Past Reads Archives - Page 3 of 34

The Beginning Place

by Ursula K. LeGuin

This is a book I wish I remembered better and feel I really ought to read again someday. It\’s a fantasy that begins in the real world, with two young people each from troubled families. The girl, Irene, has been visiting a hidden, alternate world where it is always twilight for many years. When the boy, Hugh, discovers it for the first time (he\’s twenty-one) she sees him as an intruder and outsider. The town of locals in the magic world are experiencing trouble; something is blocking roads and passages and in fact Irene and Hugh have different problems traveling to and from the magic place and their own mundane world. The townsfolk welcome Hugh as a hero when he arrives which angers Irene; but then she finds they must work together to save their secret world from the evil that threatens it. Of course they eventually become friends and perhaps something more…

Wow, does this modern cover sure look different! I found it while googling further information on the book. The older jacket illustration gave me a sense of an idyllic place when I read the story; the new one imbues it more with a sense of adventure. I wonder if I had first read the novel under the more exciting cover, would it have influenced my interpretation of the story? Have you ever felt like the cover of a book significantly affected how you imagined the story, beyond just what the characters look like?

Rating: 3/5 …….. 240 pages, 1980

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Past Reads

The Book on the Bookshelf

by Henry Petroski

A history of bookshelves, the physical design of books themselves, and to some extent the organizational systems for libraries. Might sound boring. But I think any book-lover, especially one interested in how things are organized, will find it engaging, as I did. Seeing books lined up vertically on shelves is so much the norm for us that it\’s hard to imagine finding books in other ways (although stacks on the floor are often a norm for me, too). Petroski looks in detail at all the ways throughout history that books have been kept safe, from the oldest scrolls stored in cubbyholes, to precious volumes safeguarded in locked chests, to various takes on shelving until arriving at the horizontal bookcases we are so familiar with today. He looks at library designs as well, and includes plenty of amusing anecdotes about book-lovers through the ages (I remember in particular Samuel Pepys, who was a book collector paramount to none; he had hundreds of books and apparently had to climb over the piles to reach his bed!) I found most intriguing the descriptions of heavy volumes so valuable (back when books were meticulously copied by hand and took scribes many years of their lives to create) they were actually chained to the shelves to thwart library visitors who might also be thieves. It led me to the title The Chained Library, a book that\’s been lingering on my TBR list forever now (mostly because my public library doesn\’t have a copy for me to read). As a little plus, the appendix has all sorts of suggestions on ways to organize your own library, from the usual subject or alphabetical arrangements to sorting by color and other whimsical methods. Overall intriguing and fun at times. The writing is pretty good, too. A lot of it is about engineering of shelving systems, but it\’s written in a friendly fashion that makes that easy to understand, open to the curious mind. Sure to interest any bibliophile who likes to mess with lists and shuffle their books every now and then (I rearrange my shelves every few years just for the fun of it).

Rating: 4/5 …….. 304 pages, 1999

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Books on Books, Nonfiction (general), Past Reads

The Loon

Voice of the Wilderness
by Joan Dunning

Beautiful book about a most interesting bird. I was introduced to Joan Dunning by coming across her book on bird nesting behavior while browsing library shelves; a search turned up this one as well. I clearly remember the calls of loons on a lake in Canada, where I went camping as a kid. It was nice to learn more about them. Dunning\’s book follows the birds through the four seasons, while describing their behavior and habits. It\’s a good combination of both scientific facts and lovely prose. The author\’s delightful black-and-white drawings and color paintings make it a book to treasure.

Rating: 4/5 …….. 143 pages, 1985

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Animals Nonfiction, Past Reads

A Dog\’s Life

by Peter Mayle

Humorous observations on the life of a suburban french dog. Well, he didn\’t start out as a suburban dog. He was abandoned by his first owner and lived some time as a stray, suffering kicks at worst, neglect at best. After fending for himself on the streets, he gets adopted by a writer and life is suddenly better, albeit confusing at first. The dog must learn to get along with his new human\’s many quirks, finding himself delighted (balls to chew on) puzzled (scoldings at rolling in smelly things) and appalled at turns (baths, particularly). He becomes adept at the art of appeasing angy or frustrated owners (whom he refers to as \”The Management\”), has constant run-ins with cats and handymen (or was it a plumber?) and repeatedly attempts to woo a female dog that lives next door. It\’s a funny little book stuffed with sarcastic humor and all sorts of witty little pokes at our own habits, as you would expect of a story told from the dog\’s viewpoint. I believe the author was portraying himself as the dog\’s owner. The scrawly illustrations add an extra bit of charm and amusement.

Rating: 3/5 …….. pages, 1995

more opinions:
prettymayleen
Reading Thots
finnfolk

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

The Scalpel and the Butterfly

by Deborah Rudacille

I go through periods of interest in certain non-fiction subjects, and then read all the books I can get my hands on around that- usually finding other titles of note in the resource lists and continuing on a spin until my interest flags, with more books noted than I originally started with! Over the past years, the subjects most often include field studies of wildlife behavior, but also things like ape language experiments, king arthur legends, the art of falconry, adventures in sailboats, the slow food movement, Charles Lindbergh (spurred by a school project) and animal-rights issues.

Of all the books I read on the animal-rights front, this one seemed the least biased, carefully stating facts from both sides. The author presents a 150-year history of the conflicts between scientists using animals in biomedical research, and the activists seeking to protect animal rights, concerned for their welfare. There are detailed chapters showing personal stories from both sides. On the one hand, it is pointed out that many advancements in medical science would not have been possible without research and testing using animals. On the other hand, the cruel practices and suffering of animals is exposed- not only from activists trying to shut down labs and threatening violence to specific scientists, but also more subtly, people working from within the system to try and improve things yet keep the labs functional.

I don\’t think reading this book changed my mind any, but it certainly taught me a lot. It\’s a pretty compelling read, even if it does stray from time to time into philosophical asides- which I mostly glossed over. In the end, it appears that the author\’s stance (even though she tries to be neutral you can feel which side she leans towards through the writing) is that research is a necessary evil- we would not be where we are today without it, but things can and must be greatly improved.

Rating: 4/5 ……. 389 pages, 2000

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Animals Nonfiction, Past Reads

Star of the Sea

by Linda Haldeman

Linda Haldeman wrote one of my very favorite books, The Lastborn of Elvinwood (Which I will write about here someday, putting it off because what I really want to do is read it again!) Over the years I\’ve looked hopefully for more of her books but discovered finally that she only wrote three.This is the last one I found and read. It\’s just as intriguing and original as her others, but did not quite captivate me like the other two. And it\’s been long enough that unfortunately I do not remember much about it, at this point. I do know it\’s about a girl in a religious school (Catholic?) and there is something about a statue of the Virgin Mary. I have a vague impression of an unhappy, lonely girl (perhaps picked on, or neglected?) who fixates on the statue as being able to solve her problems with a miracle, and in the end there was a scene on a cliff, and a fall from a great height… but it\’s really all a muddle. Have any of you read this little-known book? can you remind me more about it? I\’m wondering if I should trouble to look for it again…

Rating: 3/5 …….. 182 pages, 1978

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Juvenile Fic, Past Reads

When Dogs Run Wild

by Christine Gentry

This is one of those little-known books so specific in subject that I suspect it will only appeal to a limited audience. It\’s a report on a study done in the eighties on the behavior of stray dogs in a certain town. The author spent quite a lot of time following dogs around and observing exactly what they do when on their own. She noted which dogs were strictly strays- having no home to speak of- and which had homes but were often running loose. It seemed to be a common habit in her town that at night dogs were simply put outside and left to their own devices. If I remember correctly (it\’s been a few years since I read this one, and can\’t locate a copy to borrow for reminders) most of the book looked at the possibility of dogs spreading disease, how they interacted with each other (pack behavior), and specifically how they found food sources. The actual stray dogs varied between accepting handouts and scavenging food; the pet dogs let loose at night chased livestock for amusement and then went home to eat. One of the main aims of the study was to see how roaming dogs were affecting wildlife. The conclusion was not quite what I expected; contrary to popular belief, the author surmised that damage to livestock attributed to coyotes is more likely caused by the roaming pets, who of course aren\’t going to eat what they kill (or just injure the animals and don\’t follow through with a kill), since supper is provided at home. It was an interesting book. I wonder if any subsequent studies have been done along a similar vein…

Rating: 3/5 …….. 195 pages, 1983

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

Curious George

by Margaret and H.A. Rey

I\’ve missed reviewing children\’s books lately, and so am trying to get back into that. Especially as my youngest is starting to move beyond the board books and into regular picture books, which are a bit more interesting to write about. She\’s really into Curious George lately, and this is the one where it all started (we have five Curious George books on our shelf at home, and keep finding others to borrow from the library).

The basic storyline here is that a man who seems to always dress in yellow with a wide-brimmed hat captures a young monkey from the jungle, takes him home to put in the zoo but ends up rather adopting George (in a subsequent book) to live in his house. George causes all kinds of mischief but it always turns out alright in the end.

All the stories about George follow a similar pattern, although I find the originals more endearing; the later books that have been written by a different author are a bit too formulaic for me. But the originals have a few issues of their own. One is that they definitely show evidence of being written in a different era. There seems to be no problem with the idea that a man on vacation (or whatever he was doing there- exploring? collecting more likely) can just bring a wild animal home with him. I find the method of capture charming, as it reflects the insatiable curiosity of the little monkey- the man simply puts his hat on the ground, George approaches and tries to put it on himself, hides his own eyes, and is caught. On the way home via ship George falls overboard and is rescued; once back in America he spends the night at the man\’s house and eats dinner at the table, then smokes a pipe (hello- what?!) before going to bed. The next day the monkey is left alone for a while and plays with the telephone (a very archaic-looking instrument to my kids!) which gets him in trouble with the fire department and thrown in jail. He escapes, walks across telephone wires, flies away with a bunch of balloons and eventually is found by the iconic man-with-the-yellow-hat (this fellow never has a real name) who takes him to the zoo where he appears happy despite the austere environment- a bare cage with just a swing.

I\’m guessing most of the issues here won\’t bother kids at all. The one that actually bugs me most is that George is consistently called a monkey when he looks like a chimpanzee– although his fur is reddish brown, not black.

It\’s funny though; even though when I think closely about it I find some things odd or inappropriate about the original stories, I still like them better than the newer books. (There are two sets of these, which we\’ve found at the library. One which mimicks the original style closely, the others seem to be based on a tv series and has a smooth, animated look, not hand-illustrated. I have another set of minor issues with these, which will come up later if I continue to write about them). The originals just have more charm, and of course are loaded with nostalgia for me. My mom read them to me over and over, when I was a kid.

Rating: 4/5 ……… 64 pages, 1941

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Classics, Past Reads, Picture Books

Tales of Wonder

by Jane Yolen

Jane Yolen\’s collection of short stories draws on traditional folk tales, legends, myths and fairy tales to make something new. The stories all feel familiar, but with different characters, unexpected turns and fabulously original interpretations. If I remember rightly, they\’re not really kid\’s stories but have dark undertones and are probably more geared towards adult readers. Once again, this is a book I\’m making a note of mostly to remind myself that I\’d like to read it again someday if I can ever find it. I believe the book is out of print. Have any of you read it?

Rating: 3/5 …….. 275 pages, 1983

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Past Reads, Short Stories

My Animal Kingdom, One by One

by David Taylor

This is the first book I read by David Taylor, and it got me hooked on the author. He’s a wildlife veterinarian, who worked mostly for zoos and owners of private animal collections, during the late 1950’s through the sixties. I remember thinking when I first started reading Taylor, finally an author who lives up to the comparison to James Herriot. So many books about animals (vets in particular) claim to be as good as Herriot, and none every quite matched up until now. Taylor’s books are engaging, humorous, and include all kinds of interesting facts about wild animals and their medical treatment, seamlessly woven into the story. I enjoy them a lot.

Unfortunately, this is one volume I haven’t been able to get my hands on again (I intend to have all his books in my personal library, some day) so I can’t relate any individual stories of the animals, because I no longer remember them clearly. I will be eager to read it again someday. Have any of you read his books?

Rating: 3/5……… 196 pages, 1984

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

Tag: Past Reads

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