Walking Zero

Walking Zero: Discovering Cosmic Space and Time Along the PRIME MERIDIAN by Chet Raymo

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

In Walking Zero, the author uses the prime meridian -- the line of zero longitude and the standard for all the world's maps and clocks -- to reconstruct the story of humankind's intellectual journey from a cosmos not much larger than ourselves to the universe of the galaxies and geologic eons.

The author connects personally with the story by walking along England's prime meridian from Brighton on the south coast through Greenwich to the North Sea. The prime meridian passes near a remarkable number of landmarks that loom large in science: the site where the first dinosaur fossils were discovered; Charles Darwin's home at Down, in Kent; John Harrison's chronometers measuring longitude in a museum room of the Royal Observatory; and Isaac Newton's chamber at Trinity College, Cambridge, among many others. Visiting them in turn, the author brings to life the human dramas of courageous individuals who bucked reigning orthodoxies to expand our horizons, including Giordano Bruno, a seventeenth-century priest who paid the ultimate price for surmising the multitude of worlds we now take for granted.

A splendid short history of astronomy, geology, and paleontology, Walking Zero illuminates the startling interplay of science, psychology, faith, and the arts in our understanding of space and time.
~~front flap

I should have loved this book. I absolutely revel in this sort of writing: synthesis, and how one thing tipped another to result in our world as it is today. James Burke's series were just gorgeous, and I'm just finishing up Bronowski's Ascent of Man series now (and I own the book.)

But I didn't care for it much. Oh it was informative, and I learned a great deal from reading it. But it was academic ponderous, dull recitations of the men who played their parts in our civilization being able to harness time, and plot space. A wee bit of the countryside at the start of each chapter, and then back to facts and figures. A shame really. A really good author could have made it a wonderful excursion -- a lyric, affectionate tour of English footpaths, and the scientific geniuses of the past who fashioned our world.


And there. The 26 books by alphabetical title are accomplished, with the 26 books by alphabetical author to come.

The Discovery of Yellowstone Park

The Discovery of Yellowstone Park: Journal of the Washburn Expedition to the Yellowstone and Firehole Rivers in the Year 1870 by Nathaniel Pitt Langford

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


With the ecological integrity of Yellowstone National Park in contention between developers and environmentalists, the events of its exploration and founding take on an added interest. This edition of the author's journal brings back into print one of the principal sources of information on the exploration of the Yellowstone region and its establishment as America's first national park.

The findings of the 1870 Washburn expedition, of which the author was a member, gave credence to the findings of the Folsom party of 1869 and resulted in the sending of a government survey party into the area in 1871. The culminating effect of the three expeditions was the federal legislation creating our first and largest national park and marking the beginning of the national concern for the preservation of America's heritage of wilderness beauty.
~~back cover

I had such high hopes for this book! I thought it was going to be a singing record of the land, the trees and the animals, and the geologic wonders. Instead, it was more of a daily recording of the minutia of the exploration: who got lost, who fell off their horse, etc. There are some vivid descriptions of what they saw: rock formations, sulphur springs, bubbling mineral springs and mud pots, rivers and rapids, massive waterfalls, geysers, etc. But the descriptions are meager, and unsatisfying.

My maternal great great uncle was one of the mountain men who helped open up the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. I hoped for a mention of him, or a reference, but there was none. That thought did, however, give me the idea to research his name, to see what's been written about him.

This is a slim book, 125 pages or so. I was relieved when it was over.

An Expert in Murder

Expert in Murder, An: A Josephine Tey Mystery by Nicola Upson

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


"March 1934. Revered mystery writer Josephine Tey is traveling from Scotland to London for the final week of her play Richard of Bordeaux, the surprise hit of the season, with pacifist themes that resonate in a world still haunted by war. But joy turns to horror when her arrival coincides with the murder of a young woman she had befriended on the train ride -- and Tey is plunged into a mystery as puzzling as any in her own works.

Detective Inspector Archie Penrose is convinced that the killing is connected to the play, and that Tey herself is in danger of becoming a victim of her own success. In the aftermath of a second murder, the writer and the policeman must join together to stop a ruthless killer who will apparently stop at nothing."
~~back cover

This book is charmingly written. The author is an excellent writer: her characters are real people, with depth and anguish and trepidation, with hopes and dreams. The plotting is quite good -- an extravagantly complicated puzzle, with all the pieces sliding into place at the end.

I would have given the book much higher marks, except that the solving involves hitherto unknown facts and relationships, old vendettas, false identities, megalomania, etc. I'm not big on that style of mystery. And it's a shame because I rather liked the subplot of a hesitantly developing romance between Miss Tey and the policeman. Perhaps I'll try the sequel, Angel with Two Faces, and see how it goes.

We Bought a Zoo

We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Amazing True Story of a Young Family, a Broken Down Zoo, and the 200 Wild Animals That Change Their Lives Forever.

An unforgettable memoir about the mysteries of the animal kingdom, the power of family and the triumph of hope over tragedy.

In the market for a house and the adventure of a lifetime, the author decided to uproot his family and move them to an unlikely new home: a dilapidated zoo in the English countryside, complete with over 200 exotic animals. The author, who specializes in animal behavior, had a dream to refurbish the zoo and run it as a family business. Naturally, friends and colleagues that he was crazy.

His pipe dream became a reality in October 2006, when he and the rest of the clan -- wife, son (ago six), daughter (age fou), brother, and his seventy-six-year-old mother -- relocated to the Dartmoor Wildlife Park and met their new neighbors, including Solomon, an African lion and scourge of the local golf course; Zak, the elderly Alpha wolf, a benevolent dictator clinging to power; Ronnie, a Brazilian tapir easily capable of killing a man but hopelessly wimpy; and Sovereign, a jaguar who had devised a long-term escape plan and implemented it.

The grand reopening of the zoo was scheduled for spring, but there was much work to be done and none of it easy for these novice zookeepers. Tigers broke loose, money ran low, the staff grew skeptical, and family tensions reached a boiling point.

Then tragedy struck, and the situation went from difficult to unimaginable. His wife had a recurrence of a brain tumor, forcing the author and the children to face the heartbreak of illness and the devastating loss of wife and mother. But inspired by her memory and the healing power of the incredible family of animals they had grown to love, the author and the kids resolved to move forward. The family opened the gates of the revitalized zoo in July 2007 to great success.

Brimming with energy and insight, We Bought a Zoo is a profoundly moving portrait of an ordinary family living in the most extraordinary circumstances.
~~front & back flaps

This is a grand book! The marvelous, gut-wrenching adventure of owning your own zoo -- who could have imagined? What impressed me most was the requirements for a zoo -- and if they're not met, the zoo doesn't open. Or is closed down. Fascinating details of behind-the-scenes operations, and insights into the philosophy behind zoos and how that's changed as our world and our society has changed.

I would have given this book a five star rating, but for the intertwined story of the illness and death of the author's wife. I understand that in some ways it was important to the story, but for me it was a distraction, and therefore an irritation. The story of anyone's death is a profoundly moving experience, and deserves its own center stage. Here, it jostled with the main story for attention, and for top billing. I think these two stories could have been separate books, and I think each of the stories was diminished because of the push-me-pull-you aspect that combining them brought to the book.

This book was made into a television series in England. I wish I could have seen it!

Vulture

Vulture: Nature's Ghastly Gourmet by Wayne Grady

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


"From the bald, scarlet-headed turkey vulture to the violently colored king vulture -- with its red-rimmed eyes, purple wattles and orange beak -- to the giant California condor, vultures have been reviled as hideous scavengers that feed greedily on rotting carcases. But vultures are magnificent birds in their own right and perform an important service by cleaning up the environment and preventing the spread of disease. Combining a fascinating and authoritative text with dramatic, full-color phographs and elgant line drawings, Vulture explores the myth and the reality of this much maligned bird.

"Although veteran science write Wayne Grady includes a discussion of the Old World vultures, Vulture focuses on the seven species of New World vultures, describing their mating, breeding and feeding habits as well as their bad breath and untidy nests. Some vultures rely on their exceptionally keen eyesight, whereas others have a highly developed sense of smell. All vultures ride the thermals more efficiently than any other bird, gliding for miles without expending a single calorie of energy.

"Grady also explores the relationship between vultures and human beings. California condors were the origin of the Thunderbird myth, and the Egyptian vulture was declared sacred by the Pharoahs. In Sky Burials in India and Tibet, the dead are left on the famed Towers of Silence to be eaten by hordes of vultures. The book ends with the story of the California condor, which has been rescued from the brink of extinction by a dedicated team of scientists and conservationists.

"Throughout the book, spectacular photographs capture the birds as they soar above the grasslands of Africa, perch atop a cactus in Mexico, or dry their feathers in the morning sun in Texas. Enchanting line drawings illuminate the mythological and deliciously macabre side of the vulture. Together, text and images present a vivid portrait of the vulture in all its ghoulish glory."
~~front flap

Not much left to say, after that introduction, is there?

