April 2010 - Page 2 of 3

The Year of the Greylag Goose

by Konrad Lorenz

I knew of Konrad Lorenz as being the author of King Solomon\’s Ring, an excellent book a college friend once gave to me when she discovered I loved reading about animals. I knew he was a pioneering scientist in the study of animal behavior, particularly ethology, and being among the first to demonstrate that some infant animals, especially geese, would imprint upon and accept as their parents human beings (or whatever moving creature they first saw).

What I didn\’t know before was that Lorenz made his life work the study of behavior in greylag geese (and jackdaws). The Year of the Greylag Goose is a photo essay describing his work with the geese, some of the behavior he\’s observed and details of their life cycle, all accompanied by striking photographs. (Most animal books I read from this era have rather poor photos, but the ones in this book are really good quality in comparison). Lorenz chose to study geese in particular because he felt that their family grouping was similar to humans: young male geese try to impress the ladies, and a pair will go through a courtship period before settling down to raise a family. They usually stay together for life, but if one of the pair dies, the remaining goose seeks a new partner, after going through a period of mourning. Sometimes a pair will \”get divorced\”, or a goose already in a partnership finds another more attractive, and fights ensue among the males. Occasionally two male geese will form a pair bond, which results in some odd behavior when they try to mate with each other (physically impossible) or when a lone female finds one of a male pair attractive!

Some other really interesting things I learned were that geese have a horny spur on the shoulder of their wings, which they use to hit each other with in serious fights (you can see a wing spur in this photo). Goslings are waterproofed by rubbing against the mother\’s feathers when brooded (it took a while for Lorenz to figure out how to properly waterproof the goslings raised by hand). Each year adult geese go through a period of moulting, when they loose and then regrow their flight feathers. The young geese become ready to fly just when the adult\’s feathers have begun to regrow. Because their flight feathers are still rather short, the parents fly cautiously at first, avoiding fancy maneuvers and at the same time making it easier for the young geese to follow their lead while they learn to handle themselves in the air. Isn\’t nature wonderful?

I found this book at a library sale.

Rating: 4/5 …….. 199 pages, 1978

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

Dragonsbane

by Barbara Hambly

One of my favorite fantasy series begins with Barbara Hambly\’s Dragonsbane. Here\’s the basic plot: John Aversin is the only man who\’s ever slain a dragon. He lives in the remote Winterlands, leader of a people struggling on the outskirts of the kingdom. Gareth shows up unexpectedly, a young prince from the king\’s court, seeking help against a dragon that has seized part of the city. It\’s not an easy task for Gareth to convince John -and his wife Jenny, a half-trained witch- to return with him, and when they do get there, things quickly get complicated. The court is riddled with perfidy and corruption. The Gnomes- a separate race of oppressed people, owners of the area now held by the dragon- are in the middle of a revolt. It seems that John and Jenny will never even get near the dragon, but when they finally do, that encounter is nothing like they\’d expected, either.

Hambly is one of those amazing storytellers I never tire of reading again and again. I love how realistic everything in this novel feels, even though it\’s fantasy. The characters all struggle with personal issues. I love the fact that John is something of a self-taught philosopher, always dabbling in old books, searching for archaic knowledge, curious about inventions and how things work. Jenny wrestles with trying to pursue her art of witchcraft, a dedication which usually takes up a person\’s life entirely, while at the same time raising a family. Even Gareth turns out to be a sympathetic character, though at first he comes off as just a spoiled brat. Another really intriguing thing about the story is all its unexpected turns. Gareth didn\’t expect to find his hero standing in a pigpen of mud when he arrived in the Winterlands, and it really throws him for a while. John is dismayed to find the court full of conniving elite who don\’t really care about the dragon- but I love how he handles it! Jenny didn\’t foresee being able to communicate with the dragon, much less that it would make her a tempting offer, in bargain for its life, one of the most fascinating parts of the story… Well, all I can say is that if you like fantasy, particularly dragon books, I highly recommend this one!

Rating: 5/5 …….. 274 pages, 1985

More opinions at:
Cold Iron and Rowan-Wood
Paper Tiger
anyone else?

Tags: 5/5- Loved It, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Past Reads

The Wild Mare

by Glenn Balch

A cream-colored filly is born to a wild mare in the Idaho scrub, and on her very first day of life, looses her mother. Luckily Jim, a young ranch hand comes along and rescues her, raising her on cattle milk at the ranch station. When the filly is only five months old, an accident separates her from the only man she knows and trusts, and she ends up running off with the wild horses. The next time she meets mankind, they\’re strangers who see her as just another beautiful wild horse, one to be caught and broken in for profit. \”Flax\” spends several years evading cowboys and mingling with other wild horses, until finally she crosses paths with Jim once more. He recognizes her immediately, but she\’s only learned to fear men in the meantime. Can Jim win her trust again?

This book was first published with the title The Flaxy Mare. I got it from Book Mooch, because I was curious to read more stories by Glenn Balch. But this one didn\’t hold my interest as well. For that I had to give it just a 2; simply because I didn\’t enjoy it much, and often found my mind wandering. It\’s a nice enough story, though.

Rating: 2/5…….. 153 pages, 1967

anyone else posted about this book? I\’ll add your link here.

Tags: 2/5- Just Okay, Animals Fiction, Current Reads, Juvenile Fic, Western

giveaway winner!

I can\’t believe it\’s been two weeks since I read An American Childhood and put up my giveaway post, and here I\’ve only written six more posts (all current reads). Several things have been keeping me busy. Gardening has started to take up more of my time, but recently I cut my finger while slicing bread, and sprained my ankle tripping over a toy on the floor, which has slowed down both my garden work and typing speed! So the posts are going to be sporadic for another week, perhaps, while I nurse a sore finger and foot.

However, here it is the day for a drawing! I simply put all the numbers into random.org, and this is what it gave me: # 7!

Commentor 7 was Nicole C.

Hey Nicole, you\’ve won a book! Email me your address and I\’ll put it in the post tomorrow. I\’m not sure when the next giveaway will be up, don\’t have them on a schedule anymore, so just keep checking back. I aim to do at least two a month for now…

The Flight of the Snow Geese

by Des and Jen Bartlett

This is the backstory of a filming project: following the life cycle of the snow goose from eggs hatching on the northern tundra to their migration south where they winter in Texas, and back again in spring. The resulting documentary was a TV special called The Incredible Flight of the Snow Geese which I\’ve never seen (it\’s pretty old, made in the late seventies). While the film crew was on site in Alaska and northern Canada specifically to observe snow geese, they also photographed myriads of other waterfowl and seabirds, and sometimes encountered other animals: foxes, lemmings, polar bears. At first the narrative is all about their experience in cold weather, difficulties moving equipment and finding ways to approach the birds close enough without scaring them off. But then they start to pick up abandoned goslings, birds that usually would succumb to predators. Soon they had ten baby geese to hand-raise, and a sandhill crane chick. These birds readily imprinted on the team and followed them everywhere; while they were thrilled to observe the birds\’ development up-close, it also made their project more difficult as they had to keep the geese from accompanying them to blinds where they sat in absolute stillness for hours to watch birds on nests. When the time came to follow the snow goose migration back south, the young snow geese, crane, and a rescued canada goose all came along. Eventually the birds were found homes in wildlife sanctuaries, and the geese finally joined a wild flock. While the writing was a bit bland, very straightforward, it was still interesting. I always wonder when watching wildlife documentaries what exactly the filmmakers have to go through to get such amazing shots; The Flight of the Snow Geese gives a little insight into it all, even though I\’m sure some techniques have changed a lot in thirty-odd years. All the time I was reading this I kept thinking of that fantastic film Winged Migration. Have any of you seen it? It took my breath away.

I got this book free from The Book Thing.

Rating: 3/5 …….. 189 pages, 1975

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

Where the Lilies Bloom

by Vera and Bill Cleaver

This title has sounded familiar to me since childhood, and caught my eye at a library sale. I have a vague memory of my mother reading it to us sisters at one time, when we were past bedtime stories but still gathered to listen to novels in the evening. It turns out I recalled almost nothing of the story, so it was a whole new experience to read it again.

Where the Lilies Bloom is about a poor family of four children who live in the backwoods of a secluded Appalachian valley. Their mother having already died, and their father terminally ill, fourteen-year-old Mary Call takes on the responsibility to keep her siblings together. She makes a promise to her dying father never to accept charity, then stubbornly and proudly struggles to find ways to make ends meet when left without parents. Keeping their father\’s death a secret, the children avoid questioning neighbors, refuse help, try to finagle ownership of the house they live in and the land around it from the landlord, and finally take to \”wildcrafting\”, gathering herbs and roots in the woods for a meager income. But when winter arrives with deep snow, the children find themselves woefully unprepared.

This was a pretty good book. The plight of the children and their determination to manage by themselves against all odds wrings your heart. The characters are pretty believable, and the ending took me by surprise. I didn\’t see evidence written into the story either that Devola was simple in the head, as her sister supposed, or that she was smarter than she appeared, as others came to believe. I guess that\’s because we see it all from Mary Call\’s viewpoint, and she was just accepting what her parents had told her, but I wish there\’d been more about that for the reader to gather between the lines.

Rating: 3/5 …….. 213 pages, 1969

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Bios / Memoirs, Current Reads, Re-reads, Travel/Adventure, Young Adult

Flyaway

How a Wild Bird Rehabber Sought Adventure and Found her Wings
by Suzie Gilbert

It\’s entirely thanks to Bookfool that I discovered this book. A few days after reading her review and noting that I\’d want to read it someday, I was at the library browsing and just happened to look it up in the catalog. It was on the shelf! So I checked it out right away, and from page one knew I\’d love it: this is my kind of book!

Flyaway is about a mother of two who starts taking in wild birds that need to recuperate before being released. At least, that\’s her original plan. But as more people in the bird-loving and wildlife-rescue circles find out about her flight cages and willingness to help, she finds herself taking on more and more birds, including ones with more serious problems and injuries. Among the struggles to help wounded birds take flight again (learning as she goes what kind of treatment and care the many different species need), the author reveals her struggles to balance family life with her (unpaid) work, her relationship with nearby veterinarians, her disagreements and commiserations with other rehabbers, and the chaos somethings thrown into things by her two parrots. There are exquisite illustrations drawn by artist Laura Westlake, and the descriptive writing used to describe the many different birds, their individuality and beauty is just wonderful. Of course some parts are sad, lots of birds die, there are callous people who intentionally harm them, others who don\’t think time and effort should be spent healing a common sparrow, etc. It just about breaks your heart to read about how the author agonized over each little feathered life she couldn\’t save, and tried to find the boundaries that would allow her to contine doing what she loved without burning out or neglecting her family. There were always far too many birds in need than people available to care for them.

I really enjoyed this book. I learned so many things about birds, and admire the author immensely for what she does for them.

Rating: 4/5 …….. 340 pages, 2009

More opinions at:
Raging Bibliomania
the stay at home bookworm
Red and the Peanut

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

The Griffin and the Minor Canon

by Frank R. Stockton

I don\’t usually write about children\’s books here, but this one is such an old favorite I sat down to read it again immediately after finally getting my own copy from Paperback Swap. And then I wanted to tell you about it!

The Griffin and the Minor Canon is a short story by Frank Stockton, and my favorite edition is the one with lovely illustrations by Maurice Sendak. The minor canon, a young clergyman whose only humble desire is to serve the poor and needy, is suddenly pushed into the center of attention when a fearsome griffin decides to visit his town. The beast wants to see a griffin statue that is on the church, and the frightened townspeople send their minor canon out to meet the monster. The griffin is pleased with the statue, and spends most of the day just admiring it. But he finds the company of the sensible clergyman even more pleasing, and starts to follow him around on his duties. This quickly becomes an unmanageable situation, and both the upset townsfolk and the encumbered clergyman try to find a way to make the griffin go back to the wilderness. Of course, it doesn\’t work out the way they plan. What I really love about this story, besides its interesting turns, is the characters: the conniving townspeople, driven by fear into anger; the honest and sensible canon, always quietly doing what is best; and the proud, fierce griffin, who has his own sense of justice. If you want a quick little read, or a book to read to a child that has more depth than most, you can\’t go wrong with this one.

Rating: 4/5 …….. 56 pages, 1885

More opinions at:
Forgotten Books
anyone else?

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Juvenile Fic

Horse of Two Colors

by Glen Balch

I traded for this book on Book Mooch because I have long loved another by the same author, Buck Wild and wanted to read more of his work. They\’re not easy to find, even though Balch wrote about thirty horse stories for young readers. Most are no longer in print.

Horse of Two Colors is an imaginative story about how Appaloosa horses were first introduced to Native Americans. When the book opens, two young men from different tribes are making their escape from a Spanish settlement where they\’ve been held captive. In a bold daring move, they steal two horses to take home to their respective people, one a striking two-colored stallion, its hindquarters white with black spots. The boys have never seen a horse like him before. They don\’t know much about horses, as their people have just recently started to use them, and only for pack animals. Together the boys face difficulties of the long journey home: how to handle the horses, doubts about whether they can be ridden, eluding the pursuing Spaniards and finding enough food as they pass through some desolate country. More problems arise when Indians from an enemy tribe show up, fiercely determined to catch the horses for themselves. The journey is not without tragedy, and in the end one of the boys returns home to people who have almost forgotten him, feeling something of a failure. But the ending has a pleasant surprise that makes his hardships and losses worthwhile.

My rating scale isn\’t fine enough to differentiate, but I found this book a better read than the recent Wild Horse Running, it was more creative and the writing more enjoyable. I am even more determined now to find all the books I can written by Glenn Balch. He really is a great storyteller.

Rating: 3/5 …….. 170 pages, 1969

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Animals Fiction, Current Reads, Juvenile Fic, Western

dogeared progress

I\’ve read a few more well-worn, used books for the Dogeared reading challenge I\’m hosting. The copy of Guns, Germs and Steel I borrowed from a neighbor had tons of dogeared pages, a curled and folded cover, and half the book severely yellowed by sun exposure.
Popular Flowering Plants was an old, faded book with tanned pages and very worn corners. My copy of The Owl Service had a loose spine, chipped and torn dust jacket, and scuffed edges.
One reader sent me in her photo, of a book she read called Line on Ginger.
Leah says this book \”was very mildewed (brown spotten top), horrible smell and I always had to take an antihistimine before I picked it up!!\” Now, I\’ve read some pretty smelly books , but if one was bad enough to make me feel ill, I\’d toss it and find a new copy! I think Leah deserves some praise for putting up with such a smelly book. Was it worth the suffering to get to the end, Leah? I do hope it was a good read!

Her bird book, if anything, looks like it\’s in worse shape!

Who else has read some smelly or tattered books for this challenge? Tell us about it in the comments, or send in photos of your worst-looking book! Next progress post will be in June. Happy reading!

Month: April 2010

RATINGS / SUBJECTS: