For readers who have barely noticed the crimson cardinal in the tree out your kitchen window, the idea that birding could be intense will seem shockinFor readers who have barely noticed the crimson cardinal in the tree out your kitchen window, the idea that birding could be intense will seem shocking. For birders who have only just picked up a field guide or only recently lifted the binoculars to your eyes, the idea that bird watching could lead to knocking on neighbourhood doors, heated city council meetings, or mucking about a lake post-July 4th fireworks will seem absolutely outrageous. Trish O’Kane’s Birding to Change the World is an engaging and eye-opening memoir of one woman’s commitment to her community and the natural world.
O’Kane, a journalist who spent the early part of her career writing about human rights violations in the American South and Central America, finds herself having lost everything in the storm wreckage of Hurricane Katrina. While mourning the destruction of her home, city, and life as she knew it, she is also witnessing her father’s death from cancer, and she finds solace in a habit her father enjoys – watching the birds. Before she knows it, she has moved to Madison, Wisconsin, to pursue a Ph.D., enrolls in an ornithology class, and her identity as birder, environmental activist, and social justice warrior takes shape.
Upon moving to Madison, O’Kane immediately falls in love with Warner Park, a local city oasis where she spends hours observing flora and fauna as well as reflecting and relaxing. She’s entranced by the catbirds, phoebes, great horned owls, and flycatchers, among other avian species. Like the birds, she finds her own favourite perch atop the sled hill, where she spends hours. Warner Park becomes her balm from the trauma of Katrina.
As much as O’Kane loves birds and nature, she loves the people who love birds and nature. She sees her own joys reflected in others whom she meets while birding. She lovingly portrays Jan, a septuagenarian retired feed-mill worker who knew more about the animal life than most formally trained biologists; Sandy, who spends four hours a day in the park, finding strength to heal after a life of difficult circumstances; Golden Helmet Man, who wears a football helmet rain or shine; and many children who come through her education program. O’Kane deftly weaves research on the importance of time spent outdoors with her descriptions of human life at Warner Park, making this book so much more than just one woman’s perspective and journey.
She joins a group of local activists when the city plans to “improve” Warner Park. O’Kane reminds us that modernizing comes at a cost, not just for plants and animals but for people too. To pave over a meadow for a parking lot may bring more people to the park for ball games, but it deprives children of their wild spaces and adults of their daily rambles. Many of the families who live close to Warner Park do not have the transportation, time, or means to travel outside of the city to experience nature, and Warner Park provides them with exposure to trees, plants, and all manner of fauna. O’Kane’s organizing and collaboration save the wild elements of Warner Park and birth Wild Warner, a group of like-minded citizens who are willing to fight to keep the park and its residents safe from the concrete sprawl of the city.
O’Kane’s efforts to save the Canadian geese of Warner Park from the brutal fate of a “round up” reveals the tension between humans and animals and how our curation of the world around us is often at odds with our own desires. We want finely manicured grasses, but we don’t want goose poop. It doesn’t occur to us that mowing the grassy areas of our parks is creating a salad buffet that brings all of the geese coming back for more. O’Kane writes with verve about the dogged determination of the Wild Warner warriors who lobby the city commissioners to save the geese from slaughter. She doesn’t oversimplify what it means to balance the needs of people and animals, and she celebrates the solutions that make life tolerable for animals and the people who enjoy the park.
There’s an intensity to Birding to Change the World that will surprise readers who sought out the title as an avian reverie. Trish O’Kane is a woman with a cause – whether it’s to track the flight of migrating birds, organize and lead an after-school program for middle school kids, or interrogate the use of fireworks that pollute Warner Park Lake. Her book is at once a natural history, a call for social change, and a memoir about repairing the world. ...more
This book is heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, powerful, and disturbing. It is an informative, deeply researched and important book dealing with animal poThis book is heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, powerful, and disturbing. It is an informative, deeply researched and important book dealing with animal poaching and trafficking. It is a disturbing read. Most of us know very little about this subject because drug and human trafficking are more publicized, and efforts to stop these crimes are more heavily funded. It is with the hopes of raising awareness of these horrific criminal activities that the author, Will Staples, hopes to highlight some unflinching details of the evils of animal cruelty and of present efforts to stop this trade. All his income from the book will be donated to groups protecting wildlife.
'Animals' is a book that deserves to be widely read for the educational value of the shocking information it provides. This well-researched story involved the author travelling to Myanmar, Laos, Viet Nam, Hong Kong, Macau, South Africa, Mozambique, and Tanzania. He interviewed officers from the Organized Crime and Narcotics Bureaus in Hong Kong and learned how criminal mobs traffic animals and launder their illegal money in casinos. Also interviewed were park rangers, CIA, environmentalists. He mentions luxurious private hunting lodges that cater to American and Russian billionaires. This fictional thriller is based upon real practices, places, and people trying to stop the trade in animals or reduce it as much as possible. Some of the animals mentioned are sadly on the verge of extinction.
