West with Giraffes

Rutledge, Lynda. West with Giraffes. New York: Lake Union. 2021. Print.

First Sentences:
 

...I'm older than dirt. And when you're older than dirt, you can get lost in time, in memory, even in space. I'm inside my tiny four-wall room with the feeling that I've been...gone. I'm not even sure how long I've been sitting here.

Description:

 

Lynda Rutledge's West With Giraffes is delightful, compelling, romantic, and thrilling novel rooted in actual historic events. The novel depicts a cross-country journey from New York City to San Diego, California during the Great Depression, transporting two giraffes in a small truck. Rutledge brilliantly re-imagines that trip, backing up her narrative with historical news articles which documented the journey at that time and described the fate of the giraffes to the very interested public. 

 

On September 21, 1938, a hurricane hit New York City. Besides the usual destruction, the storm damaged nearby cargo ships, one of which, the SS Robin Goodfellow, was transporting two giraffes, Miraculously, these animals survived, although they had been abandoned as dead during the storm by the freighter's crew when the crates housing them were crushed.

Woodrow Wilson Nickel, now 105 years old, remembers that day and storm as the start of his adventure with the animals, and thus serves as the novel's narrator. As a 17-year-old orphan, Nickel had fled with Dust Bowl dryness of Texas where his family had died. He landed in New York City only a few weeks before the hurricane hit.

 

The giraffes, judged to be healthy after the storm, still need to be transported to the San Diego Zoo in California. Head Zoo Keeper, Riley Jones, gently talks and strokes the crated animals onto the make-shift truck that young Nickel stows away on. He is familiar with animals and, once he is discovered, is given the job of driving the truck and caring for the animals during the long trip.

Along the way, they pick up a young red-haired woman photographer interested in documenting this unusual journey. The giraffes had caught the nation's attention as hurricane survivors, so any accounts of their health and travels, she felt, would be major news.

Of course, the journey is full of surprises. Traveling across America in an old truck with two gangling giraffes was a sight to see for the people of every small town they pass through. And these gentle giants bring a sense of peace and quiet to Riley, Nickel, and Red, the photographer, as they meander over the back roads.

 

But they are pursued by men with more evil intentions. Percival T Bowles, a cruel circus ringmaster, and Cooter, owner of a decrepit roadside animal zoo, both want the giraffes for their own profit. It's up to Riley, Nickel, and Red to thwart these baddies.

 

West With Giraffes is a wonderful read, full of unexpected events, gentle (and not so gentle) characters, descriptions of life during The Depression, and the calming power of  two gigantic beasts on the people and world they encounter. Need a great, quiet, adventurous, can't-be-put-down read? Here's your answer. Highly recommended.

 

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

 

Helfer, Ralph. Modoc: The True Story of the Greatest Elephant That Ever Lived

True story of seven decades in the life of a remarkable elephant and the boy who bonded with him, from the giant's early life as a circus attraction, to his survival and  rescue of the boy during the sinking of a boat, to his work in teak forests and eventual stardom in an American circus. Simply a great read.

The Soul of an Octopus

Montgomery, Sy. The Soul of an Octopus. New York: Atria 2015. Print

First Sentences:

On a rare, warm day in mid-March, when the snow was melting into mud in New Hampshire, I traveled to Boston where everyone was strolling along the harbor or sitting on benches licking ice cream cones.

But I quit the blessed sunlight for the moist, dim sanctuary of the New England Aquarium.

I had a date with a giant Pacific octopus. 





Description:

I know nothing about octopuses except that I saw one once while snorkeling in Puerto Rico, and that I don't like to eat them. But then I recently read Jim Al-Khalili's Aliens: The World's Leading Scientists on the Search for Extraterestrial Life which stated we should not presume we will be able to communicate with extra-terrestrials when we cannot even understand a complex, thinking animal on our own earth: the octopus.

So I turned to Sy Montgomery's brilliant The Soul of an Octopus. Naturalist author Montgomery is offered the opportunity to observe scientists and octopuses at the New England Aquarium and later in the wild. Her observations and stories about octopuses (not "octupi" since the name derives from the Greek, not Latin) from the researchers are astonishing:

• An octopus can manipulate locks, squeeze out of almost any container, move across a room, enter another tank and then slide into a drain to explore the world or escape;

• They enjoy being petted and will rise to the top of their barrel-shaped tank to be touched by a human and touch back with their suckers. But be careful as they can grab an arm and easily pull an unsuspecting person into the tank. And they can bite with a dangerously sharp beak due to exploration, fear, or hunger;

• They lay their eggs onto a spiderweb-like netting they create, and tend the net until the eggs open.

• They need physical and mental stimulation, so are given toys, hoses, and locking cubes which they like to disassemble

Montgomery forms relationships with aquarium octopuses Athena, Kali, Rain, Octavia, and Squirt, observing and interacting with them from outside their tanks, noticing their daily emotions, and checking their responses to various stimuli like music. She even learns to scuba dive in hopes of seeing a wild octopus outside the zoo environment.

Who knew an octopus could hunt using various strategies? That an octopus can carry around abandoned shells to use as temporary protection, and even move rocks to shore up a defense for their cave? That they are solitary creatures who only interact with other octopuses to mate? Fascinating observations and stories emerge on every page.

So little is still know about these creatures, but clearly the discoveries made by the New England Aquarium and Montgomery are slowly revealing the intelligence, curiosity, affection, and creativity of these animals.

I loved this book and highly recommend it to anyone seeking to learn about another sentient life here on our very own earth. A very rewarding book on many levels.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Sroksnes, Morten. Shark Drunk: The Art of Catching a Large Shark from a Tiny Rubber Dinghy in a Big Ocean  

Everything you always wanted to know about great white sharks from the author and other scientists studying them off the coast of San Francisco. Maybe this sounds boring, but really it is extremely interesting and exciting. (Previously reviewed here.)

H Is for Hawk

Macdonald, Helen. H Is for Hawk. New York: Grove. 2014. Print.

First Sentences:

Forty-five minutes north-east of Cambridge is a landscape I've come to love very much indeed.

It's where the wet fen gives way to parched same. It's a land of twisted pine trees, burned out cars, shotgun-peppered road signs and US Air Force base 

There are ghosts here: houses crumble inside numbered blocks or pine forestry. There are spaces built for air-delivered nukes inside grassy tumuli behind twelve-foot fences, tattoo parlours and US Air Force golf courses.

Description:

People deal with loss, sadness, and loneliness in different ways. For Helen Macdonald, the death of her father was a traumatic experience that she addresses by acquiring a goshawk and trying to train this huge hunting bird. H Is for Hawk tells Macdonald's story of her successes and failures in this experience.

While I know next to nothing about goshawks or any other birds of prey beyond reading about falcons in My Side of the Mountain and the Animorphs Young Adult sci-fi series (one teen boy turns into a peregrine falcon to fight evil aliens set to take over the world), one doesn't need my extensive background with birds of prey to be fascinated by Macdonald's descriptions of these huge birds.

The falcon. There he was, an impossibly beautiful creature the colour of split flint and chalk, wings crossed sharp over his back, his dark, hooded face turned up to the sky. 

An experienced falconer by the time of her father's death, Macdonald had been obsessed with falcons, goshawks, and other hunting birds from a very early age. Drawing pictures, reading everything about these birds, and accompanying experienced falconers shaped her early life. 

In reading every book available about these birds and their training, she stumbled upon T. H. White's The Goshawk about his own personal depression and grief, and his decision to acquire a goshawk. His book told of his hapless experiences training his goshawk, a very personal account so different from his more famous books, The Sword in the Stone and The Once and Future King. It is this book that convinces her to acquire her own bird in an attempt to recover from her own overpowering sense of grief.

