September 2008 - Page 3 of 3

A Friend Like Henry

by Nuala Gardner

This is \”the remarkable true story of an autistic boy and the dog that unlocked his world.\” When Dale was two, life at home was an endless struggle for his mother. Dale rarely spoke, never showed affection, failed to play appropriately and threw horrendous tantrums all the time. Then they got a golden retreiver named Henry, and Dale slowly began to change. Latching onto her son\’s acceptance of anything revolving around Henry, his mother used the dog as a foil to help Dale learn many skills and try numerous new experiences (which had heretofore been disastrous). The most surprising development to me was when his parents began impersonating Henry\’s voice, \”talking\” through the dog in order to have conversations with their son. He gradually learned to communicate directly (sans dog), use eye contact, and understand and express empathy. Dale progressed until he was able to move away from special education programs into the regular school system, and when he entered high school, anxious to fit in, he didn\’t tell his new friends that he had autism. They were unaware of his disability for years. Just when you begin to think the story is all over, it was discovered that Dale\’s little sister had autism too. Henry the dog was enlisted again (albeit in a slightly different manner) to help her as well.

Needless to say, this is a very special dog to the Gardner family. I admire their tireless efforts (when little professional help was available) and endless patience in teaching Dale. His story is really remarkable. I do wish that it had been told a little better. A Friend Like Henry is straightforward to the point of flatness, and not very fluid. The beginning is kind of awkward. Seeing as the dog was such an important part of Dale\’s growth and learning, I really expected him to be a central figure in the story. But a third way through the book he falls into the background. From that point on, it becomes a litany of all the different programs, schools and people who assisted Dale. The accounts of various personal struggles his mother had also receive a lot of emphasis- distracting from Dale\’s story. In fact, she was the only person whose personality showed through the pages- not that of Dale, or the dog, or anyone else. Through the last half of the book, I really struggled to stay interested.

This book reminded me of one I read many years ago called Karen, about a girl with cerebral palsy. Her family also struggled against public ignorance and lack of professional support, creating their own intensive therapy routine at home and working for years without seeing results before finding success beyond anyone\’s expectations.

I received this title from Sourcebooks. They very kindly sent me an entire catalog to browse and select from. I found quite a number of books that looked interesting, so a few more will be showing their faces here soon!

Rating: 2/5 262 pages, 2007

Tags: 2/5- Just Okay, Animals Nonfiction, Bios / Memoirs, Current Reads

The Yearling

by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

This morning I surveyed my half-flattened, waterlogged garden. Tropical storm Hannah passed by us yesterday. Seeing what a mess one day of heavy rain can make, I thought of a vivid passage from The Yearling, where after days of endless rain, the family\’s crops were totally destroyed, and what little they could salvage to bring inside promptly went moldy. I can fall back on the refrigerator and supermarket, but for them it was a sudden matter of near-starvation.

The Yearling is set in central Florida\’s scrub wilderness, during the late 1800\’s. Its main character is the young boy Jody. His family is totally dependent upon the land for their survival, and much of the book is an ode to nature- wildlife and landscape abound in beautiful descriptions. Jody likes nothing better than to traipse off and enjoy nature by himself- or better yet, go hunting with his father. He longs for a pet, and when the opportunity to adopt an orphaned fawn presents itself, Jody is ecstatic. But when the deer grows up, it poses a serious threat to their crops. Facing what to do about his pet deer is only one of the tough decisions Jody has to make as he grows up. In fact, although the situation about the deer is pivotal in his coming of age, it is really not the focus of this book.

More than anything, this is a story about family, relationships and survival. Jody\’s father is a mild-mannered man, who tries to protect his son from harsh realities. His mother is far more domineering- and their contrasting personalities create an interesting family dynamic. Their closest neighbors are a clan of rough men, who alternately pose a threat, or the only nearby help in times of trouble. His best friend is a gentle, disabled boy. Jody also runs into strangers during trips to town, faces bullies at school, etc. As different dramatic events swirl around him, he veers between feeling admiration, love, disdain and hate towards other people- often experiencing opposite emotions towards the same individual. This book vividly portrays how conflicting feelings unfold inside the heart of a boy as he faces some very difficult life lessons. I highly recommend it.

Rating: 5/5 373 pages, 1938

Tags: 5/5- Loved It, Animals Fiction, Classics, Past Reads

The Omnivore\’s Dilemma

A Natural History of Four Meals
by Michael Pollan

I enjoyed this book very much, but felt like it took me forever to read. The chapters were so packed with information, it made my head swim and periodically I had to set it aside and read something else, to let my brain rest and digest it all. The Omnivore\’s Dilemma is a detailed examination of how food gets to our tables- following the path of four different meals and then evaluating them in the final chapter of each section. Along the way Pollan talks about all different kinds of food sources- big agriculture, where corn has come to be included in almost every processed item you find in the grocery store; the atrocities of fast food (this section reminded me of Fast Food Nation); organic farming- both big, little and \”off the grid\” (think local and slow food movements); and surprisingly, food which he hunted and gathered himself from the forest. The part where the author followed a beef steer he had purchased himself brought to mind Portrait of a Burger as a Young Calf. There is also a lot of overlap between The Omnivore\’s Dilemma and things discussed in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Pollan shares many of his experiences conducting first-hand research: visits to feedlots and cornfields, to chicken sheds and organic farms, to tracts of forestland in pursuit of wild pig and mushrooms. This book is a lot weightier than the previous ones I\’ve read by him, but just as interesting.

I learned so many things I can\’t possibly mention them all. That organic food isn\’t always what you might think it is. That surplus war materials have been poured into the soil: fertilizers were made from ammonium nitrate left over from making explosives, and pesticides made from chemicals originally created for napalm and agent orange. That raw fish is made safer by eating it with wasabi, which has antimicrobial properties- yay for sushi! That we know next to nothing about mushrooms- they collect energy (it is speculated) from the moon, not the sun, so don\’t have calories, but some lunar equivalent. I never knew.

Edited to add: I have just discovered this very interesting letter which Michael Pollan wrote in response to the C.E.O. of Whole Foods \”taking issue with some of the points I have made about his grocery chain in my book.\”

Rating: 4/5 …….. 450 pages, 2006

more opinions at:
Ardent Reader
Book Clutter

Living 2 Read

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Current Reads, Gardening / Food

A Storyteller in Zion

by Orson Scott Card

This book is a collection of essays and speeches by Orson Scott Card. Mostly having to do with how writing fiction fits into the context of his religious beliefs. Unlike many LDS fiction writers (at least those I\’ve encountered), Card\’s books do not feel like sappy, watered down versions of life. They include plenty of immoral characters who do terrible things, bad stuff happening to good people, who wrest with awful dilemmas. Thus I found quite interesting his essay \”The Problem of Evil in Fiction.\” Other titles in the collection include \”The Book of Mormon- Artifact or Artifice?\” \”Science Fiction and the Mormon Religion,\” and \”Art as an Act of Charity.\” I particularly appreciated the chapters on creativity and the art of storytelling. While I don\’t agree with everything Card says or argues for, A Storyteller in Zion gives a very clear picture of where this author is coming from, his attitudes and the motivations behind what he writes.

Rating: 3/5 215 pages, 1993

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Nonfiction (general), Past Reads

Meme: Pressure

I have shortened the question from Booking Through Thursday:

Have you ever felt pressured to read something because ‘everyone else’ was reading it? Have you ever given in and read the book(s) in question or do you resist?

Rarely do I succumb to this kind of pressure. I don\’t like reading books under feelings of obligation. It tarnishes the experience for me. I read what I like, when I want to. Even when I do read books which have gotten my attention because of their wild popularity, I usually wait until some of the hoopla has died down. I try to pick ones that I\’m actually interested in personally, not just because I\’m curious about why everyone else loved it (after all, they usually tell me that on their blogs!)

Tags: memes

The Fire Rose

by Mercedes Lackey

One day I was reading more about Robin McKinley\’s Beauty online, and came across some reviews that compared it this novel by Mercedes Lackey. Of course I was curious! The Fire Rose takes the story of Beauty and the Beast and places it in San Francisco, 1905. Its main character, Rose, is a female scholar- quite the bookworm and very outspoken for women\’s rights. She finds herself suddenly destitute and ends up in the mansion of a recluse, assisting him in some strange research into alchemy and magic. When she finds out the truth, Rose becomes more and more involved until it seems her very life could be in danger… I liked the frequent literary references, and learning a bit more about San Francisco of the time period (although some of the seedier elements of the city were pretty distasteful). The ending pleased me- although it wasn\’t at all what I expected! But oh, it was difficult to get there. Even though I enjoyed the story, I did not like the manner in which it was told. Something about the prose struck me as very dull, and after about fifty pages I realized why- I could hardly find a single metaphor or simile in the entire book. The descriptions are full of details- but so straightforward it made me yawn (literally). Nevertheless, I was so curious how the story would work itself out that I forced myself to read it to the end.

There were a few other things that weakened my appreciation of the book- two inconsistencies in the text, which jumped right out at me. An obvious solution to a major dilemma in the story which I saw, but none of the characters realized (minor annoyance). Also, though this is no fault of the author\’s, the cover image is inaccurate. Over and over again in the story it states that the half-man, half-wolf character has misshapen paws, not hands. And the lizard creature? It\’s supposed to be a magical salamander. The image my mind created (based on the author\’s descriptions) was so far from this I can\’t believe the artist and I read the same book. I\’m a very visual person, and every time I looked at the cover, it just bugged me.

I can see why fans of Mercedes Lackey prefer this novel to Beauty. It\’s much faster-paced, exciting, plenty of plot turns and suspenseful moments. But I still prefer Beauty. It may be a quieter tale, but there is more artistry in the words, and that\’s what enthralls me in the pages. Yet I\’m not giving up on this author right away- I do want to try another of her books- any suggestions?

Rating: 2/5 433 pages, 1995

Tags: 2/5- Just Okay, Current Reads, Fantasy / Sci Fi

Mind of the Raven

Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds
by Bernd Heinrich

Bernd Heinrich has a lifelong curiosity about ravens. This book is based on a decade of personal study. Not only did Heinrich observe ravens in the wild (from Alaska to Maine) and some kept as pets, but he also hand-raised birds in large outdoor aviaries. There he devised many experiments- half the time just to see what they would do. In many cases his experiments failed, because the ravens were too clever for him. Heinrich doesn\’t avoid sharing his errors and frustrations, and struggles to get his findings accepted by the scientific community. This was hampered by the informality of his studies (many were also incomplete). Yet the personal tone and numerous anecdotes make Mind of the Raven a pleasure to read. It\’s full of information about the birds\’ social interactions, relationships with predators, evidence of problem-solving, how they raise their young, what many of their calls mean, etc. Wrapped around all the facts are the author\’s personal opinions, conclusions and admiration for these fascinating birds.

Rating: 4/5 432 pages, 1999

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Animals Nonfiction, Past Reads

winners!

free books

Time to announce the winners of my Blogiversary Giveaway!
I just picked the names out of the bowl. And they are:

Tina Jewel won The World of Pooh
Nymeth of Things Mean a Lot won The Forgotten Beasts of Eld

If you would both send your physical address to jeanenevarez AT gmail DOT com, I will post your books in the next few days. Happy reading!

As a side note, Andi of Andi Lit just gave me the Brillante Blog award yesterday. It’s the second time I received it, so I’ve already passed this one on to seven other wonderful book bloggers. Thank you so much for the recognition, Andi!

make a difference

change the world for the better
Have you ever learned about something terrible that is going on in the world, but feel there\’s not much you can do about it, it\’s so far away or removed from your influence? I often do. So Natasha of Maw Books has yet again earned my awe and admiration. She\’s making a difference, in the case of genocide happening right now in Darfur. I didn\’t know much about the problems in Sudan until I started seeing the books Natasha\’s read on her blog. For this entire month, she will be reading and writing in her own campaign for Darfur. You can participate by letting others know about it, donating to the cause, reading a book about it, sponsoring Natasha\’s reading (money goes straight to a charity organization of your chioce) and in many other ways as well! Read all about it here and here.

Month: September 2008

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