The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture

The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture by Wendell Berry

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


"The Unsettling of American is Wendell Berry's probing and personal inquiry into the way in which we use the land that sustains us, and an expression of profound awareness that farming cannot be considered separately from the larger culture. His provocative suggestions for change are by turns passionate and eloquent, here is a book that gathers urgency for today's troubled society."
~~back cover

When I was doing my upper division course work at UC Santa Cruz, there was no graduate program offered in my major. Nonetheless, several graduate level courses were offered. I took them all eagerly. One of them knocked me on my bottom! The course was on transhumance. The syllabus was 3" thick, of xeroxed articles from professional journals. The reading assignments were brutal -- 5 or 6 articles at a time. And you better have read them -- they were discussed in class. And class was small -- no hiding out in the back row. There wasn't a back row. Even worse, my mentor was teaching the class -- a clear fiat to perform and perform well.

I struggled with those damn readings. It took me hours to get through each one. I constantly felt behind, consequently dull, lumbering, inadequate. Eventually I realized that I was struggling so because I had never read anything about transhumance before, and suddenly I'd been thrown off the bank into the deep water of the cutting edge of theory. No wonder I was struggling -- I didn't have any of the foundation, the resonances, didn't know the paths through the jungle. My mentor, of course, could read those articles in minutes, appreciating the nuances as she went.

This book was somewhat of the same experience for me. It read like a textbook, or a professional journal. Indeed, he's been a university professor (amongst many other things -- he's a true Renaissance man), which explains the tenor and depth of his language. I struggled with the language, and of course that made it difficult to unlock his ideas. But I'd waited so long to read Wendell Berry -- no matter how much I wanted to put it down, I needed to finish it, to be sure I got it all.

I'm glad I did.

The crux of the book is that agribusiness and the US Dept. of Agriculture are in bed together, the one aiding and abetting the other. And agribusiness is killing the land. Small diverse personal farms are the only way to save or restore the land. Agribusiness will drain all productivity and make the land unusable. He takes a lot of words and a lot of examples to support this hypothesis. Because he's passionate about it. He thinks it's a matter of life or death.

And it is. But I doubt that many will be persuaded by this book, which is offputting in its complexity and obscurity.

Truth and Beauty

Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


"Ann Prachett and the late Lucy Grealy met in college in 1981, and, after enrolling in the Iowa Writers' Workshop, began a friendship that would be as defining to both of their lives as their work. In Grealy's critically acclaimed memoir, Autobiography of a Face, she wrote about losing part of her jaw to childhood cancer, years of chemotherapy and radiation, and endless reconstructive surgeries. In Truth & Beauty, the story isn't Lucy's life or Ann's life, but the parts of their lives they shared. This is a portrait of unwavering commitment that spans twenty years, from the long winters of the Midwest, to surgical wards, to book parties in New York. Through love, fame, drugs, and despair, this is what it means to be part of two lives that are intertwined ... and what happens when one is left behind.

"This is a tender, brutal book about loving the person we cannot save. It is about loyalty, and being lifted up by the sheer effervescence of someone who knew how to live life to the fullest."
~~front flap

I don't really know how to talk about this book. It was unsettling, disquieting. In this day and age, of life lived too fast, with too much to do and not enough hours or days, we've become ruthless about friendship. A friend with too many problems, with unresolved emotional issues -- someone needy, clinging, possessive? Ah no. It's too much -- we haven't the time, the emotional resources ourselves to withstand the depth and scope of the cataclysm. It's too demanding, too much work, too much trouble. We cut those sorts of people out of our lives, remove them with surgical precision and congratulate ourselves for facing reality without flinching.

The book is also comforting, heartening, enlightening. The author never considered her friend a liability, a disaster, someone to be jettisoned in order to survive herself. She loved her friend with that unwavering commitment we all search for in a friend or lover, and so seldom find. Unconditional love, that's the phrase I'm hunting for. No matter how outrageous, how demanding, how inconvenient, the author loved her friend.

As I read the book, as Lucy's actions and emotions became more and more bizarre, more demanding, more outre, I found myself thinking that I couldn't have been the friend that Ann was. I doubt I could have remained her friend through the drug use, the medical emergencies and all the other crises and catastrophes that Lucy sought to give her life the frisson she so desperately craved. And yet, this book delineated a beautiful love that we all would wish for ourselves: unconditional love.

Sometimes in this world, we have to look at relationships with eyes wide open, have to tally up the cost benefit analysis, and generally find the relationship not worth the cost. But equally, sometimes we have to immerse ourselves in a relationship for the sheer joy of it, for the love of the other person, for the comfort of our soul. This book is about choosing the latter path, and the joys and sorrows that came of that choice.