The main characters, besides the criminals, are a Park Ranger from Kruger Park who witnessed his fellow workers gunned down in a battle with poachers. He is an ex-soldier. A policewoman and mother whose son is dying of a fatal disease. An American insurance broker wants to ensure that zoos only receive healthy, legally obtained animals and become even wealthier. Also, there is a CIA agent whose career has gone downhill and is considered a failure. He has come up with a scheme to connect the proceeds of animal trafficking to funding terrorist groups and convince his boss that this is a valid course for CIA pursuit. As the plot progresses, all are in danger of their lives, and their moral compasses are severely tested.
On a personal note, I become quite upset when animal cruelty is inserted into a novel. This might involve an animal being killed or wounded, or even a pet feeling sad or dying of old age. However, I am very glad I read this book and urge others to do so. It is an educational and uncomfortable experience, and I am grateful to Will Staples for bringing these crimes and tragedies to our attention....more
From the artwork, to the title, to the overwhelming air of masculinity, sometimes you just know a battle manga when you see one. These series stand ouFrom the artwork, to the title, to the overwhelming air of masculinity, sometimes you just know a battle manga when you see one. These series stand out on the shelves, whether they’re to your personal tastes or not. Such is the case with one of Viz’s latest localizations. In the tradition of One-Punch Man and YuYu Hakusho, it’s time to talk about Shu Sakuratani’s Rooster Fighter.
As with many a ridiculously named series, what you see is what you get: over-the-top blockbuster-style violence starring a rooster. Specifically a very moody, macho, loner rooster. The titular protagonist is well in-keeping with action movie standards of masculinity to the point that it pushes the limits of both parody and earnestness. He has a strict moral code, defending innocent people from demon attacks and then helping to clean up the resultant messes afterwards. With that said, he never allows himself to get too close to other people or animals. It doesn’t take long after one conflict resolves for him to meander his way out of town and into the next scene of chaos.
This manga has the sort of premise that lives or dies by its execution. Drawing upon such archetypal character beats and genre conventions runs the risk of producing an overly predictable and flat narrative. The rooster is basically every other hardass (human) male action star under the sun, and his motivations are quite standard: grief over a slain loved one and the desire to enact vengeance. The supporting cast also falls into familiar roles: kind older men who serve as fountains of wisdom, and younger chicks (in the poultry sense of the word) who aspire to be like the lead hero.
The central key to Rooster Fighter’s success regardless is not some sort of wit or subversion but rather how straight it plays the concept. This series has honest-to-god battle choreography that is very specifically thought out and executed. Every aspect of the page compositions from their perspective to the way they lead one’s eye from panel-to-panel shows an understanding of just how important framing is to fight scenes’ quality. The line-work is perpetually sharp and clean, and there are a few great monster designs. The best is easily a salary man demon who yells about his quotas while wrecking buildings.
Well-done as all the action is, some of the volume’s most memorable moments occur outside of the titular hero’s exploits. On the high quality side there’s a flashback courtesy of a turtle the rooster meets in his travels. Without diving into spoiler territory I’ll simply say that nature is cruel, and the manga deftly handles notes of terror and suspense.
Rooster Fighter delivers exactly what one would expect given its title. If anything, the end result is even better than one might expect given the high caliber of art on display. Whether one finds the series worth following will largely depend on if they share its ridiculous sense of humor.
Winterset Hollow, by Jonathan Edward Durham, is a difficult book to review, simply for the reason it is a story with a number of layers, a novel with Winterset Hollow, by Jonathan Edward Durham, is a difficult book to review, simply for the reason it is a story with a number of layers, a novel with a complexity I rarely find in contemporary fiction.
My first impression of Winterset Hollow was the language. Often we are told to write at an “elementary grade school level”, to be sure we reach a broader audience. As a child and teenager, I remember reading books that defied this particular reasoning—books that made me reach for the dictionary to understand the author’s words.
Winterset Hollow is such a book. The language is of a higher caliber—rich, complex, and wonderfully challenging. At times, near-lyrical—and by that, I mean the actual prose, not the poetry scattered throughout. A welcome change from the simpler vocabulary I read elsewhere; it is clear that Jonathan Edward Durham loves the English language as much as I do.
Now, follow this with the strange, dark tale that is Winterset Hollow. I can’t say much without revealing the story; suffice it to say the story is something Beatrix Potter might have written from the depths of a sanitorium. It is dark, and gruesome, and bloody, and the horrors therein are not solely the property of the antagonists. Wickedness can be layered, and it can come in different forms, as is revealed in the later pages of Winterset Hollow, when the true measure of carnage is revealed. This is a story that will stay with me for a long time....more
Written almost of century ago by Jack London, both of these stories have truly stood the test of time. Both of them are based on London's experience iWritten almost of century ago by Jack London, both of these stories have truly stood the test of time. Both of them are based on London's experience in the Yukon, and both are written from the point of view of dogs.
In "The Call of the Wild", the dog Buck is kidnapped from an easy life and sold to a sled team during the Klondike Gold Rush. In spite of the numerous cruelties inflicted on him, Buck learns to survive. Eventually, he returns to the wild and to run with the wolves.
In "White Fang", the story is reversed. White Fang is three-quarters wolf and was born in the wild. Through a series of events, he is domesticated and eventually becomes a tame and loving pet. There is much to learn in both of these stories. One thing is the way of animals and their life in the wild. Another is of the way of life in the Yukon. And of the men, both brutal and kind, who rely on the dogs to pull the sleds.
Jack London used his words well. There's an elegant cadence and a vigorous spirit. His love for the animals comes through as well as his respect for the wild forces of nature. And the theme that life changes are really possible because of environmental forces.
London didn't set out to write a story about the glorification of nature or vanishing wildlife. Indeed, during his short lifetime (1876-1916) the way of the wild was a fact of life. London just simply wrote his stories. And through his words, left a legacy of work that will continue to enrich the lives of readers for many generations to come....more
This book is about evolution: it is described as a very large amount of steps of very small improvements. Richard goes into great detail to help us unThis book is about evolution: it is described as a very large amount of steps of very small improvements. Richard goes into great detail to help us understand how it works. I enjoyed reading it as it takes theory a step further and I regret having not read this book years earlier. Richard follows logic if we accept A then it means the following. He also explores the opposite if A isn't true. He (and Darwin) logically rejects evolution as having anything to do with divine intervention because if that is needed to explain any steps in evolution it means the theory is false.
He makes the reader understand that this process is so complex and played at multiple levels - from genes and cells, to species to planetary conditions - and over a time scale that the human mind cannot comprehend. It may seem magical or divine but it really isn't. When reading the chapters about this I had to think about a conversation at the start of Deep Space Nine about time: "What comes before now is not different than what is now or what is to come. It is one's existence". If we were to meet such a being we would not understand this with our human mind. For a human a decade is quite long, on geological time scale 60,000 years is an instant. We look at the animals and plants today and we should realize they are all the outcome of a billion years long evolutionary process.
The fossil record is extremely limited, so we miss many steps and sometimes we aren't even looking in the right area. In Dawkins' view life does not have a meaning - 42 might be the right answer after all. It's interesting as recently I learned about another theory that looked at life as a way to recirculate nutrition - each animal and plant is part of a system. Dawkins would reject that and the system is there because of life. He spent the last chapter debunking 'alternative theories'. In a way it's quite academic but it does show clearly where Richard stands.
Unfortunately he does not know how life started and he postulates some theories that sound the same as how we explain the universe using terms like dark energy and dark matter - it could be true but for now it's not more than an educated guess. I understand that this is still one of the large mysteries of life. As the book was written a few decades ago, some of the examples that Richard uses sounds dated - it does not take anything away from his message, but I can see my daughter for example not being able to understand what he means with a laser disc or a DC-8. If you are religious and have an open mind I would recommend reading it - Dawkins is not against religion in a way that he condemns religious people, it's more that it is not the right explanation for how life is today. There is no Watchmaker at work....more
We humans like to think we are something special, that we have qualities no other animal possesses. Many people believe that our emotions are among thWe humans like to think we are something special, that we have qualities no other animal possesses. Many people believe that our emotions are among the things that make us human. Primatologist Frans De Waal used to go along with this prevailing belief, but he has spent many years studying our closest relatives, and he says “More and more I believe that all the emotions we are familiar with can be found one way or another in all mammals, and that the variation is only in the details, elaborations, applications, and intensity.” In Mama’s Last Hug he makes his case for this position, and the result is both fascinating and convincing.
De Waal says that modern emotion research puts too much stress on language, and that is part of the problem. We humans don’t use language to recognize and respond to emotions of other humans in our daily lives; we observe; and DeWaal uses observation as his scientific tool to argue engagingly, but also convincingly, in favor of a rich emotional life for animals other than humans.
He won me over in Chapter 1 with a description of a moving reunion between Mama, a 59-year-old chimpanzee who was on her deathbed, and 80-year-old Jan van Hooff, who had been De Waal’s dissertation advisor and who had worked with Mama for many years. If you are skeptical of De Waal’s description, the reunion video is available on YouTube, and to me there is no doubt about Mama’s genuine joy at seeing her old friend.
If DeWaal’s wonderful anecdotes do not convince you, consider his credentials. How often do you read a book by an IgNobel Prize winner? For those of you not familiar with the Ig Nobel prizes, they have been awarded annually since 1991 (on the Harvard campus but not by Harvard) to "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think." The paper that won the Ig Nobel for De Waal was called “Faces and Behinds”, and it was a study in which his team learned that apes have a “whole-body” image of familiar individuals and could even pick out individuals they knew from pictures of that ape’s derriere.
My first reaction, of course, was to laugh, but then I had to recognize that this was clever work that tells me something rather impressive about apes.
I had more laughs, some more sad moments, and a lot of thoughtful moments throughout the book. Do read it; I am confident that you will come away with a greater feeling of kinship with all the creatures, great and small....more
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