Macdonald strongly identifies with White, referring to his experiences throughout H Is for Hawk as she tries to train her very difficult goshawk, Mabel. Interspersed among her own trials, she explores White's sad life that lead up to his acquisition and misguided training of Gos, as well as his desire to change his own life and become "feral," free, and away from his hated teaching responsibilities and people in general. 

While this may seem a tangent to her primary story of her own training memories, her descriptions of who White is and what he experiences as a school teacher and later as a goshawk trainer are highly relevant and fascinating. 

White looked a little like Byron. He was tall, with full lips and very pale blue eyes, a trim red moustache, and dark, unruly hair. He did all the right things: flew aeroplanes, shot, fished for salmon, hunted, and even better, all the wrong things: kept grass snakes in his room, rode his horse up the school steps on match days, and best of all, published racy novels under the pseudonym James Aston

Macdonald's writing style is quietly introspective, letting her detailed thoughts seamlessly range from White to Mabel to her own struggles. Each reflection plays a part in her work and bonding with Mabel as well as her recovery process. During a falcon hunt as a child she noticed an unusual behavior from the men's hawks:

One by one their hawks had decided they wanted no more of proceedings, saw no good reason to return to their handlers, and instead sat in trees staring out over acres of fading pasture and wood, fluffed and implacable....But it wasn't unsociable. It was something much stronger. It seemed that the hawks couldn't see us at all, that they'd slipped out of our world entirely and moved into another, wilder world from which humans had been utterly erased.

This is not a how-to book for would-be goshawk trainers (although it probably could be used that way). Instead, it is a solid testament to the elements that make up a great book regardless of topic: passionate writing, keen perceptions, the universal challenges of sadness, loneliness, and frustration, and the healing power of setting goals, patience, and understanding of another being's personality.

The first few days with a wild new hawk are a delicate, reflexive dance of manner. To judge when to scratch your nose without offense, when to walk and when to sit, when to retreat and when to come close, you must read your hawk's state of mind. You do this by watching her posture and her feathers, the workings of which turn the bird's shape into an exquisitely controlled barometer of mood.

Maybe it is more information about goshawks and training than you think you need to read about, but trust me, the depth of Macdonald's mind and the roads she follows in coping with grief (in this case, training a bird of prey) are well worth your time. She immerses herself and you in this struggle until you become one with her on her journey, an unmatched experience.

I had a fixed idea of what a goshawk was, just as those Victorian falconers had, and it was not big enough to hold what goshawks are. No one had ever told me goshawks played...I wondered if it was because no one had ever played with them. The thought made me terribly sad.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Mowat, Farley. Never Cry Wolf

True, humorous reflections of a nature observer assigned to follow and understand Canadian timber wolves. Wonderful writing and insights into the animals and their world. One of my favorite books of all time. (previously reviewed here)

Last Chance to See

Adams, Douglas and Carwardine, Mark. Last Chance to See. New York: Harmony. 1990. Print

First Sentences:

This isn't at all what I expected.

In 1985, by some sort of journalistic accident, I was sent to Madagascar with Mark Carwardine to look for an almost extinct form of lemur called the aye-aye. None of the three of us had met before. I had never met Mark, Mark had never met me, and no one, apparently, had seen an aye-aye in years.

Description:

We all know or have heard of Douglas Adams for his humorous sci-fi novels (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Restaurant at the End of the Universe, etc.). But did you know of his travel and zoological experiences looking for the rarest of animals described in Last Chance to See? No? Well, grab it right now, sit back, and prepare to be delightfully amused and informed.

Last Chance to See compiles Adams' notes written in the late 1980s with zoologist Mark Carwardine describing their travels and adventures in obscure parts of the world. Their goal is to observe a number of very rare animals before they (the animals, not Adams and Carwardine) become extinct. 

The book is filled with Adams' usual humor, mainly at his own expense due to inexperience with the world of wildlife as well travel to primitive lands. He notes that the roles of the two explorers are clear: Cardardine is "the one who knew what he was talking about" while Adams is "to be an extremely ignorant non-zoologist to who everything that happened would come as a complete surprise."

The animals they seek and eventually find include, as described in Adams' non-scientific words:

• Aye-aye - a nocturnal lemur that "looks a little like a large cat with a bat's ears, a beaver's teeth, a tail like a large ostrich feather, a middle finger like a long dead twig, and enormous eyes that seem to peer past you into a totally different world which exists just over your left shoulder";

• Komodo dragon lizard - "over twelve feet long and stands about a yard high, which you can't help but feel is entirely the wrong size for a lizard to be, particularly if it's a man-eater and you're about to go and share an island with it";

• Northern White Rhinoceros - only 22 are left in the wild in Zaire, each weighs three tons "with nasal passages bigger than its brain.... The sheer immensity of every part of it exercises a fearful magnetism on the mind. When the rhino moved a leg, just slightly, huge muscles moved easily under its heave skin like Volkswagens parking";

• Kakapo - just 40 left in New Zealand, these flightless birds, living for centuries on an isolated island, "are generally unused to defending themselves....If you look one in its large, round, greeny-brown face, it has a look of serenely innocent incomprehension that makes you want to hug it and tell it that everything will be all right, though you know that it probably will not be";

• Baiji river dolphins - "half-blind for the reason that there is nothing to see in the Yangtze. The water is so muddy now that visibility is not much more than a few centimetres.....[They are] intelligent animals whose perceptive universe we could scarcely being to imagine, living in a seething, poisoned, deafening world, and that their lives were probably passed in continual bewilderment, hunger, pain, and fear."

Along the way he and Carwardine have to deal with:  

• Mosquito nets - that trap mosquitoes inside the bed area rather than outside the net; 

• Singing hippos - which use natural river banks to echo their voices; 

• Bizharzia - the second most common disease in world (after tooth decay) where tiny worms enter your body if you walk through infected water. (These facts are mentioned by Carwardian to pass the time as they slogged through yet another marshy bog), 

• Tiananmen Square - when it was still an easy, relaxed place of great beauty, speakers, music, history, and parents wandering around with children (just a few months before it became world famous for more violent reasons); 

• Rubberovers - the Chinese term for condoms which the explorers must purchase to cover a microphone for underwater recording, having to pantomime what they want to the astonishment of merchants and onlookers who offer advice and interesting solutions; 

• After shave - Adams purchases multiple bottles out of nervousness on his flight to China, then tries to get rid of them by hiding them in obscure spots, much like an animal marking his territory;

• One wild automobile driver - who continuously turns around to look at them in the back seat when asking questions, refusing to look forward towards the road until they give an answer to his satisfaction.

Their journeys can be summed up with the prophetic words Carwardine says to Adams when they meet for the first time in Madagascar: "Everything's gone wrong." Their adventures start off bad, and end even worse. But along the way they do see rare animals, meet odd and also professional people (sometimes the same person), and wonder about the future of these species ... and of our own.

Very highly recommended for anyone curious about our world, its inhabitants (human and animal), and a Mark Twain-like narrator who can describe these experiences with dry humor and piercing insight.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Quammen, David. The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction

A naturalist and gifted writer, Quammen travels the world to islands to observe and record evolution and extinction. He is one of my favorite writers of the animal world.

Quammen, David Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature 

More from my favorite naturist, with short essays on a wide variety of quirky topics from mosquitoes, dinosaurs, cloning, population dynamics, mating of snakes, and much, much more. Wonderful!

Thomas, Lewis. Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher 

Short essays delightfully written about the inter-relationships of everything in the world, the beauty of each organism, music, germs, death, and poetry. Highly recommended classic in the field of biology for the non-scientist.