July 2023 - Page 2 of 3

Lucy

by Laurence Gonzales

Eh. I had high hopes for this book, but they faded pretty darn quick. It was so reminiscent of Eva by Peter Dickinson, disappointingly not as well-written. I really liked the premise and wanted to see where the story went, but had to force myself to finish it. Writing style tells all, shows almost nothing, very straightforward and plain. Which is okay sometimes, but in this case it didn’t work for me. It was dull. The dialog was awkward all the way through. Even believing that the protagonist, Lucy, had grown up in the Congo alone with her scientist father who spoke very formally, she still didn’t sound right. I kept thinking: who talks like this? why does it all sound off? Not to mention there’s plot holes galore, inexplicable things happen that you’d roll right over if it were a J Fic novel, but in this case I couldn’t buy it. Well.

Premise: Lucy is half human, half bonobo. Her father was researching bonobos (pygmy chimpanzees) in the Congo for some twenty-five years, and did some genetic engineering tinkering adapting a female bonobo to have some human genes, so that he could artificially inseminate her with human sperm. Thus Lucy was born. Raised in the jungle for fourteen years with her father among the bonobos. Then war broke out, the father killed, another scientist with a research camp nearby -Jenny- saves Lucy at the last minute and brings her home to the States. She’s unaware of Lucy’s real parentage at first, hoping to find some living relatives. The truth comes out eventually.

Jenny wants to help Lucy adjust and simply live life as a normal teenage girl. But everyone who meets her can sense something is different though it’s hard to pick up on (she looks almost exactly human). I did enjoy the descriptions of how Lucy perceived things differently, with her half-ape nature: sensing non-verbal communication from all the animals around her, having superior hearing and strength, etc. Her longing for home in the jungle clashed with her eagerness to fit in with human peers, but she soon found herself on the run for her life instead, when news finally gets broken to the public about Lucy, the first human/ape hybrid. Lots of people are willing to just accept her and support her desire to live a normal life, but plenty more are up in arms in outrage at her existence, insisting she is no more than an animal, has no human rights, etc. She gets kidnapped by government baddies who put in her in a lab for experimental purposes, and it is – of course- horrible. Can she escape? where will she go? is her adopted human family in danger? the end of this book reads like a fast-paced thriller movie. Last few pages really took me by surprise, it didn’t go where I expected but I kind of like that. It was strange that the final chapter was narrated in first person, when the rest of the book it had been third. Also jarring that for most of the book she mentioned getting “messages” from animals around her, but without putting it into words. Suddenly near the end a rabbit and then a crow speak to her in full sentences, which felt out of place. But there’s lots of things that feel out of place in this story, which is why I was unable to suspend disbelief and actually enjoy it. Sigh.

Rating: 2/5

307 pages, 2010

More opinions at: The Last Book I Read
anyone else?

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

Pounce

made by Buffalo Games ~ artist Earthpix ~ 500 pieces

Another cute puzzle that turned out to be more of a challenge than I expected! The photography ones are always hard. But it’s extra-satisfying to see the picture clarify as you fit them all into place. I especially liked the big blue eyes on this one, just bugging out at me through the whole process, ha. Felt disappointed at the end to wind up missing one piece, right in the middle of the face (not too noticeable if I have the puzzle on a dark board, but still). I swapped for this puzzle and feel pretty sure I was told it’s complete- so either the sender was dishonest, or I myself lost a piece. Still searching the floor, just in case. Probably pointless, as my cat got on the table at one point (usually chairs are moved in a way he can’t jump up, but someone else had put one back and left it there . . . ) and it’s quite possible a piece stuck to his paw and fell off again who-knows where. It’s happened before.

My other frustration is that the pieces fit very snugly, but their layers were peeling apart so I spent a lot of time gluing separated knobs back down. Didn’t get them all, not by a long shot. And disassembling pieces only makes more of them peel, because of the effort. There were a few false fits, I learned quick to wedge them apart again with care. Flip side of this, is that it’s very amusing to pick the entire completed puzzle up by its corners and wave it back and forth, and it all holds together. Suspended picture of a very whiskery kitten flying at you through the air- so fun!

Doing this puzzle reminded me a lot of the “kitten surrounded by fried eggs” one, ha. Just because it was also a photograph of a kitten, with lots of grass texture. This one was quite a bit easier, and thus more enjoyable to do.

from online swap - Puzzle Exchange Group

Tags: puzzles

Nature’s Best Hope

A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

by Douglas W. Tallamy

Companion book to Bringing Nature Home. It’s been a while since I read the previous one, so a bit difficult to put my finger on how the focus is different between the two- because in a broad sense, they’re about the same thing? This book is also about how important it is for everyone to do something to support wildlife, specifically “the small things that run the world”- the insects- because they are the base of so much other life on earth. It’s about why you should remove invasive plants- and exactly why they are so damaging to the environment, making entire systems collapse or become sterile- and what types of plants you should choose to replace them. I should have realized that plants have keystone species just like animals- ones that are so important to the support and health of all the rest that without them the ecosystem is seriously degraded. The author reiterates over and over through this book which half a dozen shrub, perennial and tree species will provide food and shelter for the greatest number of insects, and thus birds (specifically to the Eastern United States). He points out that it doesn’t matter how small your yard is, or how few resources you have- just starting by removing one invasive, or by planting one native that feeds insects and/or birds, will start a change. Notes how even a small yard can be an oasis for wildlife in the middle of a built-up city, bringing in birds and other creatures from miles around. His biggest points seem to be: make your lawn smaller, plant more natives- but not just any native- ones that are keystone species- and remove as many destructive, invasive plants as you can. Other helpful tips, like: don’t put up a huge “bee hotel” with hundreds of cavities. This makes bees susceptible to their predators. Instead make smaller blocks with drilled holes, and space them out through the yard. Make sure to keep your yard tidy and have at least a strip of well-manicured lawn with nice edges out front where people see it. This gives the impression that the area is cared for, so that wilder looking collections of plants, or unfamiliar natives that some people call weeds, will be more accepted by your neighbors. Made me chuckle a bit, because how true that is. The book also made me sigh, because now I think I’ve now identified another invasive in my own yard which I need to work at removing.

So a lot of it felt like re-iteration from the other book, the same things explained a bit differently. My copy is full of photographs, which I really appreciate, especially of all the birdlife and interesting caterpillars. It’s surprisingly heavy, though. Might actually be the reason it took me two or three weeks to gradually read this one, in between a bunch of others, because sometimes merely the idea of the weight in my hands made me pause and reach for a different book instead, ha. It’s nice that in the back, the author has a kind of question-and-answer section, where he addresses common objections people have to making the changes to their yards and landscapes that he recommends. I learned some from that, too.

Rating: 4/5

254 pages, 2019

More opinions: Bookfoolery
anyone else?

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

How to Be Human

by Paula Cocozza

This is one of the most interesting, strange and beautifully written books I have read in a long time. I found it very enthralling and unsettling at the same time. It’s about a woman living in London, going through the aftermath of a broken relationship. Interactions with her neighbors, who have a new baby and the mother is struggling. With her ex- at first just re-playing conversations and arguments with him in her head, then actual encounters when she suddenly finds out he’s living nearby. And most of all, with a bold fox that appears in her backyard. The fox is wary at first but then becomes accustomed to her presence. She gradually becomes more aware of its comings and goings, looks forward to its appearance, tries to follow it through the strip of woods crammed between two neighborhoods. The more her relationships with people unravel, the stronger her feeling of closeness grows with the fox, along with an increasing sense of alarm as her neighbors obviously don’t like foxes around and wish to get rid of them. So one day she swings her door open wide and lets the fox step into her house . . .

Meanwhile her ex is also coming around more frequently, proffering help, wanting to make sure she’s okay- but she finds his presence distressing to say the least. And then there’s something strange that happens with the neighbor’s baby, and the reader starts to wonder if this woman is an unreliable narrator- some of the incidents are unlikely- is she perceiving them differently than everyone else? or imagining things entirely? I’m still not sure. You have to read between the lines a lot, where meaning slides around. It was hard for me to tell if the ex meant well, or was being subtly manipulative, for example. I don’t think the main character ever actually realized that her neighbor was suffering from postpartum depression and struggling with the new baby, it’s hard to see around all the difficulties that are just in front of her, that she surrounds herself with and then convinces it’s perfectly normal to not show up for work days in a row, neglect her personal hygiene, crawl around in the shrubbery looking for the fox’s den, tape up her mail slot in the front door when people knocking appear threatening, and on and on. I really loved how the writer’s words made me picture things so clearly, yet in such a unique way. And then there’s the segments written from the fox’s point of view- in a manner very different from any animal perspective I’ve ever read, and so aptly done.

I thought of Lady Into Fox and A Man in the Zoo by David Garnett while reading this one (there’s even a scene here where the main character imagines she’s in a zoo, but on the wrong side of the enclosure, looking out at people), and especially of The Zoo Where You’re Fed to God by Michael Ventura – a book that hasn’t come to mind in years. Due to the slightly surreal encounters with animals, the very precise, pinpointed and delicately descriptive language. But most especially I kept think of the film The Fox and The Child. I want to see that all over again now. Paula Cocozza has published another title, Speak to Me– how I’d like to read that one!

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 4/5

278 pages, 2017

Tags: Animals Fiction, Current Reads, Medical/Health, Speculative Fiction

Funny Puppies

made by Buffalo Games ~ artist unknown ~ 750 pieces

Endearing puppies, although rather ridiculous (in my opinion), how they’re all crammed into the picture. The shepherd looks rather goofy, but I really like the sweet spaniel, the charming frenchie and yorkie. Corgi looks a little too orange, I kept thinking: are they really that orange? should be more of a golden color . . . Regardless, I really enjoyed the visual texture of the fur- so I did all that last, plus it was easier to pick out the bright colors from the jumble of pieces first. This one had a pretty standard piece cut, except for some funny wedge shaped arms. Funny in a good way. My only (minor) complaint is the pieces have some glare, and they don’t fit snugly, so hard to move more than two attached pieces at a time. But I didn’t have to shift many sections around. And that does make it easy to disassemble with just crumpling my fingers in from all the outer edges, at the end. A quick, fun and definitely cute puzzle!

a thrift store find

Tags: puzzles

complete!

I finished the local library’s summer reading challenge. Quicker than I expected, but that’s nice because there was a much better selection on the prize book cart! (I got a copy of The Overstory by Richard Powers). Three of the items on the challenge list I skipped, just counting thirty minutes’ reading time (allowed). For the other choices, here’s what I read:

Re-read a book you read during childhood- Tomorrow’s Sphinx by Clare Bell

Read a book set in a place you want to visit- Dirty Chick by Antonia Murphy

Read a book that takes place in your home state or country- A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins

Read a graphic novel- The Magicians: Alice’s Story by Lilah Sturges (adapted from Lev Grossman)

Read a book recommended by a librarian- The Atomic City Girls by Janet Beard

Read a book outside of your comfort zone- Impossible by Nancy Werlin

Read a book outside of your own timeline- Too Late the Phalarope by Alan Paton

I always feel like I’m kind of fudging the read a book recommended by a librarian item. I’ve never yet actually gone up to a desk and asked one of the librarians for a direct recommendation. Instead I pick a book off one of the displays they’ve made on a theme- I figure if a librarian singled out those books to bring to the public’s attention, they must count as recommendations!

So this was fun. Once again it stretched me a bit, to read a few books I wouldn’t have otherwise- the teen romance and the WWII historical fiction. Most of the others were already on my TBR so I was happy to mark them off my personal list, too. And very pleased with my book prize!

The Atomic City Girls

by Janet Beard

Novel about some people who lived and worked in a secret Tennessee community that supported building the first atomic bomb. Created completely from scratch by the army, Oak Ridge had everything the employees needed- housing, offices, cafeterias, dance halls, movie theaters, roller skating rinks, bowling alleys, and of course the laboratories and other research facilities. Their main goal was making uranium, but the majority of the people who worked there had no idea what they were actually doing. They were forbidden to ask questions or talk about their job- not even among co-workers. Anyone caught breaking the rules was immediately dismissed. As it was a good-paying job in the forties, tons of people flocked to the site for all kinds of positions, from the top scientists, to people manning machines, to those providing meals, doing construction work, cleaning, laundry and so on.

The main characters are two young women from poor families- June is for the most part demure and quiet-spoken, curious about things but trying to do her duty and keep her mouth shut. Her roommate Cici is the opposite- outspoken, flirtatious, intent on re-making her image, lying about her background so she can find a man of higher social status to marry. There are also some chapters from the viewpoints of men- one a scientist, who takes a sudden interest in June, and the other a black man, struggling to deal with the poor housing the army offered its colored workers (freezing in winter, sweltering and swarmed with mosquitoes in summer) and pining for his family, left behind in Alabama. His friends are agitating for better housing, the right to live with their wives, and overall better treatment on the site (they often get ignored and passed up by bus drivers, aren’t allowed into the same recreation halls as white people, and so on).

The storylines of these four different characters eventually intersect at the end of the novel. Mostly it is about how June and Cici experience life at Oak Ridge, June’s curiosity and Cici’s absolute ignorance about what their job is actually doing- June sits all day in front of a bank of dials, instructed to keep them within a certain range, and that’s it. She starts to wonder. When she becomes acquainted with the scientist, and later becomes his girlfriend, she starts to learn more, and to see how the pressure is getting to him. How the excitement of tackling an impossible project turns into horror at its implications, when the euphoria of success subsides. I appreciated that the novel dealt with not only the different aspects of work and living conditions among the varied types of people on the research site, but also their varied responses to what happened when the bomb was finally utilized. There’s a postscript that tells what happened to some of them after. I have to say I didn’t care much for Cici at all, but then I probably wouldn’t have liked her in real life either! The other characters were more interesting to me. The whole story is told in a straightforward, plain writing style that’s not to my usual taste. I certainly learned a lot from this book, though. It intrigued me simply because I knew so little about that era, or the Manhattan project.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 3/5

353 pages, 2018

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

The Last Free Cat

by Jon Blake

Jade finds a cat in her backyard. This is a shock, because in her world, set in a dystopian future, there are no cats roaming around at all. A deadly feline disease reputedly transmissible to humans caused the government to conduct programs removing and euthanizing almost all cats. Cat breeding and sales are now strictly controlled by one corporation, which means of course they’re terribly expensive and rare animals (to the general public). So Jade is in awe at seeing the cat, but also frightened. If someone suspects she has it, they could send authorities to search her house- and that’s not at all the worst that could happen. Yet how can anyone resist a cat’s soft fur, mesmerizing eyes, comforting purr? Jade of course takes in the cat, against her mother’s protests, but she can’t manage to keep it hidden forever. Terrible consequences ensue- and after the very worst she ends up on the run with an unlikely friend, desperate to keep her cat from being confiscated, or even put to death. I won’t say more about the plot because it was a fun, if tense, surprise all the way through. This story of controlling powers, oppressed people and a lonely girl suddenly thrown into dangerous circumstances, is lightened on nearly every other page by charming descriptions of the cat’s features and behavior. Obviously written by someone who knows cats well! (and ferrets, apparently).

It pulled up so many other books in my mind- The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, for how one sudden action a kid made in self-defense, sent them on the run from the law. Because it was set in a future England with kids attempting to get somewhere (furtively, which is nearly impossible) on a canal boat with an animal, it reminded me of Heartsease. And the whole aspect of the main character just wanting to get her life back to normal, while becoming involved in protests and surrounded by activists because of the forbidden animal, it made me think acutely of Eva, by Peter Dickinson. All great reads!

This one, the ending didn’t go where I guessed, but it was very satisfying and I wish there was a sequel. Apparently quite a few other readers thought it lacked detail and had glaring plot holes, but honestly I enjoyed it too much to notice those. I might with a re-read, but I wasn’t scrutinizing things closely enough to care this time.

Rating: 4/5

270 pages, 2008

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

That Dog Tarr

by Nan Hayden Agle

Nice little book about a dog who personally thinks he’s the best dog ever, but is constantly annoyed that his family members call him by different names. The father calls him by his registered name, Tarr (of Belway Smith), but the mother calls him Sweetie, and the boy he’s so attached to, calls him Cerberus. This boy likes to read, and talks with all kinds of fancy words about high adventures (reminding me a tad of Anne from Green Gables!) Tarr gets very jealous when a neighbor’s new dog gets admired by the family and petted when he comes by. Tarr attacks this other dog to drive it off his property, and is soundly scolded by the family. He’s so hurt by this that he runs away. Gets into all kinds of scrapes, of course. Grabbed by dognappers who try to sell him to a man that supplies animals to laboratories, then to a guy who has a pack of hounds, then finally they succeed with a private gentleman who’s looking for a new bird dog. Tarr by this point is tired of getting hauled around by suspicious-acting people, and starts to feel like he should just settle in with this new family, instead of pining for his old one. Even though they call him Blackie.

But then the gentleman takes him out hunting, and finds out pretty quick he’s not a trained dog as was told, on the contrary, he’s actually very gun-shy. Tarr takes off running at the first practice shot, and never looks back. He heads for home (just like a classic Lassie story) but doesn’t make it all the way, gets caught and put in the animal shelter. Where he gloomily watches other dogs come and go. One day it looks like another family with little kids will adopt Tarr, but then surprise! his own original family shows up at the last minute. They’d seen his picture in the paper, featured as Dog of the Week (just like in Scruffy by Jack Stoneley, which I really must read again and write about here someday). Tarr is relieved to finally go home. He bristles at that neighbor dog again without getting scolded now, his family all call him by the proper name, and he gets to laze on the carpet while his boy reads books, without anyone nagging them. Such a nice ending!

Good, brief story on feeling unappreciated, going through difficulties, the hardships a stray dog can experience, and how much he appreciates home when he finally finds it again. Amusingly enough, all the stuff about the dog comparing himself to other dogs (of different breeds) and feeling upset about his name, made me think of this picture book What Color Is Caesar? by Maxine Kumin which I liked so much it’s still on our downstairs hall shelf. I saved a lot of kid chapter and picture books down there when my children both decided they were too old for those anymore. So many I just couldn’t let go of . . . .

Rating: 3/5

95 pages, 1969

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

Impossible

by Nancy Werlin

It’s a tad ironic that I picked as one of my reads for this year’s library challenge, a book that I won as a prize for finishing last year‘s challenge. Which I thought would be not quite my type- a teen romance, wrapped around an ancient family curse that nobody even realizes is hanging over their heads, until it’s almost too late. The story was inspired by that old ballad Scarborough Fair, and the seemingly impossible tasks that a man demands of a woman. When you start reading this book on the surface, it feels like an ordinary teen romance story- that goes awry pretty darn quickly when it becomes about an unexpected teen pregnancy. The main character, Lucy, is surrounded by supportive friends and family, but the hardest thing for her isn’t facing how much her life will changed, soon becoming a young mother- or even if she wants to keep the baby- but, is this all because of a curse? She finds an old diary, and some fascinating but garbled family history, and there’s a very real explanation for much of what appears to be going on- mental illness runs in her family, afflicting the women in particular. But she starts to wonder: is it madness, or is something else going on? and if it’s the curse, can she thwart it, solve the ancient riddle and perform the tasks? is doing them in a certain way cheating or not? how will she know if the curse is broken? At first she can’t tell anyone because of course they’ll just think she’s crazy, it’s the inherited schizophrenia (best guess) starting to manifest. Some of the things are too uncanny to be coincidences though, so she and her family determine to try and break the curse regardless. With a new love at her side (neighbor boy who was always just a good friend becomes something more), Lucy gives it her all.

I really thought I was going to find this story too improbable, or melodramatic, or heavy on the romance stuff. It wasn’t any of those things at all. The main characters are all so darn practical and methodical about things (but I love the family’s sense of humor) it feels like a story that could happen in a real life setting. (So I’ve labeled this on ‘speculative fiction’ because it feels more like urban fantasy than anything, but in a way that I like). It reminded me of Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin, which is also a modern telling of college-age girl who ends up trying to foil a curse laid out in an old ballad. The neighbor boy was so good-hearted, rather too perfect if you ask me, but that’s okay. The romance was sweet, and it never went too far into those kind of details- you get all the heady thoughts they have about each other, and significant looks, and the touch of hands, but the intimate stuff is off-page and only alluded to later. So that’s nice, if you’re not into steamy romances. Which I’m not. So I enjoyed this one more than I anticipated, and it really kept me turning the pages to see how they’d solve the riddle in the ballad- I had some guesses, it was nice to see the characters unravelling the same ideas, though hampered by their impending sense of doom and panic as the crucial time to solve the tasks grew closer.

There was one part that bothered me, though- a scene where Lucy goes to visit her insane mother who’s in a hospital, hoping to find out more about the curse, and to discover from the doctors there if any kind of medication which helps the mother, might help her in the future, should she also go insane as the curse implied. She finds her mother too sedated by medication to have any real conversation, and then the chapter ends, and the next one doesn’t have any follow-up! Did they ever talk to a doctor or not? I was just annoyed that that part was skipped over so abruptly, it almost felt like there were pages missing from the book (nope). Sometimes it also felt awkward the way the characters talked to each other in the story- the conversations didn’t feel real, but I was willing to gloss over that and just enjoy the puzzle of the story in this case.

Rating: 3/5

376 pages, 2008

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Current Reads, Speculative Fiction, Young Adult

Month: July 2023

made by Buffalo Games ~ artist Earthpix ~ 500 pieces

A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

made by Buffalo Games ~ artist unknown ~ 750 pieces

RATINGS / SUBJECTS: