We're talking about bestiaries over at Guys Lit Wire - a book subject that I find endlessly fascinating. Justin starts with two of his favs and then I chime in with some love for Nicholas Christopher's novel on the subject. Forgive me for saying yet again how wonderful this book is. From my review last year:

Finally, I was a bit surprised to read in Booklist’s review of The Bestiary that the, “novel’s potential falls somewhat flat under the weight of its leisurely pace and overabundant detail, lacking the emotive power of Byatt’s Possession or the atmospheric tension of Safon’s Shadow of the Wind.� As a reader who thoroughly enjoyed both of those novels, I can only wonder why the way in which those authors ratcheted up the tension must be considered the rule here, and for deviating from its path Christopher has failed somehow. The tension in this book is of a far more personal type than Byatt’s or Safon’s -- it is all about Xeno and his pursuit, and does not involve the machinations of others. I found The Bestiary to be a far more elegant -- and realistic -- adventure into the past than the other titles. I enjoyed all of them a great deal, but Nicholas Christopher’s work seemed most familiar and possible; it is, in essence, the sort of adventure that any lover of history (literary, mythical or otherwise) could one day hopefully experience.

Jenny D. has been reading northern books as research for her next novel (and if you haven't planned to read her most recent title, you really must because I love it). She has discovered a new love for reindeer (and the reindeer people) after reading The Reindeer People: Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia. A bit of her thoughts:

I am not sure the title really does the book justice. The book itself has a truly novelistic richness, and one of its central interests is the interaction between the nomadic reindeer herders Vitebsky's writing about and the different incarnations of Soviet colonialism in transition during the aftermath of the empire's breakup. Utterly fascinating. Would make an interesting pair with Svetlana Alexievich's Voices From Chernobyl.

One bit she points out from the book is that at 40 below zero the schools would close. It is always so interesting to me how people respond when I tell them that the schools practically never close in Alaska - 50, 60, 80 below and they stay open. It is some sort of twisted sense of pride I think and also perhaps that what does it matter - it's either 60 below and you are at home or 60 below and you are at school; either way it's just damn cold. (The Company never closed due to cold either. We might have gone in to work and not flown anywhere but we were still open. Our coldest flight was at 55 below; it was even colder that day at our destination.)

And, via Curious Expeditions, the wonderful news that the American Museum of Natural History has unveiled an online expedition, Picturing the Museum, of historic photographs showing behind the scenes images of work at the museum. The images of "Exhibition Prep" in particular are amazing, both in how they convey information on the subject of a historical and scientific nature and also in the emotional way that the conservators seem to gaze upon their beasts they are reconstructing. Aspects of it are disturbing - animals are reconstructed from so many parts in ways that make you question so many elements of what we call "study" but the care that goes into this work is so impressive. I love the idea of someone going to work everyday to work on a Moa; it seems like such worthy work to get everything just right.

I'd love to see a book of these images.

[Post pic: George Adams with Moa, 1952 - AMNH collection.]