March 4, 2011 - Dogear Diary

Liquid Land

A Journey Through the Florida Everglades
by Ted Levin

Another book about swampy regions, this one exactly the opposite of Stirring the Mud. While that little book was poetic and musing, this one is jammed up with hard facts. A bit too many of them, for my taste. Liquid Land is about the ecology of Florida, focusing mostly on how acts of man have altered the landscape, severely changed the habitats of wildlife, and what some people are doing to try and restore it (if such a thing can ever be done). The main points I gathered are that the Florida Everglades are made up of a huge, very flat expanse of interconnected and constantly moving water, affected not only by tides and tropical storms but also periods of fire and drought which all contribute to how the plants and animals live and reproduce. When people started coming in with developments, draining certain areas, walling up others, making ditches and canals and roadways, lots of things were changed beyond repair- most often not for the better. Some animals that used to be present in staggering numbers have dwindled to tiny populations, others disappeared entirely.

Most of the book seems to be recounting various lawsuits and actions of corporations and conservation groups, and the details of those just got so boring. I know they\’re important, but they\’re not very fun or engaging to read about. The parts I liked better were where Levin described meeting individuals who were directly involved with environmental issues- a man who took it upon himself personally to relocate vividly-striped tree snails (a beautiful creature I never knew existed before! – see the bottom of the page linked to for some beautiful photographs) from an area where they were threatened to a more secure location, or where he accompanied one of the few men who still hunts frogs for a living, then a scientist who tracks Florida panthers and another who studies the snail kite, an endangered raptor. But even those parts of the book were a bit too dry for my taste, and it was with some effort I forced myself to finish the thing, still hoping to glean something interesting out of it all. It did give me an introduction into a landscape I hardly ever encountered before (the only book I think I\’ve read set in Florida swamps before is The Yearling) and made me more curious about the wildlife there. I also want to find out now what\’s happened to all those places Levin feared were irreparably damaged; it\’s been eight years since this book was written so I wonder if things have gotten better or worse since then. (But I have to wait until my computer\’s back up before I can look things up).

Rating: 2/5 …….. 286 pages, 2003

anyone else read it?

Tags: 2/5- Just Okay, Current Reads, Nature

Stirring the Mud

On Swamps, Bogs, and Human Imagination
by Barbara Hurd

What a unique little book! Stirring the Mud is just that- a book all about mud, of all things. It\’s an odd mixture of poetry, literary allusion, childhood memories and biological curiosities, all revolving around the muck of a swamp. Hurd writes about swamps and bogs as places of beauty, mystery and (as they have so often been viewed) sources of revulsion and disease. She ponders on the lives and doings of creatures that live in these muddy, watery domains, and draws parallels between the swamp and things like the depths of the subconscious, the stewing of imagination, the unformed beginnings of things. You\’d be surprised what she ends up mentioning in connection to mud- anything from burial customs and Superbowl games to watercolor painting techniques and the dynamics of relationships. Her metaphors often slide one into the other, shifting focus several times in the same paragraph (rather like elusively flowing mud itself) and it can be either frustrating or entertaining trying to keep pace with it all! Sometimes I was befuddled, often intrigued. Of course I rather liked the natural history bits but they weren\’t very extensive or detailed, just enough to whet my appetite.

Rating: 3/5 …….. 143 pages, 2001

more opinions at:
Rick Librarian
Wild Clutter

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Current Reads, Nature

Homebirth in the Hospital

Integrating Natural Childbirth with Modern Medicine

by Stacey Marie Kerr

This little book wasn\’t really what I expected. For once, I thought I was going to be reading a mostly technical book, and ended up surprised to find a collection of anecdotal stories. Homebirth in the Hospital is written by a physician who started out her practice in the traditional medical field, then became involved with midwives and homebirthing experiences for a while. She ended up working in a regular hospital, but does her best to provide midwife-type, non-invasive care in the hospital setting. The introduction to the book describes her background and how she came to choose this avenue, of providing expectant mothers with more natural methods of childbirth in the hospital, where medical assistant is close at hand if needed. The opening chapter describes exactly what it means to integrate homebirth in the hospital, and goes into different aspects- like allowing the mother to make choices, having good communication between doctor and patient, creating an atmosphere of trust, keeping hospital protocols from overwhelming the experience, etc. The bulk of the book is a collection of stories from the doctor\’s own experience, showing how different parents went through childbirth with her. Some intended to birth at home or in a birthing center but ended up in the hospital due to complications. Others chose the hospital setting, with Kerr\’s guidelines and encouragement to keep interventions to a minimum. They\’re all quite different, and show just how varied childbirth can be- and more importantly, that nothing ever goes quite as you expect it to. In fact, she pretty much said throw the birth plan out the window- that doctors just roll their eyes at such things because they know it won\’t go the way you want it to (something I can attest to, myself!) The final chapter is pretty much just a repeat of the first chapter, except addressed to doctors instead of to prospective mothers. (It felt entirely redundant). I liked reading the stories of all the different women and how they handled birth, wondering all the time what mine will be like this time!

Rating: 3/5 …….. 211 pages, 2008

more opinions at:
Massachusetts Friends of Midwives
Citizens for Midwifery

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Current Reads, Parenting / Pregnancy

update

Hello, hello. I’ve kind of been lurking about, snatching some computer time at the library but now we have a laptop temporarily on loan from my husband’s work, so I can finally catch up on some reviews! In the meantime, with less hours spent online at home (you wouldn’t believe- or maybe you would- how often I’m popping on to look things up I’m curious about, or find recipes for dinner or such) I’ve been getting lots of reading done! Cutting quite a big dent in both my TBR shelf at home and the list of stuff I’m borrowing from the library. I’ve almost got an entire shelf cleared off my TBR bookcase! That feels nice. So I’m going to cram in quite a few short reviews here, to catch up on things. New computer parts are in the mail, and then my husband will rearrange its innards (cross my fingers) so hopefully we’ll be up and running again as normal sometime next week…

Day: March 4, 2011

Liquid Land

Stirring the Mud

Homebirth in the Hospital

update

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