December 2020 - Dogear Diary

Ravensong

A Natural and Fabulous History of Ravens and Crows

by Catherine Feher Elston

The cleverness and pervasive success of ravens and crows has been recognized by humans in many cultures, for ages. In native american tribes the raven is often seen as a creator or a spirit guide, although in other minds ravens are associated with death (because they feed on carrion). This book is a kind of celebration of ravens- the first part has legends and creation stories featuring Raven from various Pacific Northwest tribes, the middle part is some native american history (with the raven connection a thin tangent that is barely mentioned) and the final section is more factual about raven behavior with quotations from some scientific studies including several from Bernd Henrich and Konrad Lorenz (which in my opinion are better read in their original context). The first part was good, I had mixed feelings about the middle, and the last section wasn\’t anything new to me. Actually one of the better parts is the afterward, where the author describes some of her own work rehabilitating and caring for injured ravens. So the book feels rather uneven and sometimes the wording was odd or I felt dubious about the content. It would have been nice to have more of the legends, or more detail about the personal experiences. I could have really done without the history section, which had a different tone entirely and felt out of place to me. I did really like the inked illustrations by Lawrence Ormsby, very nice.

Rating: 2/5 208 pages, 1991

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

Spring Interlude

made by Reflective Art ~ artist Beth Hoselton ~ 550 pieces

This was such a nice puzzle. Fairly large size, varied shapes, lovely colors. I’m fond of lilacs and the artist captured how light plays on the foliage and flowers just beautifully here. There’s fine brushstrokes visible on the bird, barely discernible on the butterfly, and the blooms and background treated more loosely where you can see the paint strokes if you look close, which I happen to enjoy.

I would definitely buy this brand again, this feels like a quality puzzle. Assembly:

from CList - bought used

Tags: puzzles

The Beginning

Animorphs #54

by K.A. Applegate

Wow, hard to believe it\’s actually over. I finally finished this sixty-two book middle-grade sci-fi series (counting in the four Meagamorphs and four Chronicles. I didn\’t read the offshoots called Alternamorphs, which it sounds like are in Choose Your Own Adventure style). Warning for some SPOILERS.

Jumps right into the action showing how the battle ended- and yes Rachel ends up in a fight with Tom/Yeerk and his followers. They both die. The rest of the team manages to end the war against the alien Yeerks, the Visser is taken captive, Jake cleverly talks the Andalites into doing things their way (don\’t want the Andalites running Earth or taking credit for the victory) without much loss of face (amusingly, Earth becomes a tourist destination for Andalites who want to taste food). The Animorphs kinda go their separate ways and we see what happens to each of them- and I found all their paths fitting (although Tobias made me feel sad- he\’s distraught at loosing Rachel and basically leaves to just live as a hawk). After a year the Visser is brought to trial for war crimes. Jake has been suffering ever since it ended- most of the others found a purpose to their life, but Jake is depressed and directionless. The trial brings back all his memories as he has to testify and feels the mountain of guilt again for his role in killing innocents. The other Animorphs force him into morphing dolphin in the ocean so he can physically release some tension and feel a bit of joy again- and they all have a long serious talk about the war, its effect on them, where the guilt lies, etc. Very good stuff!

Then the story takes a sudden turn- I knew before that a lot of fans hate the ending of the series, but it really took me by surprise what it was. Jake receives a report that Ax had been scouting around in outer space (he\’s a Prince and captain of his own ship now) and encountered a suspicious, seeming-empty huge ship. He went aboard with part of his crew, something went wrong, there\’s only one survivor. Of course Jake gets together the few remaining Animorphs (addition of two new people who have been studying under Jake and minus Cassie who stays behind) and they secretly take what used to be a Yeerk ship, out there to investigate. They find that Ax and his crew were subsumed by a huge new alien thing- and they get ready to face off to it, even though they have no chance. And that\’s it.

The book abruptly ends. You can only assume that they were all taken by this new alien. I nearly yelled aloud in frustration because- I wanted to know what happened! But after some thinking I kinda get what the author was aiming at. A lot of this book was showing what happened to the main characters in the aftermath of war, how they were able to adjust and go on with their lives, or not. (Strange that the families were hardly mentioned). But then this new threat comes up and they go face it- so the message I take from that is: there\’s always another battle. You think it\’s all over and you have peace but something else will eventually rear up and make you fight again. And sometimes- you just can\’t win.

It sure would be nice if someone wrote another series continuing where this one dropped off- do the Animorphs still retain a thread of consciousness or individuality in that alien thing? Could they be rescued? what happens if that alien finds Earth- where Cassie still is, with all the other humans, Hork-Bajir and visiting Andalites. Hm, maybe there\’s some fanfic out there on this one . . .

The book is on my e-reader.

Rating: 4/5 176 pages, 2001

More opinions:

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Animals Fiction, Current Reads, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Juvenile Fic

The Answer

Animorphs #53

by K.A. Applegate

Man, this one was intense. Events moved quickly, but I wasn\’t glossing through them like the last book. Unavoidable SPOILERS: It\’s down to all or nothing for the Animorphs. The aliens have destroyed their home town. A new Yeerk pool is being built, and when they go there to try and sabotage the construction, they get trapped. Totally surprised to find allies among the Taxxons who having seen what the morphing power can do, foresee a way to escape their relentless hunger. (Did Cassie really guess this might happen? or only thought of in retrospect. It nullifies her betrayal but only a little). Jake finally has a determined, multilayered and dangerous plan- and this time he doesn\’t back down when it involves putting his friends and allies in danger. He even blackmails the pacifist Chee into assisting them- right on the battlefield as it were. Early on in reading this you get a sense someone is going to die- and they sure did. Secondary characters but still, that was hard to stomach, how coldly Jake had to go through with his plan even as he watched them dying for the cause. They pull some insanely successful bluffs, and infiltrate the Pool ship, sneak right in to where the Visser is, who knows of their capabilities but still fails to detect their presence until it is too late. Blustering and bragging as always. When the last chapter abruptly ends (because I gather this is really an ending told in two parts which concludes in The Beginning) Jake in the Pool ship in a tense situation next to the Visser is facing his brother Tom/Yeerk who is attacking them from a Blade ship- because Tom\’s Yeerk has his own idea about snatching power and escaping offworld with the morphing cube.

In spite of all the fighting and subterfuge and quickly escalating scenes, there were also elements in here which brought back what I like about the Animorph books- the senses of being in animal forms. Jake with the wild flight and altered sense of being a fly. The lithe power and heat-sensing acuity of an anaconda. A new one was dragonfly.

This one\’s also on my e-reader.

Rating: 4/5 176 pages, 2001

More opinions:

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Animals Fiction, Current Reads, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Juvenile Fic

The Sacrifice

Animorphs #52

by K.A. Applegate

It\’s been so long. Maybe that\’s why this book didn\’t really impact or impress me much, even though a lot of significant things happen. I feel like I was reading it too quickly, being so eager to finally finish the series.

Well- in this book it turns out that Ax has secretly been communicating with the other Andalites who are circling off-world. The Andalite commanders want to basically let the Yeerks have their way, and then they will destroy Earth, getting rid of the problem (and wiping out mankind in the bargain). Ax is appalled by this. However later on he starts to feel very bitter towards the humans himself. He finds out how Cassie had betrayed their entire mission, he witnesses more friction and division within the group, and their basic inability to make decisions based on logic and tactics instead of emotional pull. With the newer recruits and adults along (who strangely still don\’t have much say or leadership at all in things), they bust security to steal some trucks loaded with tons of explosives (laughably easy), acquire some backup from the National Guard, and plan to load a train full of bombs, then run it straight into the main Yeerk pool- possible because the Yeerks have built subway lines going straight to their source of nourishment. They\’re able to morph into indestructible forms (cockroaches) and escape right as the bomb blasts, getting out just in time (had to be on the train to trigger the bomb at just the right moment, and prevent Yeerks from stopping them of course). Thousands of innocents don\’t- humans who were trapped while their Yeerks were in the pool, Yeerks themselves who were actually part of the underground resistance. Even though exploding the pool was a huge success for the Animorphs team, they feel heavily the loss of innocent life they caused.

This feels like things are very rapidly moving towards the end (they are!) but still, I was annoyed that a good twenty percent of the book seemed taken up by Ax (the narrator) explaining things to the reader. Gah, how unnecessary. It all felt like an action film with hasty argumentative planning under pressure, poorly carried out ideas (that worked in spite of what these kids did), adults coerced or easily convinced into helping them, and some very sobering moments that were glossed over too quickly. Like scenes where they witnessed train cars packed with people who had been taken from their homes and forced aboard by the Yeerks, headed to their alien enslavement in the pool- which was very reminiscent of things from WWII, some of the characters even mentioned that in an aside. As always I missed the sense of what-it\’s-like-to-be-an-animal, barely present in this book- they switch forms to get somewhere, or to fight and survive, none of the wonder is there. Early on in the book Ax morphs a raccoon (hence the cover) and comments on how nimble and useful its hands are, that\’s about it.

I did really like one idea presented in here that could annul the main conflict, if it were used properly. That is: if the Yeerks have the morphing capability, they could morph human forms (or other animal bodies) and no longer have the need to actually take over human brains. This isn\’t explored very much, which is rather disappointing. Seems like it would solve a lot of problems!

This copy was on my e-reader.

Rating: 3/5 176 pages, 2001

More opinions:

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Animals Fiction, Current Reads, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Juvenile Fic

new e-reader!

This was my big christmas surprise, and I\’m absolutely thrilled. My husband bought me a new e-reader, a Kindle Paperwhite. It replaces my old Kindle Fire which died just shy of being ten years old. I was able to transfer nearly all 144 books off my old device onto the new one. (The only book I lost was Beautiful Joe, which isn\’t a big deal- already read and it wasn\’t a favorite so not sure if I\’ll even replace it).

There are some things I like about the Paperwhite right away. It\’s very lightweight- so easy to handle, and doesn\’t make the book I keep it in feel unexpectedly heavy. The screen is slightly smaller and shorter than the old Kindle which disappointed me at first, but then I figured out how to adjust the line spacing, font size and type in the device, so the page read doesn\’t feel as truncated now.

I fully charged it yesterday after transferring all the book files, and then spent some time reading on it- got nearly halfway through the next Animorphs book. With my old Kindle, this would have drained a good part of the battery- but the Paperwhite is still at ninety percent. I do believe I could easily read on this for a week before needing to recharge. It also has far more storage space (helped by the fact there are no games or any features not related to reading books, which is what I wanted!) I put my whole e-book library on here, which took up less than a tenth of the storage space. I could fit over a thousand books on this if I wanted to.

Only downside for now, is that my hollowed-out book space is too large for it. For now I\’ve wedged it in with a bit of foam, but eventually I will want to make a new hollow book case. When I find the right book to sacrifice . . . or maybe I will buy a blank one just for that purpose this time. Have to find just the right one, though.

One odd thing, is that when I power the Paperwhite completely off, the screen looks rather bright- as in the first photo. Compared to when it\’s in sleep mode and shows a picture, as in the last two photos.

Extra tidbit- when I wrote that previous post about getting the Kindle Fire, I mentioned having approximately six hundred books on my shelves. In the ten years since, I\’ve easily added a thousand more paperbound books to my collection (!)

Well, can you tell I\’m excited. I hope your holidays all had some specially happy bookish surprises, as mine did. I\’m off to test another nice feature of the Paperwhite now, by seeing how easily I can read in a patch of sunshine (through a window today, but in the future I look forward to reading outside in the garden).

The Hopes of Snakes

and Other Tales from the Urban Landscape

by Lisa Couturier

I can’t quite put my finger on why this book fell flat for me. It’s a collection of essays describing the landscape and encounters with wildlife the author had when living in New York City and the area surrounding Washington, DC. Some of the encounters are brief- just a glimpse of a coyote- others are more personal- helping a researcher find and catch snakes in a field, following crows to locate their roosting site. Interspersed with quotes that felt meaningful (and I recognized many of them) but were a bit too frequent- I would have rather heard more of the author’s own words. Also interspersed with details or asides about her personal life- including what felt like a disconnect with religion while being surrounded by religious people- but just a glimpse of this, never felt connected enough. It always loops around again to the animal the chapter is about, but sometimes in such a skipping, circling manner I didn’t feel it strongly. She describes a longing to know wild animals better, to know more details about their lives- and shares what she’s learned from reading (I was interested in the insights about coyotes. For example- I always thought they rebounded from intense “predator control” by having larger litters but this book tells me it’s also because if a dominant pair is removed from an area, all the younger coyotes are suddenly free to breed, no longer held in check by their social hierarchy). This book is full of the type of material I usually enjoy- personal encounters with wildlife and interesting facts about them- but the analogies didn’t speak to me, the descriptive language often felt too flowery, the wanderings asides left me feeling lost. I shut it at the end feeling disappointed. Maybe it’s just that this author’s writing style is not to my taste.

In case it is of interest, the animals featured in this book include mice, red-tailed hawks, crows, snakes, coyotes, peregrine falcons, canada geese, vultures, a barn owl, gorillas (in a zoo), ants, pigeons, cockroaches, toads, bald eagles, foxes and deer. I just wish I had liked it more.

Rating: 2/5

160 pages, 2005

More opinions: Page 247
anyone else?

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

Gift Horse

by Betty Levin

Matt has always dreamed of owning a horse. His great-uncle, a filmmaker who travels the world to find rare animals, promises to send him one, although Matt\’s parents think this is a misunderstanding. Matt works hard to get a space ready in the old carriage house on their property in the suburbs; his family assumes he\’s just playing out there. When he announces the horse has arrived (early in the morning when everyone else was sleeping) they think it\’s still a game and nobody goes out to see the horse for nearly a week! Then they\’re all stunned. Matt is crushed when his family says he can\’t keep the horse- but since it\’s an unusual breed- a Norwegian Fjord- they contact the horse farm it came from to try and find a buyer. Meanwhile Matt works hard to take care of his horse, alleviate its boredom (stuck in the stall or taking walks around the streets most of the time) and figure out how to scrape enough money for its food and other necessities. His friend next door helps out, he cajoles his older siblings to contribute, and before long all the neighborhood kids want to come see his horse, pet it, lead it around, maybe take a ride. They find someone to give some basic riding lessons, and then get a bright idea to enter the horse in a local pet show. Maybe the prize will help them keep it. It doesn\’t turn out perfectly, but there is a satisfactory solution in the end.

This book has a lot of amusingly ridiculous scenes, some honestly portrayed sibling and parent/child dynamics, and an unexpected ending that was nice. I liked the mention of other exotic animals- there\’s a small local zoo/museum that features rare animals and teaches the public about endangered species, a neighbor science teacher who wants to raise emus and keeps hibernating bats in his fridge, and the great-uncle is on a trip to Australia searching for the presumed extinct thylacine. When the kids use finger paint to make the Fjord horse look like a zebra, they run out of paint and instead turn him into a quagga for the \”costume\” contest in the pet show. Except nobody knows what a quagga is, they think the kids made it up. (I looked online because I\’ve heard about the quagga breeding project, and there\’s actually zebras been bred now to have a very similar appearance).

Good horse kid book, though the writing is simple enough I don\’t think I\’ll find it appealing as a re-read. I\’ll see if my fifth-grader might like it. Incidentally, this one reminded me a lot of Zoe\’s Zodiac by Mary Jo Stephens.

Rating: 3/5 168 pages, 1996

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

Tarka the Otter

by Henry Williamson

This is a book I put on my TBR over a decade ago- probably before I even started blogging. Now I also want to read the author\’s book Salar the Salmon, though it\’s also out of print so that will be happenchance. And whatever else of his I might come across.

It\’s the life of a river otter, though the animal does spend some time on the edge of the sea as well. It\’s mostly the otter\’s rovings, endlessly going up and down waterways, chasing fish with delight and wondrous dexterity, fiercely driving others off his food one moment, playing with them the next. It depicts the otters as very gregarious and friendly to their own kind, while driven off and hunted with dogs by men (the fishermen view them as competition and vermin). Very specific to a place- around the Taw river in North Devon. Detailed descriptions of the animal life, plants, weather, lay of the land etc- and specific local dialect when the otter encounters man. I liked this as it gives a real sense of place, but had to refer to the glossary a few times, which oddly isn\’t in alphabetical order but it\’s not long so easy enough to find a word. I didn\’t know before how avidly otters were once hunted with dogs and guns. From the wild animal\’s perspective it sounds terrifying, to be harassed by the hounds even to death- which is how this otter finally meets his end. Not without pulling a dog down with him. I think what stands out most vividly to me through this reading was how fluidly the otter moves through the water, using the course of rivers and streams to his advantage.

My edition has an introduction by Fortescue (who was a friend of the author), and an afterward by Williamson which is a very personal account of the circumstances surrounding his writing of the book- including how ill his wife and baby son were at the time. It\’s also got a curious feature I only noticed halfway through- each page has a word at the top not a chapter title but naming a place the otter was on that particular page. It\’s distinctive on every page, never saw that before. Also I really liked the illustrations by Barry Driscoll, and the heavy inky smell of the pages- as if my copy, in spite of being so old, had never been opened and read before. I fanned and smelt the pages way more often than I usually do in reading (which is probably at least once per book haha).

One to treasure. It\’s very like String Lug the Fox or Argen the Gull in tone.

Rating: 4/5 265 pages, 1927

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

TBR #75

Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon- Bookfoolery
Exiled: Clan of the Claw by S.M. Stirling, et al- Thistle Chaser
the Candlelit Menagerie by Caraline Brown- A Bookish Type
In the Country We Love by Diane Guerrero- Caroline Bookbinder
We Could Be Heroes by Margaret Finnegan- Semicolon
Shane by Jack Shaefer- Lark Writes
Museum of Forgotten Memories by Anstey Harris- Bookfoolery
Venus Among the Fishes by Elizabeth Hall
the Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.W. Schwab- A Bookish Type
the Body a Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson- It’s All About Books
Soil Science for Gardeners by Robert Pavlis- Sustainable Market Farming
the God of Animals by Aryn Kyle- Living 2 Read and Book Addiction
the New Valley by Josh Weil- Living 2 Read
The Black Pearl by Scott O’Dell
Badger Boy by Elmer Kelton
Six Bits a Day by Elmer Kelton
The Catalog of Shipwrecked Books by Edward Wilson-Lee
The Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond
Rescue by Jessie Haas

-all these from Sam’s list of books on books–
Howard’s End is on the Landing by Susan Hill
Reading with Patrick by Michelle Kuo
Sixpence House by Paul Collins
A Passion for Books by Harold Rabinowitz
My Reading Life by Pat Conroy
Bookshop of the Broken Hearted by Robert Hillman
Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson

-not found in my public library’s catalog–

the Islander by Gerald Kingsland
Doodlebug by Irene Brady
Truthtelling by Lynn Schwartz- Book Chase
Fabulous Monsters by Alberto Manguel- Captive Reader
Keeping Barney by Jessie Haas
the Peppermint Pig by Nina Bawden- Semicolon
One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes- Bookfoolery
the True Adventures of Gidon Lev by Julie Gray- Book Chase
Dear Reader by Cathy Rentzenbrink
Black Star, Bright Dawn by Scott O’Dell
the City Under the Back Steps by Evelyn Lampman- Semicolon
An American Type by Henry Roth- Living 2 Read
To Destroy You Is No Loss by Joan Criddle
the Wolf and the Buffalo by Elmer Kelton
the Man Who Rode Midnight by Elmer Kelton
Stand Proud by Elmer Kelton
the Hungry Place by Jessie Haas
After Man: a Zoology of the Future by Dougal Dixon
The Cichlid Fishes: Nature’s Grand Experiment by Dr. George Barlow

-and more from Sam–
Jacob’s Room is Full of Books by Susan Hill
Slightly Chipped by Nancy and Lawrence Goldstone
Shelf Life by Suzanne Strempek Shea
So Many Books by Gabriel Zaid
The Clothing of Books by Jhumpa Lahiri
A Gentle Madness by Nicholas Basbanes
Modern Book Collecting by Robert Wilson
Leave Me Alone I’m Reading by Maureen Corrigan

Tags: TBR additions

Month: December 2020

made by Reflective Art ~ artist Beth Hoselton ~ 550 pieces

and Other Tales from the Urban Landscape

RATINGS / SUBJECTS: