March 2009 - Page 3 of 4

Kon-Tiki

by Thor Heyerdahl
translated by F.H. Lyon

Wow, this was a great book. It\’s been a while since I read something so enthralling, that caused continual verbal outbursts of amazement from my usual reading silence. Kon-Tiki is the story of an adventure Heyerdahl set upon to prove a point. In the 1940\’s this young Norwegian scholar came up with a theory that the South Sea Islands had been settled by peoples from Peru, who crossed the Pacific Ocean on balsawood rafts, traveling on the Humbolt Current. Heyerdahl could not get any scholars to read the papers he wrote summing up his theory, they thought it was so ridiculous. So to prove that it could have been possible, he decided to cross the ocean himself on a raft built in the same manner the indigenous people had used in pre-Columbian times. With five other men, he set out on a 4,300 mile journey across the empty ocean. While the raft itself had no modern fittings, being constructed entirely of natural materials like balsa wood, bamboo, palm leaves, and hemp rope, the crew carried lots of technical instruments in order to keep records, conduct experiments, and keep in touch with the mainland via radio. They were supplied with recently-developed equipment and provisions by the US Army (to test on the voyage) and each member of the crew had a particular speciality- one worked the radio, another was in charge of navigation, etc. They even experimented with two different diets- some of the men ate Army rations, others food the indigenous people would have carried- coconuts, sweet potatoes, etc- and they all supplemented this with fish caught at sea.

It was thrilling to read of their sea journey. The descriptions of their surroundings- the limitless horizon, the huge swells, the impressive weather- is vividly written. It was fascinating to read about the different things they learned by experience- like how to navigate by the stars, or how to steer the raft effectively (it had no motor power, and could not be halted en route). I was astonished to read about them drinking seawater, eating plankton, making ice, and creating a dangerous game of catching sharks (with bare hands) by the tail! And of course, I loved reading about the ocean life they encountered. In addition to whales and many kinds of fish, they saw large squid, giant whale shark, snake mackerel (never before seen live), octopus, flying fish and sea turtles. Many mysterious creatures came up to the surface at night, drawn by the lights on board. I was continually confused by references to dolphins, which here meant mahi-mahi, not the porpise-like mammal I kept picturing. They also had a parrot on board for some time, and his antics were amusing.

Lots of Polynesian culture and history is discussed in this book, and I was fascinated by the explanations of how those huge statues on Easter Island were raised. When the Kon-Tiki finally reached the South Sea Islands, the natives there went crazy with excitement seeing a craft just like those their ancestors had used. I felt a thrill at this recognition, just like the thrill I felt in reading Roots, when the author set foot in the village his great-great-whatever-grandfather had originally come from, and the villagers, upon hearing how his ancestry matched up with their own oral lineage, welcomed him as a long-lost family member, with joy. The tone and themes of this book also brought to my mind two others- Paddle to the Amazon by Don Starkell and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne.

I read Kon-Tiki for the 9 for \’09 Challenge. I did have to replace my first copy. Even after being sealed up with some deodorizing agents for over a week, the book still smelled offensive and I had to put it in the recycling bin. I don\’t think I\’ve ever actually thrown away a book before, and felt shamed doing it! But worse would be to pass that copy on to someone else, and inflict the same discomfort on them, when reading it should be pure enjoyment.

Rating: 5/5 240 pages, 1950

More opinions at:
All Manner of Thing
Books and Literature for Teens
Do you have one? Tell me, and I\’ll add your link here.

Tags: 5/5- Loved It, Current Reads, Nonfiction (general), Travel/Adventure

blog award

A few days ago I met a new book blogger, and received an award at the same time! Diane who writes Bibliophile by the Sea gave me the PROXIMIDADE award. Thank you so much, Diane! I followed this blog back through more than a dozen to Marie of A Day in My Life… Photos and More, where she credited the blogger who passed it to her, but there was no link so I couldn’t follow it further. I found a lot of new blogs along the way- first many book blogs, then several knitting and sewing blogs, then a few general blogs. Here\’s the description of what the award means:

“This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this clever-written text into the body of their award.”

