a small triumph

This is kind of funny, but I suppose you bookish people will be able to relate. I feel rather proud that after seven years I've finally convinced my husband to get his own library card! Up until now the entire family has just been using mine. Which was working just fine, as I'm the one who visits the library, keeps track of what's due, picks up holds etc. My daughter doesn't even know yet that she can get her own card someday. The problem comes with hubby's use of the card. He doesn't ask me to get books for him often, but when he does he takes forever to read them, because he's so very busy. The last time I checked out a book for him he kept it for the usual three weeks, renewed it twice, and had it for a week longer after that! He doesn't care about his books being late back to the library; is perfectly happy just to pay his fines. Except that when his books are constantly overdue it ties up my card. They won't let me check out any more items until I return his!

So he grumbled at the inconvenience when I dragged him into the library to put his signature on the form, but then commented how easy it was to get a card, and started looking at all the DVDs (especially documentaries) the library has available for checkout; brought several home with him that day. So now he's happy and I'm happy- I'm still getting his books for him, and returning them, but no more problems for me if his are late time after time! It was just amusing to me that it took this long to finally convince him he needed his own piece of plastic to borrow library stuff. Phew!

bookmarks giveaway

I've got four halloweeny bookmarks, here, ready to be part of your reading! A tasmanian devil, spider, bat and rat. If you'd like to win the set, simply leave a comment. (Must be easy for me to find your email). I'll draw a winner at random next weekend (the first one in Nov).

more on the list

Once again, even though I'm not reading much at the moment (being more inclined to sleep when I have quiet time ha) I'm still adding plenty of titles to my TBR! Here's books that caught my eye in the past few weeks, and links to the blogs I found them on. Have you read any of these? They all look so good!

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok- Books and Movies
Up From the Blue by Susan Henderson from Literary Feline
Under This Unbroken Sky by Shandi Mitchell
The Bells by Richard Harvell- Stuff as Dreams are Made On
The Human Bobby by Gabe Rotter- Bermudaonion's Weblog
Homer's Odyssey by Gwen Cooper- Maggie Reads
Dewey's Nine Lives by Viki Myron from Bookfoolery
Eels by James Prosek from Amy Reads
The Blessings of the Animals by Katrina Kittle- Caribousmom
Packing for Mars by Mary Roach- Just Book Reading

In Search of the Red Ape

by John McKinnon

When John McKinnon set off into the forests of Borneo and Sumatra to study orangutans, little was known about the large apes. Secretive and solitary, they are hard to find in the dense jungles, but McKinnon taught himself how to survive in the tropical wilderness, spending nights out in the forest tracking individual orangutans for days at a time (which shocked the natives who helping him in camp; they were terrified of being in the forest after dark). He learned the terrain well, and became known among the natives as an "animal magician" and among other researchers and tourists as one would could always find the orangutans. McKinnon describes some of his encounters with the orangutans, as well as myriads of other exotic animals, including lots of other primates, snakes, elephants and beautiful birds. He was particularly interested in studying how orangutans co-existed with other primates that used the same food supply, like the siamang (a type of gibbon).

One thing really jumped out at me in the text. At one point the author describes seeing older, very large adult male orangutans who were too heavy to travel in the trees. Instead they walked upright on the forest floor. Later in the book he talks about a mysterious animal the villagers feared called batutut, supposedly a black, hairy upright primate that left large footprints. McKinnnon himself reported seeing orangutans with very dark hair, brown or almost black. My mind immediately made a connection. I'm surprised that the author himself didn't wonder if batutut was nothing more than a large, ground-dwelling male orangutan. Anyone else think that's probable?

Well, if you're interested in orangutans, this is a fairly good read.

Rating: 3/5 ........ 222 pages, 1974

Life Above the Jungle Floor

A Biologist Explores a Strange and Hidden Treetop World
by Donald Perry

This book kind of wasn't what I expected, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. I thought I was going to get a detailed description of the author's explorations in the upper stories of tropical jungle, but that was only one aspect of Life Above the Jungle Floor. It starts with the author explaining how he got into biology studies, and his excitement when he found that (at the time) the treetop habitat was an unexplored area; most research in jungle life had taken place in the understory, which was easy to reach. He describes a lot of his methods in reaching the upper heights, using climbing ropes and even moving on pulleys along a rope strung between two large trees, so he could lower himself down into fragile canopies that would not support the weight of a person. I liked reading all the parts about the interesting animal life- insects and birds mostly- that he encountered, the mutual relationships between ants and their host plants, one very creepy passage where he lowered himself into an enormous hollow tree.

But there is also a very interesting section on how life evolved to take advantage of treetop heights, and even new (to me) theories on why the dinosaurs went extinct. I had never heard this idea before, but Perry says that the idea of an asteroid striking the earth is not well supported, it doesn't explain how early birds survived the catastrophe plus he notes that there were lots of small reptiles, which could hibernate in holes and survive even better than small mammals, so why didn't they? Instead, he posits that the advent of flowering and fruiting plants, which spread their seeds wider via mammal and bird dispersal, is what brought about the demise of dinosaurs (which took millions of years, not one sudden event). Because the flowering/fruiting plants were more successful than earlier primitive plants the dinosaurs lived on, they became more prolific, and when their food source got shouldered out, the dinosaurs began to disappear. At the same time mammals and birds exploited the new food source and evolved intricate mutually beneficial relationships with the plants. Maybe I've gone on too much about this, but it was very interesting and made sense to me. Just look at places like Hawaii, where so many native plants have gone extinct due to invasive (more aggressive/successful) plants crowding them out- aren't the native animals disappearing there, too? Anyhow, it was all very thought-provoking. The fourth focus of the book is, of course, concern about how rapidly the forests are being depleted, but that was only discussed in the final chapter.

Rating: 3/5 ........ 170 pages, 1986

Why We Run

A Natural History
by Bernd Heinrich

This curious book is part memoir, part nature writing in a way, centered around the sport of long-distance running. It's certainly not like the other Heinrich books I've read. Why We Run is the author's account of his experiences as a runner. He recounts how he got into running during his school years, then goes through discussions of how the body uses energy and the physics of movement in relation to running. Not just the human body, but that of many animals, too; examining everything from insects to wolves and antelopes. It was pretty interesting, to read how different animals utilize different energy sources and how their body mechanics work to specialize in certain aspects: endurance, distance, explosive speed, etc. Then Heinrich turns all this back on himself, and tries experimenting with his own body, in training for long-distance endurance runs. How far can he go? what type of fuel supplied when will his body respond to best? and at the very end, after he thinks he's figured it out, he runs a 100-kilometer marathon. Now, I'm not a runner myself, so some of the parts about the sport I didn't really connect to. And sometimes the technical aspects of it, in how the body functions with things like oxygen intake, energy consumption, speed, effort, etc- could get kind of hard to get through- in that way it reminded me a bit of the bug book I read recently. But it was interesting regardless, particularly in the end where he started to tie it all together. I certainly learned a lot about the different animals that I never considered before, and a lot about how our bodies work, and what they are capable of. That part was amazing. If you're a runner, I'd certainly say give Why We Run
a look!

Rating: 3/5 ........ 292 pages, 2001

a few more opinions at:
Jump the Stump
anyone else?

Turning Japanese

Memoirs of a Sansei
by David Mura

I picked up Turning Japanese at The Book Thing just because the title and cover looked interesting. It's written by a poet (one I never heard of or read before), a third-generation Japanese-American who recounts a year he spent in Japan with his wife. It sounded interesting at first, because the author professed to have grown up entirely American, and was curious to find his roots in Japan. Some parts that taught me bits of the foreign culture were interesting, others got too introspective for me. The author was constantly feeling smug about how for the first time in his life he could blend in just because of his looks, and how some things came naturally to him but not his wife (who was white) but then at other times he felt superior because of his American attitude. It was kind of confusing. And not much was very descriptive. I felt like I waded through pages of words without getting a real sense of what the Tokyo was like; there would be a little bit giving me a sense of the seasons, the crowds, the small spaces. But most of it seemed an endless recounting of parties where the conversations didn't make sense (to the author either it seemed) or his two-hour commute to classes with a master teacher- the dance parts were confusing too; I didn't understand the style of Butoh. I'm sure I'm just not the right reader to appreciate this book; it was really starting to bore me; I made it through just over a hundred pages before finding it tedious. Someone else may well like it better.

I'm a bit curious what Mura's poetry is like, but not enough to go search it out. (It seems strange to me that while he felt distanced from his cultural roots, the poems he mentioned in the book were about things stemming from Japan; like the experiences his grandparents had in camps).

Abandoned........ 373 pages, 1991

Anyone else read it? I'd like to link to another opinion here, but can't find any.

The Amber Spyglass

by Philip Pullman

I'm not sure I know how to talk about this book without giving stuff away; so if you haven't read it yet maybe you don't want to read this post.

Lyra and Will continue to follow their adventures through various worlds, pursued by various entities that either want to keep Lyra safe, use her skill with the symbol-reading instrument, or outright kill her to get rid of the threat she poses. But Lyra has her own plans and instead of heading straight for Lord Asriel's gathering to help his cause (and come under his protection), Lyra follows her own path, driven by guilt. She wants to find her friend Roger who died in the first book, and Will also wants to find his father, so together they make their way beyond the boundaries of all the worlds. This was my favorite part of the story. I loved how they dealt with the harpies, and that Lyra (such an admirable character, but nevertheless a deceitful lying child) finally found value in telling the truth. Later parts didn't thrill me as much- the battle was just a muddle and confusion for me- as battle scenes in reading often are, and even some parts I was looking forward to figuring out still puzzled me. I really liked seeing how Will and Lyra's relationship developed (although it was kinda odd to me how suddenly they were in love), and was glad that Mrs. Coulter met her end- that woman really disturbed me! Overall the book wasn't quite as good for me as the first two- it felt really long, and not as character-focused, but I still liked it a lot.

This is the one I couldn't read before. For probably the very reasons that make people want to ban the entire series- the idea of a controlling religion, battled against by the reasonable people in the world; it finally coalesces into an all-out war on heaven when one outrageously ambitious man plans to attack God himself and overthrow the rule of Heaven. Back ten or so years ago when I first approached The Amber Spyglass, I was still a very religious person and the idea -even in fiction- of God being just one presumptuous angel who set himself above all the others and made a bunch of rules to oppress people really bothered me. It made me quit. So in a way I can see why some find it uncomfortable, because I did myself once (but I still don't think the books should be banned).

However, none of that bothered me this time. I was wondering if it would, but my worldview is so different now and this time I just enjoyed it as a story. A different way of looking at things, and all in a different universe that doesn't exist anyways. In fact, I quite liked the ideas that were presented at the end, they fit more with my own current mindset now. But I was curious all the way through how Lyra would fulfill the prophecy- play the role of Eve, and how Mary Malone would be the snake. And whenever that moment happened, I didn't see it. Was the temptation that Lyra should leave more windows open? or stay with Will and one of them weaken? why didn't I see it? (someone please point it out to me I feels so dense).

And now perhaps I've said too much rambling on about it, but there you go!

Rating: 3/5 ........ 518 pages, 2000

More opinions at:
Hooser's Blook
Paperback Pirate
Keep the Wisdom

dogeared progress

I've decided to count my used copy of The Golden Compass towards my Dogeared Reading Challenge. I'm certain now that I want the series in my collection, but this copy is just going to have to get replaced as soon as I can find another. For one thing, the edges are so worn they're soft, the cover is separating from the binding, and it's got creases on the corners. But what bothers me most is that the spine doesn't seem to visually fit with the rest of the book. It looks like this:

A very generic look and what's with those red triangles? I just hate looking at it on the shelf. Doesn't match the others in appearance at all. So this one has to go! But it was great reading it. I'm just so puzzled by that incongruous spine. Have you ever seen a book like that? Why would they print it like this?

