Like the hummingbird one, this book is also by an author who traveled the world to see many different species- of turtles. In this case, it wasn’t just to view rare and endangered species, but also to meet and interview people involved in protecting or caring for turtles, and conversely, those who profit from catching or selling them. There’s turtle farms, turtle sanctuaries, turtles in zoos- and those languishing in bins under the counter of meat markets. He meets with conservationists, tour guides, volunteers who dig up and relocate turtle eggs from beaches, and those who are releasing the hatchlings again. He meets people in small street stalls who peddle elixirs from turtle bones (said to give people longevity) and interviews a man convicted of turtle smuggling, in a prison. He finds the fascination people have with acquiring rare turtles compelling, and gets his own pet turtle. Descriptions of his quiet moments spent observing “Fred” and wondering what his turtle is pondering are interspersed through the chapters. While I liked reading about the turtles, I found it sad how much of the book’s focus was about the negative impact humans have had on turtles worldwide. Habitat loss, demand for traditional medicine in Asia, collectors buying turtles just to say they own them, and ordinary folks in our southern states who catch turtles to eat them, all are reducing their numbers. Most of this book I found kept me on the page, the humor worked for me, the details were just right- but I did start to loose interest when it got more into the lives of criminals involved in turtle smuggling. That aside, I’m probably going to look for other books by this author.
Borrowed from the public library.
How I love the wooden puzzles! Received this one new on my birthday (in October) and finished it a few days ago. My daughter wanted to do it with me, so our sittings were rather far apart, but productive with two heads and four hands working at once. It’s the second wooden puzzle I’ve ever done, and I’m still enthralled with the intricately shaped pieces and nice tactile experience. This one has really bright colors, too. We did notice that there are burn marks on the edges of some pieces- I wasn’t bothered by this on the front, you have to look really close to see it in the image. However once I flipped it over to view the back, it was really obvious. My daughter said she likes this artifact of the manufactuer’s process (not quite in those words).
A while back I did a puzzle swap through the mail- which is really only worth the cost if you send/receive two or more puzzles. This was my second pick out of the other puzzler’s stash, I thought it would be one I’d do once, then swap on again. But now I want to hold onto it.
Who am I kidding. I’ve been getting more and more into puzzling, and completing more puzzles than books lately. I kept holding off on posting about the puzzles, wanting to space it out because this is a book blog! No reason the puzzles can’t be an integrated part of that, though. So I’m catching up yet again, with several posts in a row of puzzles done in the past month, and then it will be back to actual completion dates.
