fail. They take them along criss-crossing the Carribean in a desultory way (piracy being a faltering occupation at the very end of its heyday) and rather ignore their presence unless forced to deal with them. So the children are more or less left to their own devices on board. Someone else said the book was like a mix of Lord of the Flies with Peter Pan or Treasure Island- I'd concur.

The story is mostly concerned with the inner lives of children- and how different it is from adults' reasoning. The children unquestioningly accept their change in circumstances and adapt, even developing an affection for the pirates they now live among. Not so many horrid things occur as you might think- although what events do turn, are awful enough- however seen through a hazy uncomprehending screen of the childrens' viewpoint most of the time. The oldest girl may have been raped by one of the pirates, that is never made clear. Another girl kills a man the pirates had taken prisoner, in a fit of pure terror. There's a monkey with a gangrenous tail, a girl who makes dolls out of every ragtag bit of paraphernalia on board, a boy who unthinkingly imitates and idolizes the pirates. (There's a significant scene near the beginning that takes place in an old elevated warehouse, with a beam and tackle for raising cargo. I actually saw for the first time myself these hooks on the outside of upper stories of buldings during a brief stop in Amsterdam last year, but never encountered them in fiction until I read Heartsease. Now I can actually picture the situation, where before seeing those buildings it would have been harder to imagine.) There's also a very sad scene where the pirates run down a ship that happens to carry wildlife as cargo, for a circus. The tiger and lion were released from their cages in hopes of a fight, but there was no spectacle- the animals were so emaciated and sick from sea travel that they only wanted to crawl back into their cages, and just lashed out at people when they came too near...

Most of it though is about the strange dreamlike inner world the children inhabit (for one in particular, Emily, it shows her sudden self-realization quite distinctly.) Their games and small bitter quarrels, their quirky logic and fierce battles for attention. Eventually the children's presence becomes a hindrance to the pirates, who determine to be rid of them- but in a humane way if they can. The fragmented way in which the kids answer questions after they leave the pirate ship, mis-remembering certain incidents, entirely forgetting others, fixating on small details that don't seem relevant- that appeared quite accurate to me. There's a terrible ironic twist at the end. The whole story is so odd and uneven, yet brilliant in its depiction of the kids in a rough situation. I had a hard time getting through it and at the same time can't stop thinking about it. I'm not sure if I really like it, but it's one I want to re-read later and see what I think again.

Rating: 3/5           241 pages, 1929

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The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag

by Jim Corbett

I'd been on the lookout for another Corbett book, because his one about the man-eating tigers in India was so interesting. This volume, about a notorious leopard he strove to track down, was rather dry in style but I kept going back to it regardless. Corbett relates how he was summoned to hunt down a man-eating leopard that terrorized villages near Rudraprayag. He surmises what makes a leopard habitually prey on man (old age, serious injury, or learning humans can be a food source when bodies are dumped over a cliff instead of properly buried during a disease epidemic). His account is one long list of failures- following every little rumor of a kill, sitting up for the leopard over a body, staking out goats in hopes the leopard would come to it (it still fed on cattle and goats when couldn't get a person), setting out poisoned bait and careful traps many times over. I was puzzled why he repeatedly claimed leopards were easy to hunt as they had no sense of smell (what?) yet the big cat neatly eluded him over and over. He did kill two leopards that were in the vicinity but knew by the details of tracks and behavior patterns it wasn't the right leopard. It took eight years of tracking, stakeouts and numerous attempts before he had success. With several breaks to rest and avoid getting killed himself, when fatigue set in and he feared would let his guard down. Through the story are some details about life in rural India, the superstitions of the local people (many believed the leopard was an evil spirit, impossible to kill), their abject terror of the beast, their profuse gratitude when the leopard was finally done in. Also, very similar to the other book, some interesting notes on other wildlife in the area, and how Corbett's observation of their behavior helped him track the leopard.

Rating: 3/5               164 pages, 1947

In Africa with Schweitzer

by Dr. Edgar Berman

I knew very little about Albert Schweitzer before picking up this memoir at The Book Thing out of curiosity. Schweitzer was a brilliant philosopher, theologian and a virtuoso on the organ. His great loves were writing, studying religion and music. As far as I understand it, he was Lutheran and wished to travel to then-French colonized Africa to preach to the natives, but the church declined to send him because his historical studies of the life of Jesus were considered heretical. So at the age of thirty he took a three-year course at a medical school and then went to Gabon to set up a hospital in the jungle on the edge of a river. There was no other medical care available in the area at the time, people would travel from hundreds of miles away. Schweitzer treated the impoverished native people for myriad diseases and injuries, in appallingly primitive conditions, while indulging in his desire to preach the gospel (his view of it, over the supper table more or less) to them. Schweitzer received the Nobel Prize in 1953 for his humanitarian work. He used the money to build a sanatorium for lepers on his hospital grounds. He ran his hospital, living in rough conditions without electricity and many other conveniences, for some fifty years.

Anyway, this book was written by a surgeon who deliberately volunteered to go work at the hospital in Gabon because he wished to get to know the famous man, and question him personally about his views. He was honest about his intentions and Schweitzer reportedly said well, if you work hard and prove yourself, we'll get to know each other. So part of the book is about conditions in the hospital, how the local people were treated, how the staff was managed, certain medical cases and surgeries the author assisted at or performed himself. The rest of it relates the private talks he had with Schweitzer (which some of the staff resented, as they were not on such close terms with the man in spite of having been there much longer, and had to often act as interpreters for these conversations as well). They discussed religion, medicine, music, touched a bit on recent history- the atrocities of WWII were painfully close and that subject often avoided- and especially Schweitzer's personal philosophy of reverence for all life. He had a pet deer, pig, owl and myna bird, and allowed various monkeys, goats and chimpanzees to roam the hospital grounds freely. I liked reading the few descriptions of the animals. One incident where an elderly tribesman brought his wounded, ill dog in for treatment, which Schweitzer took quite seriously, was very touching.

In all, the description of work at the hospital was very interesting, the chapters on philosophy and religion could get tedious- either because they were frankly over my head, or simply outside of my interest. There was an obvious contrast when the author once went downriver to perform an emergency surgery at another small hospital (because its surgeon was drunk, a state he cultivated to forget the horrors he had survived as a prisoner of the Nazis). This other hospital had more modern, pristinely clean facilities which impressed the author, but the surgical tools were so crude he had difficulty performing the operation. After several months spent working at Schweitzer's hospital and living in awe of the man's company, the author returned home, obviously relieved at having modern comforts again. He returned once more to Gabon some twenty years later, after Schweitzer had died and the hospital was run differently, and reflected upon the improvements made, but the loss of "spirit" that had once pervaded the place.

I looked up some stuff after reading this book. The hospital still exists in Gabon, it is now a world heritage site. The original buildings are part of a museum, and newer ones operate as a research and medical facility providing care to the locals.

Rating: 3/5                308 pages, 1986

There's a Rhino in the Rosebed, Mother

by Betty and Jock Leslie-Melville

This is a hilarious, and sometimes sobering, collection of little stories and anecdotes by a couple who ran a private tourist operation in East Africa during the sixties. I've read their book about raising Rothschild giraffe, and apparently they were famous through their other writings because they spent half the year touring in America, giving talks about their life in Kenya and drumming up business, the other half of the year taking people on safari.  The book has kind of an odd beginning- it pitches almost immediately into anecdotal stories about traveling around the States, getting into odd, amusing mishaps. Other parts have just as amusing snippets about their dealings with safari guests, and what life was like in remote, rural Africa. And their complaints about how things changed as it became modernized. The book is solidly placed in its time. Diane Fossey was still alive. There's mention of the Adamsons filming stories of their lions, and of Zamba as well. African countries were just gaining their independence from colonialism; in fact several of the final chapters went into great depth about the horrors of apartheid and the "terrorists" in Rhodesia, which gave a different view on the local situation as described in Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight. There is not a lot about wildlife, something I missed as I rather expected it from what I remembered of another book they'd written. In spite of that I found this one quite entertaining with its sometimes insightful look at people just being people. The friendly, down-to-earth tone reminds me of Betty MacDonald. Of all the many quirky little incidents related, I think my favorite is the one about a man who encountered a chicken in the outhouse, and thought it was a snake. In spite of his misfortune, I laughed so hard.

Rating: 3/5           253 pages, 1973

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight

An African Childhood
by Alexandra Fuller

Memoir of the author's childhood in Africa - she grew up on various farms in Rhodesia, Malawi and Zimbabwe, during and just after the Rhodesian war for independence. It was a rough childhood to say the least. Her family was always struggling on poor land, whether it was for cattle ranching or raising tobacco. Drought, disease and violence were common. Her mother was a drunk, to put it mildly, and struggled with mental instability after loosing three of her children when they were very young. The author describes all the struggles they had with poverty, and then the moment of revelation when, as an older child, she finally stepped into the home of an African for the first time, and realized there was another level of deprivation altogether. All the details of growing up, with correspondence lessons and then boarding school, with treks into the bush and picnics on lake shores, with hyenas whooping at night and dogs forever crowded under their feet. Endless teasing from her older sister, casual racism towards servants and nannies. Bad roads, poor medical care, soldiers and checkpoints wherever they went. Blackouts, frequent power failures, unclean water, you name it. Came through it all with a fierce love for the country, which stayed with her, even after living in America later when she became married. Not much wildlife mentioned in the story- well, aside from snakes, rumors of leopards and baboons that lurk near. Mostly it's about the vast land, the people, the political upheaval and what it was like to live through all that as a kid. Reminiscent of The Flame Trees of Thika, and also in some ways Rules of the Wild.

Rating: 3/5                  315 pages, 2013

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Salvage the Bones

by Jesmyn Ward

This is sad, brutal and touching. It's about a poor family on the Mississippi coast, facing the oncoming terror of hurricane Katrina unawares. Well, they've had warnings. They prepare as they have always done, for hurricanes. This one is different. Without a mother, with their father injured, ill and abed. One son preoccupied with basketball, another keenly focused on his treasured pit bull who just birthed puppies and is also lined up for a fight. The daughter, through whose eyes we see all, has just realized she's pregnant. They don't seem particularly tender or supportive to one another, but cling together fiercely when facing the dire hurricane. The book has so many heavy themes: poverty and racism, dogfighting, teen pregnancy, the kids growing up pretty much on their own, older ones still keenly missing their mother and trying to raise the youngest. There's also some very poetic and vivid prose, which led me to read it all the way through, in spite of the times when you'd want to look away.

Just so you know, there is brutality towards dogs, and to people. There is death. Katrina is a looming presence all through the book, but the actual storm doesn't happen until the final two chapters. The aftermath is very brief, with the survivors going through the wreckage and finding who is still alive. Then it ends and you don't even know what happened to all the characters, particularly the one I was most interested in... it has a hopeful note, but still, you don't know.

Rating: 3/5                      271 pages, 2011

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Menagerie Manor

by Gerald Durrell

This wonderful book is about a young zoo. Durrell was determined to start his own zoo against all odds; he parked his collection of wild animals in his sister's back garden and simply went looking for a location. Happily acquired the grounds of an expansive estate to convert into his zoo. Some of the book is about the management, brief purchasing trips to foreign countries, public relation efforts and necessary fund-raising. But most of it is just about the animals, which delights me. Durrell describes with obvious fondness the antics and behavioral quirks of many of his wild charges, as well as their efforts to provide the proper diet, improve housing, treat diseases, deal with accidents and breed rare species. There's an amusing account of trying to catch a tapir that escaped and rampaged through a neighbor's fields (at night, in a rainstorm), and another of baby coatis that constantly squeezed out of their cage to romp on the main driveway, and a funny bird that seemed to think its role in the zoo was to welcome every new animal that arrived (a few of them did not appreciate its company). Some of the more interesting animals featured include a spectacled bear, a pair of tuatara, surinam toads, a very grumpy crested porcupine, some wonderfully amusing marmosets and a wide variety of apes, monkeys and smaller primates. A chinchilla that liked to ride on the backs of giant tortoises and steal their food. An overweight skunk who needed a mate to encourage her to get enough exercise. And more. Near the end of the book Durrell realizes that the zoo's purpose should be to keep more rare specimens and attempt to breed them to aid conservation efforts, and he closes with an environmental appeal in particular asking for donations to further the zoo's cause and hopefully slow the extinction rate of wildlife.

As usual, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the animals' behavior, and efforts made with their care and husbandry. There's plenty of very amusing passages as well which had me laughing aloud. Durrell has a real knack for telling a story. The book has some beautifully expressive pen-and-ink drawings by Ralph Thompson illustrating nearly every other page. I love that so many were included, and found through one of the descriptions that the artist made at least some of these drawings (perhaps all?) from life, which you can tell by their liveliness and quality.

Rating: 4/5                 180 pages, 1964

El Zoo Petrificado

Los Diarios de Cereza
by Joris Chamblain

I bought this book while traveling, because the illustratons intrigued me so much. It's the first book I've ever read in Spanish and actually enjoyed, rather than struggling to translate every sentence. I did have to look up quite a few words, but not enough to slow me down. The original is in French.

It's about a young girl Cereza who dreams of being a writer and likes to imagine other people's secrets. She's busy decorating a tree house with her friends when they notice an old man come out of the woods in paint-splattered clothes. They're nervous and go home. Cereza comes back later on her own and sees the old man again. She decides to follow him and see what he's doing. Without telling her friends and lying to her mom, by the way.

- spoilers ahead -

He's painting scenes of animals on the walls of a derelict, abandoned zoo in the forest. Cereza decides to help him and gets her friends and other kids involved in cleaning up the old zoo grounds. Eventually they get some adults of the town involved as well to make major repairs. Delightfully, the artist not only paints animals on the walls, he renews the paintings periodically to make it look like the animals are feeding, new young are born and grow up, etc. It's a constantly evolving art form. Cereza convinces him to let the town see, and they open the doors to visitors, bringing memories alive for many of the older citizens and recognition to the old man for his art. The front and end pages of the book are like a diary (in a hard-to-read handwriting font) and some of the later pages are news articles about the revitalized zoo in its new format, and criticism/praise of the old man's art. These articles with more formal language was the most difficult for me to read.

- end spoilers -

The story is a nice tidy mystery, and in spite of some flaws (dishonestly, ignoring and criticizing her friends) I rather liked Cereza's character. At the end of the book she determines to find a way to talk more openly with her mother, but isn't quite there yet. While a big part of it is about friendship and acceptance, I admit I liked best the parts about the old man's secret work. I'm reading this book aloud a second time round with my teen, so she can practice her Spanish, and she's quite enjoying it as well.

Rating: 4/5             72 pages, 2017

Herbs

Exciting Recipes for Cooking with Herbs
by Linda Tubby

I have so many cookbooks, and I rarely use them. Attempting to change that. This book delighted me with its absolutely beautiful photos of live plants and fantastic-looking plated dishes. They are a bit sophisticated for my regular kitchen pantry, but the author helpfully mentions what substitutions can be made, if you can't find a particular ingredient. Which is nice because she uses a lot of uncommon items like shiso leaves and fenugreek (at least, they're unfamiliar to me). The intro portion of the book has some basics on selecting fresh herbs or growing them yourself, and methods of  preserving them. The list of plants tells a bit of interesting facts about each one- where it originated or something of its historically medicinal and culinary use. It has me curious to try a few new things in my garden: lovage, winter savory, tansy. The recipes are sorted into groupings: appetizers, soups and salads, light brunch/lunch dishes, full entrees, vegetable courses, pastas and breads, desserts. Final pages include how to infuse olive oil and vinegars with herbs, make candied flowers, tisanes, syrups and flavored drinks. I am encouraged to try!

The stretched pasta with herbs pressed between thin layers and then quickly cooked, has me super intrigued. It's pictured all over the endpapers- see below.* Unfortunately, I don't have a pasta machine. I did make the salmon and new potatoes dish, with dill. It was pretty good, but not spectacular. However I used dried instead of fresh dill, and fresh instead of smoked salmon. Definitely going to make more recipes from this book. Especially in the summer, when I have fresh flavors at hand out in the garden.

* photos coming soon

Rating: 4/5               144 pages, 2004

A Horse Called Dragon

by Lynn Hall

Another older horse story, one I'm sure I must have read as a kid, borrowed from my elementary school library. It's a fictional account of a real horse, an Appaloosa mustang from the Sierra Madre mountains in Michoacán. Who was caught and brought into captivity to become a founding sire of the POA breed. This little book tells of his early life, years as a stallion defending his band, modes of survival. His capture and slow adjustment to a new way of life (the mares tamed pretty quickly in this story, which I found amusingly implausible but oh well).  For such a short book, it's a surprisingly satisfying read. Very well-written. I like how it shows things from the stallion's viewpoint- what he would have understood, his reactions and decisions according to various circumstances. There's vampire bats in this book too, which feed on the horses at night and sometimes endanger the newborn foals. In that area of Mexico the bats are still a common threat to livestock.

Rating: 3/5                96 pages, 1971

Midnight

Wild Stallion of the West
by Rutherford Montgomery

An older book I picked up secondhand somewhere. It's about horses that live on a cattle range in the southwest. In particular, one fine black mare owned by the ranch but allowed to run free on the range and an old squatter living in a cabin in the high country who admires her. The mare sometimes mixes with a band of wild horses. When she goes missing the squatter is accused of stealing her. Things happen, the mare goes off on her own and raises a colt in seclusion. Later the mare dies and the young horse grows up on his own, eventually challenging the stallion of the wild band, drawing attention of a ranch hand who recognizes he must be the offspring of the missing mare. This guy determines that catching the young stallion and showing it to the ranch owner will exonerate the squatter- plus acquiring himself a fine horse. His plan to catch the wild black horse does not turn out so easily.

I was skeptical of this story at first, but it turned out to be pretty good in the end. While it has a lot of vivid descriptions of the scenery, weather and interactions of various wildlife, much of the animal behavior is exaggerated or downright inaccurate and had me rolling my eyes. For example, wolves don't hamstring their prey, and the mating behavior of bears described in here made me laugh outright, it was so ludicrous. It's obviously written to be exciting for young readers, with a lot of vicious battles between wild animals for survival, and sensational scenes. The young black horse fights off (at different times) wolves, cougars and a bald eagle, survives an encounter with a bear, and battles another stallion on the edge of a cliff. But then many depictions of how the wild horses live, elk in the rutting season, mule deer interacting with the mare and her colt, are very nicely done. I really found the final third of the book more interesting, when the young stallion had taken over the band but obviously did not know how to lead the mares, and had to face his human opponent.

I happened to like the ending, particularly because it had some unexpected outcomes.

Rating: 3/5                 274 pages, 1940

Winter Pony

by Jean Slaughter Doty

I wanted this book because it's a sequel to Summer Pony- one I loved reading many times over as a child. I haven't written about the first book yet- last time I read it was long before I started blogging. Basically it's about a girl who gets her dream pony- which turns out to be an unkempt mare from a rundown pony-ride circle. Keeping Mokey is more hard work than she ever thought.

Winter Pony takes place after Ginny has learned more or less how to care for her pony through the summer, and made a small space for it in the backyard. She's looking forward to riding in the snow, especially when she finds out her friend's dad has an old (but well-kept) sleigh in storage. With the help and close tutelage of the stable hand (a guy who used to race in steeplechases, had to retire after an injury and now works in the stable- familiar character from other horse stories I think) she learns to harness Mokey to the sleigh and how to drive her pony. It is a very long process and Ginny often gets impatient. Finally they are able to ride in the sleigh, driving Mokey in circles around the property and across nearby fields.Then one day when they are unsupervised, the girls unwisely take the pony driving on a road and have a very close call with a snowplow.

That's the entire first half of the story. The second part is about Ginny's shock and delight when she finds out her pony is expecting a foal. She endures a long anxious time waiting for the foal to be born, and then is appalled when her pony doesn't react in a loving manner to the newborn. Once again the stable man teaches- coaxing the pony to accept her offspring, and instructing Ginny how to care for them both.

It's a nice horse story for kids, but somehow is rather lackluster compared to the first book. And mine seems to end abruptly, when Ginny happily goes to the house to get some carrots for her pony soon after the foaling. There are no endpapers, so I'm not sure if my book is actually missing a few pages, or if it ends just so! I'll have to find a library copy and check.

Rating: 2/5      106 pages, 1975

The Crumb

by Jean Slaughter Doty

A horse story about show jumping. The young girl who narrates it has a scruffy pony she keeps in her backyard. She needs to buy her pony a new winter blanket, so takes a job at a nearby stable where more well-to-do kids have riding lessons. The stable owner is so impressed, she's allowed to bring her pony to work, and goes along to horse shows as an assistant. Where she ogles the beautiful, famous horses owned by wealthy folks, listens in on gossip, and finds out about a scandal revolving around some rich stable owner who discards horses by dishonest means, to collect insurance money. The girl inadvertently gets way too involved, and results are devastating for her. Honestly I was shocked when the tragic event occurred only two-thirds through the book. I wondered what could transpire afterward, but it had a tidy ending- a tad predictable, but overall I was impressed how the author dropped hints, subtly allowing the reader to figure out what really happened. Nice story. And very horsey. I don't know how accurate the details are about training methods, show conditions, shady means used to improve a horse's performance, etc- but it felt very realistic. Grimy underside to a world full of girls who love horses, and wealthy folks who want to show off with them.

Rating: 3/5         122 pages, 1976

Heartsease

by Peter Dickinson

This is the sequel to The Devil's Children, and I'm glad to say the story more or less stands on its own. It's set five years after the Changes which made people in England revolt against technology (some kind of mental sickness) and flee the cities, living in small villages and farming communities while deliberating avoiding modern conveniences. A man from America (unaffected by the Change) who arrived on foreign shores to find out what is going on in England is attacked and stoned for being a "witch". Two young people rescue him in secret. He's severely injured but they hide him in a shed and nurse him back to health with rough care. The kids are gradually becoming disaffected by the Change- the girl Margaret still feels uneasy around machinery but is curiously compelled to visit the empty city and explore. The boy on the farm, Jonathan, is intrigued by machines and good at figuring out how they work. Together they form a plan to get the injured man out of the country. It involves Jonathan manning an old tugboat through the canals while Margaret rides ahead on her pony to open bridges. It has to be secret because the locals are highly suspicious of anything unusual; even their maid's brother Tim, a gentle man with mental disabilities, is at risk of being called a witch and killed by the community simply because he is different. The plot of the rescue mission is really straightforward, what makes this book so much better is how well its characters are written. Jonthan is quick of mind and keen about solving problems, yet totally callous and dismissive of animals- when a pony balks at getting aboard the tug he just says "I hate horses" in disgust. Margaret for her part finds anything remotely mechanical confusing and avoids being around it, but is remarkably patient with the ponies and understands their behavior and needs very well. She's also pretty brave- getting chased by a pack of feral dogs, and baiting an aggressive bull as a diversion during the getaway. They make an interesting contrast and a good team. Too bad there wasn't more of the other characters in the story- the foreigner, the maid and her brother Tim are all interesting people as well. but play minor roles. It was a pretty good read. A few times it seemed like the kids made remarkably complex plans or conveniently drew overly quick conclusions, but I took it in stride to enjoy the story. The ending surprised me somewhat.

Rating: 3/5          189 pages, 1969

The Devil's Children

by Peter Dickinson

This one was a bit odd. It's apocalyptic fiction where humanity is seized by some kind of mass infectious horror of machinery. They smash cars and radios, go berserk in riots against technology and then flee cities en masse. Disease plagues spread and society breaks down with small groups of people surviving in isolation, wary of outsiders.

However most of the book isn't actually about that- it's only described briefly in the forward and epilogue, with a few instances where the main character herself is seized by a mindless urge of violence when she sees someone try to start a bus, for example, or hears someone talk about farm equipment or radios by name. She's ten or twelve, I was never sure of the age, and lost her family in a riot. She attaches herself to a travelling group of Indian Sikhs, originally immigrants. For some strange reason people of other nationalities were not affected by the madness against machines, only the English. The Sikhs let her join them as a kind of insurance, they call her their "canary" because she can tell them what kind of actions or conversation will trigger the rage of their English neighbors. They set up a community on abandoned farmland but then have to deal with nearby English group who have formed themselves into a feudal system. These neighbors are suspicious and afraid of the Sikhs, even rumoring them to be Old Ones or Fae. Most of the story is about the girl's adjustment to living among people foreign to her- I'm not sure how accurately it describes Sikh culture but it depicted them as very honorable and relatively proud people. In the later part of the book, the girl takes a key role in their dealings with the English group, being a go-between and carrying messages, then later forming key strategies when it ends up in a battle. It seemed a bit improbable that a young kid would have such a leading role in strategies against the enemy, but what do I know. However I was doubtful enough that it kind of flattened my enjoyment of the story.

I got this book on swap because I acquired its sequel at a hotel, and wanted to read the series in order. Turns out this one was rather lackluster for me, but luckily the second one seems to stand on its own and I'm already enjoying it more.

Nothing to do with the story itself, but I did really like the decoration on the cover and chapter headings, which has a medieval or celtic-looking pattern intertwining with gear cogs.

Rating: 2/5          187 pages, 1970

The Complete Book of African Violets

by Helen van Pelt Wilson

This is an older book about the specific cultivation of african violets as houseplants, written when they were new on the scene and wildly popular. It is easy to read having a friendly style, and quite informative in spite of its age. I learned for example, that foliage isn't necessarily damaged by water contact- only if it is a lot colder in temperature and of course keep it out of the crown. In fact this book recommends regularly rinsing leaves off with light spray, to keep clean of dust. I didn't know that violets could be grown hydroponically, nor that propagation can be taken from the same individual leaf multiple times by restarting each instant the new young plant is cut free of the petiole. The care instructions are very thorough, but I would look for modern methods of pest control. The chemicals and pesticides the author recommends sound downright dangerous. There are chapters explaining how to share plants and leaf cuttings through the mail, how to grow violets commercially in greenhouses, how to conduct judged violet shows, and the difficulties of describing and naming new varieites. Illustrations in linework are quiet nice and have a lovely detailed texture of fuzziness on the leaves. The actual color photographs are amusingly quaint. I'm keeping this one around, and am now perhaps interested in acquiring a few more african violets myself. (I only have two right now, but am awful fond of them).

Rating: 4/5       247 pages, 1951

On the Wing

To the Edge of the Earth with the Peregrine Falcon
by Alan Tennant

After reading Peregrine Spring, I looked among my own shelves for some more falconry-related titles. I thought this one looked promising, in fact I had two copies of it among my unread-books, one picked up at a library sale and the other from The Book Thing. I guess it caught my eye twice for the same reason. It's written by a man who sometime in the eighties or nineties (my best guess) became suddenly gripped by the idea of following an individual peregrine falcon on its migration jouney- not just mapping its path on a screen via radio-tracking, but physically trailing it in a light aircraft. It sounds intriguing, especially for the time when little was known about peregrines, their exact routes and how juveniles fared on their first migration. But something about the book didn't quite work for me. The way the author apparently appropriated others' equipment for his un-sanctioned study kind of put me off. I thought the descriptions of flight in a small plane -akin to Saint-Exuprey's writing- would interest me, but it didn't. And actual descriptions of the birds are few and far between. They did learn some new things about how peregrines respond to certain weather patterns and their hunting styles, and there are some good observations from nesting sites in the arctic. Unfortunately most of the book seems to be about the travels, difficulties getting around regulations, encounters with loads of strangers, and effects of man on the environment -noticeable from the air- where the writing style just did not engage me. I found myself skipping around a lot to read the parts that actually described the peregrines. I probably missed a lot in the process and this is one case where I'm rather disappointed in myself for not appreciating a book properly.

Rating: 2/5          304 pages, 2004

Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat

A Calvin and Hobbes Collection
by Bill Watterson

I lingered over this one because it's the last of my Calvin and Hobbes books until I find a few more volumes. More nostalgic stuff of childhood: decoding secret messages, imagining grand schemes. First half is a lot of christmas glory and social commentary (or criticism of his parents) presented in snowman artwork. Calvin's dad shows himself to be an avid cyclist and takes the family camping- which both Calvin and his mom resent. The kid for his part gets regular thrills careening down slopes on a sled in winter, in a red wagon during the warm months. I cracked a smile at how Susie the girl-next-door calmly thwarts his plans to clobber her with snowballs, water balloons or some other kind of ambush. Their attempts to "play house" together, shown in a different comic art style, are hilarious. The larger horizontal format does make this book awkward to handle in softcover and I don't know if it adds much to appreciating the artwork as there are rather wide page margins.

Rating: 3/5         175 pages, 1994

The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes

A Calvin and Hobbes Treasury 
by Bill Watterson

I thoroughly enjoyed reading more Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin speculates on the realities of Santa Claus, makes terrible faces for family photos, resists bathtime, fights the babysitter, teases the girl next door mercilessly, procrastinates doing homework, imagines he's saving the world from distasters with superpowers, or rampaging around as a dinosaur, and argues with his more level-headed best friend tiger Hobbes. I laughed through many pages. I had forgotten the episode where the family's house got broken into. In this volume he starts his club against "slimy girls" and makes his cardboard-box duplicator. Yeah, second half of the book was suddenly a repeat-read for me that I skipped over: it's the entire contents of Scientific Progress Goes "Boink". With the improvement that this volume has all the weekend strips in full color. So now I know which one is immediately getting weeded from my collection as a redundancy.

Rating: 3/5         255 pages, 1992

Peregrine Spring

A Master Falconer's Extraordinary Life with Birds of Prey
by Nancy Cowan

The more I read about falconry, the more it fascinates me. This was one of those books that engaged me so much, I just couldn't read it fast enough. The author and her husband keep and fly birds of prey. Through this book Cowan shares many of her experiences with a variety of hawks and falcons. I learned so much about them. How they are raised, trained, rehabilitated, the differences between flying a hawk and a falcon. It was also really interesting to me how dinstinctly the birds behaved towards people according to their origins- those that were caught from the wild, born in captivity but hand-reared by humans, bred and raised by their own parents, or older trained birds transferred to a new handler, all so different. Each bird had its individual traits which required close observation and fine-tuned response by the handler. Cowan explains the birds are not pets but hunting partners. Some of them they hunt in partnership with bird dogs, that was really cool to read about. She and her husband worked for over a year with legislation to establish falconry as a legal sport in New Hampshire when they moved there, so they could fly their birds. Later she worked again through a lot of legal forms to apply for a rehabilitation license, to take in an injured bird of prey that would benefit from being flown by a falconer. She and her husband established a school of falconry, and spent many hours as volunteers conducting demonstrations and outreach programs to teach children and the public about the birds. So many stories, so many details. One very interesting chapter about efforts to relocate peregrine chicks to a new nest site that was safer (the parent birds had laid their eggs on a very narrow skyscraper window ledge). Sometimes close calls and near-accidents; injuries, lost birds, occasionally death. But the thrills and fierce joy all worth it. If I ever have chance to observe a flight demonstration again, I will watch more closely to see if I can note some of the behaviors and responses described to me in this book. I'd hope to understand a little better what I see, from what I have read of others' understanding.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 4/5         265 pages, 2016

Easy-Care Guide to Houseplants

by Jack Kramer

Like any other book on plants, this one goes over the basics of selecting healthy plants, situating them in the correct location in your home, general care in terms of feeding, watering, pest and disease control (non-toxic methods emphasized), very basic soil mixes and propagation. There's also an entire chapter about how to choose plants that look nice in the room- complementing decor and using design principles. A lot of it was repetitive information for me, but I did appreciate the diagrams on how to hang plants with proper support, and how to build a simple rack for grow lights. The second half of the book is species profiles, arranged by families (I didn't know that my foxtail fern is in the lily family! or that coleus are also called "painted nettle"). I was hoping to find some specific instructions on a few plants I've struggled with- but the info here was very general. The best I can figure is that my boston fern simply needs repotting with fresh soil every season. This book says that orchids are easy, but I've killed every one I had. In one case I found a picture that seemed mislabeled. African violets were on the same spread; this picture looks just like another kind of African violet to me.

And my mother used to grow primroses, they have different kind of leaves. Which makes me wonder if there are more errors. Because I was happy to learn the names of many common foliage houseplants I see all the time- but now I don't know if they're all accurate in here. For example, this photo looks just like a plant my daughter recently bought (sans flowers), which was only labeled as "foliage plant" so I didn't know its name. I look up Medinilla and I think it's the same plant but she's doubtful.

I do have to say, the photographs in here are all excellent quality. Very nice-looking lush plants, quite a few I'd like to add to my own collection now. I found this book at a library discard sale.

Rating: 3/5         192  pages, 1999

it's time for one of these posts again

at my public library:
Alone on the Ice by David Roberts- Caroline Bookbinder
Secret of Nightingale Wood by Lucy Strange - Bookfool
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui - Bermudaonion's Weblog
The Butchering Art by Lindsay Fitzharris- Caroline Bookbinder
Starfish by Akemi Bowman- Reading the End
World Without Mind by Franklin Foer- Across the Page
Dear Farenheit 451 by Annie Spence- Musings of a Bookish Kitty
Spinning by Tillie Walden- Caroline Bookbinder
Spliced by Jonathan McGoran- Melody's Reading Corner
Quackery by Lydia Kang- Bookfool
The Life of Buzzards by P.J. Dare
Mindblind by Jennifer Roy- James Reads Books
What Made Maddy Run by Kate Fagan- Bermudaonion's Weblog
A Sting in the Tale by Dave Goulson
A Buzz in the Meadow by Dave Goulson
The Shuttle by Frances Hodgson Burnett- Shelf Love
Mini Aquariums by David Boruchowitz
Browsings by Michael Dirda- Captive Reader
Rescue Road by Peter Zheutlin
The Life of Mammals by David Attenborough
The Possibility Dogs by Susannah Charleson
The Arrangement by Sarah Dunn- Melody's Reading Corner
Wild Bird by Wendelin van Draanen - It's All About Books
The Most Perfect Thing by Tim Birkhead
Achtung Baby by Sarah Zaske- Caroline Bookbinder
The Daily Coyote by Shreve Stockton
One Wild Bird at a Time by Bernd Heinrich
Wallace by Jim Gorant
A False Report by Christian Miller- Bermudaonion's Weblog
Crows: Encounters with the Wise Guys by Candace Savage- Indextrious Reader

not at the library:
Anna by Niccolò Ammaniti- Farm Lane Books Blog

Portage by Sue Leaf- Sophisticated Dorkiness

MIS(H)ADRA by Iasmin Omar Ata- Bermudaonion's Weblog

The Breathless Zoo by Rachel Poliquin
It's Just Nerves by Kelly Davio- Diary of an Eccentric
Heirs of Columbus by Gerald Vizenor- Shelf Love
More Was Lost by Eleanor Perenyi - Bookfool

Multiple Choice by Janet Tasjian- James Reads Books
Woolgrower's Companion by Joy Rhoades- A Work in Progress
Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky- Thistle-Chaser
Walkabout by James Vance Marshall- Bookfool
Boy at the End of the World by Greg van Eekhout- Thistle-Chaser
The Rat by G. M. A. Hewett- Neglected Books Page

Houseplants by Lisa Eldred Steinkopf- Commonweeder
They Never Talk Back by Henry Trefflich

Saber-Tooth by Lou Cadle- Thistle-Chaser
I Loved Rogues by George "Slim" Lewis
Bring 'Em Back Alive by Frank Buck
Wild Tigers and Tame Fleas by Bill Ballantine

Roam Alone edited by Jennifer Barclay and Hilary Bradt- Captive Reader

Last Chain on Billie

How One Extraordinary Elephant Escaped the Big Top
by Carol Bradley

This book is about how circus elephants have suffered, and the development of a few sanctuaries that seek to give some of them a 'retirement' where they can live in a relatively natural setting for the end of their lives. I thought by the title of this book, it was about one particular elephant. It actually has a much wider span, and in some chapters Billie isn't mentioned at all. The book tells about the early rise of popularity elephants had in circuses, being shown and forced to perform often from a very young age. Lots of circuses vied to be known as having the smallest elephant, so infants were taken from their mothers sometimes just a few weeks old, to be shown off in the ring. Often forced to do tricks. The rest of the time usually chained in one spot. Needless to say, the book has a lot of details on animal neglect and abuse, on the emotional damage that elephants appear to suffer when being mistreated for such long periods of time. Many of them end up emotionally unstable with unpredictable behvior.

The book chronicles how circuses fared over the past decades, pressure to travel frequently with long hours on the road, to have the most impressive shows with the newest tricks, to show the most exotic or spectacular things in order to draw in crowds- and how all this was deleterious for the animals. It is a long list of disasters that happen when elephants strike out in torment or rage, and terribly sad stories of those who died from illness or being kept in poor conditions. To be fair, the book quotes many circus performers and trainers who claimed their methods were the only way to keep elephants in control, who said that circus animals experienced more stimulation having things to learn, compared to zoo elephants that just stood around all day. Lots of court cases brought against circus owners and trainers for animal abuse are cited- those details sometimes made my head swim. In the end, there is a very positive note when the chapters start describing how a number of elephants were taken from the circus (or in a few cases, a zoo that couldn't keep them properly) and placed in sanctuaries. How the sanctuaries worked to give the elephants space to engage in normal behavior and proper medical care. Some of them were not curable. Some took years to overcome their fears and violent tendencies. Very touching is the final scene where Billie finally allowed a caretaker to approach close enough to cut off the chain that had remained around her ankle for so long.

A lot of the details in this book were not new to me, having read other titles about the subject before. But the countless stories of baby elephants forcibly separated from their mothers, of adults dying at a relatively young age after years of being beaten, starved, suffering from wounds and infected feet- well it can be very hard to read. There is a lot of death in this book. Not just elephants. People killed by them. Tigers and other exotic animals that also suffered in the circus. And yet some trainers say they did their best by the animals. I can't buy that line anymore.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 3/5          320 pages, 2014

A Zoo for All Seasons

The Smithsonian Animal World
senior editor Russell Bourne

It starts with a narrative story- curiously, the only section of the entire book illustrated with pen-and-ink drawings, the rest has photographs. The opening chapter tells of efforts to breed an orangutan at the zoo, the decision keepers made to separate the orang infant from its mother when it developed an infection, and the anxious period spent trying to save its life with veterinary care that was rudimentary compared to technology of today. The rest of the book is more general in nature. Chapter subjects vary: a history of zoos in general, from menageries kept by royalty in the past to the beginnings of modern zoos, in particular the National Zoo, and its connection with the Smithsonian Institution. How the zoo manages its space and visitors, the balance between scientific inquiry and pleasing the public (whose entry fees contribute a lot to funding things), keeping the animals healthy, making enclosures more natural for them, managing breeding operations and gene pools between zoos. The role the zoo has in maintaining species populations- in particular a large breeding ranch it has in Virginia (not open to the public) and advancements that have been made there in breeding rare birds, ungulates and golden marmosets. Conservation, animal husbandry and scientific inquiry seem to be the main three points.

There's also a chapter in the back about studies in the field done by Smithsonian scientists on Asiatic elephants, red howler monkeys, tigers, chipmunks and the tenrec. There's mention of how every single animal that dies in a zoo is autopsied, and what zoo scientists learn from that. Discussion of how local wildlife that enters the zoo (piegons, rats, raccoons,domestic cats, etc) is managed- particularly because of diseases they might introduce to the exotics. Final two chapters highlight numerous other zoos in the country and around the world, pointing out significant advancements or special collections they each have.

I have another book called New Zoo published some ten years after this one, and it's about the very same zoo. I guess it's not surprising as I live relatively close to the National Zoo, that these two titles were among discard copies I picked up somewhere.

Rating: 3/5            192 pages, 1979

Tropical Fish as Pets

by Dr. Herbert R. Axelrod

There are some cases where an old book just shouldn't be around anymore. For once I am really disappointed in one I picked up on swap at whim, and I'm going to recycle it instead of sending out into the world again. In the first place, this isn't really a book. More of a pamphlet. I should have noticed the page count.

In the second place, it's old and outdated enough that some of the instructions, if followed, I'd consider bad advice and poor husbandry practice. It does tell a bit about common, easy plants- elodea, ludwigia, camboba, amazon swords, cryptocoryne, milfoil- but the way this puplication suggests growing them- well, there are much better methods nowadays. I have to say though, the small black-and-white photo of a tank full of crypts, vals and stems is impressive in its plant density. It would look really lush in color. The fishes mentioned are guppies, mollies, swordtails, platies, zebra danios, black tetra, angelfish, betta, pearl danio, firemouth cichlids, corydoras. That's it. Something in one of the fish descriptions made me laugh, but now I can't remember what it was. The details on their keeping is basic at best. I have much better books in terms of fish selection and disease treatment. And when it comes to an interesting look at how things used to be done, or quaint but quality photographs, this little publication just doesn't do it either. Sorry! Bye.

Rating: 1/5          32 pages, 1970

The True Tails of Baker and Taylor

by Jan Louch with Lisa Rogak

Subtitle: the Library Cats Who Left Their Pawprints on a Small Town and the World. I had never heard of Baker and Taylor before, a pair of library cats who became famous (before Dewey). The author, Jan Louch, was recovering from a sudden divorce, having just moved with her two children to a new town to live with her parents. Her love of books carried her through many difficult times. She ended up getting a job at the small local library. When a new building was constructed on what used to be an alfalfa field, she and the library director decided they needed a cat to keep out the mice. After a lot of research she acquired Baker, a scottish fold- the breed was very exotic at the time, and known for their calm, mellow temperament. She named the cat Baker because he liked to sleep in boxes from the library wholesale distributor, Baker & Taylor. Jan really wanted to get a second cat, but it would be a long time to save up for one (all money spent on the cats' upkeep was personal). She mentioned the cat and her plans to someone from the wholesale company, and he offered to buy the library a second cat, if in return the company could photograph the cats for use in promotional materials. The second scottish fold was of course, named Taylor. When the first poster of the two cats came out, it was immediately popular with librarians around the country. The cats were featured on tote bags, in calendars, and even in a mystery novel written by Carole Douglas.

The cats were very popular with most library visitors. Jan shares how they touched the lives of herself and several individual patrons in particular. It's also story about a small town library went through growing pains- the immense amount of work it took to switch over from card catalogs to computers- different challenges the library faced in serving the public over the years as local population grew. It's pretty interesting to read how the fame of the two cats spread in a day and age when social media didn't exist yet. The author saw many fans and tourists come visiting the library just to see Baker and Taylor. She struck up a correspondence with an elementary school teacher whose students formed a fan club, writing to the cats. She helped set up a society among librarians whose libraries also kept cats. It was amusing to read how the cats loved (mostly) the attention from people, but hated their occasional photo shoots. There's a lot of endearing stories in here about the cats' individual personalities and habits.

When they grew elderly and passed away, the cats were missed by many; trees were planted outside the library in their memory. Lots of people kept asking when the library would get new cats, but unfortunately due to some complaints by patrons with severe allergies, the library board voted against them acquiring another cat.

Through the whole book, I really enjoyed how the author's love of books and reading was expressed. She worried near the end, that computers would make librarians' jobs obsolete- people could do their own research online and use self-checkout stations instead of the circulation desk. I'm glad to note that our libraries are still alive and kicking.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 3/5             274 pages, 2016

more opinions:
Lesa's Book Critiques
The Conscious Cat

Scientific Project Goes "Boink"

A Calvin and Hobbes Collection 
by Bill Watterson

Six-year-old Calvin is pretty much a self-centered, lazy, conceited brat of a kid. With violent tendencies. So why does he crack me up so much. I think I enjoyed this volume a little better than the last one, because it had quite a few little story arcs through several strips in a row, presented in sequence. In the last collection it seemed like they were more randomly presented, with gaps. Maybe only favorites were selected for that one? There's also a good sense of time- a big chunk of the book is during winter- seems it's Calvin's favorite season, for the snowball-fight and sledding opportunities. Also he makes some very disturbing "artistic" tableaux with snowmen. I think some of the funniest episodes in here are when Calvin turns a cardboard box into a 'duplicator' and makes copies of himself. He thinks it will get him out of chores and homework, but their troublemaking gets him into trouble. He has more confrontations with the babysitter. His parents ploys to deal with him are pretty amusing too- mom telling him dinner is made of bug parts so he'll want to eat it, for example. His dad's made-up explanations for scientific things- just messing with the kid- are pretty funny too. And it's been so long since I read any of these comics I had completely forgotten a few parts- the one where Calvin and his stuffed tiger play a game of Scrabble made me laugh. I happen to commiserate with his difficulties playing on a baseball team. I was no good at that sport, either.

Rating: 4/5             128 pages, 1991