February 2023 - Page 2 of 3

Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings

by Ursula K. Le Guin

I almost read these books out of order, but quickly realized just a few sentences into Jane on Her Own that I’d missed a crucial part of the story. Then I had trouble locating this copy, because I’d bought it separately from the others and it was somewhere among my unread books. I was pretty sure it was with others I’d got at the same time from Scrawl Books, but I looked through that stack several times before realizing Wonderful Alexander was between two of them- that’s how small and skinny this book is!

Warning for a SPOILER below if you haven’t read the other Catwings books!

This one starts out among another cat family. Alexander has always had life pretty easy. He’s a fluffy half-Persian kitten in a comfortable home, who happens to think a lot of himself. He’s confident he will do great things in the world, so one day he sets off exploring to do them. Finds out pretty quickly the big wide world is a dangerous place. He narrowly misses getting hit by vehicles, is chased by large dogs and ends up at the top of a very tall tree too scared to come down. Spends the night there, and in the morning is frightened again to be approached by what he thinks is a terrifyingly strange black bird. But it’s not a bird- it’s one of the catwings, who purrs to show she’s friendly, coaxes him down out of the tree and then leads him to the farm where she lives. There Alexander has another shock when he meets more winged cats. And they tell him their story.

Because the black one doesn’t talk. She’s Jane- the little kitten the other catwings had rescued in the city. I won’t tell you more of her story- so maybe you’ll go read these books! – but the crucial point is that Jane had been traumatized as a kitten. She never speaks of what happened, in fact she barely speaks at all. Alexander had always planned to do something grand and important in his life and he does- but his accomplishment is a far more personable one than he’d ever imagined. He gives Jane the comfort and security she needs to voice her fears. Finally understanding what she’d been through, the others all vow they will keep her safe from harm and now she’s able to put the past behind her.

I was floored by this little story. What a deeply important message to put in such a small, unassuming book for young readers. That the biggest accomplishments in life aren’t fame and grand feats that everyone will notice, but having compassion and helping those around us. The healing story of this little kitten overcoming her traumatic childhood was so sweet. She’s so fierce, too!

Rating: 4/5

48 pages, 1994

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

Catwings Return

by Ursula K. Le Guin

I finally bought the rest of the Catwings series with a gift card (Christmas). Delighted to read all three of them in one sitting (that’s how short they are!) In this little book, the four catwing siblings are well settled in their new home. They live in an old abandoned barn near a farm on the edge of the forest. Some kids feed them regularly but keep their existence a secret. The catwings start to wonder how their mother is doing back in the city. Two of them decide to return and visit her, a bit nostalgic for their old home. They know it might be dangerous, and they have to avoid being seen by people, but what they find is totally unexpected. The buildings around the alley where they were born are being demolished, the dumpster they were born under is nowhere in sight, and how will they find their mother again? Before they can look for her though, their trip becomes a rescue mission when they encounter a young kitten who needs help. I won’t say more or it would spoil this short story for someone else, but it sure was eventful- and touching with a heartwarming ending. So much packed into such a little book!

Rating: 3/5

54 pages, 1989

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

How to Catch a Mole

and Find Yourself in Nature

by Marc Hamer

This book was just lovely, far more than I had anticipated. It’s a blend of memoir, natural history writing and poetry. The author was for many years a molecatcher, using traditional methods. He states at the beginning of the book that he’s going to tell you what he knows about moles and how to catch them (if you need to), but he goes about it in a very meandering fashion. There will be one little tidbit of information that starts off a chapter, then gently diverges into a story about how he wandered fields and hedgerows as a homeless young man, or how he feels about the current state of his family, or just observations on the weather and scenery about him as he does his work. You get one piece of the picture about moles every ten pages it seems, with a lot of musings and quiet observations on other nature things in between. Which I didn’t at all mind. For once I also didn’t mind the back-and-forth of the narrative- sometimes about his past, sometimes present tense, sometimes thinking on the future, and not at all in order. There are thoughts on gardening, on why he prefers solitude, on how the landscape has changed as the years pass, as housing and industry slowly replace the fields. There’s a lot about how nature recycles everything back into something new to grow again. I really liked that. In fact I tore my bookmark paper into little strips to mark pages to remember, and thought for the first time in a good long while of underlining passages that really struck me.

“We don’t need to know everything . . . being comfortable with not knowing is an important part of hunting, as it keeps all the options open, offers choices. Not knowing is for me the best of all possible worlds; it contains a sweetness and a playful willingness to accept change and to enjoy the million-petalled flower of life without having the compulsion to know what everything is.”

“I lost my self-importance early on and do not want to differentiate myself from the world around me. I am just another animal . . . among billions of others, each unique in their own way, each just like the others in other ways, each one just another expression of nature trying to survive. There is something deeply magnificent in being just ordinary.”

“I once heard a friend…. with a broken relationship, say ‘The glass is broken, it can’t be repaired.’ But she was wrong. Things cannot be made as they were, but they can become something else. They can be re-made. All things are impermanent, and everything wears down to dust. Everything has its end and each things carries the beginning of the next thing. Healing is not about re-making things as they once were, healing is about acceptance and forgiveness and love and growth and beginning again.”

In the end, he finally tells about placing the traps and how his knowledge of mole behavior enables him to catch them without fail- and then why he no longer wants to do so.

I liked everything about this book. The voice and sentiments immediately resonated with me, the black and white woodcut-style illustrations by Joel McLaren are so nice, I even liked the parts expressed in poetry (which usually isn’t my thing). This is right up there with H is for Hawk, Braiding Sweetgrass and Bringing Nature Home.

I’m delighted to discover he’s written other books- Spring Rain: A Life Lived in Gardens and Seed to Dust: Life, Nature and a Country Garden are two I’d really like to get my hands on someday now.

Rating: 5/5

240 pages, 2019

More opinions: Books Please
anyone else?

Tags: 5/5- Loved It, Animals Nonfiction, Bios / Memoirs, Current Reads

Sunflower Garden

made in China ~ artist Judy Bushwell ~ 1,000 pieces

When I found this puzzle at a thrift store, my mind drew a blank: why does it say inspirational garden? I kept thinking. It wasn’t until later at home when I opened the box and pulled out the picture insert from under all the pieces (not much help, barely larger than the box front) that I realized obviously why. There’s a religious saying in the upper right corner of the puzzle- which isn’t pictured on the box front. That was my least favorite part, so I did it first (also easiest to pick out the sharp letters from the jumble of loose flower colors). It was also the second-hardest part. I really liked assembling the flowers and foliage – though sometimes maddeningly abstract with the loose artistic brushstrokes. Reminded me of the Iris Cantata one.

The frustration with this puzzle was that so many pieces fit in the wrong place. Not too bad with the flat greens of the sunflower leaves or mess of greenery climbing the fence- a few swaps around and I figured it out. But when I got to the blank white background, that was so hard. I finally left it a DNF. Down to four pieces, I knew they would fit if I found the right pieces to move around (and those would require moving others around, for who knows how many switches). Stuck on the last step for a good half hour, then I just got tired of trying and stopped. Somebody else before me struggled with the same part, I can tell. A lot of the white pieces had slightly bent or dinged-up knobs and corners, probably from being pulled out of their spots and moved around, ha. At least I know the pieces are all there by count!

That’s after I patched in one on the bottom edge. (Funny enough, it’s missing in almost the same spot as the piece I replaced on Iris Cantata). Four layers of thin cardstock. I had it colored with marker on top at first, but it came out too dark. Replaced with white paper colored again, still too dark. Pulled that layer off and redid the color a third time, with just plain old crayon. Close enough!

a thrift store find

Tags: puzzles

Nothing Daunted

the Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West

by Dorothy Wickenden

This book looked like an interesting one to read following Letters of a Woman Homesteader. It’s set a generation later, about two young women from East Coast high society who attended Smith College and then found themselves uninterested in any suitors after returning from their ‘grand tour’ of Europe. They heard of a remote settlement in the mountains of Colorado that was looking for schoolteachers, and decided to go. It was a sparsely populated area of homesteading families that lived off the land in relative poverty. Apparently the local cowboys suffered from a lack of female attention, so they decided to build a school and advertise for teachers, hoping that every few years a new young teacher would arrive and eventually become someone’s bride! Well, I didn’t read long enough to see if either of these two women in the book married a cowboy. The story is very well-researched (written by a descendent of one of the teachers) and based on numerous letters to and from family members, but it was just- too much information in a way. There was a lot about the history of the area, how the railroad was built, how the school building was planned, all about the family connections the schoolteachers had, and their own early education, and their Grand Tour and so on. What I really wanted to read about was their experience going from formal dinners in expensive dining rooms to bare planked drafty houses that had hung blankets for room dividers. I read the first three chapters with diminishing interest, then skipped ahead to dip into some about the teachers’ actual time in the classroom with their students. It seemed no better. I couldn’t keep my eyes on the page. Something about the style, or the abundance of extraneous detail. This one just wasn’t for me.

Funny enough, I noticed that in one of the chapters about their youth, one of the teachers had read every book written by James Fenimore Cooper- she was a big fan. And both these women had read Letters of a Woman Homesteader, admired and hoped to emulate Elinor Stewart. In fact there was a hefty chunk of quoted passages from the other book in here. Sadly this one just wasn’t as engaging and personable.

Rating: Abandoned

302 pages, 2011

Tags: 0/5- Abandoned, Nonfiction (general)

Orphan

the Story of a Baby Woodchuck

by Faith McNulty

Very short little book about how the author found an orphaned woodchuck and cared for it. She raised it in her house, then moved it to a hole outside by a stone wall on the property, then eventually had to trap and relocate it further away because it kept coming back for handouts! Getting the woodchuck to find and eat wild foods on its own seemed the hardest part. I often see woodchucks in the roadside verges here, and thought of them as just big fat ground squirrels. Which they are. But it was nice to learn a little more about them, and reflect on how beautiful the author eventually found them to be, in their own way. The middle of the book switches from the personal story about this one woodchuck, to share information the author learned via her library research, then it goes back to tell how the woodchuck was finally returned to the wild. The illustrations by Darby Morrell are just exquisite.

Rating: 3/5

40 pages, 1992

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

Mikis and the Donkey

by Bibi Dumon Tak

Sweet little story about a boy who lives on the Greek island of Corfu. Mikis is thrilled when his grandfather buys a donkey. He loves the donkey but becomes concerned about how his grandfather treats it. Grandfather sees the animal as merely a “tractor with legs”, useful to haul wood down from their olive grove on the hillside. Mikis fears the donkey is being overworked, but when he expresses his concerns he is just laughed at. He insists on getting the donkey proper care and bettter housing though, and eventually Grandfather comes around to treating the donkey more kindly, even helps out when Mikis gets stuck trying to persuade the donkey to enter a new environment. Honestly I was rather appalled at how Grandfather treated Mikis as well- yelling insults at him, grabbing his ear to scold him in public, calling him names- I’m not at all surprised he initially treated the donkey poorly. I thought it cute and amusing how Mikis and a friend found a companion for the donkey- and foresaw the results of that as well! The boy’s interactions with other kids at school are also a nice touch- first they tease him for worrying about the donkey (and saying he can communicate with it), then later they try to help him solve a problem to help the donkey. The side story (kind of told between the lines) about their young teacher’s on-and-off-again romance with some guy on a motorbike felt a bit odd to me, but it does tie in eventually. The ending is heartwarming.

The lively illustrations by Philip Hopman have a loose, sketchy style, very expressive and enjoyable.

Rating: 3/5

94 pages, 2011

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

Letters of a Woman Homesteader

by Elinor Pruitt Stewart

Young widow with her four-year-old daughter decided she was tired of washing other people’s laundry for a living, and moved to Wyoming to claim a homstead and asisst on a neighbor’s ranch. She found she loved the hard work, and before long married the neighbor (their homestead plots shared a boundary). The book is a compilation of letters she wrote back home to a previous employer (who must have be a close friend). She tells about the weather, the landscape, the neighbors and acquaintances- none of them lived nearby so visits were always welcome and travelers always given whatever they could share. There is really not much detail about the day-to-day work of the homestead (though she mentions planting potatoes, keeping a large vegetable garden and tending flowers, canning goods, sewing clothes, etc) it is mostly about the people around her, interesting little stories and incidents of character. Some surprising, some quite touching. Lots of examples of making do- improptu weddings, helping at a birth, performing funeral services when nobody else was around to do so. Generosity, humor and plain old gumption are strong in these pages. She certainly was an admirable woman and had a lot of interesting stories to tell. I found out there’s a sequel- shorter, but still sounds good so I’ll keep my eye out for it.

One part that really amused me was about an overnight journey she took with some friends, to a “Leatherstocking dinner”. This reader was just as puzzled as the letter writer as to what a ” ‘stocking dinner” could be. I was surprised when she described with delight the spread on long tables- all the foods mentioned in the Leatherstocking Tales (ie venison cooked six different ways, beaver tail, grouse, and so on). My first thought was: wow, people back then must have really admired these books! it’s like nowadays when folks have a dinner featuring dishes from Jane Austen novels. My second thought was wonder, that the James Fenimore Cooper books had been so popular. I tried one of the more famous and found it very unreadable. So that got me to thinking why. Did people have bigger imaginations back then, with no smart phones or internet or television. Was it easier for them to focus on and picture the wordy flowery descriptions, sitting around in a small room after dark with someone reading aloud (so I imagine)? I also wonder what one of those Cooper fans from the 1800’s would think of today’s popular novels. They might consider that we’ve become less intelligent as a whole (just going by the extensively detailed wordiness those older popular novels had).

There was another bookish part that made me smile. Her daughter received a copy of Black Beauty from the friend, and loved it so much. And later described an incident just like one in the novel- where a man’s team of horses couldn’t pull a load up a steep slope but he got angry and refused offered help. This little girl went on and on about how she wished people would understand about the horses being worked too hard.

A bit more info here.

Rating: 3/5

282 pages, 1913

More opinions:
A Work in Progress
Project Gutenberg Project
anyone else?

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Bios / Memoirs, Current Reads

Shy Boy

the Horse That Came In From the Wild

by Monty Roberts

Ever since I read two books by Monty Roberts, I was interested in this one Shy Boy. I’ve had a copy now for a while and was reminded of it just the other night after watching a documentary about horse training, where this man used body language in a round pen to “start” young horses and get them to accept tack and rider sans force. This book contains a lot of material that is in his other books, about his methods and his personal history. As a young man out in the brush he had learned by watching wild horses how they communicate with each other, and incoporated that into his horse training. He said he used these methods to get mustangs in the wild herd to accept him, but nobody really believed it. He always had the dream to go out and gentle a wild horse in situ, then bring it back to prove to everybody what he could do. Finally did that as an older man, this book has the story documented in photographs (there was also a film made).

The basic premise is that he took three horses, a film team, photographer and ranch hands to assist, all out to the wild herd. The mustang had actually been adopted by him earlier from a BLM roundup (since mustangs are now protected and it’s illegal to interact with or catch them), but instead of becoming accustomed to people the horse was put back in a free-roaming band on someone’s huge tract of private land, with horses that weren’t handled. This is the herd they approached. They cut the mustang out from the group and then Roberts followed him on horseback for three days straight (swapping his own mount each day) until the mustang finally quit fleeing and showed signs of submission. Then he was able to approach it, introduce the tack, and ride it back to the ranch. The horse was trained to work cattle and lived on the ranch for almost a year. Then Roberts decided to give the horse a chance to take back his freedom. Would he prefer to live with the wild horses again, or stay with humans? Shy Boy was part of a working team rounding up some cattle, when the mustang herd was in view they released him to see what he would do. This was all captured on film as well.

It’s a great story. And the photographs are very nice, although feel a tad old in quality nowadays (some are a bit grainy). I really enjoyed reading this book and got through it in just a few sittings, but some parts were a bit confusing or disappointing to me. For one, the author doesn’t actually ride the mustang himself at first. He’s the one who pursues it in the wild until it relents, and puts the first rope and bridle etc on. But then another man gets on the horse and rides it back to the ranch. He didn’t explain why. Did he just not want to take the risk himself? And then there’s a large section in the middle of the book that’s not about Shy Boy at all. It’s about how the author worked with a racehorse that was terrified of starting gates. Which was interesting, but felt a little off track. I would have rather read more about Shy Boy’s adjustment to living in captivity (apparently he grew to really like kids)- but Roberts wasn’t around for that. Shy Boy was kept and trained at someone else’s place while the author was off traveling doing his horse clinics for almost a year. So- I did like this book, it just wasn’t quite what I had expected all the way through.

Rating: 3/5

242 pages, 1999

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

2022 basic stats

The year has rolled over a good while ago now, and here I am finally posting my book stats for 2022. After having a bout of covid in January, I’m still a bit slow of thinking and absent-minded (the doctor says I should expect full recovery to take three to four more months, sigh). I have just not had the mental energy to tackle counting up my numbers (because um, I don’t keep track on any site like Goodreads that does the counting for me and makes neat little graphs).

So this is a tally from scrolling through my lists of posts on the back end of my blog: I read 135 books last year and abandoned 12. I don’t feel like I spent more time reading but listening to audiobooks while I do work around the house certainly boosted my count, and I think I read a lot of graphic novels and juvenile fiction again too.

Also higher number of abandoned books than usual. I’m actually kind of pleased with this- if I ditch things more readily when aren’t working for me, that leaves me free to move on to other, better books!

Favorites of the year:

Tracks by Robyn Davidson- woman crosses a vast Australian desert alone with four camels, for her own reasons. Beautiful descriptions of the landscape and plant life, while at the same time including some thoughtful introspection on the emotional reasons she had to get away from things.

Gluten-Free Girl by Shauna James Ahern- this book just meant a lot to me because I’m also gluten intolerant. So there was a lot here I could relate to and learn from. I especially appreciated that she looked at the changes in her diet not as a deprivation or restrictions to endure, but an opportunity to personally embrace new culinary discoveries.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir- I couldn’t put this one down. Sci fi story about an astronaut who finds himself alone in space with a desperate mission- and he encounters an alien species. It was just fantastic.

A Hunter’s Heart edited by David Petersen- interesting and thoughtful collection from the perspectives of hunters. A wide variety of voices and writing styles, all with their different reasons for hunting. Most show deep respect for the wildlife and appreciation for what they take (not just about trophies).

Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel by Carl Safina- on the depth of animal perception and emotion. The focus is on wolves, elephants, whales and chimpanzees but features many other animal species too. It is a moving, eye-opening, and saddening book, wonderfully written.

Never Out of Season by Rob Dunn- intricate details about the plants we depend on for food. Why their diversity is failing and why that matters. How they interact with pests and disease. How historical discoveries and current agricultural practices influence the foods we’re actually familiar with, and so much more.

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah- lively, astonishing, funny and poignant memoir from South Africa. I listened to this on as an audiobook, narrated by the author himself, and the voice was great.

No Way But Gentlenesse by Richard Hines- how a young man from a poor mining town in Yorkshire taught himself falconry with a kestrel, and it changed his life. Then his brother made a film about it (which I’ve seen)!

Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy by Melissa Milgrom- stuffing dead animals might just sound creepy, but this book was wonderful. And if you’ve ever stood in front of displays in a natural history museum marveling at how real the forms look, this tells you all the little whys and hows behind that work.

An Eternity of Eagles by Stephen Bodio- beautiful book about all different types of eagles, especially focused on how humans have used them, feared or revered them and depicted them in art across the centuries.

The Song of the Dodo by David Quammen- hefty doorstopper book about the uniqueness of fauna on islands, why they are so unique, why new species arise or go extinct there, and tons of other relevant fascinating stuff.

A Stitch of Time by Lauren Marks- fascinating memoir about recovery from an aneurysm that affected this woman’s memory and language skills- including her very thought process.

More than ten, yeah. I had trouble picking. I gave so many books four stars this past year (that’s a great book in my rating system)! but somehow not a single five-star (nothing that struck me that I loved it and want to immediately add it to my own permanent collection). Am I getting that more critical? or just didn’t happen across any books that matched me as a reader so perfectly this time around.

Belatedly stepping into the new year, I’m not planning on joining any challenges, though I might participate in our public library one again, come summer. My main goal for the year is to read a good number of the books that are both physically on my own shelves and on my listed TBR here on the blog. I’d also like to make an effort to completely cross off all the books on at least one TBR post I have. Should be doable, right?

If I don’t keep getting my attention sidetracked by other books that catch my eye in the meantime! Which happens to all of us, I know. Expect more puzzle posts here, too. I think that will be a continual thing now, as my recovery drags on. (The doctor insisted it’s important that I take things very gradually, so).

Month: February 2023

and Find Yourself in Nature

made in China ~ artist Judy Bushwell ~ 1,000 pieces

the Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West

the Story of a Baby Woodchuck

the Horse That Came In From the Wild

RATINGS / SUBJECTS: