The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring by Richard Preston


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
One year my daughter spent most of her summer vacation climbing in and hanging out in one of the ash trees on our lot. I thought of her as I read this book. Only the people in this book climb up and hang out, do research in and get married on the Giant Redwoods in the temperate rain forest of northern California.
Reading the second chapter, I had to close the book and take several deep breaths. Just reading about people swinging around at 150 feet in the air (in this case, without any climbing equipment at all) set off my acrophobia. But I had to keep reading to see what happened next.
What was next was and is a story of the the surprises that were found lurking in the crowns of the trees. There is an immense variety of life happening up there, both the same and very different from the canopy of a tropical rain forest.
They needn't worry about me disturbing the ecology of the Redwood; I'm not climbing anything that doesn't have a guard rail, but it was a great book.

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If you liked Water for Elephants, you might like this

The Elephant Keeper LP by Christopher Nicholson


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
When two young half-dead elephants are landed to England in 1766, young Tom Page's master buys them and puts Tom in charge. Tom, who had been training under his father to take care of horses, becomes throughly entranced with the two great beasts and becomes nursemaid, teacher, and champion.
I would say this is an 18th Century English Water for Elephants, but that would be unfair to both books. Both books have their charms. This one is much more focused upon the elephants than on human interactions.

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Discworld is up to fun and games--or games for them and fun for the reader

Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sir Terry Pratchett has taken on football (that's soccer to us Americans), as practiced as both a sport and as a religion (works for either definition of football).
As is the case in a number of his other Discworld novels, we are also confronted with a member of a distasteful minority--in this case an Orc. There is also a brief side trip into the world of fashion and fame, but that could happen anywhere.
My favorite part of the book is quite possibily the discussion of the definition of "oral sex". I alway learn soooo much while reading Pratchett's books.
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Two individualistic narrators; two good stories

The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Quirky little novel that delves into the meaning, form, and function of poetry in an almost absent-minded manner. Interspersed with tidbits of the narrator's life and habits, the story of writing an introduction to a poetry anthology sort of hitches along throwing facts and opinions right and left.
If you don't mind stories that sputter around and if you like poetry--well, actually even if you think you don't like poetry, this may be the book for you. (If you don't like poetry it may be because you got ahold of the wrong end of the poetry stick early in your life. Let it go and start fresh. This book will give you a whole 'nother view of iambic pentameter.)


< The Wet Nurse's Tale by Erica Eisdorfer


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The voice of Victorian Susan Rose is just right if you like good gossipy novels with lots of detail.
Susan is a wet nurse for women above her in the social scale. She remains cheerful even while expecting (and often getting) the worst.
This is an enjoyable read if you like historical fiction.

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Fantasy short stories

Firebirds: An Anthology of Original Fantasy and Science Fiction by Sharyn November


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Short stories by a number of really great award-winning authors, writing about magic, faerie, unreality in the face of the normal.
Although written for a YA audience, these stories will entertain and amuse adults.
My favorites were The Baby in the Night Deposit Boox by Megan Whalen Turner and Little Dot by Diana Wynne Jones, but others were fascinating too.

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Step into my garden, Maude

Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Well, this book is enough to make you paranoid about any plant you see! It makes me glad that I manage to kill plants at 20 paces. Stewart writes lovingly of plants that stun, paralyze, and/or kill animals and humans. Makes you wonder what Mary, Mary Quite Contrary was up to.


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A rural way of life is not necessarily an innocent way of life

Moonflower Vine by Jetta Carleton


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
At the beginning of the book adult three sisters are back home on a farm in Missouri visiting their parents. We gradually get to know them, and the fourth sister. Remembered events in one chapter turn up in another, only with a different spin.
The action starts in the early 1950s and goes back mostly into the 1920s and 30s. It is a different way of life with no running water or electricity and a rather insular outlook on life.
Written just on the cusp of Women's Lib, The Moonflower Vine apparently was as shocker. Now it doesn't shock so much as speak to the emotions.

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