December 6
2007
Gwenda mentioned one of my favorite animal books a couple of weeks ago, One Kingdom by Deborah Noyes. Here are her thoughts:
It's a mix of photos and creative nonfiction, the type of book that would be at home in that catch-all the sociology section but thankfully isn't consigned to that purgatory. It's for kids, but would definitely have cross-over adult appeal, and I'd even put it at the older age range for kids. The text is thoughtful and the prose finely tuned. The mix of myth with science and personal essay on the practically endless subject of the relationship between humans and animals is just right. This is really an example of my favorite type of nonfiction book, a sort of focused miscellany or catch-all meditation, and I hope she does another like it.
I reviewed it last year and thought it was just lovely. It got me thinking about about other off the beaten track titles about animals that natural historians of any age might be intrigued by. Do consider the following:
Pilgrim of the Great Bird Continent by Lynda Lynn Haupt. Okay, this involves quite a few dead birds, but it's the first book on Charles Darwin that focuses on his bird research and notebooks and if you have any interest in Darwin or ornithology it is simply a must-read. What really impressed me is how Haupt went beyond Darwin - she considers just what it meant to kill birds in order to understand them, and takes some long looks at museum collections as part of her research. This was just a really well written and deeply interesting book. (Here are my thoughts when I was reading it.)
The Rarest of the Rare: Stores Behind the Treasures at the Harvard Museum of Natural History by Nancy Pick. This is a drop dead gorgeous book from the big colorful cover to the many stunning illustrations of animal life within. Of course since these are animals from a museum they are more of the dead variety but where else are you going to read about "Auks and Postage Stamps", "Boa Bones" or "Seven-Colored Tanagers". Once you open the pages Rarest is impossible to put down and with double-fold spreads on each subject, it's great for dipping into or leaving open on the coffee table. "The Very Hungry Dragonfly" and "This is not a Dinosaur" - what fascinating reads.
Wild Lives: A History of the People & Animals of the Bronx Zoo by Kathleen Zoehfeld is children's title that is perfect for readers of any age interested in zoo history. The pictures are stunning and quite informative but the text, which traces the earliest concepts of zoos and animal management (not a pretty animal-friendly picture) is pretty eye-opening. I don't want to read a big academic text on zoos but this one struck just the right introductory chord. And it's a multipurpose gift - great for 8 and 80 year olds. How often doest that happen?
From Baghdad, With Love by Jay Kopelman. I reviewed it last year and loved it. Consider this:
For Kopelman all of it, every single bad, crazy, complicated, stupid thing about this war comes down to this one specific dog and what he has to do to get him out. Dogs have to have a veterinarian’s certificate and vaccinations to be transported out of Iraq, but the military vets will not even look at civilian dogs and finding an Iraqi vet in the midst of war-time chaos is not so easy. As Kopelman explains, trying to get proper documentation for anyone, let alone a puppy is nearly impossible:
"This is in part because in our rush to hand out private contracts for Iraq’s reconstruction, oversight was shoveled away with just about everything else including sanity. The United States secretly awarded reconstruction projects, and US contractors earned excessive profits in part by subcontracting work to cheaper Iraqi companies, inflating charges, jimmying invoices, and welcoming kickbacks with bear hugs. They created shell companies in the Cayman Islands that falsely billed the US government. They paid ghost employees. They overpriced furniture contracts with kickbacks built right in and billed the government for products that were never delivered.
On the Iraqis’ side, public servants supplied salesmen and consumers with stolen medicine and medical equipment. Iraqi ministry officials pocketed millions in reconstruction money. Housing officials took bribes to allocate homes."
Kopelman is determined: “…I really like what I am -- a Marine. I like being strong. I like being brave. I like going in first. I want to go in first, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let anyone shoot my puppy.�
I can't remember the last time I had so much invested in a book as this one. And I don't even want to admit how much I came to care about one dog in Iraq. This is pretty much the animal story to end all animal stories - keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. Such a good book about why animals sometimes matter more than you could ever imagine - how sometimes animals are everything to someone.
I'm tired tonight, and struggling to think of ways to be witty and scintillating. I don't think I'm succeeding. I will drop a teaser though. After enjoying what The Millions are doing with the "year in reading" posts, I've decided to have some authors, editors, bloggers and other fun literary folk drop by in the next few weeks with their favorite reads of the past year (not necessarily '07 releases). I'm happy to report there will be titles for all age levels and also some graphic novels and comics. Little Willow is also playing, she starts her favorite read posts from many different authors on Monday.