Anyhow, it's my ninth book for the Dogeared challenge. Is anyone else still participating in this one? Do let us know about the sad (condition-wise) books you've given one more appreciative read!

The Subtle Knife

by Philip Pullman

Lyra's adventures continue in The Amber Spyglass, second novel in the His Dark Materials series. It has become clear not only to Lyra but also to many other figures in the story (who have their own plots and designs) that the boundaries between worlds are fragmented in places. People can step between different universes with unprecedented ease- though it's not always safe what they find. Lyra finds herself on a quest to help Will, a boy from another world (one more like ours) find his missing father and a small weapon of great power. Difficulties arise because Lyra, having become proficient in reading the golden compass, can be quite headstrong and have her own ideas about what course their paths should take. I'm glad to see that near the end she learned her folly and buckled to the guidance of those wiser than herself, although I was really surprised she never asked for advice on how to heal Will's persistent wound (did this occur to anyone else?). Anyhow, their adventure takes many turns as they find themselves in another world where adults are preyed upon by unseen wraiths and children run wild, fleeing from a rich man who wants to steal their most prize possession, and battling a madman who holds the weapon which only Will can use. Lyra also gets more involved in research into the mystery of Dust, the implications of which are becoming more and more clear. One thing I really like about these books is that (so far) it's hard to tell exactly which side you're supposed to be rooting for. Who are the good guys, and who the bad? Each character seems to have their own motivations and nobody is just "black or white". I like that. It makes the characters feel so real, and complicated. The storyline doesn't only follow the children but also shows events happening to other characters from the first book: the witches, the armored bear, the balloon man- all who have a part to play in what looks to be a great battle at the end (book three!) which I'm eager reading towards myself now.

Those are just my quick thoughts. I wish I could say more in depth, but jotting this down in a bit of a hurry...

Rating: 4/5 ....... 326 pages, 1997

More opinions at:
Worthy of Note
Ace and Hooser Blook
Outside of a Dog
Eagle's Path

The Golden Compass

by Philip Pullman

I actually read The Golden Compass last week, but haven't been on the computer much so didn't get a chance to post until today. I started this series once about ten or so years ago, and didn't quite make it through the last book. More on that later. So for at least the first two, this was a re-read, but I found I had forgotten a lot of it, which made reading it again really enjoyable.

The Golden Compass is set in an alternate universe, where every person's soul is expressed in an animal form that is their constant companion. I loved that. Especially that the children's daemons (so they're called) could change shape, and that the animals would express emotions the person tried to conceal, or things like that. It made the story so much more complex and interesting. Anyway, the main character is a girl named Lyra. She's been raised in a sort of orphan status at an academic college, where she pretty much runs wild, playing with the cook's son and street children. She's fascinated by stories of explorations into Northern regions, and caught up in gossip among the kids when children start mysteriously disappearing. When Lyra finds out that the missing children have been taken to a station in the far North where awful, mysterious experiments are being done to them, she's determined to join an expedition north that will rescue the children and find out what's going on. The Master of the college gives her a magical object that will help guide her, and she finds unlikely but loyal companions along the way- including a talking warrior polar bear.

This was a wonderful story. It's well-written and full of complex characters, imaginative scenes and curious doings. Half the fun is puzzling out what's really going on, as Lyra doesn't see everything clearly. She's quite the strong female lead, determined and brave, stubborn and passionate, also a practiced liar. I really don't see why this book was banned (I just happened to start reading the series during Banned Books Week) although I think the more objectionable (to some people) material comes out in the later books. So far, it seems to be that the Church in this alternate universe is portrayed as a controlling and suspicious entity quick to squash anyone who challenges or questions their precepts. But it really felt like a background theme in the story, not something this reader was really concerned with anyway.

The book was originally published with the title Northern Lights.

Rating: 4/5 ....... 399 pages, 1995

some more opinions:
Hooser's Blook
A Librarian's Life in Books

weekly finds

I keep doing these posts on saturdays, even though they're supposed to be on fridays! Go here to see what the host of Friday Finds put up. Well, my energy has been kind of blah all week (or two) but here's some books I have nevertheless added to my TBR list recently (plus a link to the blogger who made me aware of each book!):

Tide Feather Snow by Miranda Weiss- Raging Bibliomania
Farm City by Novella Carpenter from Amy Reads
A Prickly Affair by Hugh Warwick- The Stay at Home Bookworm
Bad Karma by David Safier- Farm Lane Books
The Birds and Other Stories by Daphne duMaurie- Savidge Reads
Wolf Moon by Charles de Lint- Stuff as Dreams are Made On

How to Twist a Dragon's Tale

The Heroic Misadventures of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III 
by Cressida Cowell

In this fifth volume of Hiccup's awkward and funny viking adventures, a breed of "rouge dragon" is burning entire forests to a crisp, and a neighboring volcano threatens to erupt. Hiccup learns that instead of evacuating their home, or hopelessly standing their ground against the fearsome Exterminator dragons, he might just be able to stop the volcano from erupting by throwing the mysterious firestone back into it. So of course he sets off on the quest to do so, against his father's advice.

I'm not sure why, but this story started to loose me pretty early on. The plot is a bit more convoluted than the previous books, with explanations of various doings among sundry vikings in the past, including Hiccup's old enemy Al the Treacherous (a character I just find annoying). All of which past events affect the future course, and only Hiccup really figures out what happened and what's going on. It has to do with his parents' relationship as well, which I found a bit odd. I did like the part about the Viking tribal meeting where a special stone must be held in order to have the privilege of speaking, so of course they fought over the thing and the whole chaos was obviously meant to be the beginning of football. It was kind of clever. But my favorite character, Toothless, didn't seem to have much of a part this time, and the long pages of Hiccup arguing with Al got boring, especially as everything turned out to be not what it seemed. I get tired of that sometimes. So I didn't finish this one. Not sure if I'll try anymore in the series. I am curious about the one titled How to Break a Dragon's Heart- is it poor Toothless? but will take a good look at it before I start reading.

Abandoned ........ 246 pages, 2007

How to Cheat a Dragon's Curse

The Heroic Misadventures of Hiccup the Viking
 by Cressida Cowell

Further mishaps and glory of Hiccup the scrawny little viking. In this story, one of the young vikings is deathly ill from a poisonous dragon's bite, and only has a few hours to live. The only cure, according to Old Wrinkly (of unreliable predictions) is a strange, unknown vegetable called the potato (because potatoes are from America, which hadn't yet been discovered). Everyone laughs or shushes him when Hiccup says they must find a potato quickly, so he sets off on his own to fulfill a dangerous quest: sneak into enemy territory in the dead of night to steal a frozen potato that is one of other tribe's prize possessions. To make things worse, Hiccup has already antagonized the leader of this other viking tribe, and the sea surrounding their island is haunted by the enormous dreaded Doomfang dragon. But this time Hiccup has a new friend: in addition to his little mischievous dragon Toothless, he's got Camicazi at his side- a fierce viking girl who's an accomplished thief. Can the little team make it through all the dangers, procure the mysterious potato and make it back on time?

I liked a lot of this story, but some parts really bugged me. I found myself really enjoying the strings of imaginative insults (like "you pathetic pieces of earwig droppings!" or "you horrible halitosis haddock!") There are some really lively scenes including a mad escape sledding down a mountainside, and the most monstrously funny food fight ever (which also happens to be a battle). I kept picturing them as film scenes with 3-D animation, having the audience rolling. But on the other hand, I was a bit annoyed at the forumla I'm starting to see. Every one of these books opens with the young vikings out on a training lessons that goes wrong. The whole idea of Hiccup's tribe having already discovered America and "the feathered people" seemed kind of farfetched to me. And I was irritated that the potato was called "the Vegetable That No One Dares Name" (it being unlucky) because that constantly reminded me of Voldemort's title in the Harry Potter books (an extremely similar euphanism). There was also the deal about the arrow stuck in the potato which smacked of King Arthur's sword-in-the-stone episode. Now, I don't always mind it when an author borrows from other works, but for some reason here it really bothered me. Regardless, the story is quite lively and kept me chuckling, and the end had a twist that took me entirely by surprise.

Rating: 2/5 ........ 241 pages, 2006

More opinions at:
What to Read
A Fort Made of Books
anyone else?

White Ruff

by Glenn Balch

Another attempt of mine to find a book by the author Glenn Balch that I like just as much as Buck, Wild, which I loved as a kid. White Ruff is a dog story very similar to Lassie Come-Home. It's about a smart valuable collie dog that originally belongs to a father and son who live up in the mountains, herding sheep and living off the land. Being a skilled sheep dog and a beautiful animal, White Ruff is stolen. He gets transporting a far distance and then the faithful dog tries to find his way back home (of course). He runs into all kinds of adventures: surviving a car wreck, being smuggled into a dog show, taking up with another herder and accidentally getting locked in a train car with a shipment of sheep. At one point he winds up in a dog pound, at another he's crammed in a pet shop cage. Lots of different people try to adopt or keep him -from wealthy spoiled kids to a wandering hobo- but the dog is always anxious to continue his journey and find his real family. He learns to judge which people to trust or flee from, and even figures out how to hitchhike. It was the end of the story that really stretched my credulity, when the dog gets involved in a circus and it turns out - so conveniently!- that the boy who originally owned him as a sheepdog had also trained him to ride horseback. So of course he gets put into a circus act and that's where his boy finds him. The final pages reminded me a lot of a certain scene in Beverly Cleary's book Ribsy, where the original owner and a new adopted owner are both vying to see who will keep the dog; they let the animal decide by seeing which one he comes to when called. This circus scene was a lot more spectacular, as the dog was called by the boy right in the middle of his circus act, but it also seemed kind of cheesy to me. I guess this story really had appeal a few decades ago; I gather it was something of a classic, but I can't see kids nowdays really enjoying it with all the exclamations of "gee whiz" and the over-handy coincidences.

Rating: 3/5 ........ 235 pages, 1958

A Wolf in the Family

by Jerome Hellmuth

Another book I've had a chance to read again after so many years passing I hardly remembered it. Which is kind of funny, because I mentioned this book earlier on my blog here. I like the other, newer cover image better (featured on my previous review) but this one, which is actually on my copy, is interesting too because the book blurb is right on the front! Kind of tacky, don't you think?

Right away I found it very enjoyable. Hellmuth writes in a way that is fun, informative and insightful altogether. The book reminded me a lot of Lois Crisler's Captive Wild, although this one doesn't seem quite as serious. So here's the basics: Hellmuth wanted to prove, in the 1940's, that wolves weren't all "big and bad" but social creatures that could respond to love. He raised a wolf alongside his children to prove the stereotype wrong. There were lots of things here that I had completely forgotten. The family originally lived in a New York apartment but then moved to Seattle before they got the wolf where they had a house with a large yard. He purchased two newborn wolves from a zoo in Tacoma, for a mere $30, intending to return one to the zoo once it was grown. But the smaller pup didn't make it. The surviving wolf was named Kunu, and the family attitude quickly went from trepidation and doubt to utter love and devotion to the animal. To the point that once when Hellmuth tried to physically chastise the wolf for stealing food from the refrigerator and table (it was so bad his wife could hardly cook) his daughters jumped to the wolf's defense! I had thought, with my faulty memory, that all his children were small when he got the wolf cub but it turns out only one was under 5, his three other girls were nine, twelve, and fifteen. They were not completely unprepared for living with a wild animal, having had any number of unconventional pets before (raccoons, skunks, you name it) and also had three dogs. It was really touching to see how one of his alaskan malamutes, who had recently lost her own litter, tenderly adopted the little wolf pup.

One of the most amusing things in the book, to me, was seeing how the attitudes of their neighbors and acquaintances changed (or didn't). At first they worried about telling people they had a wolf, so they passed Kunu off as the malamute's real offspring, and not many people questioned that. Later when they decided the whole experiment was pointless if they couldn't be honest about it, none of their friends believed she really was a wolf (too friendly). On the other hand, people who instantly recognized Kunu for a wolf were terrified by her friendly enthusiastic greetings, which they took to be attacks! In fact, one neighborhood which was petitioning to get rid of the wolf, completely changed their tune when Kunu frightened off some burglars she wanted to make friends with.

Near the end of the book, the Hellmuths decided they wanted puppies out of Kunu, but all their attempts to mate her with malamutes or husky dogs failed (some very amusingly so). The book ends on both a sad and happy note; the other dogs in their household passed away, leaving Kunu bereft of canine company. But then they made plans to add another wolf to the family, so that Kunu could have a mate when this new pup grew up. It left me only wanting to read more; what happened next? did the new wolf pup have an entirely different personality? did he become Kunu's mate? how did the family (and neighbors) handle living with two wolves? But I can't find any more books by him about wolves. O well. A Wolf in the Family really is an excellent book. I'm so glad I got to read it again.

Rating: 4/5 ........ 186 pages, 1964

Wild Animals I Have Known

by Ernest Thompson Seton

This is one of those books I read time and time again as a kid at the public library, but until very recently only had vague memories of. I remember often enough turning the pages of the borrowed book, an edition with pawprints running up and down each page margin and lots of pen-and-ink illustrations. I mentioned this book once before when I read the author's autobiography, and now finally had a chance to read it again, after finding a used copy.

Wild Animals I Have Known is a collection of stories about animals that the author claims are based on true events. One tells about a wolf famed for preying on livestock, that cleverly evaded all attempts to poison him. There is also the story of a partridge, a savvy crow that leads a large band, and a beautiful wild horse that can outrun anything. I recognized part of the story about the fox- where a vixen tried to free her captive cub by burying the chain it was tied to. And I was a bit incredulous at the rabbit story- would a mother rabbit really kick a snake to free her young? Just as interesting as the wild animal stories were two about dogs- which might just as well be called wild. The first was a dog that ran around free on the prairie, grappling with wolves and eating off dead livestock himself, in one marvelous incident assisting the author when he got caught in his own wolf traps! the other was about a "yaller dog" which had been trained to faithfully care for sheep, and when his owner ditched him on a journey, the dog waited ages at a ferry for him to return. By the time he managed to attach himself to a new master, the dog's temperament had changed entirely, and although he protected his own flock dutifully enough, he proved to be a terror to the neighboring farms. Anyhow, the stories are not all pretty. Most of them have some violent doings, animals being torn apart by gunshots or something like. There are quite a few sad or ironic endings. I liked them all the same.

Rating: 3/5 ........ 283 pages, 1941

The Galapagos

Exploring Darwin's Tapestry
by John Hess

This is a beautiful, beautiful book. John Hess combines gorgeous photography with lyrical words to bring the reader into an exotic, far-off place: the Galapagos islands. He describes their delicacy and harshness (I didn't know before that the islands were largely a desert environment). He talks about how the few endemic animal species have evolved specifically to survive there; mostly birds. There are only a scattering of reptiles there and no native mammals at all (unless you count ones that live mainly offshore, like the sea lions). I didn't know that penguins and flamingos live in the Galapagos, as well as some more-familiar birds like the great blue heron. The first part of the book describes the different habitats on and around the islands: the margin where the sea meets land, the dry desert areas, the upland daisy forests that get more precipitation. Many different species are mentioned in those sections, but in the later half of the book an individual chapter is dedicated to each of the seven Hess calls the "Galapagos royalty." They are the flightless cormorant, marine iguana, waved albatross, frigatebirds, Galapagos tortoise, three kinds of boobies and the swallow-tailed gull. I learned so much about these interesting and beautiful animals. Did you know that marine iguanas sneeze salt out of their bodies? that the swallow-tailed gull is the only seagull to fly and hunt at night (it eats fish and squid that glow in the dark)? that a pair of waved albatrosses will engage in courtship dances for several years before they raise their first chick together? Of course there is a lot of reflection in these pages on the evolutionary design of these animals, threats to their survival, and protective measures which have already shown signs of promise- tortoises are reared in safe enclosures until big enough to be safe from rats; invasive goats and other domestics have been eradicated from several of the islands. But Hess also tells stories about some of the animals, like a legend about how the cormorant lost its power of flight, which makes The Galapagos an even more engaging read. I really enjoyed the mix of inspired myth and factual science, all enhanced by beauty.

Found on a library shelf and borrowed.

Rating: 5/5 ........ 188 pages, 2009 pages

Inkheart

by Cornelia Funke

An imaginative adventure story revolving around books. Meggie's father restores old books, but when they suddenly pack up and visit her elderly book-obsessed aunt after she sees a sinister figure standing outside their house in the rain, Meggie suspects more is going on than just repairs on her aunt's collection. There's one particular book in her father's care that incites all kinds of interest- her father keeps it hidden, her aunt wants it so much she secretly swaps it for a different book, a very non-bookish person sends armed men to the house to wrest it from their possession, etc. Before she knows what is really happening Meggie is mixed up with kidnappers, a shifty fire-swallower and all sorts of interesting characters, all because of this one book. Even after they've narrowly escaped danger, some characters have a nagging desire to still return for the book.

It turns out that more interesting than the book Inkheart, is the secret ability her father has. I heard about it long before I read this so I don't have many qualms about telling you, although Meggie herself doesn't discover what he can do until halfway through the story. When he reads aloud, her father's voice draws characters out of the books and into real life. It sounds amazing, doesn't it? I was looking forward to this all through the pages, but it didn't play out as spectacularly as I'd hoped. In fact, I'm sorry to say, the whole story failed to really catch hold of me. I was reading along only half-interestedly and then suddenly at page 266 I thought: if I set this down now and walk away without feeling curious about what happens next, then I know I'm really not invested in this story. And that's what happened. I've been wanting to read it since last year, when I saw all the reviews going around; in particular one on Read Warbler caught my interest. But it didn't work out for me. The characters didn't feel very real. In spite of all the adventure the plot felt slow, I kept getting bored. I did like the literary quotes heading each chapter, and how I could recognize the familiar books characters mentioned; but then all the bookish metaphors and references started to feel forced. I always feel kinda bad when I don't fall in love with a book so many other readers adored. Get some second opinions below; I think I'm in the minority with my dislike here.

Abandoned ....... 534 pages, 2003

More opinions at:
Advanced Booking
Educating Petunia
Things Mean a Lot
A Striped Armchair
Bloggin' 'bout Books
You Can Never Have Too Many Books
Book Addiction

challenge complete!

Yesterday I finished the What An Animal III Reading Challenge, hosted at Socrates' Book Review Blog. It might seem like something too easy for me, the reader of animal books, to take on a challenge about reading animal books! But I try to stretch myself a bit and have fun here by reading new subjects: animals I never read a whole book about them before. Hm. That sentence is kinda awkward. But I'm tired. Well! I read about kangaroos, insects and sundry small critters, deer in the woods, oceanic turtles, rats in New York City and squirrels plus other wildlife in someone's backyard. The titles (with links to my reviews) were:

Chasing Kangaroos by Tim Flannery
For Love of Insects by Thomas Eisner
The Hidden Life of Deer by Elizabeth Thomas Marshall
Voyage of the Turtle by Carl Safina
Suburban Safari by Hannah Holmes
Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants by Robert Sullivan

Voyage of the Turtle and For Love of Insects were the best two, by far.