Higglety Pigglety Pop!

or There Must Be More To Life
by Maruice Sendak

I saw this one browsing in the library and picked it up. I thought I'd read it before, but I must have just seen the final panels reproduced elsewhere- the beginning was more or less unfamiliar to me.

The first part is chapter-book style, with full page illustrations. Jennie, a sealyham terrier, has everything she could want in life but feels unsatisfied so she runs away to find adventure. She wants to have a star role in the theater but needs experience. A passing milkman assumes she is the newest nursemaid for a child in a big house nearby- exclaiming one must need experience for the job- so the dog accepts that and does her best to go make the baby eat her dinner. Instead, it's the dog who is eating tons of stuff on nearly every page! she does land the theater position in the end, and the final pages show the performance- a silly nursery rhyme about a dog eating a mop. Yeah, what?

Some other things are really odd- the dog talks to a plant and eats all its leaves until it can't speak to her anymore (she also later talks to an unhappy tree). The family in the big house moved away, left their baby behind, and then promptly forgot their original address so couldn't return to get her. And they keep a lion in their basement to eat the nursemaids who fail at the job (main requirement is getting the baby to eat). A lot of it is just the kind of ridiculousness and skewed logic a child might employ, but I'm not sure if my kid would find this book amusing, or just plain weird!

Myself, I didn't really care for it in the end. But the illustrations, with their detailed pen-and-ink texture, are lovely. They transcend the story.

Rating: 2/5          70 pages, 1967

Call of the Mild

Learning to Hunt My Own Dinner
by Lily Raff McCaulou

I found this memoir about the author's introduction to hunting as a grown woman thoughtful and heartfelt. She certainly made me question some assumptions I had (prompted by media outrage) about gun ownership in America. A lot of the book is about her family life, and how her job led her to move from big city to semi-rural Oregon where she began to accompany her husband fly-fishing and found she rather enjoyed it. Her interest in learning to observe the river habitat expanded to a curiosity about hunting- would it allow her to see and read the forest in a new way? She had a healthy fear of firearms- in fact never really lost that- but took a beginner's hunter safety course (full of kids) and started by practicing at a shooting range and then hunting birds- pheasant, chukars, ducks, mourning doves, geese. She was fascinated by the role of dogs in hunting groups she went out with- (but the cover image is a bit misleading as her own dog was not a hunting companion). She kept hunting birds but also shot rabbits and eventually worked up her skills to attempt going after deer and elk. All the while wrestling with internal emotions about taking the life of an animal- becoming more conscientious about where the meat in grocery stores comes from, learning how invested many hunters are in conservation efforts, careful land management and wildlife protection. Overall I found it an eye-opening read (although I'm not interested in becoming a hunter myself) and I didn't mind that part of the book was just about family life and emotional upheaval she went through (a period of many deaths near her- elderly neighbors, family members and friends alike)- it made me understand her as a person better. This quote from one of the final chapters sums it up neatly:

Hunting has changed the way I think about the food I eat and my pet dog, not to mention the animals that live out of sight but all around me. It has give me a deeper connection to the fast-growing community where I live. It has changed the way I follow politics. Still, I have only brushed the surface. I have not yet wrung all the meaning I can out of this new adventure.

Borrowed from the public library

Rating: 4/5         323 pages, 2012

Snapper

by Brian Kimberling

I didn't care for this one much. It's a novel but reads more like a halfhearted memoir, some of the incidents are so odd and displaced they must have happened to a real person, and there's very little plot per se. The main character drifts through life, mooning over a girl who never really pays much attention to him, works in the field for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service counting birds and monitoring their nest sites. The part about his job- I appreciate that he liked his low-paying position, being outside, better than a move up the ladder would have been, putting him in an office analyzing the data- was interesting, but there simply wasn't enough of it. Likewise one of the more interesting side characters- a woman he met who'd had lyme disease that caused neurological damage disabling her arms and hands- was only present in a few scenes. Further on in the book he moves to Vermont for a job in a raptor rehabilitation center- another part I would have liked to read more about- but the work is hardly mentioned as he doesn't like raptors. Observations of eagles and hawks from his songbird-watching job in the forestry service made that clear.

