0/5- Abandoned Archives - Page 4 of 17

Earning My Spots

by Mark Eastburn

Wanted to like this one, but I just couldn\’t get into it, probably because it\’s juvenile fiction and the writing just a bit too simplistic for my taste. Things were glossed over that I really wished had better treatment. Such as, when the main character\’s family is apparently kidnapped, his reaction is so flat. Well, he does go off on a quest to find them again, but I would have expected more shock or anger or something. Maybe- because he\’s not quite human? His family are were-hyenas, shape-shifters. I haven\’t read a lot of books with this concept, aside from Animorphs really. I was into it at first- the hyena boy faces off against a group of bullying werewolf kids at the school- his is the only family of were-hyenas in town so he gets picked on and misunderstood. Then his parents disappear during a sudden confrontation with harpies – that really threw me- and he goes off with a new acquaintance- a were-jaguar kid- and some others to find them again. Eventually- I gathered this from synopsis read elsewhere- he encounters a population of were-hyenas in another part of the country, learns more about his heritage, finds out that his quest is much bigger than just saving his family. A lot to like- but for some reason I lost interest when the harpies showed up. I don\’t know why I can suspend belief to read about people who change into wolves, hyenas, jaguars, coyotes, etc. but the inclusion of harpies makes me roll my eyes. Maybe because it\’s a different kind of genre? harpies seem like they belong in a fantasy story with magic, while shape-shifters fit into urban fantasy type? it\’s all fiction so I don\’t know why it matters to my brain. Oh well.

I had this one on my e-reader.

Abandoned 288 pages, 2016

more opinions: Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

Tags: 0/5- Abandoned, Animals Fiction, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Juvenile Fic

No Way Home

the Decline of the World\’s Great Animal Migrations
by David S. Wilcove

I didn\’t finish this one. I read fifty pages. No fault of the book- I\’m just very busy with starting the garden, dealing with things in my aquariums, the kids\’ school activities and so on. Reading has to fit into the margins right now, and this one just didn\’t have me eagerly turning pages every few minutes I could sit idle here and there. I\’m returning it and hope to pick it up again at a later date.

It\’s about how animal migrations have been disrupted by human activity and habitat loss. Each chapter looks at a specific type of wildlife- the one I read was on birds (songbirds in particular) and it was very detailed, but I found the writing a bit dry so it was hard for me to stick with it. Later chapters – I gathered by skimming- are about monarch butterflies, wildebeest and other herbivores in Africa, bison and pronghorn in the American West, whales and sea turtles, salmon and other fish that travel up freshwater streams to spawn. Most cases are about how animals need to travel to follow food sources, or reach places where they can safely raise their young, how scientists have tracked them and learned about all this. The data about how travel routes have been disrupted and thus animal populations fallen, are kind of staggering if you haven\’t read about it before. There\’s some suggestions for how we can reverse the damage and support the animals\’ needs, but overall it sounded kind of glum. But then, I didn\’t read the whole thing so can\’t say.

I hope to revisit this one soon.
Borrowed from the public library.

Abandoned 245 pages, 2008

Tags: 0/5- Abandoned, Animals Nonfiction

Unicorn Mountain

by Michael Bishop

I have a feeling I may have tried this book once before, so long ago I remembered very little except the general premise. It\’s set on a Colorado ranch, where several disparate characters end up together- Libby who runs cattle on the land, her Ute ranch hand, her ex\’s cousin who comes to stay. He\’s dying of AIDS– this was written in the eighties- and some of the ways in which people talked around him, admittedly made me uncomfortable. I gather from reading more opinions on Goodreads, that at its publication date, this book was way ahead of its time depicting gay men and issues they had to deal with- so it ought to be read in a historical context. But that isn\’t what bothered me. Nor the outright lack of unicorns- although I know they come more into the book later in the story- up to where I read they were mainly background material, a group up in the hills, their presence kept secret by the landowner and her very few friends. The unicorns appear to be unhealthy, and somehow they weave into the story with the other characters trying to put their lives back together, or keep things going as best they can. I didn\’t get far enough to find out though, because something put me off. It was when ghosts came into the narrative. I just don\’t do ghost stories.

Abandoned 406 pages, 1988

More opinions: Speculiction anyone else?

Tags: 0/5- Abandoned, Speculative Fiction

Sheep

by Valerie Hobbs

Young border collie leaves his farm when sudden hard times hit the farmer and his wife. Spends the rest of the book looking for a good home, in particular one where he can herd sheep again, knowing that is his life\’s purpose. Has a short stint in a pet shop, then with a spoiled child who treats him like a toy. He runs off, meets up with some tramps and later an odd character that travels with a bunch of goats pulling a caravan. Gets caught on the street and put in the pound, where a new owner finds him- a cruel circus man who makes him learn tricks by beating him. All the circus animals are miserable; the border collie finally strikes out in a confusing scene involving an elephant, but a female dog he\’s become enamored of in the circus refuses to leave with him. Wandering again, he finally takes up with a lonely boy in an orphanage.

I might have liked this book. The dog knew a bit too much to be a credible animal character, while being woefully ignorant of other things that affected him closely. I could have overlooked that, though. The strange part was how closely certain stages of this book echoed other stories I know- which really got annoying to be honest. The tramps were very much like Lennie and George in Steinbeck\’s Of Mice and Men. The orphanage scenes reminded me strongly of They Cage the Animals at Night. The Goat Man and the circus made me think of other books too- Hurry Home Candy is one. The character of the dog was nice (he went through a whole slew of names as he met different people) but I started rolling my eyes at easily recognized tropes and skimming through the chapters.

I read this one sitting in a thrift store, waiting for my teenager to look at clothes. I nearly finished the book- enough to know I didn\’t really want to bring it home.

Abandoned 144 pages, 2009

More opinions: ExUrbanis anyone else?

Tags: 0/5- Abandoned, Animals Fiction, Juvenile Fic

Chaser

Unlocking the Genius of the Dog Who Knows a Thousand Words
by John W. Pilley with Hilary Hinzmann

Famous border collie Chaser knows the names- proper nouns- assigned to 1,022 toys and a lot of directive verbs and commands as well. Her owner was a college professor who taught behavioral psychology and brought his dogs into the classroom (border collie mixes and a few other dogs he had before Chaser\’s time) so his students could apply methods they had learned to teach the dogs new behaviors (an annoying one was teaching his dog Grindle to answer telephones- which then got left off the hook for hours before someone noticed!) After he retired, the author deliberately set out to discover how much language he could teach to a border collie- from the start he was intent on shaping Chaser\’s learning and response to spoken language, especially her ability to recall names of objects. It\’s pretty amazing. Unfortunately, I couldn\’t stick with this book. I found the writing style uninteresting, the daily life details and conversations only distracted me, and many of the explanations became repetitive. I started skimming a lot before getting halfway through and decided to just move on. Something about it failed to hold my attention.

Borrowed from the public library.

Abandoned 260 pages, 2013

more opinions:
Across the Page
who else?

Tags: 0/5- Abandoned, Animals Nonfiction

Seraphina

by Rachel Hartman

Ahh, I really wanted to like this one. I am not quite sure why it didn\’t hold my interest. It\’s got a unique premise- a world where dragons and human exist in an uneasy truce- and one young woman is hiding a dangerous secret: she is half-dragon. The dragons can take human form (although their very alien attitude usually makes them easy to discern) and in this manner Seraphina\’s father married a dragon- without knowing it. Seraphina works at the palace as an assistant to the music instructor- music is her reason for being. But she becomes involved in court intrigue, which makes it harder and harder to keep her secret. And she suffers from debilitating headaches and strange visions- honestly, this aspect of the story- her \”garden of the mind\”- made me think so much of the two books I read recently about teens with schizophrenia! It was interesting when I finally figured out who the various people are she sees in her dream garden- curious to see where this thread would lead- but unfortunately I found the reading a slog. Something about the style, or the characterization, or the world-building just fell flat for me. Darn. Moving on.

Abandoned 512 pages, 2012

more opinions:
Teen Reads
Dear Author
anyone else? I know a lot of you out there have loved it!

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

Thirteen Moons

by Charles Frazier

I eagerly anticipated reading this book, based on my enjoyment of Cold Mountain. Unfortunately, Thirteen Moons couldn\’t hold my interest. It\’s a historical novel surrounding the time when Cherokees were forced off their land by the American government. The main character is a twelve-year-old orphaned boy Will, who is sent by his aunt and uncle to work off years of bond in a trading post on the edge of the Cherokee Nation. He has a fine horse, and loves reading, but not much else in the way of prospects. He soon meets a Cherokee man who basically adopts him into the tribe, and gradually he gets introduced to the culture. For me the most vivid, memorable scene was when he attended a tribal dance where the native americans impersonated the various foreigners who had invaded their land. One of the author\’s aims seemed to be showing how varied the abilities and stations were among Cherokees- Will spends winters among the Cherokee in an earth-and-wattle hut surrounded by dim smoky light and storytelling, but later in the story he visits a fine plantation run by a wealthy Cherokee man who has slaves and a beautiful young girl (and he falls in love). He muddles around trying to find his place in life, eventually settling on pursing law (because he has law books) and trying to fight for the Cherokee to stay on their land. His visits to Washington are eye-opening: the portrayal of the capital as a small, muddy town full of pretentious and self-absorbed folk, quite a different picture of our early government than I ever had in mind. His efforts fail, the girl leaves him (several times) and he starts to watch the forced removal of his adopted people from their homeland. I struggled to get through the chapters where he started pursuing law, my attention to the story lagging, and hoped it would pick up again with this depiction of dissolution and despair. But I couldn\’t bring myself to keep reading- two thirds done, and I had no more attachment to the characters than at the very beginning. It\’s a slow book and I failed to stick it through.

Abandoned 422 pages, 2006

Tags: 0/5- Abandoned, Historical Fiction

The Education of a Gardener

by Russell Page

This volume is about the career of a landscape architect. I am not familiar with the author, but apparently he is renowned in gardening circles. He spent his entire life designing outdoor spaces for the wealthy after creating his first garden at age 18. I read the initial chapter where he tells about how he first became interested in plants and gleaned knowledge from all his neighbors who gardened, and then struggled to stay with the book. It\’s very strongly focused on design, on balance and form and how the eye is led through a landscape. Stuff on a grand scale. While the principles are something I\’d probably benefit from understanding better, personally I found the reading rather dry. And over half the plants were unfamiliar to me. All the photographs are in black and white, which I suppose is okay because you see the form and composition of things, instead of being wowed by beauty and color- but it felt rather flat and dull. I skipped around trying to find something a bit more engaging, but even when he was describing design problems and how plants or sketches solved them, it failed to keep my interest. The last chapter, where he imagines a garden he would build for himself, was more intriguing, however only for the first few pages.

I\’d like to like this book, but I don\’t. Why is it that whenever I don\’t care for a classic, I feel disappointed in myself? Urg. It\’s quite dense, and not just with the words- it\’s also surprisingly heavy for the size of a standard hardback book- so I became physically weary of handling it. Nothing against the author for that, but it did make it harder to try and appreciate a book I just didn\’t want to be holding for long.

Abandoned 382 pages, 1962

Tags: 0/5- Abandoned, Gardening / Food

Killing Keiko

by Mark A. Simmons

When I saw this book on the library shelf, I recalled reading Death at SeaWorld and was curious about another perspective on similar subject: orcas in captivity. This book is about one particular orca that starred in the film Free Willy. Following the film\’s popularity, people wanted Keiko- the real whale- to be set free in the ocean- he was living in a theme park in Mexico. The attempt was made- with huge donations of money from both the public and private organizations. The whale was moved from Mexico to an aquarium in North America for a rehabilitation period, and then to an oceanic pen on the coast of Iceland where the release was planned. He was led into the open ocean and guided back to the pen many times- but in the end did not make it. Reports say he was weakened by long-term illness and deteriorating skin conditions caused by his decade in captivity. It certainly sounds like the effort of restoring his health and releasing him into the wild again was a complicated, daunting task- some say with little hope of success.

I couldn\’t read the book, though. I went into it not knowing who the author was, his agenda or background. I was baffled on the opening page, when the author claimed that orcas in captivity behave no differently than those in the wild. I was taken aback by his disparaging attitude towards others around him- both colleagues and renowned scientists. The writing felt awkward and often sounded peevish. It jumps around a lot but usually zeroed in on why the author felt slighted or how his opinion trumped everyone else\’s- which really bored me. The book itself- as a physical object- felt like a self-published volume- cramped margins, slightly-over-large text, thinly glued binding. I assume my guess was right when I looked up the publisher and found this one book to their name. Just couldn\’t read any more after that.

Abandoned 398 pages, 2008

Tags: 0/5- Abandoned, Animals Nonfiction

An Arrangement of Skin

by Anna Journey

I had a few unfinished reads this past week. I think my mood was off. An Arrangement of Skin– borrowed from the library- is a collection of essays on various subjects. The one I liked – \”Birds 101\”- was about the author\’s enrollment in a weekend class on basic taxidermy: how she cleaned, stuffed and posed a starling. Curious the reasons other students in the class wanted to attempt taxidermy. Made me interested in reading another book on my list, also about taxidermy. Other stories, I just couldn\’t click with. There\’s one about her mother\’s penchant for telling macabre stories at the dinner table. Another about her experience getting some chicken pox scars treated. I thought I would like the story that included her musings on horseback riding, but I was starting to loose touch with the author\’s voice. I didn\’t make it to the story about a tattoo artist.

The other two I abandoned this week were also library loans. In the Hall of Small Mammals by Tomas Pierce looked interesting- but I only read the first two short stories. I wanted to like the one about a dwarf woolly mammoth brought to life for a tv show stunt. When it turns out they accidentally cloned two mammoths and weren\’t supposed to keep the second one alive, it was hidden in the narrator\’s mother\’s house. She doesn\’t want it there, is rather indifferent to its presence. So what could have been interesting- well, the mammoth was just in the background. Unfortunately, the writing style didn\’t quite work for me, and even though I usually enjoy this type of material, I was just bored. (304 pages, 2016)

Unicorn Crossing by Dana Simpson was another dud for me. At the library I suddenly thought, hey, is there another Poebe and Her Unicorn book out? There was (it’s #5), and I was happy, but when I started to read it, I slowly started loosing steam. The characters felt flat. The storylines didn’t interest me. It just wasn’t as funny as I recall the previous four books being. I found I didn’t want to pick it up off the bedside table to finish. Maybe I’ll try it again another time. (160 pages, 2017)

Abandoned 225 pages, 2017

Tags: 0/5- Abandoned, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Graphic Novels, Short Stories

Tag: 0/5- Abandoned

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