Angelfish

by Laurence Yep

Middle grade fiction about a Chinese-American girl who takes ballet lessons. Walking home one day, she takes an angry swing at her dancing partner Thomas- who always teases- and accidentally breaks the window of a store. Confronted by the angry shopkeeper, she agrees to work off the cost of the window replacement. It's a pet fish store. And the man specializes in raising angelfish. So you can see why I liked this book! The details about how the man cares for the fish- cautioning the girl not to overfeed, changing the water, testing pH, raising brine shrimp for the young fish and so on- is background material here but so familiar I delighted in it. Most of the story though, is about how the girl struggles to keep up with her ballet class while meeting this new obligation. She is cross at first because the old man in the fish shop is critical and insulting. But some of the comments he makes intrigue her- he seems to know a lot about dance and music, while apparently despising it. She determines to learn about his past, then finds her heart softening towards him and wants to help heal his bitterness.

This is a really nice story, but as usual when I read books aimed at younger readers, I wished for so much more depth. Especially when it handles tough subjects like the suffering that happened during the Cultural Revolution in China, and what it's like to live in a mixed-race family in an immigrant neighborhood of America. The setting was San Francisco, but the only feel of recognition I had was some street names! Regardless, I liked it enough that I'm looking for the other books in this series- it begins with Ribbons and The Cook's Family. Once I realized I was reading a sequel, I figured that's why I felt like a something was missing- as if I should have known the characters better, but not enough was explained about them in the narrative. Still, it stands alone well enough.

Rating: 3/5           216 pages, 2001

Common Sense Organic Gardening

by Warner and Lucile Bowers

In spite of being old, this book was pretty interesting and gave me some new ideas. It was written by an older couple who were very avid gardeners- their neighbors thought them crazy about it ha- and their enthusiasm really comes through the pages. They write mostly about labor-saving methods and how they grew produce organically for health benefits. Their main emphasis was using tons of thick mulch- made from shredded leaves- we're talking over a thousand bushels a year that they processed- and salt hay. After the first year they never had to till and barely weeded their garden. Interesting to me, they didn't grow a ton of vegetables but focused on exotics and curiosities that weren't available in grocery stores, and put most of their home made compost not on the kitchen garden but on their beloved fruit trees and roses. I was impressed at the output of those peaches and more. Some of the information is outdated -to be expected- but I was pretty surprised to read that while they definitely eschewed using poisons to control insect pests (except for one or twice-yearly spraying of the fruit trees), had no qualms about shoveling up sand from roadsides after winter, to use in their soil mix! (They did leach out the salts with water and use soap to remove most of the motor oil residue, but still. I would not.) And they scoffed at being told not to use landscaping plastic because it doesn't biodegrade, pointing out the many tatters and tears in plastics they had tried using- I assume nobody knew about microplastics at the time. I admired their thriftiness and zeal for building things- but dismayed that their favorite seedling container was styrofoam coffee cups!

Anyway, it was nice to read about all their methods, favorite tools, preferred ways to tend to plants- comparing to what I do and taking away a few new concepts. They built and used cold frames, made trellises out of discarded items like hat racks and metal screen door decorations, built birdhouses and feeders, grew many varieties of berries and grapes, made liqueurs and wine, etc. Their outright enthusiasm for propagating plants from cuttings or sprouting things out of seeds from what they ate- just to see if it would grow- delighted me- I'm of the same mind. I never thought of taking cuttings from chrysanthemums, I haven't yet tried air-layering to save my dracanea which is about to hit the ceiling, and I'd love to have a huge shaded fern collection or figs in pots like they did. Much to admire.

Oh, and there's recipes! Not my usual style of cooking, but I'd like to try a few.

Rating: 3/5               224 pages, 1974

The Line Between

by Peter S. Beagle

I'm glad I tried another Peter S. Beagle book. I really enjoyed most of these eleven short stories. There's a mouse who goes to cat school to learn to act like the best of felines, an octopus who writes a book in a fable, a sailor who saves a merman- hideous creature- and in return receives recipe for salt wine which most find innocuous but occasionally does terrible things to those who drink it. Several fables, wherein a foolish ostrich tries to learn a better way to evade their natural enemies, and a tyrannosaurus rex has a ridiculous conversation with a small mammal. In "El Regalo" a young boy does strange things with magic- reminiscent to me of some stories in Witches and Warlocks. Less great for me were "Mr. Sigerson"- wherein Sherlock Holmes joins a group of fine musicians in a small town- disliked by the one who tells the story- and "A Dance for Emilia" which I feel bad to dismiss as it sounds the most personal of Beagle's stories- but I just can't do ghosts or tales of possession (even though this one snuck in at the end, I didn't really see it coming). I found "Quarry" interesting- two characters- one a shapeshifting fox- fleeing assassins for different reasons reluctantly join paths- but this was an addition to his book The Innkeeper's Song which I haven't read (maybe I will now) so I felt I was missing something.

My favorite of the lot was "Two Hearts" which is a sequel to The Last Unicorn. There's a griffin ravaging the countryside and the narrator, a bold young girl called Sooz- sneaks out of her village to seek help from the king- who happens to be the same Lir that once loved a unicorn, now a very old man. Against the protests of the king's attendants, Sooz with the help of Schmendrick the magician and Molly Grue whom she fortuitously meets on the road, brings the old king back to face the griffin- he is a hero to the end- but the results of that encounter are unexpected. So sad, and so lovely. I recognized these dear characters at once, and they were the same people I felt I knew before. The book is worth the read for this one alone.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 3/5                231 pages, 2006

TBR #70

Yikes! Need to read more, haha. Here's titles I've noticed over the past few months, from all the book bloggers I follow. A few gleaned from other books or library browsing, too. Would like to read them all someday, lucky if I get around to even half that of course.

Riding Home by Tim Hayes
Bringing Nature Home by Doug Tallamy- Commonweeder
Circe by Madeline Miller- Sophisticated Dorkiness
Friday the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry Kemelman- Read Warbler
Dopesick by Beth Macy- Bermudaonion
The Library Book by Susan Orlean- Caroline Bookbinder
Semiosis by Sue Burke- Curiosity Killed the Bookworm
Heartland by Sarah Smarsh- Caroline Bookbinder
The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash- Bookfoolery
Part Time Cowboy by Maisey Yates- Ardent Reader
The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit- Indextrious Reader
An Unkindness of Magicians by Kat Howard- Sophisticated Dorkiness
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson- Hogglestock
Sweep by Jonathan Auxier- Semicolon
Love, to Everyone by Hilary McKay- Reading the End
News of the World by Paulette Jiles- Caroline Bookbinder
The Newcomers by Helen Thorpe- Ardent Reader
House of Mirth by Edith Wharton- Indextrious Reader
The Diving Pool by Yoko Ogawa- Musings of a Bookish Kitty
How to be a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery- Caroline Bookbinder
No One Tells You This by Glynnis MacNiol- Sophisticated Dorkiness
Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa- Bookfoolery and Indextrious Reader
The Overstory by Richard Powers - Shelf Love
Bird Box by Josh Millerman- Leviathan, Bound
What the Eyes Don't See by Mona Hannah-Attisha- Bermudaonion
Small Animals by Kim Brooks- Caroline Bookbinder
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman- Sophisticated Dorkiness
Butcher's Crossing by John Williams- Hogglestock
Grump by Liesel Shurtliff- Semicolon
Tetris by Box Brown- Caroline Bookbinder
Before Mars by Emma Newman- Work in Progress
Complete Houseplant Survival Manual by Barbara Pleasant- Commonweeder
The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs- Bermudaonion
The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Anders- Caroline Bookbinder
How Long 'til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemasin- Curiosity Killed the Bookworm

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel- Last Book I Read
The Light of the Fireflies by Paul Pen- Shelf Love
Tamed by Alice Roberts - Curiosity Killed the Bookworm
The Boy the Boat and the Beast by Samantha Clarke- Semicolon
Green Money by D.E. Stevenson- The Captive Reader
Hired by James Bloodworth- Little Blog of Books
My Horses, My Teachers by Alois Podhajsky
The Gardener's Year by Karel Capek- Commonweeder
This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay- Curiosity Killed the Bookworm
The Doctor Who Saved Babies by Josephine Rich- Semicolon
In the Middle Are the Horsemen by Tik Maynard
Shrinking the Cat by Sue Hubbell- Bookwyrme's Lair
Riding Between the Worlds by Linda Kohanov
Drawn from Memory by E.H. Shepard- The Captive Reader
Drawn from Life by E.H. Shepard- ditto
The Caravaners by Elizabeth von Arnim- Shelf Love
In the Vanisher's Place by Aliette de Bodard- Reading the End
Secret Language of Cats by Susanne Schotz- Musings of a Bookish Kitty
Tooth and Claw by Stephen Moore- Thistlechaser
Skin and Bone by Stephen Moore- Thistlechaser
Mystery of the Exploding Teeth by Thomas Morris- A Bookish Type
The Bookworm by Lucy Mangan- Captive Reader
Ground Rules by Kate Frey- Commonweeder
The Mammoth Book of Mind-Blowing Sci-Fi by Mike Ashley- Thistlechaser
The Extinction Trials by S.M. Wilson- Curiosity Killed the Bookworm
Down the Garden Path- Beverley Nichols- Commonweeder
A Thatched Roof, A Village in a Valley and How Does Your Garden Grow?- ditto

