February Books of the Month

March 20, 2020 by Christina

February feels like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it? I know it was a busy month for me because my calendar is packed with book club meetings, dinner plans with friends, and an introduction to quilting class on Sundays. Yet, from the vantage point of mid-March, it feels unimaginably footloose and fancy free. What did I do when I could go and do whatever I wanted? Well, what I did was read an astonishing 17 books during this month thanks in […]

Categories: 2020 Reads, Amish, Animals, Audiobook, Awards and Prizes, Book Club, Canada, Caribbean, Classics, Classics Club, Crime, Europe, Feminism, Fiction, Food, Indigenious Peoples, Juvenile, LGBTQA+, Mountain West, Nonfiction, North America, Persephone Books, ReadDiverse, Religion, Travel, United Kingdom, United States, Women's Prize • Tags: A. J. Finn, Adam Darlin, Audre Lorde, Becky Ohlsen, Brendan Sainsbury, Catherine Bodry, Chris Chalk, Christopher Ketcham, Coco Morante, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Edwidge Danticat, Jesmyn Ward, Jia Tolentino, John Lee, Jon Krakauer, Kamila Shamsie, Kevin Harrison Jr, L. M. Montgomery, Linda Castillo, Marghanita Laski, Richard Thomas, Rutina Wesley, Shelly Frasier, Steven Higashide, Susan O'Malley, Sy Montgomery

The Wild Inside by Christine Carbo

August 12, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – Kindle edition. Atria Books, 2015. 417 pgs. Purchased. In 1987, fourteen-year-old Ted Systead and his father were camping in the backcountry of Glacier National Park when a grizzly bear attacked Ted’s father, dragging him out of the tent and to his death. Ted managed to stay awake all night, starting a fire to keep himself warm and plotting how he would get help. But, in his delirious and anxious state, Ted tripped over a rock, smashing his head […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, 20BooksofSummer, Animals, Crime, Fiction, Mountain West, North America, United States • Tags: Christine Carbo

American Wolf by Nate Blakeslee

February 7, 2018 by Christina

Nonfiction — Kindle edition. Crown, 2017. 320 pgs. Library copy. Subtitled “A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West”, Blakeslee follows the life and death of one of Yellowstone National Park’s most famous residents, a gray wolf known as O-Six.  Born in 2006 (hence the name), O-Six became the alpha female for a large portion of prime real estate in Yellowstone, a stretch known as the Lamar Valley, in part because of her unique ability to take down […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Animals, Mountain West, Nonfiction, North America • Tags: Nate Blakeslee

Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis

December 8, 2015 by Christina

Fiction — print. Coach House Books, 2015. 171 pgs. Library copy. In this imaginative, little book, the Greek gods Hermes and Apollo visit a dog kennel near Toronto and gift the fifteen dogs there with consciousness. The two have wagered a bet over whether or not intelligence — or, maybe more appropriately,  awareness of one’s place in society outside the insular pack — makes humans happier than other beings. If one of these fifteen dogs gifted with human intelligence dies […]

Categories: 2015 Reads, Animals, Canada, Fiction, Giller Prize, North America • Tags: André Alexis

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

December 30, 2014 by Christina

Fiction — print. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2013. 310 pgs. Library copy. Rosemary Cooke, the narrator, begins her autobiography in the middle: a seemingly bizarre incident where an unknown woman becomes violent in the middle of a cafe after her boyfriend breaks up with her and Rosemary joins in by climbing on the table and dropping her glass of milk. The charges against Rosemary are dropped after a phone call to her father, who extracts a promise from Rosemary that nothing […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Animals, Fiction, North America, United States • Tags: Karen Joy Fowler

Ape House by Sara Gruen

September 26, 2014 by Christina

Fiction — audiobook. Read by Paul Boehmer. Books on Tape, 2010. 11 hours, 7 minutes. Library copy. John Thigpen, a journalist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, traveled to Kansas to meet the bonobos — Sam, Bonzi, Lola, Mbongo, Jelani, and Makena — learning to communicate with computers and in American Sign Language for a study on language acquisition at the university’s Great Ape Language Lab. Intrigued by both the bonobos and the scientist who cares for them, John has begun to […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Animals, Audiobook, Fiction, North America, United States • Tags: Paul Boehmer, Sara Gruen

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

June 21, 2014 by Christina

Fiction — print. Algonquin Books, 2007. 335 pgs. Purchased. After the tragic death of his parents, Jacob Jankowski leaves veterinary college during his final exams and jumps a freight train in the dark not realizing the train is actually owned by a circus, the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Jacob is hired on once his experience as a veterinary students becomes known and travels across the country caring for the animals used in the glittery, sensual show. But […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Animals, Fiction, North America, United States • Tags: Sara Gruen

Being Caribou by Karsten Heuer

September 8, 2013 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Milkweed Editions, 2008. Originally published 2005. 240 pgs. Purchased. Subtitled “Five Months on Food with an Arctic Herd”, Heuer’s book chronicles the period of time in 2003 that he and his wife, Leanne, spent migrating with the Porcupine caribou herd on foot and on skis from their winter range to their breeding grounds in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The ANWR is located in northeastern Alaska and abuts Ivvavik National Park in Yukon, Canada, but the protection […]

Categories: 2013 Reads, Animals, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Karsten Heuer

Mark of the Grizzly by Scott McMillion

June 5, 2013 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Falcon Publishing, 1998. 252 pgs.  Borrowed from my mother. Subtitled “True Stories of Recent Bear Attacks and the Hard Lessons Learned”, this book examines a series of grizzly encounters (I loathe to use the word “attacks”) to provide lessons on how to behave in bear country for visitors and attempts to piece together a more in-depth explanation of bear behavior. Incidentally, however, I was quite happy to be reading this one on the plane away from bear […]

Categories: 2013 Reads, Animals, Canada, Mountain West, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Scott McMillion

The Yellowstone Wolves by Gary Ferguson

March 4, 2013 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Falcon, 1996. 174 pgs. Borrowed from a friend. Subtitled “The First Year”, Ferguson’s book follows the lives of the first wolves reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park from Alberta, Canada in 1995. The process was a long time coming. A wolf recovery team was created in 1974 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but efforts to reintroduce the wolf were continually stagnated by the public, politicians, and state governments around Yellowstone. Nearly twenty years later, the reintroduction […]

Categories: 2013 Reads, Animals, Mountain West, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Gary Ferguson

Gator Aide by Jessica Speart

July 25, 2012 by Christina

Fiction — print. Avon Books, 1997. 304 pgs. Received from PaperBackSwap. Rachel Porter’s first major case after months chasing bird poachers on the bayou brings her to infamous French Quarter in New Orleans to deal with a dead alligator chained to a bathtub — not far from an equally dead stripper. But when Rachel discovers that an overdose of heroin-stuffed condoms — and not the five bullet holes in the gator’s head — was the true cause of its demise, […]

Categories: 2012 Reads, Animals, Crime, Fiction, North America, United States • Tags: Jessica Speart

Border Prey by Jessica Speart

July 16, 2012 by Christina

Fiction — print. Avon Books, 2000. 282 pgs. Received from PaperBackSwap. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agent Rachel Porter has been reassigned to El Paso, Texas, home to game ranches that provide rare antelopes, Indian deer, and African oryx for the rich to hunt. Agent Porter has a tip that one of these ranches, the Happy Hunting Ranch, is hiding primates somewhere on their grounds before smuggling the animals over the Mexican border. But the “reformed” smuggler who passed along the […]

Categories: 2012 Reads, Animals, Crime, Fiction, North America, United States • Tags: Jessica Speart