Most of it is really descriptions of odd daily happenings and people around in him in southern Indiana. Which make it sound like a dismal place to live. He's rather disparaging of the people and place. Of Texas, too. Perhaps it's supposed to be funny, but the few times I caught the humor, I already knew the joke so it fell rather flat. One of the oddest scenes was when his dog found a large bone in a cemetary- he guessed it was a human femur- and he couldn't figure out what to do with it, so took it home. Another part is about his friend's disappointment with his work in library sciences. There are parts about meeting up with people he'd known in high school, and realizing he doesn't like them, or they don't have anything in common anymore. Awkward scenes. One includes the other guy catching and teasing a snapping turtle. The guy got what he deserved.

I started skipping some pages just to get to parts that I felt were more worth reading. In the end it's all just really lackluster and leaves you wondering what's the point. Oh well.

Rating: 2/5              210 pages, 2013

My Gentle Barn

by Ellie Laks with Nomi Isak

This book is about how someone with a troubled childhood found solace and healing in the companionship of animals. She nearly crashed and burned as a drug addict but then pulled her life together and started rescuing dogs from kill shelters to place them in new homes. Lots of ups and downs, struggles with her marriage, friction with neighbors which precipitated a huge move. Eventually she acquired more property and ran a sanctuary, a place to take in mistreated farm animals. She opened her doors to groups of at-risk and troubled teens, hoping that some contact with the animals and hearing their stories would help them on the path to recovery, as well. Apparently she did really well with her operation, learning as she went, nurturing the animals in spite of many setbacks, finding a new husband and raising three kids along the way. Most of all, her love was for the animals. I did enjoy reading this book, although I raised my eyebrows at a few things- she claims to be able to hear animals speak to her mind, telling her their true names, to have been lead by "whisperings" to animals in need, and so forth... The writing is a bit simplistic and lots of details are left out, but this does not surprise me with a book that is co-authored, when after all she's not a writer by trade. I also thought at first that she was just sparing us the worst details, which could be hard to stomach when reading a story about both child abuse and animals being seriously neglected and mistreated. Most of it is uplifting, hearing about how the animals are cared for, most of them recover to enjoy peaceful lives.

But... why does this happen so often? I finish reading a memoir or story like this, hop onto the computer to see who else may have written about it (usually because I want to learn more about the background, find out where things have gone since the book was written, or locate other points of view on the book) and encounter some harsh criticism accusing the author of blatant lies and misrepresentation. Sigh. So now I don't know what to believe, and having found such bitter criticism sours me on the whole story.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 3/5         268 pages, 2014

The Cats' House

by Bob Walker

I'd heard of this house, but it's something else to see it described in text and many pictures. The author and his wife have a family of beloved felines- nine cats at the time the book was written- and they decided to give their cats space above their heads by creating walkways near the ceiling in several rooms and down a main hallway. With cutouts for the cats to pass between rooms at height, secret hideaways inside closets where walkways meet at small hubs, a floor-to-ceiling climbing post, customized staircase and ramp at different locations to let the cats gain their heights. It is all very whimsical and fun (although personally I don't care for the bright, gaudy colors but it fits in perfectly with this couples' decorative choices and their extensive collection of Mexican folkart). Their cats certainly look very happy in the pictures. I'm dubious how many cat owners would literally remodel their homes like this just to provide some entertainment and security for their cats, but in case you're inclined to try, the author offers some tips for design and construction. Fun, quick read.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 3/5      92 pages, 1996

The Living Bird

100 Years of Listening to Nature
by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

This book is just beautiful. It is a collection of essays on bird-watching, new discoveries science has made about birds, facts about their lives, movements and behavior, descriptions of their beauty, concerns about their future and what we can do about it. Heartening are the accounts of birds whose populations made remarkable recoveries once measures were taken to protect them: bald eagles, snowy egrets, wood ducks, peregrine falcons, trumpeter swans. I did not know the details about some that are currently in serious decline, especially ivory gulls and the florida grasshopper sparrow. I didn't realize that the spotted owl is being pushed out of its habitat by larger, more competitive barred owls. Some of the more intriguing facts I also learned: birds have a double-sided voicebox. So they can sing two notes simultaneously, so a bird can harmonize with itself. I never realized this before. I listen more closely now to the intricacies of their songs. Harris's hawks live in groups and hunt cooperatively, like a pack of wolves or a pride of lions! There's so much more in here.

The introduction is written by Barbara Kingsolver, about how she resisted the passion of her bird-watching parents as a teen, but came to love birds in her own way later on. Chapters about observing flamingos, visiting nesting colonies on remote islands, collecting the sounds of birds, and how studies of bird populations can alert us to serious problems in specific environments, are penned by John Fitzpatrick, Scott Weidensaul, Lyanda Lynn Haupt and Jared Diamond. There are also sections written by scientists in the field describing their work and their love of birds. And the photographs by Gerrit Vyn make this book something to pore over for days. They are absolutely stunning. I have never seen such precise, exquisite detail in bird photography before. The texture of the feathers is so clear, the details so sharp, I spent a lot of time just staring at the pictures.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 5/5          208 pages, 2015

The Grey Parrot

by Wolfgang de Grahl

This is an extensive manual of sorts on keeping grey parrots as pets. The book has details about this particular species' dietary and husbandry needs, how to tame a new parrot and methods on training them to speak, behavioral issues, recognition and treatment of disease, and breeding attempts. Most interesting I found was reading the many personal accounts submitted by parrot fanciers to the publication. The individual descriptions make it clear that each parrot has a unique personality and their own likes and dislikes, especially when it comes to people they will trust. It was intriguing and amusing to read about their antics and speech patterns. Curiously, most birds appeared to learn phrases or song by repeating one or two words and gradually adding a new word until they could say the whole sentence. There was one parrot in particular who would repeat the entire sentence at first with just general intonations and rhythm, then gradually clarifying the phrasing and syllables until the words became distinct with practice. I also noted that some songs and phrases seemed really common to the time and culture: lots of parrots in this book would repeat "one, two three, hurrah!" and quite a few would say "now I'm coming with the stick!" or "I'm going to get the stick!" making you realize- sadly- that corporal punishment was part of the household. It was an interesting contrast, this older book, in comparison to newer publications I recently read about parrots in captivity. I don't keep birds myself so I am ignorant about what type of care parrots really need, but several other readers' reviews point out that the dietary and husbandry practices in here are bad advice, and should not be followed. So it stays on the shelf as a historic curiosity more than anything else.

Rating: 3/5             256 pages, 1987

The Parrot Who Owns Me

The Story of a Relationship
by Joanna Burger

Ornithologist writes about her gradually deepening relationship with her parrot. The story goes back and forth between how she acquired the bird (it originally belonged to a neighbor), how she slowly earned its trust and learned to live with its quirks and demands- the parrot very much ran that household- and her studies in the field, usually involving birds including terns, gulls and wild parrots, but sometimes other wildlife such as baboons. It was really interesting to see how after each trip for studies, she would come home with new understanding of her parrot's behavior. It became increasingly hard for her to leave him for any length of time, because he bonded to her strongly, considered her his mate, attacked her husband if he showed affection, and often disliked strangers intensely. I found all the little details about what life with a parrot can be like very intriguing to read about- they are so smart and stubborn! but am even more firmly convinced they do not make a good pet for the average person. The author also discusses the issues with parrots in the pet trade, environmental ills, and shares many personal anecdotes from her home life and her travels. I found it very enjoyable reading, although it was the kind of book I had to take slowly, the chapters were so full of things to think about.

Rating: 4/5          245 pages, 2001

More opinions:
Best Memoir

Of Parrots and People

by Mira Tweti

The subtitle of this book is The Sometimes Funny, Always Fascinating, and Often Catastrophic Collision of Two Intelligent Species. I didn't find much funny in it. I was often wowed by descriptions of the mental abilities of these birds, far more often dismayed at descriptions of the terrible ways we have treated them, coveting ownership for their beauty, smarts and ability to speak. Tweti's chapters detail some really intriguing examples of their mental acuity, the deep attachment they often make to individual people and the crisis of unwanted birds flooding parrot rescue facilities, many of which eventually fold from lack of funds and way too many birds coming in. So many parrots dumped by their owners because the birds are too demanding, scream incessantly, make a mess. When cooped up in cages, bored or constantly ignored, they often exhibit self-mutilating behavior and suffer mentally and physically. Most of the book is about logistics on how things got this way: the parrot trade. How it became outlawed in many countries because the birds faced extinction, so now they are smuggled or bred in captivity instead. Parent birds in breeding facilities kept in atrocious conditions, and the babies are taken from them and transported to pet stores way too young. So many birds die in trapping and smuggling operations, for every one that makes it alive into a home as a pet. Confiscated birds that were smuggled fare little better- at least they are kept clean, but they often do not see the light of day for years while waiting an outcome. The author got an inside look into several rescue places, a breeding facility, and visited Mexico pretending to be a tourist interested in buying a parrot. Appalled at what she found. Later travelled to a zoo where some very rare parrots were being kept in hopes of producing a breeding population, and went to South America to visit the forests where parrots are being illegally trapped. Most uplifting were the final chapters, which tell of a private conservation group set up by one individual who wanted to save habitat for parrots in his country. All of this in way more detail than I had ever imagined, and much of it made me feel very sad. I am strongly impressed, after reading this book, that for most people parrots do not make good pets, they do not belong in cages, and to our shame, any intersection they have had with mankind has been to their detriment.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 4/5             317 pages, 208

more opinions:
Both Eyes Book Blog

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

by Elisabeth Tova Bailey

This book is quite short but so thoughtful and I liked it very much. It's a detailed memoir of sorts, from a period of time when the author was bedridden with a serious illness in a convalescent home. A friend brought in a pot of violets and a small snail from the woods for her bedside table. She gradually became interested in watching the snail's daily habits- and had a larger terrarium set up with soil and woodland plants so the snail would have a more natural habitat. Eventually curious to learn more about the little mollusk, she requested books and articles from the library about them- and shares a lot of what she later learned. I kind of giggled when the snail started laying eggs- in spite of being a single member of its species- and ended up producing one hundred and eighteen offspring in that ten-gallon terrarium. (Much the same thing can happen with aquatic snails in an aquarium, as I well know). She gave some away, had the majority released in the woods, and kept one when moved back home as her health improved. The personal observations of her little snail are so charming, and the details she shares from natural history tomes quite intriguing. Her thoughts on the nature of illness and how it changed her life overall, makes the reader slow down and ponder too. A wonderful little book that I hope to add to my own collection someday.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 4/5          187  pages, 2010

more opinions:
Vulpes Libris
Citizen Reader
Bermudaonion's Weblog
The Black Sheep Dances

The Hedgehog's Dilemma

by Hugh Warwick

I don't know if I've ever read a book about hedgehogs before. They certainly sound like endearing, if slightly cranky, little creatures. The author obviously finds them very intriguing. His book tells about several studies he undertook to estimate hedgehog numbers on an island in the UK (to see if their predation of eggs was affecting bird populations) and another to find out if young hedgehogs cared for by people who found them ill or injured, had a good survival rate when returned to the wild. Interspersed are lots of personal accounts of encounters with hedgehogs, or people who care for them, rescue them, or even keep them as pets. It seems this is not a thing in Great Britian- but in America the numbers of people who kept pet hedgehogs was growing fast. After hearing in detail his visits to places where hedgehogs housed in large numbers for rehabilitation, I was rather curious what his impression of the pet hedgehogs would be. But it seems he only visited a hedgehog olympics event, and his description of that venue was rather disparaging I'd say. It didn't really give me an idea of what it's like to have a pet hedgehog, though he criticized this practice consistently. On a different note- one chapter of the book is about his trip to China in search of Hemiechinus hughi- or Hugh's hedgehog- a rare species that had only been seen once or twice. I certainly learned quite a bit about hedgehogs, although I kept picturing the T.H. White's Urchin rather than Beatrix Potter's Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle (frequently referenced here). I didn't know that hedgehogs and badgers compete for the same food source, or that hedgehogs are considered pests by some. The plucky fearlessness of these wild animals when encountering people endears them to many, and they are helpful to gardens it sounds like. Makes me kind of wish we had native hedgehogs instead of skunks, possums and raccoons... And of course, now I'd like to read more about them, too.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 3/5           279 pages, 2008

more opinions: A Striped Armchair

All the Little Live Things

by Wallace Stegner

I have held off a few days to write about this book, because it's hard to know what to say about it. It's a story of neighbors, an account so vivid in detail feels like a real experience. The narrator and his wife are in their retirement, come to the California hillside community for some peace and quiet, which they fail to actually find. His wife has more patience, but the narrator is constantly irritated by a close neighbor's neglect of certain aspects of his land, and rough improvements in other areas, that end up eyesores. He is further perturbed by the constant barrage of insect pests, gophers, moles and diseases that attack the garden he tries to cultivate. And even more irate at a hippy squatter who lives across the creekbed, taking outrageous advantage of the owner's blind eye to his constant stretching of their unwritten agreement that allows him to be there. Into this uneasy circumstance comes a new set of neighbors- a young couple with a daughter and a baby on the way- even while the wife, gentle and wise and allowing of all things their right to live- down to the gnats, fleas, ticks and germs that plague people- is slowly dying of cancer. This is a story in which not much happens- and you see the ending coming from very far off- yet it is all told with such depth of perception and wry humor it took me an incredibly long time to read it because I could not get through more than one chapter, if even that, in a sitting. It is a story of people, and their depth of feeling. It is so dense with meaning and thought and bitter, bitter irony. Marian's character is lovely and sad, the hippy kid is interesting and repugnant, some other neighbors and acquaintances thrown together at a Fourth of July barbecue are all curious in their own way. I think the most amusing passage was when the narrator tried to appraise this lady's hideous metal sculptures honestly at said party, without hurting her feelings. Even though I saw the ending coming, there were still a few shocking surprises, and the reappearance of the hippy guy added an unfortunate twist to the final incident. A book I will definitely not forget anytime soon, and must keep to read again. Reminds me in some parts of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Rating: 4/5           288 pages, 1967

more opinions:
Leaves and Pages
Book Slut
A Guy's Moleskine Notebook

The Octopus Scientists

Exploring the Mind of a Mollusk
by Sy Montgomery

This 'Scientist in the Field' book was more in-depth than the previous one, and I enjoyed it more. The chapters detail how the author accompanied a team of scientists who were studying the eating habits of octopuses around the island of Moorea. For the duration of her visit they actually spent most of their time looking for octopuses to be their study subjects- they're very difficult to find, being excellent at camouflage and hiding in small spaces. Then it all fell into place and on the last day of her trip, they were suddenly finding octopus all over the place. So a lot of the information about octopus in this book is side notes and explanations, but it's fascinating regardless. (She mentions briefly the encounters with octopus in public aquariums described in The Soul of an Octopus). The part about how octopus change color (and skin texture) to blend with their surroundings is especially cool. There's a lot about other animals sharing the same ocean habitat, as well. And for some reason this book reminded me of those I've read by Eugenie Clark.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 4/5            72 pages, 2015

Project Seahorse

by Pamela Turner

This is another of the "Scientist in the Field" books, just the level of J-Nonfiction I like reading. While the focus is on marine biologist Amanda Vincent's study concerning the impact of fishing and trade on seahorses worldwide, her focus began around one coral reef in the Philippines. Initially the study was to gain knowledge on seahorse reproduction but after talking to many local fisherman to find what they knew about seahorses, she realized their numbers were steadily dropping. She also realized that many local fishers depended on seahorses and other marine life for their livelihood. She expanded her project to change that- educating locals about seahorses and the welfare of the reef in general, advocating to close off certain areas against fishing entirely, implementing plans to repopulate the reef and plant mangroves to protect marginal areas, creating sustainable fishing practices and so on. It's all very intertwined, a precise example how the fate of one small creature (there is a pygmy seahorse the size of a pecan!) depends on the choices and actions of many people far away. And of course, there's lots of info on the seahorses themselves- charming, intriguing little creatures. I do stare at them in wonder whenever I visit a public aquarium.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 3/5            58 pages, 2010

more opinions:
Miss Rumphius Effect

Path of the Pronghorn

by Cat Urbigkit

Browsing, picked up a few juvenile non-fiction books on wildlife, which I enjoy sometimes. This one is about pronghorn antelope, which aren't actually antelope but something between an antelope and a goat. Which the book did not really explain, it keeps things simple. It basically just describes the life cycle of pronghorn, where they live and migrate, what they eat, how they survive the winter, something of their behavior repertoire etc. The photos by Mark Gocke are excellent. I learned just enough about these animals to become curious about finding a more in-depth book on the same subject.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 3/5              34 pages, 2010

The Daily Coyote

by Shreve Stockton

Photographer Shreve Stockton was instantly taken with the landscape when driving through Wyoming, so she promptly moved there. Found a place to live, met local folks, learned how to adjust- from city living to very rural. Became friends with a guy who kept fifty cattle, and their relationship developed. Her boyfriend's dayjob was shooting coyotes to protect livestock. He did this very well, specifically targeting the animals that were actually a threat to ranchers' livelihoods. One day on a whim he brought home a baby coyote from a den he was annihilating, and gave it to Shreve.

She raised it in her little cabin, alongside her grown cat. The interaction between the cat and the coyote, and its changing interactions with Shreve herself as it grew up, are fascinating to read about. She had to make a lot of difficult decisions: let the coyote roam or keep it tied up? castrate him or not? how to manage its aggressive behavior as it matured and began to challenge her dominance. Very clear that this was a wild animal- many times it suddenly turned to attack her and she was carrying around shed deer/elk antlers for a while to use as defense. It took her a while to figure out what was causing the attacks and also how to alter her own behavior to stop them. Very subtle cues the animal picked up on. (Also made shockingly clear how efficiently coyotes prey on cats- a few times in play the coyote would open his jaws over her cat's head- coyotes have a very wide gape- and completely engulf it. Good thing that cat was dominant to the coyote!) Shreve also had to work hard to keep her coyote safe and hidden from her neighbors- anyone in that ranching community would have shot the coyote on sight and thought they were doing her a favor.

I thought I would like this book less because it is as much a memoir of this period in the author's life, as it is a story about the coyote. But the depth of her introspection and honesty in describing things, make the personal aspects of the book just as good. Her photographs are stunning. She started sharing her photos with friends and family via email which evolved into a blog, and eventually this book. Her struggles with the sudden flood of criticism via online comments is a modern issue lots of writers have to deal with when they make their lives public- I sympathized. I was a bit skeptical at times- not always agreeing the author's reasoning- but overall found this an intriguing read.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 4/5       293 pages, 2008

more opinions:
This Book and I Could Be Friends
Bibliophile by the Sea

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

more opinions:
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