Cultivating Delight

A Natural History of My Garden
by Diane Ackerman

This is probably the most introspective gardening book I've ever read. Full of the author's musings about her garden and lavish descriptions of it, arranged mostly by seasons. Unlike mine, hers is a flower and cutting garden, and her main passion is roses. But she's in a nearby locale, so I did find most of the plant names familiar and could picture them with ease. Some parts of the book are just a delight to read- Ackerman is a poet, and a lot of the prose just sings to the beauty of the natural world. But- it feels really uneven and there were many occasions where I had to sit back and read a line several times, or even skip a few pages. She interjects freely ideas on other subjects, and it's sometimes not clear at first how they relate to the plants or natural processes she's discussing. Sometimes the tangents veer a lot- I really didn't need to read two pages about all the different vendors at the outdoor market in her neighborhood, or how the handyman diagnosed an odor emanating from under her house, for example. I could see the delight in one, and the metaphor in the other- but the relation to gardening felt a bit of a stretch, and it certainly stretched my attention span. Also there were times where her phrasing or word choice really threw me off. For example, the very first line of the book tells how seductive the rituals of gardening can be- how I agree- but then mentions things I don't think of as rituals at all: mending a broken gate, transplanting a shrub to a better location. Those seem more like- repairs and one-time tasks to me. My rituals are things like making selections from the catalogs, disinfecting the pots, setting up the coldframe, planting the seedlings . . . I'd hope one doesn't have to replace a gate every year! Maybe I'm being a bit harsh- but this really started the book off on a poor note for me. She goes on for pages about John Muir, and Thomas Jefferson, and later Gertrude Jekyll- but I'd rather read a separate book about those admirable people, myself. Mostly, she goes on and on about the roses. How lovely her garden sounds, but she talks little about tending to it so the reader cannot learn much, only look on with envy. I don't know that I've ever read another book about someone's garden and come away mostly with a feeling of envy. Really it sounds like she spends all her time swooning over the flowers and then bringing them into her house to swoon some more. Of course, she is writing about what she loves, and probably just chose not to include details about the humdrum chores of gardening or the mistakes made. I did really enjoy the passages she wrote about observing birds in her garden, and was full of curiosity when she described live-trapping squirrels to tag them for a scientific study- but then no mention was made of the study's purpose or the results. I guess that's in another book somewhere else. Argh, I"m feeling rather cranky- perhaps it's nothing to do with this book, but just the cold virus I'm getting over. I am keeping this one on my shelf regardless, maybe I will like it better at another time further on.

Rating: 2/5                 261 pages, 2001

We Made a Garden

by Margery Fish

Charming little book about how the author and her husband Walter built a garden on a property in Somerset, England. I really enjoy reading about her forays into gardening later in life- and relating how she used to not understand her gardening friends who spent so much time out there working in it. Her love of the plants and excitement at trying something new really shines through the pages. Of course, being on a different continent, a lot of the plant names were totally unfamiliar to me, and the climate is different so there was quite a bit I couldn't relate to. She does a lot of rockwork in her garden- building walls and paths, planting succulents and other things in rock gardens and wall crevices. I couldn't relate much to that, either but it sounded nice. But I also have heavy clay soil so I appreciated reading about how she improved her soil. I really wish I could have my compost heap on a slightly tilted concrete slab with drainage to catch leacheate at the bottom, nicely screened by selected shrubs!

A lot of the amusement in reading this book came from the subtle antagonism between Margery and her husband. He sounds like a very domineering person, whose color choices always took precedent in the garden over hers, whose ideas of straight lines and proper plants supplanted her fondness for creeping things and interesting foliage. He at times callously took over and used a spot she had been preparing for her own choices all winter, or lopped off the heads of flowers she had been growing, because he didn't like the way they looked! She accepted all this, but remarks that after he passed away, she changed the color scheme of the flower beds and planted all the creeping things she wanted. There was one brief comment about how she envied men "their pockets" to carry secateurs around in! that neatly places this book in its era. Women's clothes did not even have pockets; heavy labor and decision-making was left to the garden help and the man of the house. I got a chuckle out of the way she used an old sharpened sword to cut down masses of flowers in one go, that were past their prime and needed trimming!

It would have been nice to see some illustrations of the plants, especially since I am unfamiliar with most, while their combinations are mentioned so favorably. There are some black and white photographs of the actual property and garden in my edition, but while the lushness of growth is very apparent, it is hard to really appreciate the beauty this garden must have been.

Rating: 3/5           120 pages, 1956

More opinions: Captive Reader

The Decision

Animorphs #18
by K.A. Applegate

Warning for possible spoilers if you haven't read this far-

I like the books that are from Ax's POV, the perspective of humans as the aliens with strange, baffling ways, is refreshingly different. Once again, in this installment the Animorphs make a plan that doesn't end up where they intended to- but they seem to be making firmer choices in the middle of things going wrong. The main morph in this book is into mosquito- because the Animorphs learn that a Secret Service agent is in a coma and the hospital is infiltrated with Yeerks. The unconscious man is going to be taken over by Yeerks who will of course use his high position for evil, so the Animorphs think they can pre-emptively morph into this man and stand in his place (incidentally, find out in this book that while all Andalites have the morphing ability, most of them never actually gain a lot of various morphs because it is used by specialists who act as spies). They don't seem to have as many qualms as before, about using a human's DNA without permission, and they aim to acquire it by getting the man's blood as mosquitoes. But their mission goes wrong- surprise! - they are engaged in fighting the enemy on the hospital grounds and then after a bunch of really weird stuff happens, find themselves on an alien planet where the Yeerks are about to stage a takeover. Ax for the first time in many years encounters his own species- and finds his loyalty torn- should he obey his superiors or stay at the side of the humans? Before they know it, they're involved in the battle on this planet- even though they try to avoid it- and become key players in foiling the Yeerk invasion of the Leerans (except we never get any closure on how successful this actually was). Some of the humans Animorphs find themselves seriously doubting Ax's integrity to their cause, and they also make an awful discovery that not all Andalites are honor-bound: they encounter a traitor and have growing suspicions that Visser Three (or someone close to him) has once set foot on the Andalite home planet.

And then rather abruptly they all return to Earth to find out the coma guy woke up, the Yeerk controllers in the room bailed out, and then they're having a calm, sarcastic-laden conversation about what happened. I'd really like to know what happened too, but for all that it was still an entertaining read.

Rating: 3/5                  168 pages, 1998

More opinions:
Arkham Reviews
Fans of the Animorphs

The Underground

Animorphs #17
by K.A. Applegate

I liked this one. In spite of the utter silliness of its main premise. Warning for spoilers if you haven't read this far in the series.

Opening scene, the animorphs attend a Planet Hollywood event by morphing birds of prey and cruising the skies above the venue. But Rachel sees a man in a building nearby intending to jump to his death- so she dives to save him. Even five birds aren't able to keep the man from falling hard (and I kept thinking: wouldn't their talons have just torn through his clothing?) so he crashes into a body of water and Rachel has to morph a dolphin to save him from drowning. Not long after, they find out the man has been committed to a mental hospital- because his family heard him raving about aliens living inside his brain. So they morph roaches to sneak into the facility and question the man- Rachel lets him see her morphing from insect to human, figuring no one will believe if he tells. Discovers the Yeerk in this man's brian was partly disabled and driven mad by an addiction to -- instant oatmeal.

That's the ridiculous part of this whole book. But it has a very serious side, too. The Animorphs debate how to use this new knowledge- is wielding an addictive substance as a weapon against their enemies stooping too low? They finally decide to tunnel into an underground Yeerk pool as moles- it literally takes days of claustrophobic work- and I guess the next step was to transport masses of oatmeal to dump on the helpless Yeerks in the pool there. They never quite get that far. Plan goes awry- and they find themselves separated, under suspicion, in different morphs- at one point Rachel is human again while two of the others are bats, Marco a gorilla and Ax his normal Andalite self- and facing none other than Visser Three himself in a battle with barrels of confiscated oatmeal (taken by Yeerk controllers from human hosts that tried to smuggle it in) as a bargaining chip in a pivotal life-or-death moment.

I often get bored during battle scenes but this one held my attention. They escape by Rachel literally collapsing a tunnel ceiling over everyone, hoping they can survive by tunneling out as moles again. They barely make it. The book is from Rachel's viewpoint, and it's nice to see her debating some of the possibilities instead of diving right into action every time. Which she still frequently does when the pressure is on, but there was a lot more thought on her part this time. The main morphs in this book were of course the mole, and the bat. At other points they morph seagulls, the wolf and elephant, and flies. Rachel even forces herself to morph an ant- in spite of how terrified she was of that experience before- when she has to use its abilities and avoid detection in a tight moment.

Enjoyed the copy on my e-reader.

Rating: 3/5               176 pages, 1998

more opinions:
Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales
Arkham Reviews

The Andalite Chronicles

by K.A. Applegate

This book is outside the usual chronology of the Animorphs series, being a prequel that tells of Elfangor's youth as a warrior-in-training and his involvement in the war against the Yeerks. It's a book I probably never would have picked up if I wasn't reading the series- being mostly battles between alien species on various planets and in outer space. But I got drawn into the story and actually enjoyed most of it. At first, young Elfangor is eager to prove himself in battle and disappointed when he's given a lowly task along with his fellow and rival Arbron. They intercept an alien ship run by the Skrit Na- who have on board two humans they have captured and also a dangerous device the Time Matrix built long ago by those legendary all-powerful Ellimist. Apparently the Skrit Na don't know what the Time Matrix thing is, but they're going to deliver it to the Yeerks so instead of taking the humans back on Earth, the Andalites wind up on the Taxxon home world trying to retrieve the device and ending up in a huge battle against the Yeerks (who have parasitized most of the alien Taxxons).

Lots of stuff happens. It gets complicated. The character of Elfangor grows and he struggles a lot with making moral decisions in tense moments of warfare- something his superior scorns at- an older Andalite embittered by the war. There are Taxxon rebels holding out against the Yeerks. Arbron gets stuck in morph and becomes a key player in the Taxxon rebellion. We find out some serious backstory details on how Visser Three came to be- how a Yeerk was able to take over an Andalite body. Elfangor feels he is to blame, an error in judgement on his part leading to what happened. There's also backstory on Chapman- in this book he's a young man- and a total jerk. The other human involved, a young woman named Loren, is a much more sympathetic character and a very strong female role.

For all that, there's some pretty weird happenings in here. The asteroid part? I totally can't wrap my head around that, and sure hope it gets explained in a later book (but I wouldn't be surprised if it never is). The time travel events stretch credilbility (even in a story about alien invasions I expect some sense!) and the part where Elfangor, Loren and the future Visser Three end up in suddenly created wacko universe was just so- odd. I don't know why parts of this kept reminding me of A Wrinkle in Time. It had a similiar vibe to it all.

The book neatly ends up at the scene that opens the first in the main series, The Invasion. Elfangor is a significant character there, giving the Animorphs the forbidden power to morph into any being they can touch. With all the Andalite honor code and strictness, it's kind of surprising Elfangor would give this to a lesser-advanced species, but this book makes it clear that he develped a soft spot for humans due to his experiences. Also he finally had confidence that humans could be stronger and more resilient than they look. Which is why he gave a key power to a bunch of kids on Earth, pitching them into the unseen battle against the aliens.

This one is on my e-reader.

Rating: 3/5            pages, 1997

more opinions:
Arkham Reviews
Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

One Wild Bird at a Time

Portraits of Individual Lives
by Bernd Heinrich

As other readers have pointed out (check out reviews on Goodreads) this is not really individual portraits, it is about certain species though. Bernd Heinrich is a keen birdwatcher with a scientific mind. Each chapter tells of a species he observes in the woods around his cabin in the Maine woods, detailing specifics of behavior he was curious to learn about. Most times he had a question in mind and posed a way to answer it. He caught chickadees and placed them (briefly) in an enclosure to see how quickly they would learn to associate certain kinds of leaf damage with provided insect food. He dug up ruffed grouse snow dens to count their fecal pellets to determine how long they used each den. When a small bird accidentally dashed itself against a window escaping a predator and died, he took the opportunity to inspect its stomach contents and find out what it had been eating at the top of conifers. In all, seventeen kinds of birds are here- including flycatchers, woodcocks, grosbeaks, starlings, crows, barred owls, nuthatches, blue jays and redpolls. I found most interesting the chapter about chickadees' intelligence and foraging methods, the one about very close observations on a flicker nest (they built a home inside the wall of his house and he cut a window to it, in his bedroom), the one on crested flycatchers- a nesting pair faced the intrusion of other adults who wanted to feed their young- and the one about a male phoebe who lost its mate and its long search for a new partner. It was really interesting that Heinrich's notes on red-winged blackbird behavior kind of countered what's considered common knowledge about the birds' territoriality and aggression. Sometimes the book gets a little dry- the author relates numbers: two birds fly over, one returns, four arrive, three stay behind, etc. Or how many trips parent birds make per day bringing food, how many mintues they linger at the nest each time. Sometimes he makes a conclusion from all the collected data, other times the segment ends with questions still in mind. Which of course is realistic, but leaves the reader wanting to know more.

I'd really like to read more of his works on individuals- The Geese of Beaver Bog, for example- but my library has a narrow selection. I still haven't read Summer World, either... Borrowed this one from the public library.

Rating: 3/5                   210 pages, 2016

The Hidden Lives of Owls

the Science and Spirit of Nature's Most Elusive Birds
by Leigh Calvez

This is a very nice book about owls. The author herself became interested in owls- beginning with their presence in cultures and mythologies across different cultures, and then delving into personal study of the owls themselves. She describes eleven owl species that populate (or visit) the Pacific Northwest, and how she sought to find them. In several cases it was simply bird-watching: a glimpse in a tree, a chance at a few photographs, conversing with other bird-watchers, observing hunting or nesting behavior for a short time. In other cases she got a lot more involved, helping teams that measure and band wild owls. She visited a burrowing owl colony where people are helping the owl population recover by providing nesting sites (pre-dug burrows), perches, and constantly monitoring their numbers. I was fascinated by the descriptions of the burrow owls' behaviors, not knowing much about them before. She also visited the nesting site of a great gray owl who later lost its mate, and volunteers stepped in to supplement the mother owl's food supply (with live mice) in order to help her chicks survive. Her participation in assisting this wild owl while avoiding too much familiarity (which could later endanger its young) became very personal. There are spotted owls, norther pygmy owls, snowy owls and the adaptive, some-think-invasive barred owl in here, also an owl I never heard of before: the flammulated owl. Every chapter has some information on the particular owl's required habitat, feeding preferences, nesting behavior, usual range (different species roam all the time, stay put in a home territory or migrate seasonally) and so on. There's even an owl that hunts in the daytime. Interspersed with enough personal observation and individual up-close experiences that it was an engaging read.

Which I got through in two days, because it was due back at the library with no renewal option (someone else wants to read it!) I found this one browsing the stacks.

Rating: 3/5                      205  pages, 2016

The Warning

Animorphs #16
by K.A. Applegate

This one had me hooked again. In spite of its silly moments (some very literal potty humor, which Ax totally does not get) it turns very serious and dark near the end. Please be advised, if you haven't read this far in the series, there will be spoilers--.

At the beginning, it occurs to one of the Animorphs to type "Yeerk" into a search engine- and what do you know, they find some websites about their alien enemies, including a (very clunky) chat room. They can't quite tell if the anonymous users are humans in the know, or Yeerks posing as such in order to set a trap. But they can't ignore the possibility of finding more people who actually know about the alien war, so they try to hack the system to learn their identities. It doesn't work. Their next plan (which baffled me) is to travel to the headquarters of the online company that runs the chat room, and access the system there. It's very dated, technologically. But amusing. They travel via plane in the form of flies- and Jake experiences some serious trauma- he nearly dies in fly morph when someone swats him- is actually loosing consciousness as his friends pull him to safety- and struggles to pull himself together afterward. A big part of this book is about Jake's difficulty continuing in the leadership role- it's incredibly stressful, he's often at a loss to make the best decision especially under pressure, and his friends start to lash out when his choice goes wrong, or he can't tell them what to do, instantly. In fact at the end of the book Jake and Cassie have a heated argument over a serious moral issue- and it doesn't get resolved.

Several times moral quandaries come up. When at the company headquarters, some of the team immediately suggest secretly morphing the employees so they can gain access without drawing attention- but is it okay to use another person's DNA without their knowledge or consent? Later they attempt to break into a rich person's fortressed mansion- their first attempt to scope out the place as birds of prey goes awry, Rachel gets stunned and trapped inside the building, Ax is nearly torn apart by the guard dogs- so Jake acquires a new morph of rhinoceros and simply storms the place by force. What they discover inside is a shocker. The guy they were hoping to find is a Yeerk- not only that, he is a renegade and survives without the special Yeerk pool by cannibalizing his own kind. This means doing away with the innocent people who are the other Yeerks' hosts, which makes Cassie immediately want to kill this guy, but Jake stops her- letting him live since he's killing lots of Yeerks on a regular basis. So which is the lesser evil? It ends on that note.

My only issue with this book is I find it so improbable how readily the enemy explains things to the Animorphs when they have a confrontation in the last chapter or so- of course it neatly explains things to the reader as well, but really? who would just tell it all like that.

Read this one as an e-book.

Rating: 3/5                 160 pages, 1998

more opinions:
Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

Horseshoe Crab

Biography of a Survivor
by Anthony D. Fredericks

Horseshoe crabs have been crawling in and out of the oceans since before the time of dinosaurs. Their straightforward way of life and tough armored carapace have been a success story for this arthropod.  But when humans came on the scene, their numbers began declining, which also spelled trouble for numerous shorebirds that depended on them as food source during migration. Horseshoe crabs were once used by fishermen as bait, and faced habitat loss. Nowadays they are protected, especially because they are key to human health, a point I never really understood before reading this book. The crabs' blood is super sensitive to bacterial contamination, so it is used to make a liquid for testing any number of things for sterility- bandages, IV fluids, surgical instruments, parts for joint replacements, etc etc. They are enormously important to the medical field. The horseshoe crabs are bled in sterile conditions and released into the ocean again with a marking that ensures the same crab won't donate its blood twice in a year.

This book is about far more than the blue blood of the crabs though. It's about their curious anatomy (did you know they have ten eyes?) and habits- what little we know of them, most human observation of horseshoe crabs occurring when they come ashore to breed. It's about various organizations that have arisen to protect the horseshoe crab, to study it, and to educate the public (most people find them unattractive which doesn't help their case). Amusingly, the author makes all this material approachable by inserting popular culture references- in this case B-grade 1950's horror movies!

Interesting article on the medical use of horseshoe crabs, and synthetic alternatives that are being developed (before the possibilities of horseshoe crab blood was discovered, rabbits were used- and they gave their lives).

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 3/5                    256 pages, 2012

Unsheltered

by Barbara Kingsolver

The novel is about two families, living on the same property in New Jersey, but a century apart in time. In each case, the family is seriously struggling with looming insecurity. The modern family lives in an inherited house that is on poor foundations and literally falling apart, while they deal with an elderly, terminally ill parent, a new baby pretty much left for other family members to raise when the young father buries himself in work travel after his wife's suicide, and the husband's insecure tenure at a local college. Their carefully structured life seems to be coming apart at the seams, some family members drifting in and staying as four generations huddle under one leaky roof, while others are on the verge of exiting (the vitiperous old man). Woven in alternate chapters, the story of the family from the 1800's -also living in a crumbling house in desperate need of repairs no one can afford- has a professor at odds with his employer because he wants to teach real science to his students- Darwinism is a new idea which many fear and abhor- and in the end he finds himself in a public debate with leaders of the community who staunchly resist scientific thought, threatening more than just his livelihood.

I really really wanted to like this book more than I did- not only because Kingsolver is one of my favorite authors, but also because it was a gift to me from a family member. But the writing is rather heavy-handed. It feels like the author wrote it with a strong agenda, and I can readily see how some readers find her narrative preachy and off-putting. I happen to agree with many of her opinions, and even I found it a bit tough to finish this book. Either side of the narrative thread I feel could have made a stronger story if it had stood on its own, with more depth and personality. I did like the way the last few words of each chapter became the title of the next- to me it seemed a deft interweaving (not gimmicky). But in each case I had a hard time becoming involved with the characters- it all felt a bit too distant, a bit too stuffed with dense conversations and lectures (rather reminiscent in that regard of Ring of Endless Light). In the modern part of the story, I really liked the character of Tig- so resourceful and bold- but the others- meh. And in the historical storyline, I was intrigued by the neighbor woman the teacher befriended- Mary Treat, a scientist in her own right who had correspondence with Charles Darwin (and a real person, whom I'd never heard of before). The main character from the current storyline ends up researching Mary Treat- another way the stories were tied together. But every time I read the interactions between the teacher and scientist the conversations felt rather stiff, and I never cared enough about them.

Well, maybe it will be better on a second read someday. Also to note the infusion of current politics in the story- very current- made it feel shockingly relevant but also uncomfortably awkward. I just don't enjoy politics that much in my reading, even though it's important to see what's going on around us and do something. The big picture I ended up with: somehow, we will survive and move on. Families intact or otherwise (forming something new).

Rating: 3/5                  463 pages, 2018

more opinions:
Ardent Reader

bouquet cats

This was a 1,000 piece jigsaw I did over the past two weeks. Artwork (lovely, beautiful texture in the cats' fur) is 'Boucat' by Braldt Bralds. It's just such a beautiful picture- lush flowers and seven cats posed so nicely- a butterfly, mouse and several caterpillars hidden in the details. I am definitely a fan of Cobble Hill- the puzzles have very nice surface texture and the shapes are all random which is really fun to put together. I enjoyed this one a lot.

Click on the image to scroll through the pictures at larger size.

The House at Sugar Beach

in Search of a Lost African Childhood
by Helene Cooper

Descendant of the first freed blacks who stepped off the ship Elizabeth onto the shores of Liberia in 1820. They were part of this idea that people released from slavery at the end of the Civil War should return to Africa and form their own colony there. The native Liberians didn't see it the same way. They didn't want to sell their land to newcomers, or seen it taken by force. Which it eventually was. Generations later, the newer-arrived blacks had formed a very elite upper class, while the native Liberians sunk deeper into poverty and oppression. The author herself had a rather sheltered, privileged childhood, talking mostly about her jokes with her cousins and sisters, fears of the 'heartman' and malevolent spirits, reading Nancy Drew books and vying for the attention of boys in her private school. She was very close with her adopted sister, a girl from a native Liberian family her parents took in. Her narrative is interrupted every other chapter or so with some history- which I appreciated because I didn't know much about Liberia, but it felt a bit impersonal. Also a lot of family history and politics- because many of her relatives were prominent citizens or high officials. When Liberia suffered a coup and horrendously brutal civil war, the family fled to America- leaving behind her adopted sister. Later part of the book tells how she adjusted to American life- more school stuff- how she discovered journalism and fixed on a desire to be a reporter. She made it- attained the coveted travelling status, visited and wrote about issues in many different countries (including Iraq) and finally returned to Liberia, where she found her left-behind sister had survived the atrocities. I admit I skipped and skimmed a lot in the middle of the book, finding the information riveting in one way, but lacking a feeling of connection or emotion from the writer on the other hand. It was a bit difficult to stick with. I found some things ironic- and the description of a man executed in Liberia, then his body parts paraded around the streets- was a chilling echo of the fears she had of the 'heartmen' as a child. They were real. The final chapters about her return home- seeing how much had changed, fallen into squalor, the tearful reunion with her adopted sister- are the better parts of the book.

Rating: 2/5             354 pages, 2008

More opinions: Living 2 Read

anyone else?

Our House in Arusha

by Sara Tucker

Memoir of times the author spent living in Arusha, Tanzania and in Togo with her family of three. It started when she first visited Africa as a travel writer from New York, and met safari guide Patrick- a man born in France who had spent most of his adult life in West Africa. The book is in patches- some telling of the author's own experiences, other chapters relate her husband's adventures, both well-written but sometimes the narrative hopping back and forth is confusing. What's admirable is how much they simply wanted to make it work- Patrick fell in love with Africa as a young man and just did whatever he could to be there: safari tours, guide for trophy hunters, crocodile poacher, reconnaissance spy, hotel manager, you name it, he took the job if it got him out in the bush near animals. There are a few incidents related with wildlife- a leopard cub he raised, a close encounter with a wildebeest when his vehicle got stuck in a ditch- but more is about the political and social turmoil of the area, and how the family managed to live there. The author herself often spent long months with her husband's son keeping their house running while Patrick was off on a job. Hours of boredom, dealing with the locals who worked for them, constant expectation of being robbed. Fondness for some aspects it all, tedium with others. Reading about the ex-pats' lifestyle reminded me somewhat of Rules of the Wild (fiction). Another large part of this book is about the author's relationship with her stepson, what it was like for him to grow up in Africa, to make adjustments to boarding school among other things. It kept feeling like a foreign story from a time and place quite removed from myself, and then I would come across a detail that reminded me this story is quite current: she's reading Harry Potter with her stepson, he's playing World of Warcraft, they're standing on a street in New York looking at smoke in the sky above the spot where the Twin Towers used to be. Because at the end, a contract for working as warden in a game park in Togo falls through after they have sold all their household goods in preparations to move, and the family decides to come back to America. She's written a second book about the next six years living in Vermont, not sure if I'll look for it.

Rating: 3/5             287 pages, 2011

In Calabria

by Peter S. Beagle

An old man who prefers to keep to himself finds a unicorn hanging around on his farm. He tries to keep it a secret, to protect the unicorn, especially when he learns why it has chosen to stay on his land for a while. But of course eventually people learn it is there, and it draws media attention and worse to his quiet corner of the world. Some powerful, unscrupulous person wished to possess the farm by force, and that's where the story started to loose my interest. I guess it fitted well into a modern story about unicorns, to have thugs with automatic weapons threatening a quiet farmer, but the aspect of danger and violence never felt real? the narrative has such a quiet, calm tone to it all. There were other aspects of the story I just didn't care for. Especially the romance. It wasn't right. I wonder if I'll ever love another Peter S. Beagle book as much as The Last Unicorn- I tried Tamsin and couldn't (it's a ghost story), I've been meaning to attempt A Fine and Private Place but never got around to it yet.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 2/5               174 pages, 2017

Unicorn Mountain

by Michael Bishop

I have a feeling I may have tried this book once before, so long ago I remembered very little except the general premise. It's set on a Colorado ranch, where several disparate characters end up together- Libby who runs cattle on the land, her Ute ranch hand, her ex's cousin who comes to stay. He's dying of AIDS- this was written in the eighties- and some of the ways in which people talked around him, admittedly made me uncomfortable.  I gather from reading more opinions on Goodreads, that at its publication date, this book was way ahead of its time depicting gay men and issues they had to deal with- so it ought to be read in a historical context. But that isn't what bothered me. Nor the outright lack of unicorns- although I know they come more into the book later in the story- up to where I read they were mainly background material, a group up in the hills, their presence kept secret by the landowner and her very few friends. The unicorns appear to be unhealthy, and somehow they weave into the story with the other characters trying to put their lives back together, or keep things going as best they can. I didn't get far enough to find out though, because something put me off. It was when ghosts came into the narrative. I just don't do ghost stories.

Abandoned                    406 pages, 1988

More opinions: Speculiction      anyone else?

pretty, fake birds

Enjoyed fitting together a puzzle again the other day. It was a Christmas gift from my seven-year-old. A Ravensburger 500-piece puzzle. While the image itself is of eye-rolling quality (terribly obvious photoshop job), the colors are bright and vivid, the differing visual textures of foliage and bird feathers are nice, and the puzzle surface good quality- appears it will hold up to a lot of re-use.

I had fun trying to identify all the bird species depicted: goldfinch, cardinal, titmouse, eastern bluebird, blue jay, robin, chickadee, some kind of warbler, and mountain bluebird (I think).