I’d like to pass this award on to:
Bookfool of Bookfoolery and Babble
Leslie of Books ‘N Border Collies
Wendy of Caribousmom
Trish of Hey Lady, Whatcha Readin’?
Natasha of Maw Books Blog
Chris of Stuff as Dreams Are Made On
Nymeth of Things Mean a Lot and
Susan of You Can Never Have Too Many Books

You are among the friendliest bloggers I know!

wondrous words

These new words (including some I\’ve seen before, but was unsure of their exact meaning) came from Enslaved by Ducks:

Bovid– \” \’I had no idea,\’ I marveled, still stricken by the bovid apparition.\”
Definition: Of the family Bovidae, which includes hoofed, hollow-horned ruminants such as cattle, sheep and goats (I had to look this one up because I thought bovine were just cattle. I didn\’t know it also meant sheep and goats)

Filbert– \”His smorgasboard included Cheerios, freshly grated filberts, succulent garden peas, sweet corn sliced off the cob each morning, and an occasional dollop of pasta.\”
Definition: A hazelnut

Hokum– \”I like to think that my decisions in life are guided by the rudder of common sense rather than blown willy-nilly by folkloric hokum and balderdash.\”
Definition: Something that is nonsense, untrue (balderdash has almost exactly the same meaning)

Sebum– \”Weaver would land on my head and gleefully begin drilling for dander and sebum.\”
Definition: Oily substance secreted by the sebaceous glands, naturally lubricates your hair

Bromeliad, Docent– \”Truly he belonged in the open sky or, at the very least, in a large aviary packed with palm trees, bromeliads and docents.\”
B– a type of tropical american plant with long, stiff leaves (including pineapples)
D– a tour guide (or professor)

Mesmer, Grommet, Phlogiston– \”Here and there a flanged mesmer valve or grommeted phlogiston regulator emerged from the heaped earth like a Chichen Itzan artifact, but the body of the antique pump remained hidden.\”
M- Mesmer was an Austrian physician in the 1700\’s. I still don\’t know a mesmer valve is
G- an eyelet reinforced with metal or plastic
P- an imaginary element formerly once believed to be the substance of fire

And these words are from Kon-Tiki:

Mole– \”I intentionally stopped the car a long way off and walked the whole length of the mole to stretch my legs thoroughly for the last time for no one knew how long.\”
Definition: a stone wall built in the sea as a breakwater

Dolphin-\”…when a big flying fish thudded on board we used it as bait and at once pulled in two large dolphins weighing from twenty to thirty-five pounds each. This was food for several days.\”
Definition: a large, brightly colored marine game fish with a steep blunt forehead and a long continuous dorsal fin (also called dolphinfish or mahi-mahi)

Philologist– \”… philologists have pointed out that on all the widely scattered South Sea islands the name of the sweet potato is kumara, and kumara is just what the sweet potato was called among the old Indians in Peru.\”
Definition: a classical scholar or student of the liberal arts

Pelagic– \”And so the Kon-Tiki soon began to swarm with stowaways. They were small pelagic crabs.\”
Definition: of ocean waters, especially those far from land

Check out Wondrous Words Wednesdays on Bermudiaonion\’s weblog for more new vocab!

Tags: wondrous words

The Intelligence of Dogs

Canine Consciousness and Capabilities
by Stanley Coren

This book delves into the canine mind. It addresses such questions as: how smart are dogs? do different breeds vary in their level of intelligence? how do dogs manage to communicate with people so well, and understand our spoken commands? do they feel emotions the same way we do? can they remember the past, or anticipate future events? Coren breaks down dog smarts into three categories: instinctual intelligence, adaptive learning ability, and obedience work. There\’s a chapter of simple tests you can give your dog to assess his problem-solving abilities or IQ, discussion of the very specialized abilities different breeds have, an evaluation of which breeds perform certain tasks better (watchdog, guard dog, etc) and a list ranking 79 popular dog breeds by intelligence. Another author I read just before picking up this book criticized how Coren ranked the breeds, but I thought his explanations made good sense (and of course it\’s just a general guideline). I found particularly interesting the explanation of how dog breeds have evolved to be so specialized, and learned many interesting facts about dogs in history. For example, did you know that English sheepdogs were bred to have no tail because it exempted them from the tax of livestock, defined as \”animals born with tails\”? The one thing I didn\’t like about this book were the awkward drawings sprinkled throughout the text (my brain kept redrawing them and feeling annoyed). But the plates of engravings in the middle are quite lovely and more than make up for that. Alongside Dogs: A New Understanding by the Coppingers, The Intelligence of Dogs is wonderful, comprehensive reading about the mental abilities of our canine companions.

Rating: 4/5 271 pages, 1994

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

winner

.
I picked a name out of a hat this morning.
The winner of my bookmarks giveaway is:

Confuzzled Shannon of Confuzzled Books!

Congrats! I\’ve sent the winner an email.
Come back next week for a new chance to win!

Gentle Birth Choices

by Barbara Harper

Here\’s another book I read back when I was pregnant. Gentle Birth Choices, written by an RN, is a fairly in-depth guide of alternatives to giving birth in a hospital. It starts off by giving a history of childbirth practices in America, particularly focusing on how it became the norm for women to give birth in hospitals, and explaining why some common preconceptions about hospital births are not necessarily true. Then Harper describes the history and roles of midwives, how birth can be a natural, non-medicated process, and goes into detail about giving birth in water. There\’s a section on the \”mind-body\” connection during childbirth, and some of the information here took me by surprise (like that some women find childbirth to be almost an erotic experience- this idea was very foreign to me!) The book wraps up with a section all about planning your birth, complete with suggested questions to ask a hospital, doctor or midwife in order to help you make decisions. Gentle Birth Choices feels well-researched, quoting from medical journals, research studies, national statistics, etc. It really made me think about what all the different options were, and can be a helpful resource in choosing how you and your child will experience birth. It\’s easy to read, informative, and illustrated with lovely photographs.

Rating: 4/5 302 pages, 1994

More opinions at:
Birth at Home in Arizona
Do you have one to share? Let me know and I\’ll add your link.

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Parenting / Pregnancy, Past Reads

Enslaved by Ducks

by Bob Tarte

After getting through the The Grail War I needed some lighter reading, so I opened Enslaved by Ducks and read it cover to cover again (the first time was a few years ago). This book tells the story of Bob Tarte and his wife Linda as they move from city to country and go from being naive first-time pet owners to part of an endlessly growing animal family. It started when they decided to get a small bunny. Binky turned out unfriendly, destructive and aggressive to other animals, but this did not dampen Linda\’s desire to have more pets (although it did spur them to do a bit more research on choosing them). Next they brought a canary into their household, a few cats and more rabbits. But the majority of their new friends were feathered- parakeets, a dove, parrots, ducks, geese, etc. At first the author was a very reluctant pet owner, but eventually the animals won him over (even though their behavior was often demanding and very annoying) and he spent endless hours caring for them, nursing them through illness, and trying to win over an African gray parrot who preferred his wife\’s company. Even when the Tartes decided they had enough animals and quit purchasing them, they could not refuse when a creature needed help, and took in parrots that needed homes, neglected turkeys, and orphaned starlings. Their amusing (and sad, at times) story of life with the birds showed me just how much personality a duck can have (I don\’t find birds as interesting as other animals). Sometimes I felt that the puns and self-deprecating humor were a bit too much, but overall it was an enjoyable read.

The author has a website where you can find more about his life with the animals, see photos of them, and read about his new book, Fowl Weather (which is now on my TBR!)

Rating: 3/5 308 pages, 2003

More opinions at:
Bookfoolery and Babble
Stuff as Dreams Are Made On
My Life by the Book
Rockbooks Review

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Animals Nonfiction, Current Reads

The Grail War

by Richard Monaco

This is the second book I\’ve finished for the 9 for \’09 Challenge. It fit in the category of a used book I bought. It\’s almost disappointing to say how relieved I was to finish it! I have the same ambiguous feelings about The Grail War as I did with Parsival– much of the book confuses or disgusts me, but at the same time something about the way Monaco crafts a sentence and brings alive the gritty details is very compelling. I could feel the thick mud sucking down the feet of people plodding across the countryside on poorly kept roads. I could feel the bitter wind and biting rain hammering down, and later the choking smoke and stink of burning villages laid waste by warfare. By the time I reached the book\’s end, its structure had finally become more clear to me. It is a tale set in the aftermath of King Arthur\’s death, the kingdom ravaged by war and chaos. Several of the key characters are seeking to lay hands on the grail- Parsival to find the thing he had once held and lost, the evil Clinschor (who reminded me of Darth Vader) to wield its power, and the wise peasant Broaditch drawn on by visions he doesn\’t quite understand, yet puts full faith in. The storyline also includes the wife of Broaditch and some other minor persons, and it jumps back and forth frequently between them all, even before closing a scene or chapter (which can really get annoying. It\’s like having commercial breaks in the middle of your book all the time, only instead of zoning out on products, you\’re suddenly wondering whose shoes you\’re standing in now, and what happened last time you were with this person, just a few pages back.) Parsival\’s character has grown more solemn. He tries to avoid senseless fighting, but hasn\’t at all lost his weakness for women. I found it a lot easier to sympathize with Broaditch; even though I failed to understand why he was compelled to go on his journey, at least his goal was fairly straightforward and his path easy to follow. Those of the other characters were a lot more convoluted and unclear.

Has anyone else read this book? I\’d dearly love to hear your opinion, and perhaps some clarification.

Rating: 2/5 319 pages, 1979

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

Heart\’s Blood

by Jane Yolen

In this sequel to Dragon\’s Blood, young Jakkin has reached his dream of owning his own dragon, and his freedom. But being a master is not exactly as he\’d imagined. He often finds his new role awkward, especially in the strained relationship with one of his old friends and companions, who has become Jakkin\’s bondservant. Even though being a master gives him greater privileges, Jakkin still prefers to spend time working with his dragon rather than immersing himself in the seedier entertainments of the city. But when he learns that his girlfriend Akki, who he hasn\’t seen in a year, is mixed up with an underground rebel organization and could be in danger, Jakkin suddenly finds himself involved in a confusing world of politics and intrigue, and eventually on the run for his life. The plot of Heart\’s Blood gets a bit complex, and at first it was confusing for me (at a younger age) to follow. It was probably the first book I read that dealt with politics and kept me interested- because I could relate to the main character\’s perspective. At first he didn\’t care about political unrest, until he saw how changes in society would impact his personal life and those (people and dragons alike) he cared about. Then he could not help but get involved. A great story, set in a far-away world that is very believable. I find this book compelling every time I re-read it.

Rating: 4/5 …….. 352 pages, 1984

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Past Reads, Young Adult

wondrous words

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All of the new words I found this week came from The Grail War, which I am still trudging through (almost done!) You can visit Bermudiaonion\’s weblog to see what new words other readers have discovered.

Spang– \”Prang saw Parsival move: a blur, a flying shadow, a flashing of steel, spangs, crunchings, screams, sighs, curses, men scattering and falling like rats before a striking cat.\”
Definition: To leap, cast, jerk or bang. It can also be an adverb meaning precisely, exactly.

Putative: \”…he stayed and resisted and frustrated his putative master.\”
Definition: Inferred, or or accepted as true on inconclusive grounds (implying it wasn\’t his true master?)

Sardonic: \”She shook her sardonic head.\”
Definition: Scornfully or cynically mocking

Nonce: \” \’I care little for the nonce, whether it be demons or mooncalfs you follow.\’ \”
Definition: The present or particular occasion

Laconically: \” \’This is my command,\’ he said laconically. \’Who in hell asks?\’\”
Definition: Using few words, terse or concise

Vagary: \”Because of a vagary in the air currents, the fog was thinner here.\”
Definition: An extravagant or erratic notion or action

Tags: wondrous words

Month: March 2009

RATINGS / SUBJECTS: