July 2023 - Dogear Diary

The Last Garden

by Liza Ketchum

A nice, quiet, reflective little book. I thought momentarily from the title that the focus would be the garden the author planted in what she felt were her final years- but really, it glances back to many different gardens she had throughout her life. From ones she barely participated in as a child, to those of family members and neighbors she visited, but mostly the gardens she planted and tended in various homes she lived in through her adult years. Each chapter has a loose focus on a certain plant or flower, telling what it meant to her, what family member or friend it reminds her of, how cuttings or shoots of it were handed down through the family or among gardening friends. I expected to glean little bits of gardening advice and lore, but what more I picked up on was the closeness of family among many moves and restarts, new beginnings all over again. The comfort that came in growing things from the soil, that familiar work with hands in the dirt. Simply joys in seeing birds and butterflies visit her plants, reassurance in knowing she’d done some good to support the natural world, when all else around might seem to be falling apart with misuse, pollution and global warming. I felt a bit distracted throughout, not always following closely who the various people she spoke of were, and missing more depth and detail about the actual gardens (I could well have read this book were it twice as long)- but for what it was, very nice. The finely drawn, black-and-white illustrations by Bobbi Angell are lovely.

I received my copy from LibraryThing Early Reviewers program, in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 3/5

179 pages, 2020

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

The Girl From Everywhere

by Heidi Heilig

I picked up this book on a whim, when looking for one “recommended by a librarian” to finish the little summer reading challenge. The theme for the challenge was “voyage through time” with a generously broad interpretation- so things on the librarians’ pick shelf ranged from historical fiction to time travel stories. I chose one of the former to read for the challenge, this one is of the latter.

It’s about a girl whose father is captain of a ship- and the ship can take them anyplace they have a map for. And depending on when the map was made, the ship takes them to that time as well. Apparently it also works for places that were drawn from imagination- shores of islands that never really existed, maps drawn for fantasy countries- the ship will take them there. Disappointingly, in the story they never actually go to a fantasy land (as far as I read), but they have curious items and magical creatures on board that only existed in places reached by invented maps. Such an intriguing premise! and I often like stories that take place on sailing ships, and this one has a bit of pirate adventure feel to it. But somehow I lost interest halfway through. Not sure why- probably because I’m not the target audience and the further it got into intrigue and adventure, the less interested I became.

There’s so much going for it, though. The girl has a difficult relationship with her father, in the first place because her mother died (of an illness I think) when she was born, which devastated him. In the second place, because he has an addiction to opium. And his quest is one that might put her in danger- he wants to find a map that will take him back to the island she was born on, in particular right before her birth, so he can give her mother a cure. He’s adamant about this goal, even though tried many times and never got to the right time and place. The closer he gets to success, the more anxious our main character is for what will happen- it’s that classic time travel paradox. Will she cease to exist? will she exist as herself at the current age, and also as an infant? does her father even care. He doesn’t seem to. Again, I’m not sure why I got tired of this novel. It certainly reads well, I was going through it quickly at first. There’s a love triangle that arises, between the girl, one of her shipmates, and a young man on an island they land on. There’s also some minor characters that could be interesting- two more shipmates from distant, exotic places- but they seemed rather flat and so in the background, I felt like I never really knew who they were. Oh well. I think my twelve-year-old might really like this book, but I found myself picking up magazines to read instead, between chapters, so it’s time to move on for me.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: Abandoned

454 pages, 2016

More opinions:
Good Books and Good Wine
SFF Book Reviews

Tags: 0/5- Abandoned, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Young Adult

TBR 86

Time for this kind of post again. More books I want to read someday! The sources lately seem to be my other reading material, more than from fellow book bloggers. The blogs are getting quieter, or my interests are just remaining entrenched- and animal books are not that popular among adults, yes I know. I think it’s some of both.

Funny story about that (which perhaps I have told here before) one time at a bookstore after looking around, I asked the clerk where to find books on natural history? she didn’t seem to know what that meant. I tried to explain and she showed me the shelves of travel books. I said no, I mean books about animals and she pointed me to the children’s section! Sigh. I like nonfiction narratives about scientific studies of wildlife, books on people’s interactions with animals, or just stories about animals- especially if it’s from their point of view. Is that so hard to understand? Really, this person couldn’t seem to fathom why anyone would want to read that kind of book. That only children would be interested in what animals do, or what we do to them, or why they are how they are. But I am. Very interested. And since that interest hasn’t changed in some forty-plus years, I doubt it’s going to anytime soon.

Well. Here’s the list:

found at my local library:

The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill
Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton- Lark Writes
Pathogenesis by Jonathan Kennedy
The Great Sperm Whale by Richard Ellis
Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith
Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher- A Bookish Type
Dolphin Diaries by Denise Herzing
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby van Pelt
The Hero of This Book by Elizabeth McCracken- Book Chase

not at the library:

Taking Flight by Lev Parikian
Yoruba Girl Dancing by Simi Bedford
Speak to Me by Paula Cocozza
Cry of the Wild by Charles Foster
Away with Words by Sophie Cameron
Mother Sea by Lorraine Wilson
Beastly by Keggie Carew
Undercurrent by Natasha Carthew
The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller
Brilliant White Peaks by Teng Rong- Snips and Snails
Alone by Carlotta Gurt
Tree Stories by Stefano Mancuso
Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens by Patricia Lynn Duffy
The Real Chimpanzee by Christophe Boesch
Black Ops and Beaver Bombing by Fiona Mathews
George: A Magpie Memoir by Frieda Hughes
Blue Meridians by Peter Matthiessen
Lost and Found by James Gould-Bourn
The Cultured Chimpanzee by W.C. McGrew
Chimpanzees of the Budongo Forest by Vernon Reynolds
The New Chimpanzee by Craig Stanford
Voyage to the Whales by Hal Whitehead
The Jewel Box by Tim Blackburn
Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins by Hal Whitehead
The Dog Days of Arthur Cane by T. Ernesto Bethancourt
Silverhair by Stephen Baxter
The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life by Steven Leveen- Book Chase
Love From a Convict by Veronica Henriques- the Neglected Books Page

Tags: TBR additions

Illusions of Camelot

by Peter Boal

Memoir from a dancer with the New York City Ballet. From an affluent family that lived in a mansion, sent their kids to private school, owned horses, belong to an exclusive Club, etc. Insider story about what it was like to grow up in those circumstances. A lot of it sounded pretty posh to me, but yes there were struggles and kids teasing each other and an argumentative, dysfuncational family and a father with alcoholism that only got more severe as the years went on. The author describes how his family was always a fan of the ballet, and took him to see performances at a young age, and he was so enthralled, turned to his parents and said: that’s what I want to do. And he did it. Starting at twelve. Taking the train into the city for ballet lessons after classes all through middle school, traveling with the company half of his high school years! Sounds like he had a natural talent, strength and flexibility- almost immediately singled out by instructors and mentors. I don’t know a lot about ballet (having only read a few fictional accounts of children in classes) so I was hoping for more, but feel like I just got the bare bones. All the ballet stuff was sketched over, or breezed through with technical terms I couldn’t follow, frequently mentioning big names, how he met certain people, how much he admired them- but not a lot of the details that get a reader to really sink into a story. Really more of the narrative was about his family life, travels, incidents and politics in his hometown. I did admire his family’s stance on certain things, and liked the stories from his childhood, but going into this book thinking it was mostly about the ballet, it came across as a disappointment.

Also a tad disjointed- it skips around quite a bit. More or less chronological, but then events fall out of order again. You’ve read all through his childhood and teen years into adult, and then suddenly the last few chapters tell about the pony he had as a kid, and how his sister got into competitive riding. I realized why when I read the acknowledgements at the end- seems like much of this book was originally written as short stories, which he then pieced together. So that makes sense to me now, but when I was reading it before knowing that, it kept throwing me off. Another thing that baffled me, was reading about how as a young man he first realized he was gay, about his first lover who became very ill, and another man he was with after that- and then suddenly at the end of the book it mentions his wife and children. What? I was very confused- there’s not even a brief sentence of explanation. Probably it’s too personal to be included, but I admit I was taken aback and can’t help wondering what changed. It’s the one thing that keeps turning over in my mind on finishing the book, and it wasn’t the most interesting part of his story.

I received my copy from the Early Reviewers program on LibraryThing, in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 2/5

318 pages, 2022

Tags: 2/5- Just Okay, Bios / Memoirs, Current Reads

Creating Candles

by Luisa Sacchi

This book has a ton of very clever and crafty ideas about making candles with all sorts of embellishments and decorations. From cute things to please kids- small animal figures, molded star shapes, bright stacks of color, things on holiday themes, etc.- to very elegant and pretty candles decorated with leaves, lace, fake or real flowers, glass beads, you name it. Nicely paired with ideas for wrapping as gifts to match a theme, pairing scents with color or intent and style, and so on. There’s quite a few I’m interested in trying to make myself. But once again I felt a tad dubious about the safety of many ideas presented in this book. The gel candles (I didn’t know they exist!) look very cool, but personally I don’t think I would want to burn something that has flower petals or toy animal figurines or beaded jewelry suspended in the wax. Adhering paper, fabric and dried plant parts on the outside of candles also makes me uneasy (I’m quite risk averse). But I do like many of the ideas that feature cut-out wax shapes pressed to the outside or inset into molded candles (I also didn’t know before that colored and patterned wax sheets are a thing!) and I’m game to try some blending experiments. There’s also ideas that use paint, or raffia or glass tile bits, and so on. Also many more creative ideas about what you can pour wax into to make a candle- from cookie cutters and empty drink cartons to hollowed out eggshells, orange skins and coconut shells. I don’t think I would make a candle in a soup can (complete with label a la Andy Warhol) or wine glass (seems to thin and prone to breaking from the heat) or a cleaned-out bell pepper (that’s probably going to rot fast, ugh) but a lot of the projects are very inventive, making me look around to see what else I could use. A thick container lid as a mold for simple tea lights, for example. There’s also more than one hint on how to get a finished candle out of a mold, or clean remnants out of a prior-used candle jar, and for different ways to affix the wick, and other useful tips. Those are scattered through the book on the individual project pages, though. So while I didn’t read completely through every instruction page, I did skim the whole thing and read all the “helpful hint” boxes to gather that info for myself.

I don’t dare put this book in my daughter’s hands right now- she’s bound to want to try making most of the things in here, half of which I think are maybe unsafe. And I need a bit more experience myself, first! There’s candles that look like flowers or candy (with caution that if you gift them, should tell the recipient they’re not edible!) and one that even looks convincingly like a molded jello dessert or pudding. From silly and cute to striking and beautiful, there’s so many ideas in different styles in here, it’s quite inspiring!

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 3/5

224 pages, 2001

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Current Reads, Nonfiction (general)

Stopping at the Quilt Barn

I’ve been spending just as much time of my free time puzzling as reading, lately. So here’s another one. While the picture isn’t a big favorite of mine (my eighteen-year-old commented on how old fashioned it looked) I really enjoyed putting this one together. The pieces had such crazy shapes! Some perfectly ordinary two knobs, two holes. And then all kinds of weird shapes, some very skinny, others tiny little wedges. Quite a few that looked like edge pieces, but weren’t. I didn’t mind at all, in fact I find these the most fun to assemble.

It was missing one piece, right in the middle. I made a replacement. Not that great up close,

but it fit nicely into the finished puzzle. (See the last image in assembly slide show)

My husband gave up trying to find it, and he looked twice. My artist friend who visited however, spotted it within seconds. She’s got a good eye!

Tags: puzzles

Stuff

Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things

by Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee

When the co-authors wrote this book just over a decade ago, compulsive hoarding was little known and even less studied. They set out to learn more about why people become hoarders, what their feelings and thoughts about their belongings are, maybe how they got that way (many already had symptoms in childhood), how it affects family members, and finally what might assist them to clear out their clutter and overcome their compulsions. Much easier said than done. The authors were surprised at the overwhelming response when they sought subjects for their study- turns out hoarding isn’t as rare as they’d thought. Lots of people have difficulty letting go of cherished items, controlling desires to buy items they don’t really need, or saving junk that just might come be useful someday. The book delves into the nuances and reasons behind these problems and more. Problem being when the items collected or saved literally fill the living space- multiple cases they discuss had hoarders who simply moved into a new residence when their current one became unlivable! Others lost family members who became frustrated with the situation and left, or actually had their piles of stuff threaten their healthy and safety. Many times city officials had to get involved because of the physical safety hazard, but as the authors point out more than once, forced cleanouts do little to actually solve the problem, as hoarders will quickly fill their home again.

It was sometimes distressing and unsettling to read the description of some homes they visited, and I honestly felt bad for the people struggling with hoarding to such a degree. Some of them desperately wanted help for what they couldn’t seem to control, others denied that anything was a problem! Their reasons for hanging onto or collecting stuff were so varied and different than what I had assumed might be. Much of it appears to be pathological in nature- so I’d hope that now, so many years later, progress has been made in treatment using medications as well as the therapy, assisted organization and cleanout, and so on. I keep turning my mind back to the reasons that people became hoarders: because they felt guilty wasting anything (so couldn’t throw anything away), because they felt an intimate connection to each object, because they felt the object held their memories- literally were afraid of forgetting things the items represented if they were discarded, because they felt important or loved when taking in animals (the animal hoarding chapter was hard to read, but brief), because they saw endless opportunities or knowledge that things held (think stashes of years and years’ worth of newspapers, magazines, etc). It’s kind of scary to read all this and recognize little bits of yourself or your family members in the behavior and rationale of hoarders. At what point does my personal library (currently 1,873 books) or puzzle collection (157) become too much? I chuckled when the authors mentioned that one hoarder had hundreds of books in his house – well, I actually have a few thousand! I start to feel it’s getting overwhelming when they stack up on the floor because I’m out of shelf space . . . and then I just want to build more shelves. But really I need to whittle down the TBR pile- and this book really gives me the impulse to do so, and to seriously clean my house, and to clear out stuff the kids don’t use anymore, and just keep going . . .

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 4/5

290 pages, 2010

More opinions:
Reading is My Superpower
Book’d Out
anyone else?

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Current Reads, Medical/Health

Making Candles

by Judy Ann Sadler

So- during a recent recovery period, I found some much-needed relaxation soaking in long baths with a candle or two at the side. I actually used up all my youngest’s small candles, and feeling a tad guilty about that, I simply made more. It’s surprisingly easy and more fun than I expected. Since then I’ve been collecting interesting small glass containers from thrift stores, and old partly-used candles to melt down, plus saving the drippings from the new ones I acquire. Learned pretty quick that I prefer soy and beeswax candles over anything with paraffin (which gives me headaches). It was really pleasing the week before, to sit in a bath with a row of small candles I’d made myself– thinking: those are here because I did something. (Yeah, I have not been very productive with anything of late, but am getting back to normal activity levels now). I got a bit more ambitious with plans for my next bout of candle-making, but figured I could use some guidance, and I still get fatigue from looking at screens for long periods of time, or I’d readily do a deep dive into candle-making forums (I’m sure they exist).

Instead I tried to find some books at my library on the subject. Surprised that in the entire catalog, there were only three or four books on candle making. Is it really that simple (or unpopular) that nobody’s interested in craft books about it? There’s dozens and dozens of books on cooking, quilt making, paper crafts, woodworking, you name it. I was just a bit disappointed. Well, here’s the first one I read- aimed at kids so yes, it’s very simple and easy to read. It’s an older book. Some of the craft ideas are really fun, like putting a red or pink candle in a white container painted with black spots (think cow, ha ha) or wrapping different colors of beeswax sheets cut in shapes to make a flower, a lighthouse, etc. Others just looked a bit clunky or tacky to me, and a few of the ideas seemed – unsafe? I don’t know, but other places I read briefly online said never to use a clay pot as a candle holder, never to decorate the outside with anything flammable (paper, felt, leaves) as this book suggests.

But I did find a lot of the other instructions and ideas useful, and some should have been obvious to me at the start! Like to put waxed paper down on your work surface or under any container you’re using as a candle mold- drips will easily lift off once cool. Or pour into things like empty cartons to make pillar candles. I really liked the idea of a twisted taper candle, even though I previously never considered trying to make dip candles at all. So I’m going to copy down instructions for a few of the crafts in here, ignore the rest, and hope for more precise details in the other book I checked out, which is written for adults. (There’s things I want to know that this book just doesn’t address at all. I’m sure I can find the info online, but I find it easier to process looking at paper in hand, than turning on a screen all the time).

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 3/5

40 pages, 1988

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

Ape House

by Sara Gruen

Another book featuring great apes. I probably shouldn’t have read them so close together, as I kept getting some things confused. But maybe that’s because of some less-than-stellar writing, as a lot of other readers seem to think. Myself, I liked this better than Water for Elephants (same author) and it was a great improvement over Lucy, so I enjoyed it regardless. Even though I would have preferred more scenes with the apes, and less with the humans (per usual). In this novel, they’re bonobos, or pygmy chimpanzees. The bonobos live in a small colony in a language research center at a university. Some animal rights protestors bomb the lab, and one of the scientists is seriously injured. The story follows the injured scientist as she recovers, deals with family issues, and desperately tries to find out where the bonobos have gone (sold off in what seems to be a moment of panic on the part of the university) while fending off unwanted attention from reporters. It switches chapters with an alternate viewpoint: one of the reporters who is struggling with his writing career, frustrated at being forced off a newspaper’s payroll, unhappily taking jobs at tabloids where all his meticulous writing is edited into dumbed- down nonsense, and eager to get his footing back by following what happened the bonobo story. Meanwhile also dealing with his own relationship problems. There’s other minor characters of interest, but the main ones of course, were the bonobos themselves- who wind up on a crazily staged reality show where they’re basically put in an empty house and left to their own devices. Basically the man in charge is banking on the apes’ predilection for frequent sexual contact to draw in shocked and curious viewers. But as more protestors swarm the streets outside the “Ape House” and the reporter’s path gradually converges with the injured scientist, the bonobos actually prove themselves to be more calm and well-behaved than humans in the story, who do all sorts of awful and stupid things to each other. Well, apart from their eating habits. In that the bonobos were not reasonable- they demanded pizza and candy, until some of the scientists from the original language lab worried seriously about their health. But what brought it all to a close was a little twist revealing who had actually bombed the research center in the first place, and then everything fell apart- however I will let you know the bonobos ended up in a better place. The two main human characters did, too- as far as I could tell. The story leaned too much (in my opinion) on the sensational misbehavior of the people involved. I appreciated that the author did a lot of research, has actually visited a facility where bonobos are taught sign language and use lexicons to communicate, and states that every incident in the story on the part of the apes, actually happened somewhere in real life. I did recognize a few of the scenes (the child being handed over, the bird lifted free).

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 3/5

306 pages, 2010

More opinions:
Book Chase
My Books My Life
Book’d Out

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

Academic Cats

made by Buffalo Games ~ artist Steve Read ~ 750 pieces

Another of the Cats series by this brand. It went pretty quick, in an enjoyable way. I liked all the different visual textures. So much tidy variety. Who would think, just glancing at this handful of pieces, that they’re all from the same puzzle? (That’s lamp glass, pink lined paper, cat fur, map on the globe).

I had fun with the book titles, piecing together the globe by actually picturing where countries are in relation to each other, and getting slowed down by all the white/gold fur at the end (matching mostly by shape at that point). I did have to ask my husband: what’s that box with the metal lid, but looks like nothing’s inside it? Felt pretty silly when he pointed out it’s an ink pad for the date stamp lying nearby. I recognized the date stamp (I’ve actually used one before) but my brain couldn’t place the dark felt-looking surface in the box as the ink pad for it, ha. And then he amused me by saying something about it being an old picture. I said no, I don’t think it’s that old, it’s just picturing older stuff.

a thrift store find

Tags: puzzles

Month: July 2023

Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things

made by Buffalo Games ~ artist Steve Read ~ 750 pieces

RATINGS / SUBJECTS: